Slumgullion a la Music

Remixing a musical composition is similar to cooking with a leftover meal; throw everything in a pot, add your own spices and seasonings, then serve.

You'll probably want to start by becoming familiar with the ingredients. Is the original song only available as a single track, or are all of the separate tracks from the original recording or composition (called stems) at your disposal, e.g. drums, bass, vocals, effects, midi, etc. Aligning the various tracks to a tempo in a sequencing program may help you understand of all of the different elements of a song. If only the final edit is available, chopping interesting bits and pieces could be a good starting point.

If you have leftover beef and mixed vegetables, they don't have to be used as beef and mixed vegetables. For example, Johnny Fingers Micro Mix by Johnny Fingers morphs a Music Concrete piece consisting of animal noises (En La Selva Movement II by John Arroyo) into a cute, danceable party at the zoo. In fact, the leftover beef and mixed vegetables don't even have to taste like beef and mixed vegetables. Through expressing your own personal tastes and preferences, a remix is able to sound completely different from the original composition. Johnny Fingers Micro Mix was remixed into Bossing of the skull by Chris Peck. Peck used distortion and ambiance to completely destroy all original traces of En La Selva Movement II. New versions and remixes of original songs may have never been realized by the original artist, and these new works may even be unrecognizable by the original artist.

Leftover sausage doesn't have to be for breakfast; cut it up and throw it on a pizza. In other words, don't let the original genre of a song limit your creativity. Listen to The Things Outside by Filligar, then listen to The Things Outside (Arabb Remix) by Arabb. Through key changes, tempo changes and effects, it transitioned from upbeat indie pop/rock to creepy industrial/glitch. You may also choose not to use all of the original tracks that are available. The Things Outside (Arabb Remix) only contains drum and vocal tracks from the original piece.

Use any tool or ingredients in your kitchen, as there are no limits to a remix. Computer applications, tape recording devices, 4 track recorders and much more are all perfectly suitable sources for remixing, creating and manipulating sounds. Michael Chinen uses custom C++ code to create a remix using a genetic algorithm in Magnaflow Catalytic Converter, and Tango En La Selva by Courtney Brown uses custom Supercollider code to create her remix. Her code tries to impose a bit of a tango beat to the original composition; she also includes some string samples to reference traditional tango.

Don't let leftovers limit your meal choices. Use your own style and flavor to prepare something new and exciting before those leftovers get moldy and gross.