Beethoven VS. Remix

vs.


Click on image for sample of...
Beethoven
Moonlight Sonata


Just decided to post a quick example of an original and a remix.

Original: Self explanatory, very sad piano piece or as some call it... "emo classical piece".

Remix: Add in the drums, some vocal of a guy screaming, speed down the moonlight sonata melody, then throw in some Fur Elise melody subtly and you have created a song that is upbeat and relaxing instead of depressing.

These Two Songs Sound Almost the Same

Markus Gabriel & Dresden Schulz

Without You Near (Coldharbour mix)

Dream Dance Vol. 38

Click on Image for sample.

Whenever I find a song that I like I tend to always look for the remixes. For this song, a sample of the other remix is here, which is from an earlier post. What's up with all the different remixes? The concept behind a remix is to add a different element to a song such as making it more upbeat by speeding up the song a little bit and a stronger bass. The body of the song is the same and the melodies are the same. If you liked the original, listening to a remix of a song is very enjoyable most of the time.

These two songs sound almost the same! The remixes may sound the same, but the remix often items sound very different from the original song. Just imagine a piece by Beethoven remixed.

The sample you get by clicking the image is a "coldharbour mix" whereas the other remix is a "sacred light mix". The difference lies in the ambient sounds during the melody. The melody in this song is the high pitched string sound you hear that starts low and slowly loops toward higher notes. In the coldharbour mix, the sound of the melody is very clear and crispy as you can imagine the water to be at a 'cold harbor'. The ambient sound is only the 4-4 drum beat, an occasional vocal, and the echoes of the string notes. In the sacred light mix, there is also a 4-4 drum beat, an occasional vocal, and echoes of the string notes. However, there is shuffling sound throughout the body and during the melodies, there is a soft violin ambient that adds that uplifting element to the song, hence the reason for 'sacred light remix'. If you really pay attention, each remix has an element that makes it its own remix. For these two remixes, the coldharbour remix is clear and crisp like the cold air that literally is a 'chill' song and the sacred light remix has an uplifting aspect to it that restores energy. Even a little tweak in a song is enough to influence your mood in a different way.

DJ Monk One
Funk/Soul Mix

powered by ODEO

The samplers delight. This mix by DJ Monk One, from Hiphopmusic.com radio show , contains clips of about 50 records worth of breaks and beats, some of which are extremely rare and difficult to name. The records are all from his personal collection and mostly from the 60's and 70's.


DJ Monk One works his way into some massive breaks. It’s impossible to miss track 5, where he drops I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little Bit More by the Cecil Holmes Orchestra. It’s an epic stick slinging drum break with catchy electric guitar chords. He also flaunts some breaks by Isaac Hayes on track 30, and Chella la by Orchestra Internationale on the 34’Th track. Later in the mix on track 44, he busts Hep Squeeze by Mad Dog & the Pups with huge loose drums and the heavy bass line.


Speaking of breaks and beats, check Phat Drum Loops . It’s the largest online database of classic drum breaks sampled from vinyl. They have nearly 600 identified drum loops with previews provided and they are categorized by artists, album, and date. After hearing a lot of samples, it’s surprising how often they are used in mainstream music today. For example, the Amen Brother break, used in everything from hip hop beats to TV commercials.


DJ Monk One track list (thanks to Mwon and Martin Jay):
1 .Johnny Pate - El Jardia
2. Joe Tex - Papa Was Too
3. ? - ??
4. Cecil Holmes - Call Me
5. Cecil Holmes - I'm gonna love you just a little bit more
6. Kings Road - Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow
7. Kid Dynamite - Uphill Peace Of Mind
8. Kool&theGang - Nt
9. Wilson Pickett - Engine 9
10. David Bromberg - Sharon
11. Bo Diddley - Hit or miss
12. George Shearing - Aquarius
13. T Connection - Groove to the get down?
14. Experience Unlimited - Knock Em Out Sugar Ray
15. AM FM - You Are The One (Instrumental)
16. Majic Disco Machine - Jumbo Sam
17. William Stuckley - Disco Fly
18. Big John Hamilton - Big Bad John
19. Gaz - Sing Sing
20. 20th century steel band - heaven and hell
21. Sessomatto - Sessomatto
22. Passport -Juju Man
23. Johnny Taylor - Ever Ready
24. Pleasure - Celebrate the Good Things
25. Wild Magnolias - Soul Soul Soul
26. Son of Scorpio (with Junie throw on top)
27. T-Connection - Groove to get Down
28. Blacksmoke - There it is
29. upp - Give it to you
30. Isaac Hayes
31. Samba Soul
32. Coke Escavo - I would'nt change a thing
33. John Davis - I can't stop
34. Orchestra Internationale - Chella la
35. The Grassroots - You And Love Are The Same
36. Lincoln Mayorga - Killer
37. Melton Brothers - Ill Take You There
38. Cold Blood - Shop Talk
39. Gunther Kallmann - Daydream
40. Wet Willie - Beggar Song
41. Grootna - Funky
42. Lunar Funk - Slip the Drummer One
43. Hodges James, Smith & Crawford - Nobody
44. Mad Dog and the Pups - ' Hep squeeze ' (PartyTime)
45. Bad Medicine - Trespasser
46. The Funkees - Slipping into darkness

VibraSMACK!

Have you ever been listening to music and realized that it’s missing something? You can’t tell what it is, yet you just know that if something were added, the song would become a masterpiece. I believe I have figured out what the missing element is, or at least what it is for jazz music. THE VIBRAPHONES!!!

Vibraphones (also known as “vibes”) are a mallet percussion instrument much like the marimba, the xylophone, or the bell kit, except they have a very unique sound unlike any other mallet instrument. Instead of producing a steady “ring” after being struck, they produce a very wavy vibrato sound. The only way to describe this is by having you imagine a wave (like a sine or cosine wave) that is producing a sound, and this sound keeps alternating from high and low sounds (“wee-ooo-wee-ooo”). The sound “vibrates”. It’s this metallic vibrato that gives the vibraphones their incredibly unique sound, a sound that adds more than anyone can imagine to a jazz chart.

How do the vibraphones create this vibrato sound? All mallet instruments have resonating tubes underneath the keys (the “bars” that are struck with a mallet) and these tubes help to amplify the sound of the keyboard. In a vibraphone, these tubes are fitted with rotating discs that sequentially dampen and amplify the sound by alternating between blocking off the tube and opening it to let all sound through. This is what creates the wavy sound produced. Boring, yes, but now you can go tell you’re friends that you know the concept behind how a vibraphone works!

“Hey, you hear that? Those are the vibraphones!”
“Yeah! I hear them, I wonder how they make that noise?!”
“Well let me tell you…”

I’m telling you, you’ll go far with that knowledge… Anyways, now on to the actual music. It’s hard to demonstrate the power of the vibes without real life examples. Music was not meant to be read (unless you’re a musician, ah ha ha ha…), but rather to be heard.

Wes Montgomery and his band utilize the vibraphones in almost every piece that they compose. Wes’s brother, Buddy Montgomery, plays both the piano and the vibes (which are essentially the same in their layout) and it’s because of him that the Montgomery music is so distinct.

The first time I listened to a song by Wes Montgomery, I fell into a trance and lost myself in the song, but near the solo section in the middle I noticed something distinct and was immediately pulled out of my trance. The song actually uses vibes! I hadn’t noticed it in the beginning because they just fit in so perfectly with the song, producing a very clean sound, reflective of the togetherness of the Montgomery group, or any other jazz group for that matter. One of the best songs utilizing the uniqueness of the vibes that I’ve heard by Wes is Sound Carrier off of their album “Fingerpickin”. I enjoy this song because it starts right out with all the voices of the band playing the same thing together, then BAM!, the vibes are off on their own course playing what appears to be a very early, quick solo while the rest of the band holds back to really accentuate the position of the vibes. Soon after, the real solo is introduced as Buddy shows his true talent.

Now, I’m not saying that West Montgomery is the only person to successfully incorporate the vibraphone sound into his music, actually I hope to portray the exact opposite. Many songs have fantastic vibe players accompanying them, even if they go completely unnoticed. Now that I’ve introduced the idea of vibraphone jazz, you’ll probably be surprised when you start noticing them when you listen to songs you didn’t even know had vibes in them!

Also, there are many groups based on the vibraphones as the lead instrument. I mean, the vibe player has to get some attention every now and then, right? A lot of very talented musicians have put their time and talents into becoming some of the best vibraphone players in the world. Many go on solo tours, form their own jazz combos, and some follow around some of the biggest names in jazz.

An example of a small percussive combo with the vibraphones in the forefront is shown below. I chose this video because the vibraphone player is outstanding and puts out a LOT of unique and genius rhythms. Also, the sound quality of this video is surprisingly good compared to most youtube videos, so this is a good way of getting to hear AND see what the vibes are really like at their full potential.

You should start listening to songs and see if you can pick out the vibes. Next time you hear them, you might really understand how much they add to a song. You may even feel moved by the incredible sound that’s produced! Whatever you end up doing, I hope I’ve convinced you that the vibes are a critical element in the world of music that generally go unnoticed. Give the guys some credit when you see them!

Skalpel

Skalpel

Ninja Tune

Skalpel are Marcin Cichy and Igor Pudlo, two Polish jazz DJ's from Poland that want to share Polish jazz with the rest of the world. Skalpel has to date released two albums on Ninja Tune, a prestige trip-hop label based in London, Konfusion in 2005 and their amazing debut self titled album in 2004. The self titled double LP has 12 tracks packed full of polish jazz samples from the 60's and 70's that took Skalpel years of "digging the crates" to find.

When I first heard this record I was in awe becuase it was like nothing I had ever heard. The heavy beats along with the mellow instrument samples of polish jazz sound genuinely unique. Skaplel descibed their sound as "...a mixture of breaks and ambient sounds, and a hip-hop way of producing it,” , in an interview with BBC.co.uk. Check out Break In and see what you think. It’s clear to me why Skalpel wants to share Polish jazz with the rest of the world.

Nujabes
Still Talking To You
on Handcuts Japan


Take the name Jun Seba, spell it backward and combine it and you have Nujabes. He is referred to as one of Japan's premier hip-hop artists by Sputnik Music. Comparable to the legendary DJ Shadow, Nujabes music consists of samples from other records. Striving to have a different sound from anyone else, he focuses on samples from Miles Davis, Yusef Lateef , among countless other modal and cool jazz artists. He has collaborated with Shing02, Five Deez, Substantial, and many other rappers from all over the globe in production. Still Talking to You, released in 2003, shows Nujabes instrumental side and his amazing collection of fresh samples. Featuring the placid cover art of Syu , only 1000 copies of the album were released in Japan. The LP consists of two tracks, Still Talking to You on A, and Steadfast on B.

Still talking to You is a perfect example of Nujabes style. The distinct loose kicks and fast hats that make his beats flow along with the rim shots that to me, add his Asian influence. Even though Nujabes has produced a ponderosa of music, his progressive style of starting out with a beat and flowing into an addicting chorus is prevalent in all of his music.

VGM (Video Game Music)

Music files take up a lot of space. Originally, if you were a developer and you wanted your video game to have music, you'd have to have someone write it into a tiny little file that told the game console how to make the music. Artists working in this constrained medium, unable to use cheap effects to make their scores stand out, were forced to come up with catchy melodies and truly creative themes.

Some particularly prolific artists produced thousands of short pieces to put into games, and their work is instantly recognizable to anyone who ever played the games. If you've ever played Tetris, Mario, Zelda, or anything else from the 8-bit era, you'd not only notice the tune if you heard it, but you'd be able to name the game it came from.

These days, video game music isn't the same. A publisher can simply drop a few popular mp3's into their game, and they've got a soundtrack that they know will be a hit without having to write anything new. Some games however, such as those in long-running franchises like Mario and Zelda, stay true to their roots and use the original tunes, but reproduce them in revamped, higher-quality files. This way, the themes to the games become very distinct trademarks of the franchises, and the recognizability of the music plays an integral part in sustaining the business.

You might ask, if we don't have the same constraints of space on our video game music today, why should we look back and care about the classics? We're not publishers, so we don't need to care about sustaining their business...

Well, I want to take a look back at classic VGM for the same reasons why those tunes are still recognizable today. They're often fun, always catchy, and will forever be nostalgic, at least for me. Even if you don't think you've played many games, you probably ought to give a listen to The Games We Played for a trip down memory lane, or at least a really interesting piece of music. It's a piano arrangement of the music from many (many many) games, by Torley Wong. Careful though, it's just over 17 minutes long.

Okay, origins and nostalgia are done. Next up, some examples of video game music that are a little less likely to bring back memories, and some VGM that's been given new life through remixes, stadium themes, and heavy metal tributes.

Some songs that make me remember games I played back when I was young (younger) come from the old Descent games from Parallax, and an old Ambrosia Software game called Ares. Descent is so old that the company that made it no longer exists, so there's nobody left to sue for copyright enfringement and you can find that music (The mp3's, not just the midi's) for free. Ares isn't as old, but Ambrosia Software is cool enough to let you have the Ares music anyway.

Descent was released on multiple platforms, and at that time only some supported music in full CD-Audio format. That meant they had to compose creative music, but they also had to get it professionally remixed into full tracks. Here are two songs, one from Descent and one from Descent 2, whose industrial sound worked well with the killing-robots-in-a-mine-in-space theme of the game and has made them stand the test of time for me:
Hydraulic Pressure
Untitled 2

Ares could have had any soundtrack, but the game's author Nathan Lamont decided to create an original soundtrack with an old-school, 8-bit feel to it. You've heard arpeggios, you've heard scales, and you've heard Van Halen, but listen to F.R.E.D.'s Theme (Ares' prologue) and tell me that's not the craziest set of melodies you've ever heard.

Then there are a lot of places to find remixed game music, but the biggest and the best is ocremix.org. Here you'll find songs where the author took a song from a game's soundtrack, and modified it to some degree into something new. One example I'm familiar with is entitled Chekan Winter. It's an epic trance track that builds for a long time, adds a heavy beat, and finally explodes into something entirely different about four minutes in.

Some people, much more devotees of game music than I am, pay homage to the original soundtracks of the games they used to play composing them for guitars and drums. You might call these cover bands, or maybe metal remix bands. Metroid Metal is a project by the band Stemage, [edit: apparently I was wrong about that, see comments] where they've covered the soundtracks to the original Metroid games. The Minibosses are a group who cover the energetic scores to the frenzied sequences in many games, in which you fight so-called minibosses. NPR did a story on them, so for more info and samples just listen to that.

If somehow you've read all that, and you want to hear more VGM, there are a few more things to check out. Check out Lazy Jones on Wikipedia, and scroll to the bottom where you'll find part of the Lazy Jones soundtrack alongside Kernkraft 400, a hit song that borrows its theme from Lazy Jones. The hardcore route is to get the High Voltage SID Collection (and the SID player on the site), which is all the soundtracks to all the Commodore 64 games, ever, plus musical "demos" that show off the artists' musical ability.

Finally, more recently there has been a revival of demos in underground culture. There are competitions for programming teams to fit the best full-3D demo, complete with musical score, into a file that's really tiny, just like in the old days of VGM. For an example of what a demo is, Chaos Theory is a demo made for the competition Assembly 2006. It's very impressive, considering that it's only a 64 kB file.

I'd like to elaborate on my scaling system since it sounded extremely vague in that first "explanation".

"Not something I'll listen to in my car" is something around the range of 1 to 3 on a scale of 10. On this end of the scale, the music is generally unbalanced in that the bass, treble, and voice of the song are either conflicting each other and fighting to be heard or they are off beat in a way that you feel that the song is just different sounds being played at one time and has no correspondence at all. Just imagine a band where the members all play or sing a different song, but the DJ just throw all the music elements together. Sample here.

"A good choice" is around the range of 4 to 7 on a scale of 10. These are the moderately good songs that could be improved on. These songs sound good and may not have flaws, but they lack the ability to wow the audience. In a way, you can say that these songs lack the feeling an artist is suppose to express through their works. These songs are still upbeat, but they are just remixed versions of a song in which the beats, melody, lyrics are mixed to a faster tempo and altered to sound machine like. Sample... here. The selected song may not be meant to be remixed and just listened to in a slower pace compared to the remix. The song is mixed for the sake of having enough tracks for an album and have no real purpose except to just be a remix.

Lastly, "Definitely worth your time and money" being rated with an 8 or higher are songs that clearly express the artist's feelings through their music. They do this by their selection of songs that are themed around the feeling they are trying to express. For example, an artist might want to make their songs disturbing by selecting music that are focused around bells, a slowed tempo, many ambient sounds in the music that you hear, but don't know which part to focus on and humming human voices. The little confusion factor makes the song disturbing. Click here for a sample of something disturbing. You just don't know which sound to pay attention to, this type of music will make you sit there not do anything because the song itself is confusing enough.

You can't really make a dance song out of a song that is originally meant for the opera house. The beats won't match the lyrics due to speed or tempo differences. A feeling can be expressed by a careful selection of tracks, tempo of the song, ambient sounds that set the atmosphere, and overall length of the album. If you want to express love then the remix selection would be love songs that have a mildly slower beat in which the lyrics are enhanced by the ambient sound and the ambient sound tend to be uplifting. If you want to uplift and restore energy then the selection would be one that is catchy with a constant, rapid drum beat and bass that is accompanied by a simple, yet catchy melody. Another way to spot a song that effectively expresses the artist's feelings is one where you listen to the lyrics and you automatically bobbing or tapping to the ambient sound and smooth beat of the song. The lyrics provide the mental image in your mind and the beat provides the vibe or atmosphere.

An good album that is one that has all the elements listed above and the album is thoroughly enjoyed. By the time you are done with the album, it felt like that only 5 minutes have passed. To be able to convey feelings, change moods, and not have a single track to be skipped are the elements that make a good album with good songs.