Never been mashed
I've done a lot of remixes. Well, perhaps not a lot, but a goodly amount. I hate admitting it, but I hadn't mixed anything in a few years. Until this weekend, when I did my very first mash-up.
The genesis of the concept was probably more strange than the actual result. I was dreaming of attending a high school graduation. Though I was the age I am now, and the graduating glass was 17-18, the music played during the festivities was defintely from the early- to mid-90's. At one point, a video montage of student activities was being projected on a screen, with a soundtrack that captured the differences in student culture; the rappers, the normals, the geeks, the rockers, etc. The songs all represented these disparate cultures, yet were mixed cleverly as if they were all parts of a single song. (My brain was apparently feeling heavily allegorical.) The only combination I remembered when I awoke was Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back" mixed with Nitzer Ebb's "Join In The Chant".
I hopped out of bed and immediately ran to the office. As the computer booted up, I pulled my CD single for "Baby Got Back", then hunted down a copy of Nitzer Ebb's That Total Age album. I flicked on the CD players and mixer, loaded both CDs, got out the headphones, and hit Play.
It wasn't perfect. Nitzer Ebb had to be sped up about 8%, and I couldn't get the lyrics from both songs to mesh in any satisfying way, but I very quickly concluded that the idea was sound. Jade reinforced this when she asked what I had been listening to and that it sounded "awesome".
I then spent about 14 hours over the next two days, effectively my entire weekend, working on the mix. I'd forgotten how much work goes in to a simple mix, a problem further complicated when I realized I had none of the software I was used to working with. I was forced to create a completely new workflow with the software I had at hand.
I'm satisfied with the result. There are a couple little bits that bug me, or I feel I could have been a bit more creative with. But ultimately, one just gets sick of hearing "Baby Got Back" over and over and over and over... So I finished up, published it online, posted to Facebook, and called it a day. I hope people enjoy it. I had a lot of fun making it, and I hope this stimulates my brain into making other things.
The genesis of the concept was probably more strange than the actual result. I was dreaming of attending a high school graduation. Though I was the age I am now, and the graduating glass was 17-18, the music played during the festivities was defintely from the early- to mid-90's. At one point, a video montage of student activities was being projected on a screen, with a soundtrack that captured the differences in student culture; the rappers, the normals, the geeks, the rockers, etc. The songs all represented these disparate cultures, yet were mixed cleverly as if they were all parts of a single song. (My brain was apparently feeling heavily allegorical.) The only combination I remembered when I awoke was Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back" mixed with Nitzer Ebb's "Join In The Chant".
I hopped out of bed and immediately ran to the office. As the computer booted up, I pulled my CD single for "Baby Got Back", then hunted down a copy of Nitzer Ebb's That Total Age album. I flicked on the CD players and mixer, loaded both CDs, got out the headphones, and hit Play.
It wasn't perfect. Nitzer Ebb had to be sped up about 8%, and I couldn't get the lyrics from both songs to mesh in any satisfying way, but I very quickly concluded that the idea was sound. Jade reinforced this when she asked what I had been listening to and that it sounded "awesome".
I then spent about 14 hours over the next two days, effectively my entire weekend, working on the mix. I'd forgotten how much work goes in to a simple mix, a problem further complicated when I realized I had none of the software I was used to working with. I was forced to create a completely new workflow with the software I had at hand.
I'm satisfied with the result. There are a couple little bits that bug me, or I feel I could have been a bit more creative with. But ultimately, one just gets sick of hearing "Baby Got Back" over and over and over and over... So I finished up, published it online, posted to Facebook, and called it a day. I hope people enjoy it. I had a lot of fun making it, and I hope this stimulates my brain into making other things.