Do you guys recreate the song first?

[Incronaut]

do you guys generally try to recreate the song before trying to create a remix of it?

[Rozovian]

I've found that it makes things easier sometimes, and have started doing that. I remake the source, or something close to it, then start picking out lil pieces of it, rework those, and they then turn into the remix.

[big giant circles]

No, I don't.

[avaris]

Nope. I generally listen to the source and come up with some compositional ideas first and try to work those out. Or sometimes I just have fun and experiment with a source.

[Fishy]

Sometimes I start out with a cover style approach and then deviate, but usually I have an idea of how I want to change the song style or approach before I start.

[WillRock]

No, I make it up as I go along.

I it sounds good in my head, I make it.

Simple as that.

[Patrick Burns]

Only to the extent that I figure out the tune on the piano

[Geoffrey Taucer]

No, I just go by ear/memory and see what I can do with it. Heck, there are some tracks I'm remixing for which I don't even know the original chord progression.

[JH Sounds]

There are some cases where I'm unfamiliar with the game the source came from. After listening to the tune once I abstain from hearing it until I have the main arrangement idea(s) settled. In most other cases the source tune is so familiar that I can distinguish the instruments from the notes. I usually play around with the notes in my head.

[Strike911]

First off, if I can hum and or sing the way I want a remix to sound, then I'll go with that...

... if I don't have a tune planned though I'll usually take the main theme and recreate that... then I'll modify it a little by changing some of the note placements... then I'll start giving the background sounds and everything else its own feel.

Sometimes if the song is really complex I might recreate it entirely, but really rare. It's just not productive to recreate something I'm just going to tear apart.

MIDI files are my friends though...

[Incronaut]

Nope. I generally listen to the source and come up with some compositional ideas first and try to work those out. Or sometimes I just have fun and experiment with a source.

What do you mean experiment with a source? Ive always wanted to get my hands on a source file (preferably with the instruments already split for me) and just messing around with that, but i have no way of proceeding to doing that...

and thanks a lot guys, i think i'm going to have to redo my methods a little bit.. any advice?

[Hy Bound]

Head on over to VGMusic.com and you can get MIDIs for most every popular video game song there is. I usually start there first.

As for the recreating a song first; I usually just pick the main melody and any other hook-based instruments out of the MIDI and then experiment with them.

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Actually, there has been more than one occasion where I did a remix and then went back to listen to the original and realized I didn't even remember the melody accurately.

[Wesker_Von_Doom]

WTF???????
I did a remix and then went back to listen to the original and realized I didn't even remember the melody accurately.

[JH Sounds]

WTF???????

Wha' hoppen? The same thing happened to me when I did my PRC 130 (http://www.ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=18520) entry...