Pros Remixing

[Incronaut]

Ive been looking at the big timers around here in OCR and with all their remixes that they have out, and i noticed that some of them were able to spew out remixes in matters of weeks, while, yes i am quite new to this so im not expecting much, im taking months just to do this one mix... im just wondering if it just comes that naturally/easily to some people to hear the tune, replicate and elaborate...

cause if so, i wanna be that good one day

[zircon]

It depends on the person. ReMixing involves two major components... technical ability and creative ideas. Most people have trouble with the first part, but the second part is much harder to develop. You can always improve your technical skills, getting faster at MIDI sequencing or better at recording, upgrading your computer and obtaining easier-to-use samples, but if you don't have ideas, then your mix could still take awhile to finish.

On the other hand, if you have both creative ideas and lots of technical skill in production you can pump out tunes like nobody's business. My own personal record is two days (48 hours) for "Kindred", though as it was a collaboration with pixietricks I didn't do all the arranging and performing work.

[DDRKirby(ISQ)]

for myself (and i know this is true of others) starting a mix and getting a cohesive idea is often really, REALLY hard, whereas the rest of the mix seems to "fall into place" after some basic foundation is laid down to go to.

which isn't to say that mixers don't have long hours with headaches over mastering, final tweaking of sounds, rearranging things that don't work at first, etc etc.

[nrich]

for myself (and i know this is true of others) starting a mix and getting a cohesive idea is often really, REALLY hard, whereas the rest of the mix seems to "fall into place" after some basic foundation is laid down to go to.

which isn't to say that mixers don't have long hours with headaches over mastering, final tweaking of sounds, rearranging things that don't work at first, etc etc.

Coming back to the mix a day later with fresh ears is a catastrophe, as well. Some things you'll end up loving, and the rest you'll realize need to be changed. I myself have rarely been 100% completely happy with a mix; there's usually something that could've been changed.

[audio fidelity]

aw man - headaches from mastering - that was me today - took 6 bounces.

your ears and mind get fatigued after awhile - you just have to stop and know when to take breaks, or nothing you do after that will be very productive. i have to bring back my alexander technique so i can go longer.

and just like zircon said - the trick is experience - so you just gotta keep doing it to till it becomes 2nd nature. creativity is a muscle you can learn to flex as well. but yeah, you'll hit roadblocks guaranteed - so just do your best and get better doing it, and remember to try to have fun.

[Lunahorum]

I suck ass at it. Takes me for freaking ever. I blame most of this on the slow computer though.

[Yoozer]

Ive been looking at the big timers around here in OCR and with all their remixes that they have out, and i noticed that some of them were able to spew out remixes in matters of weeks

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001160.html

im just wondering if it just comes that naturally/easily to some people to hear the tune, replicate and elaborate...

Yes and no. Yes, it helps if you can hear melody, it helps even more if you have a large set of licks/grooves/ideas to use as a basis. Being able to play (piano, any other instrument) and knowing music theory helps because you're not spending time to guess for the right notes.

[Geoffrey Taucer]

I think it takes me almost a year on average to do any particular mix -- though I typically spend a couple hours working on it, then a month or two later spend a couple more, and so on.

[Fishy]

Its all about productivity levels and workflow. My old setup was ridiculously quick, but since I switched to Logic, I'm sounding a lot better, but takes so long sometimes to come out with something polished. Once you've got a decent workflow in your DAW, you can blister through tracks I'm sure.

[dannthr]

It depends on the person. ReMixing involves two major components... technical ability and creative ideas. Most people have trouble with the first part, but the second part is much harder to develop. You can always improve your technical skills, getting faster at MIDI sequencing or better at recording, upgrading your computer and obtaining easier-to-use samples, but if you don't have ideas, then your mix could still take awhile to finish.

On the other hand, if you have both creative ideas and lots of technical skill in production you can pump out tunes like nobody's business. My own personal record is two days (48 hours) for "Kindred", though as it was a collaboration with pixietricks I didn't do all the arranging and performing work.

Heheh, don't forget the secret 3rd component:

TIME!

Of which I, personally, have almost none.

[Palpable]

Creativity comes so fleetingly to most people, so when you have great ideas, it's nice to able to make them sound how you want. I think that's the advantage of having worked on music for a long time, that it's easier and quicker to turn your ideas into a song so you can move to the next step and keep the creative momentum. But my creativity has never "improved", I wouldn't say. I might have had more ideas when I started than I do now.

[po!]

the time it takes also depends on the type of music you're doing. stuff that relies heavily on live instruments could be done in a matter of hours, while electronica with a million different samples and textures and having to do some tedious editing could take a looong time

of course for recording, the thing that's left out of the equation is the thousands of hours spent practicing your instrument(s). and if you're proficient at keyboard, then that could make you blazing fast since you can record a bunch of MIDI parts with just keyboard (like virt and joshua morse)

[SnappleMan]

Best way to practice is to compete in DoD ( dod.vgmix.com ). When I first started there it took me an entire month to start and complete a song, these days I can crank one out in 2-6 hours.

[Fishy]

Best way to practice is to compete in DoD ( dod.vgmix.com ). When I first started there it took me an entire month to start and complete a song, these days I can crank one out in 2-6 hours.

This.

OA said he would compete in every DoD this year, and he improved ridiculously. Every wip I heard was just better and better in shorter time. Kind of worthless if you don't actually play an instrument though.

[Skummel Maske]

I agree, although I've only entered DoD twice this far I really feel I've improved as well.

[Cyril the Wolf]

Personally, I like to take a lot of time on each part. I find that if I don't I'll always listen back and hear things I could improve upon, technical or just like "a nice little flute thing could HAVE gone there!" and such.

I'm not always like that, but that's what I tend to prepare for DOD free months quite in advance. I know that doesn't seem fair, but that makes me improve my stuff over long periods of time. But, though it doesn't seem fair I never win.

When I can improve to the point where me spending the amount of time bands spend on songs for pro albums produces amazing stuff, then I can shorten the process.

[Sole Signal]

It kinda depends. I'll just fly through some tracks I do, while others take much longer. I did my section of the Global Empire collab (about 2 minutes worth of music, plus the solo) in two afternoons, with another session devoted to final mixing and mastering.

Aqueous Transgression was spread out over about a month of work, but again, in short chunks of time (as dannthr alluded to, would be a common complaint of most mixers here.) More recently, I moved very quickly through the track I did for Blind's project (like three or four days), but that's pretty uncommon for me to finish a piece that quickly.