Samples for a non-game remix?

[Drayzon]

To the people out there who remix commercial pieces and use samples - especially vocal samples - where do you get them? There's a massive dearth of remixes on YouTube that have completely redone instrumentation with only the barest melodies and the vocals kept in. So how do you guys get the vocal tracks? I know you can attempt to isolate them through some EQ mastering, but that can only get you so far. Is there a centralized source for these? Or do you just have to search online and hope you get lucky?

[Moseph]

For legit remixes that actually have the original artist's permission, the tracks are provided to the remixer by the original artist. And then most likely leaked on the internet where they're used by anyone who happens to find them.

[Drayzon]

So I'm guessing by your usage of the word "leaked" that looking for and providing links to such examples is illegal.

[The Vagrance]

A lot of times there will be an acapella release if the song is popular (this is most common in rap music, for example Jay-Z's whole Black Album has an acapella counterpart) as well as for remix contests, etc.. Other ways to get acapellas is if they're leaked somehow (like a bunch of Motown ones), play with inverting the phase on some tracks, creatively EQ and sample so that its mainly just the voice you're hearing in songs (common in a lot of electronic music), or in some cases even recreating the sample/phrase you want to use.

EDIT: Not illegal AFAIK but acapellas4u.co.uk has a bunch.

[Moseph]

So I'm guessing by your usage of the word "leaked" that looking for and providing links to such examples is illegal.

I imagine a lot of them are illegal, but like Vagrance mentioned, circumstances do vary somewhat from case to case.

I have a folder of Imogen Heap vocals that I got from a remix contest sitting on my hard drive. I think in downloading them I agreed not to use them in anything besides remixes for the contest, or not commercially, or something like that. It was a while ago and and my memory's a little hazy.