Using Elias for remixes?

[pokemonmasteraaron]

Hey everyone.

I was wondering if anyone here has ever attempted to make a remix with this software?

http://www.eliassoftware.com/

Overclocked remixes often add a lot of parts to the original theme, so I thought it is possible to make some neat dynamic remixes with it?

What do you think about this idea?

[Moseph]

This is the first I've heard of Elias, but it looks like a video game audio engine (like FMOD or Wwise) rather than a normal music creation tool. That being the case, I think it would only be useful in the context of programming actual interactive game music (where player actions affect how the music develops) rather than ReMixes (which are completely non-interactive).

Edited June 15, 2014 by Moseph

[Nabeel Ansari]

Overclocked remixes often add a lot of parts to the original theme, so I thought it is possible to make some neat dynamic remixes with it?

Even if you were to create multi-variant dynamically composed remixes using this engine, OCR would only accept and post a single rendered export of just one of the "outcomes" you would get from the software.

This is provided it even sounded good, the problem with random dynamic arrangement is that it lacks direction and sacrifices musical progression in favor of ambiguity; by ambiguity, I mean music written this way is purposefully "directionless" so that it can seamlessly transition into any of its other parts. There's no "single song", it's just a bunch of blocks you're stringing together.

Not saying it can't be done, because that's basically electronic music performing in a nutshell, but even that is usually guided by a musician at the controls, who has a grander idea in mind.

This type of workflow is better suited to writing stuff like level music. You're not scoring a scene, there's no need for tight cohesion with the visuals. Thus, you can write using this, and have your score dynamically arranged so that it doesn't sound like it keeps looping all the time. It can be randomly arranged, or arranged according to player actions, but yes, as Moseph said, listening to music is a completely non-interactive experience. You'd essentially only be able to randomly generate the arrangement and record one of the outcomes for submission, and that could turn pretty stale pretty fast.

Edited June 15, 2014 by Neblix

[pokemonmasteraaron]

Yes, I see your point.

I just thought it would an interesting kind of, new remixing style.

You know, where the listener could play with the remix in realtime and make it ajust so their listening experience would be a little different each time.

Perhaps it was a silly idea to bring to the remixing genre, but I usually try to apply most audio technologies to remixes haha.

Anyway, thanks for your opinions, that's what I wanted anyway haha.

[Nabeel Ansari]

Yes, I see your point.

I just thought it would an interesting kind of, new remixing style.

You know, where the listener could play with the remix in realtime and make it ajust so their listening experience would be a little different each time.

Here is the main issue: distribution.

How do you make so the your common listener has access to your remix and the ability to interface with it? Do you program a simple non-visual game in which your key commands trigger things with your remixes?

You're not off the mark here; interactive music is a hot topic for PhD research at universities who do music tech. I'm just trying to get you to think about this in a practical manner so you can better understand the pitfalls.

Additionally, I personally think that interactive music is its own medium, and since Elias is designed for game integration, using Elias for this task seems like a broken approach.

In other words, the idea of interactive music listening (music in general; a remix is no musically different than an original composition) is pretty cool; achieving it using Elias is probably not the greatest approach.

[avaris]

If you like the idea of Elias to remix VGM. Why not look into the clip launching systems in Ableton Live or Bitwig Studio? You'll get a similar non-linear method to arrange and playback audio. Albeit without the level slider control. Which is not that big of a deal since you have to designate at what "level" each audio clip plays back.