Jump to content

HELP NEEDED! ReMix Tagging Project! (Genres, Moods, Instrumentation, etc.)


Liontamer
 Share

Recommended Posts

WE FINALLY DOIN’ IT!

We need your help to add genre, mood, instrumentation and other tags to the OCR database.

The full list of terms.

The minimum of what we need for every ReMix is:

  • Primary Genre (e.g. funk, metal, rap, EDM, jazz)
  • Secondary Genres (when applicable)
  • 1+ Mood (e.g. aggressive, goofy, romantic, sad)
  • 2+ Instrumentation (e.g. acoustic-guitar, chiptune, piano, singing)

Additional tag types we want to apply whenever possible:

  • Specific Arrangement aspects (e.g. # of instruments, minimalist, extended soloing)
  • Effects (e.g. distortion, glitching, lo-fi, vocoder)
  • Origin (e.g. collaboration, created for a compo)
  • Live production aspects (e.g. live ensemble, live recording, use of live instruments)
  • Regional influence (e.g. Celtic, Japanese, world)
  • Time (e.g. tempo, long or short duration, time signature)
  • Usage (e.g. workout, winter/holiday, Halloween, meditation)

This is a serious project, so you need to have a good understanding of what the tags mean and also have a good ear for labeling genres and identifying instruments and moods. We want to build an accurate library of tags for the remixes on the site.

If you’re interested and you think you have what it takes, let us know right here in this thread and we’ll assign you a block of ReMixes to work on and PM you our tagging submission form where you can enter the data.

THANKS!

__

Can we add more tags to the list?

No! We don't plan on adding many other tags, but if a good case is made for something we've overlooked, we may add more.

Note on genres:

We're not trying to add tags for every subgenre under the sun. We're going for pretty broad descriptions. We don't need "tribal Moombahcore chillwave"; EDM works just fine in most of those cases. :lol:

Note on using "epic" for mood:

We're not using "epic" as a synonym for awesome/amazing/yoooooooooooooo. We're using it to describe ReMixes that are grand, heroic, or anthemic in scope/tone, which isn't limited to orchestral and rock pieces.

Note on lyrics and duration:

Larry has already handled lyric-specific tags (original, existing, explicit) for all lyrical ReMixes, and duration tags for long and short mixes.

 

Problems?!

If you’re working on tagging your batch of ReMixes and run into an issue where something isn’t clear, then post here and let us know and we can help you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ohoho i love being pedantic with this sort of thing, though currently is a bad time for me to sort through these things en masse

 

can I just tag my own remixes, or would that mess with the block assignment or something?

 

also, along with vocoding, you should probably include autotune/melodyne 

 

edit: "tracker" under instrumentation..? are you talking about like Impulse Tracker / the thing Mazedude uses?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ohoho i love being pedantic with this sort of thing, though currently is a bad time for me to sort through these things en masse

 

can I just tag my own remixes, or would that mess with the block assignment or something?

 

also, along with vocoding, you should probably include autotune/melodyne 

 

edit: "tracker" under instrumentation..? are you talking about like Impulse Tracker / the thing Mazedude uses?

 

RE: being pedantic, we know there's a LOT of room for that here, but we've been over this list dozens of times and feel like it's at a pretty good place. If we keep adding going forward, we won't know which mixes were analyzed before or after a new tag was added, etc.

 

I defer to Larry as to whether you can proceed with tagging your own mixes - I don't see a problem, personally, BUT when the whole project is done we ARE going to reach out to artists to verify/comment on what we've got for their mixes, so there will be a second chance for EVERYONE to review.

 

Auto-tune is a little tricky because of the dual usage - when applied subtly, the effect can be difficult to notice, and is employed in this fashion quite often. Would that still count, or are we only talking about T-Pain? I'd guess the latter...

 

"tracker" is intended to convey a certain instrumentation aesthetic that involves lower-fi samples, often quirky & being employed outside their natural range, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I defer to Larry as to whether you can proceed with tagging your own mixes - I don't see a problem, personally, BUT when the whole project is done we ARE going to reach out to artists to verify/comment on what we've got for their mixes, so there will be a second chance for EVERYONE to review.

Yeah, original artists don't need any permission to provide their own tags, then can just ask us for the submission link and submit their information at any time.

Like djp said, we'll run everything by artists later on for another verification step as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can we add more tags to the list?

No! We don't plan on adding many other tags, but if a good case is made for something we've overlooked, we may add more.

Note on genres:

We're not trying to add tags for every subgenre under the sun. We're going for pretty broad descriptions. We don't need "tribal Moombahcore chillwave"; EDM works just fine in most of those cases. :lol:

 

^ that

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: genre tags. You're missing Drum & Bass (like Cave Story: "The Unbroken" by Nutritious) and Trap (like that Ice Cap remix you posted a few weeks ago).

 

Drum & Bass is too fast to be posted as Dubstep and too percussion-heavy to be house, and has a very, very strong scene. Pendulum is the most well-known DnB group.

 

Trap is too slow to be hip-hop and tends to use an 808 drum hit, with a very specific beat pattern. It may or may not have vocals.

 

House can be elaborated upon: 4/4 time or similar (Knife Party's Rage Valley is in 12/8), four straight beats every measure, 128 BPM.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If a song is definitively orchestral, would we check any orchestral instruments under "Extra Instrumentation", or is that not necessary? I figure if it's "extra", it means instruments significantly used other than those in a typical orchestra.

 

Also, would you be willing to put some sort of comments box in the form so someone could, for example, write a short overall description if words that they expect to find on the form aren't there, and their synonyms aren't available? (like "pleasant", "heroic", "yearning", or "evocative")

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For extra tags, check the instruments that are prominent. For example, if the violin in a track particularly stands out, check "violin." But if it's just a background instrument that doesn't really draw focus, leave it.

 

No on the comment box. We have a specific set of tags that we've gone over many times. We don't want to get into adding really subjective terms like what you've indicated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I feel like having the ability to make our own descriptions might get away from the generalization that this project is trying to go for...

 

Also, I just kind of went with my gut when going through my set but - say that there's a song that uses a flute that is obviously not a "real" flute, totally synthetic but meant as a flute substitute. Would you rather us label it AS a flute, or would the synth or tracker labels be more appropriate? 

 

(and: I'm ready for another batch!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...