The BeatTips Community Shop Talk: How Do You Like To Remix A Song

DC And The Beat Pharmacy Take Us Through Their Processes Of Remixing A Song

DC:
I do all my remixes in logic. I usually start by playing the a cappella and running through all my beats to see if I have something that fits the mood, tempo, etc of the song. 90% of the time I already have something I can use so I just load up the session and get to work.

What I do is match the a cappella to the tempo of my beat. I’ll usually cut the vocals in 4/8/16 bar increments and time stretch it to match the beat. It’s definitely more involved than that but you get the gist of it. I do that until everything fits then I’ll go back and add breaks, drops, etc to accentuate the lyrics. Then I’m done.

I think doing remixes is a good tool to get exposure especially if you don’t have emcees to work with. I used to do remixes all the time. It also gives you a feel for what your beats will sound like with an artist on top.

The Beat Pharmacy
Thanks for sharing d.c. Do you try and work within the Bpm of the original song? That’s how I have approached it in the past. Do you find that time stretching the vocals tends to give them an unnatural feel and sound? If a song is being remixed to a much higher tempo then the original say to give it more club appeal then I can definitely see the benefit of time stretching the vocals in order to lock them in.

DC
No doubt. I definitely try and work close to the original bpm, probably no more then +/- 7 bpm, maybe 10 if i really want it to work. I don’t get any unnatural sounds or feelings from time stretching the vocals. I think logic’s time stretching is actually pretty good and it’s never so extreme that it’ll create artifacts anyway. I don’t know if you heard that drake remix I posted on here a while ago but that’s an example of what I do.