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Several examples of mash-up audio are
presented here: more 'straight-forward' mash-ups between 2 songs as
exemplified by the Dsico mash-ups; mash-ups which have adopted a more
'produced' feel, borrowing elements from various songs and stringing
them together into a more elaborate production, via Lance Lockarm;
and 3 of my own mash-ups, which are very 'straight' in that they lay
2 separate tracks together and allow them to go where they will -
which exemplify that in this process 'failure IS an option', or at
least the failure to produce a musical seemlessness in the final mix.
Whatever the end result, the process of interacting with these media
objects is what is important in order to achieve initiation, and therefore,
breakthrough. |
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In order to activate
the process yourself, follow the links to download the freeware
application Soundplant, or the limited demo version of Live 3, then
make a selection of which zipped WAV format files to download to
get started with. The zip folder contents were selected as immediate
associative draws. For example, after listening to the bassline
of "Every Breath You Take", this immediately triggered
an association of the vocal to "Express Yourself", further
leading to imagining the soft, flowing ebb of the vocal from "Us
and Them" interlacing the Madonna vocal, finally imagining
inserting acapella rap vocal stabs from "When '90s Came"
to complete the vocal layering. So those all became the first draws
for the first zip folder, on so on. Obviously if small fragments
from each of these selections were all to be sequenced instead of
mashed, the resultant audio piece would sound more structured and
orchestrated than a traditional mash-up - which is more in line
with the sort of mash-up work Richard X is doing on a track like
"Into You", which borrows the chorus from Mazzy Star's
"Fade Into You" and makes it a new extension to the existing
song by mixing in new guitar, lead vocal and percussion. |
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The download links to Soundplant and
Live 3 demo are a suggestion that you attempt this process yourself
and to thereby directly experience the theory first-hand. Soundplant
could be one of the options to move beyond conventional "spot-on"
mash-ups, where failure and limitation becomes part of the process.
Live 3 might enable an audio mash-up experimenter to get even deeper
into tweaking the specific sections of the mix, rendering something
more akin to a new song made up of samples, along the lines of the
final products of Lance Lockarm or Richard X. |
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Please email
me directly if you'd like to share your results or have them posted
to this site. |
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Tools
| Soundplant |
Live
3 |
| Soundplant 26.1 is a self-contained digital
audio performance program that turns your computer keyboard
into a fully customizable sample-triggering device. It allows
the assignment of sound files of unlimited size to virtually
any keyboard keys, with no external devices needed and no MIDI
involved. |
Live 3 is the real-time audio production solution
that eliminates the boundaries between composition, performance,
recording and sound design. Easily combine loops, phrases and
songs from diverse origins. Create music on the fly, without
being bound to a fixed timeline. |
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Zips
*the Zips are temporarily unavailable while this site
is being relocated.
Nab these zips to attempt some of your own mash-up
combinations. Each zip contains 4 WAV format tracks for you to experiment
with - drop these into Soundplant or Live and give it a go! In the
process, consider some questions: Why is the mash-up interesting?
Even if it doesn't work perfectly, are there moments which make
it worth listening to? Does the overall effect solve anything previously
unresolved in the original sources? What is being mashed-up all
around us all the time that we don't normally consider? (sports
figure/shoes; cartoon character/soda pop; political figure/u.s.
flag; new car/techno anthem; corporate name & logo/sporting
event complex) - these are some of obvious trails to follow, now
what else? Choose on a whim...
| Mash1Zip |
Mash2Zip |
Mash3Zip |
Mash4Zip |
Mash5Zip |
Mash6Zip |
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