LPA Monthly Mix-Up October: Dance Pop/Dance-Hop/Electro-Pop

Discussion in 'News' started by Casual D, Oct 19, 2011.

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  1. Jason

    Jason LPA VIP LPA VIP

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    Prior to you posting this, at least a small part of me thought "Hey, it is somewhat possible that I could win this thing." If nothing else, it was anyone's game, to say the least. It is now your game. This was amazing. :oface:

    I am also very mad, you ruined my Friday with this entry. lol, i kid. :D
     
    Last edited: Nov 18, 2011
  2. travz21

    travz21 Muscle Museum LPA Super Member

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    Last edited: Nov 18, 2011
  3. Casual D

    Casual D I WON'T BE YOUR CASUAL D. LPA Administrator

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    Holy shit. You just threw it the fuck down. Consider me impressed.
     



  4. How'd you do the harmonies? Did you use Antares Harmony Plug in or something? It's amazing! Love the instrumentation.

    The drums could've had different sounds (especially the kick), but it doesn't really matter. I prefer this to the original to be honest.
     
  5. Jason

    Jason LPA VIP LPA VIP

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    I would also like to know this for future reference... I tried to make harmonies on my remix and I couldn't get it right... I'm still a remixing noob.
     
  6. Wizardofozil

    Wizardofozil Well-Known Member

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    m_macdonald winner epic remix.
     
  7. Casual D

    Casual D I WON'T BE YOUR CASUAL D. LPA Administrator

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    Macdonald, please put your remix up for download. I'd like it on my iPod.
     
  8. Jeff

    Jeff WORSHIP LPA Addicted VIP

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    Ah shit. That track just blew me away. Great job m_macdonald! ^_^
     
  9. Benjamin

    Benjamin LPA team LPA Super VIP

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    Speechless.
     
  10. U544

    U544 Active Member

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    I never would have thought that Given Up could work as a dance pop track but you killed it.
    Best entry by far.
     
  11. m_macdonald

    m_macdonald Well-Known Member

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    Guys, thanks so much for the kind comments on the remix, I'm flattered that you're enjoying it!

    Thank you! But don't knock your Burning In The Skies remix, I downloaded it and ripped it to mp3 for my iPod. The mood/vibe of the track when Mike's first verse comes in over those synths is very cool. It's completely different from the original Burning In The Skies, but somehow it still fits the mood of the song/lyrics in my opinion. Plus you've got some synth melodies near the end – I'm all for a good synth line! :)

    Thanks! There have been some great entries over the last three months, mine is by no means the best, but that's awesome of you to say.

    Thanks! It's great to have a previous winner compliment my track. I'll take your suggestion in future and experiment more with my drum sound!

    The harmonies: I started by writing and arranging the harmonies. I just pulled up a blank session in my DAW for this and thrashed out some ideas for harmonies in MIDI. I had a 5 hour train journey where I just sat with my laptop and came up with some harmony ideas.

    Then I set about trying to get rid of the clapping which is in the Given Up acapella. It was very hard to try and tune the vocals with the clapping in the way. It was a bit of a nightmare, but I got rid of a lot of the clapping. I took the first two bar loop of clapping from the start of the song, which loops throughout the chorus. I laid that two bar loop over the top of the chorus, and I lined up the claps. Then I inverted the phase of the clapping loop using the phase/polarity button on my DAW mixer. That cancelled out most of the clapping and left the vocals untouched. It's not perfect, you can still hear some clapping, but it's not bad.

    Then all that was left to do was copy the acapella and then tune each one to the harmonies I'd written. For this I used the in-built Variaudio in Cubase. It works a bit like Melodyne, you can adjust the pitch of notes by hand, as if they're MIDI notes. You could probably use similar autotuning stuff from Antares and similar to get he same result.

    I hope that makes sense and that we'll maybe have some killer harmonies in a future Best Asian Ever remix!

    Thanks Derek, it would be my pleasure! I'm new to Soundcloud but I've sorted out the setting for allowing downloads. You should be able to download the Wave version from Soundcloud now, or if that's a bit large, I've included a link to the mp3 in the comments. Thanks again for your positive comments on my remix!
     
  12. РΛТ

    РΛТ LPA VIP LPA VIP

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    Last edited: Nov 19, 2011
  13. Casual D

    Casual D I WON'T BE YOUR CASUAL D. LPA Administrator

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    Oooh nice and moody. I like! Great choice to substitute your old entry with this.
     
  14. РΛТ

    РΛТ LPA VIP LPA VIP

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    thanks a lot :3
    i think so too x)
    even if this is not my personal favorite type (electro, dance etc) i will join every contest i think
    really cool to try other things :3
     



  15. Thanks! It's great to have a previous winner compliment my track. I'll take your suggestion in future and experiment more with my drum sound!

    The harmonies: I started by writing and arranging the harmonies. I just pulled up a blank session in my DAW for this and thrashed out some ideas for harmonies in MIDI. I had a 5 hour train journey where I just sat with my laptop and came up with some harmony ideas.

    Then I set about trying to get rid of the clapping which is in the Given Up acapella. It was very hard to try and tune the vocals with the clapping in the way. It was a bit of a nightmare, but I got rid of a lot of the clapping. I took the first two bar loop of clapping from the start of the song, which loops throughout the chorus. I laid that two bar loop over the top of the chorus, and I lined up the claps. Then I inverted the phase of the clapping loop using the phase/polarity button on my DAW mixer. That cancelled out most of the clapping and left the vocals untouched. It's not perfect, you can still hear some clapping, but it's not bad.

    Then all that was left to do was copy the acapella and then tune each one to the harmonies I'd written. For this I used the in-built Variaudio in Cubase. It works a bit like Melodyne, you can adjust the pitch of notes by hand, as if they're MIDI notes. You could probably use similar autotuning stuff from Antares and similar to get he same result.

    I hope that makes sense and that we'll maybe have some killer harmonies in a future Best Asian Ever remix!

    Aah, Variaudio. I've heard of that. FL Studio has a similar program called Newtone, but the quality of the recording gets really lowered.

    That's so cool by the way. Do you think switching from FL to Cubase is worth it? It seems way more advanced.

    And about the drums - I guess it's not just the samples themselves. Did you add compression and a bit of reverb to them? That will really help the sounds feel more "alive". :)
     
  16. Casual D

    Casual D I WON'T BE YOUR CASUAL D. LPA Administrator

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    Best Asian Ever, you really need to learn how to use the quote feature :lol:. Your latest post was incredibly confusing, as I didn't realize till halfway through I was reading mac's post.

    Anyways, entries for this month are now closed. We will be posting this month's theme, and the winner later today. Thanks for entering everyone, you guys did AMAZING. Also, starting January 2012, competitions will begin on the FIRST, not the middle of the month.
     
  17. Paolo

    Paolo Well-Known Member

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    Wow, I really think m_macdonald will win, your remix is great! :)


    Hey Derek I got a question,

    How will the winner be chosen? Do you do choose the winner, or will there be a poll or something like that?
     
  18. Casual D

    Casual D I WON'T BE YOUR CASUAL D. LPA Administrator

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    Staff votes, to avoid favoritism or members signing up just to vote for their friend. Votes and decisions are made based on several categories including skill, enjoyability of the mix, and adherence to the theme given. Some people may have a VERY good remix, but the remix doesn't follow the theme closely enough and thus can't win, even though it's really good. It's why we have the entire staff do individual votes, so we can get a group consensus on who should be the winner. Even then though, it still sometimes is really close :).
     
  19. Paolo

    Paolo Well-Known Member

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    Okay, I get your point. :)
    And when will you reveal next month's theme?
     
  20. РΛТ

    РΛТ LPA VIP LPA VIP

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    ;D
     
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