Remixing can be much more complicated than creating an original track, as counter-intuitive as that seems. With a remix, you have to stay true to the song while leaving your thumbprint. You have to please the label, the artist, the dance floor, and if all goes well, yourself.

With an instrumental track, there’s latitude when it comes to key: You can slice, dice, and slap-chop the stems within an inch of their collective life. As long as the sound and vibe of the original is in there somewhere, it’s all good.

With an instrumental track, there’s latitude when it comes to key: You can slice, dice, and slap-chop the stems within an inch of their collective life. As long as the sound and vibe of the original is in there somewhere, it’s all good.

Last fall, I got a shot at remixing Winter Kills, a new artist generating a massive buzz in the trance and progressive communities. The label, Different Pieces, wanted me to infuse it with my funky tech-house sound. I loved the original track — Meredith Call’s voice has a lush quality that most producers would die for. Click for audio of original track.

The track has a dark, foreboding character that didn’t quickly lend itself to a bouncy house treatment. I called the label, then the band, asking if I could change three notes in the vocal performance, and promising to keep the track’s soul intact. They said yes, provided they could hear it and say yea or nay ahead of time.

First, I created the chord progression, which sounds like parallel fourths, but is actually microtonally perfect fourths created in Ableton’s FM soft synth Operator, using unusual ratios and transpositions to keep the carriers musically aligned. From there, I layered the original vocal (see Figure 1) after feeding it into Melodyne.

In the audio examples (scroll down), listen closely to the words “on my own.” In the original, Meredith’s vocal slides up during bar 79 when she sings “own.” For my version, I only needed the vocal to go up one more half-step (see Figure 2). That locked it with my key changes during the crucial choruses. There were also a couple of tiny changes in the verses, but none as significant as this.

I submitted the draft and waited for everyone to weigh in. The verdict? Run with it! One listener didn’t even notice the note that was changed. Melodyne is a magical app that lets me massage a performance with almost complete transparency,but it’s not the only tool I could have used.

If you’re on a budget, try the pitch correction tools that come with your DAW, paying careful attention to the sensitivity and intensity parameters (unless you’re T-Pain, but I digress). Another nifty trick is to use “rubber-band” automation to transpose right inside your arrangement. I did this in Ableton Live, and Figure 3 shows the exact spot.

Before you do any of this on your next remix, make sure it’s cool with the label. If you do it right, they just might say yes. (Click images below for larger versions.)

Fig. 1. Meredith Call’s vocal from Winter Kills’ “Deep Down” before editing in Celemony Melodyne. Click for audio of vocal fed into Melodyne.

 

 

Fig. 2. Squint at the second half of bar 79, and you’ll see the small but very effective repitching up a half-step. Click for audio of repitched vocal in Melodyne.

 

 

 

Fig. 3. The same goal achieved via automating Ableton Live’s onboard pitch warping.

 Here's the final result in the context of my remix!