Remixing

In remixing, a person (often a recording engineer or record producer or lyrics producer) takes a familiar song, splits it into different parts called tracks, and changes the song's music, instruments, layout, and or vocals to create a new version of the same song. It is called remixing due to mixing being the putting together of all the parts of a song, and remixing being the putting together of the parts of the song differently than the original.

Remixers, that is, people who remix, are musicians who use a variety of tools, primarily electronic, to create the new song versions. Remixing can be simply moving song parts around; it can also be creating new music for an old song lyric. There are two common kinds of remixing: production and mashups. Production remixing uses new instruments with the old song vocal, and mashups use two old songs mixed together to create a new song.

It is pertinent to mention that the remix of R. Kelly and Beyonce's song "If I were a boy" shows that remixing also involves the editing of the words of a music to publicize more enlightenment gained from over time listening and attuning of the soul to the music by the general public. This tells musicians to be cautious about the wordings of their music. The wordings are as beautiful as the sound the soul hears, because the soul listens to the music and not the ears necessarily. A fine captivating lyrics with poor musical sound can last for many uncountable centuries as most captivating music than a music with a captivating sound but poor lyrics. Events of our daily life can be used to produce remix for most music we have lived out innocently. This is a very green field opportunity for upcoming remixers. E.g. One can do a remix about Dolly Parton's song - Jolene capturing the insecurity of a woman in keeping her man because of her inferior outlook to that of a woman who in her seemed inferior outlook discovers the confidence that Jolene in her air of superiority can never and will never ever be able to take her man even if she looks like the moon on a very dark night or the twinkle stars decorating the dark clouds at night.

Then after some years of listening to it, another remixer releases another insight on why Jolene has to stop exerting that air of superiority on the women around her, seeing she has done so much harm to the concept 'love'. And it can go on and on, bringing out the best styles, tactics and ideology to love better in diversified ways making us more sane with love rather than being insane.

An African can choose to do a remix where Jolene is welcomed by Dolly Parton to share her man with her seeing that it is part of our African religion and we have it as a responsibility to polish it to gold. Music without its lyrics properly guided is dead, this is majorly the essence of remixing. Sounds would be exhausted but knowledge cannot be exhausted and knowledge is an embodiment of the lyrics and not the sound. Tu-face Idibia, P-Square and the rest can explore this.

Production

Production remixing requires more musical knowledge than mashups, because one must make their own music. This music generally is within the same key and has the same rhythm or melody as the old song.

Many electronic music artists (music made with computers or other electronic instruments) use computer software to make new music parts, called "tracks". The music parts contain notes which are arranged with a computer program called a sequencer. The actual notes are played by instruments, usually synthesizers, a type of electronic musical instrument that makes sounds by changing the shape of a sound wave. It is also possible for a remixer to use a drum sample kit, a set of sounds of fake or real drums recorded for use on a computer.

Rendering

When the remixer has a proper sequence in the sequencer, he or she can then render the audio part, or track. Rendering requires the sequencer to talk to the musical instrument, usually by computer software or a computer-to-computer talking language called MIDI to an actual electronic keyboard. The sequencer tells the instrument which note to play, and then the instrument plays the note. The sequencer writes this note to a music file on the computer.

Mashups

A mashup is a remixing style in which a remixer takes two songs and mixes them with each other in a clever way to create a new song. Usually, it is the vocal of the song they want to remix with the other musical parts of an older song.

Instead of using a sequencer and a musical instrument, a remixer can use either record-playing turntables or a computer with an audio sequence editor, for example the program named ACID music. He or she also needs an audio editor, a computer program that allows someone to record sounds into a computer as well as cut them down to smaller bits.

Usually, a small bit of the old song is "cut" in an audio editor into a loop, a piece of music that when played on repeat does not have any skips or musical pauses. This loop is usually called a sample in the world of remixing. This sample is then looped (played over and over) in a sequence to create a new sound. The remixer then mixes the vocal of another song over that loop.

It is also possible that a mashup style remixer will take the entire musical part of one song without its vocal - called an instrumental - and take a vocal from another song without the non-voice part - called an acapella, and put them together to create one song.