Songs and Sonics

Well, it’s taken multiple crazy web server issues and wild goose chases to locate old backup DVDs, but it’s finally here — the Really Really Weird Remix Contest!

Almost everything you need to know about the contest can be found on this page:

Note that there are some new tidbits on that page, like what criteria will be used for judging your remix. And here’s where you can download the raw multitracks.

However… once you download the tracks, there’s some additional information you ought to know about the tracks themselves.

The files that are part of the second mix have the prefix “midsection_”. It’s recommended that, at least until you’re familiar with the tracks, you make two different mix sessions and work with each half separately.

In the Girls Aliens Food version of the song, the main song mix is interrupted at around the 2:57 mark with the midsection mix. When the midsection mix ends, the song cuts back into the main song mix, at the main song mix’s 3:17 mark.

The “door slam” file is tacked on to the ending of the album mix. The door slam is not meant to go at the beginning of the mix, as it would be if you imported all of these tracks into a DAW; it’s meant to be inserted wherever the song ends.

Naturally, you are not expected to stay true to the original mix (in fact, it is encouraged that you don’t) — but this information is meant to help make sense of how the tracks were constructed, should you want to use the original mix structure as a starting point.

Most of the tracks are mono, though a few are in stereo. The tracks in stereo are marked with the word “(stereo)” at the end of the name.

What is the BPM for this song? Good question. The Me and My Arrow EP and Girls Aliens Food album are the first Simple Carnival releases where I used a click track. However, I didn’t want to make things sound too slick — I wanted to keep a connection with the lo-fi sound that was established with the previous EPs. So I varied the tempo of the click track very, very slightly, speeding up or slowing down things in the way a conductor might lead an orchestra.

So what does this mean?

It means your job as a remixer just got a lot trickier. Although these tracks line up with one another in a DAW, they don’t collectively line up with a steady tempo grid. And I have been unable to locate the original Pro Tools session that I used for recording the song, so I can’t tell you the initial BPM. By the time I imported the tracks into Reaper for mixing, I paid no attention to the BPM or grid anyway.

If you have any questions about the files, please post them as a comments on the Really Really Weird Remix Contest page or as a comment at the bottom of this post.

Good luck with your remix!

There’s no interview this week on Songs and Sonics. Instead, I’d like to take this opportunity to announce a Simple Carnival remix contest.

What? A remix contest? Are you serious?

Yep. Here’s the deal. In the very near future, I will be making available the raw multitracks for the Simple Carnival song Really Really Weird:

You can remix, mangle, and twist these tracks to your heart’s content. (They will be released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.) Submit your final 192 kbs mp3 file, and whoever makes the mix judged the “best” (whatever that means) by a panel of judges will win the grand prize…

The grand prize consists of a Simple Carnival t-shirt, a Girls Aliens Food CD, and one of the actual instruments I used on Really Really Weird: a circuit-bent Casio SK-1 sampler.

For those who are unfamiliar with the Casio SK-1, it is widely considered to be the holy grail of circuit bent electronic instruments. (And if you don’t know what circuit bending is, here’s an introduction.)

When you flip the switches and buttons that I’ve installed, the SK-1 can mangle and manipulate audio like nobody’s business. Similar modified SK-1s go for upwards of $250 on eBay.

There will be three runner-ups. Each runner-up prize consists of a Simple Carnival t-shirt and a Girls Aliens Food CD.

I’ve recorded nearly fifty songs as The Simple Carnival. And I’ve realized that I’ve only used my SK-1 for about four seconds on one song (Really Really Weird). So I want to donate the SK-1 to someone who will put it to better use than myself.

Also, have I mentioned that I have an album called Girls Aliens Food coming out on October 1st, 2008? This contest is admittedly one way to get the word out. I mean, why not?

A panel of musical judges and I will rank the submissions. My vote counts just as much as the other judges, though I’ll be the tiebreaker if necessary. Our votes will be kept confidential. Don’t send us angry e-mails if you don’t win anything. I would love to give SK-1s to everyone if I could — in fact, that would make a great platform for a presidential candidate. Unfortunately, I have only one instrument to give away, so I ask that everyone who doesn’t win something to please be a good sport. We still love you.

All submissions must be in by midnight EST on November 30, 2008. The winners should be announced (hopefully) a week or two after that. If we end up getting two billion submissions, it might take more time to listen to everything.

They are (in alphabetical order):

Mathieu Bournazel from Purple Submarine Orchestra	Rob Gibson from Mister Fusty	Pea Hix from Optiganally Yours	Mike Langlie from Twink	Matt Williams from The Brigadier

I’m thrilled to have these terrific musicians/songwriters/producers participating, as I listen to their music all the time (and you should too!). Because these folks have generously volunteered their time, it’s always possible that the demands of real life might interfere and take precedence over this contest. Judges may come and go as the contest progresses, but I really hope these guys stay.

Yes, but anyone who was interviewed here at my blog, Songs and Sonics, is not eligible to win. The judges are also not eligible to win. Also, only one mix can be submitted per person. Sorry.

The remixes will be regularly rotated on this special MySpace page:

Bookmark that page, send a friend request, keep checking on it. Subscribe to that page’s blog. Read the comments section. That’s where most of the action should occur. Please keep the comments and the competition friendly; I don’t want to turn this into a backstabbing Survivor-like excursion. It’s only a toy keyboard, folks.

There is also the remote possibility that I’ll release a CD-R/album download with some of the remixes on my Sundrift Records label; by submitting a remix, you will be agreeing to the possible inclusion of your mix on such a release. (Naturally, you will be credited as the remix engineer for your track if that happens.)

Only if you have the legal permission to do so. If you’re not sure, the rule of thumb is, commercial sample libraries: yes. James Brown records: no. Don’t let the judges knock you out of the running because we identified some commercial CD snippet that you shouldn’t be using.

But don’t let that rule inhibit you from going wild with your remix. Record new parts if you want. Put the song in a different key. Change the tempo. Autotune the heck out of my voice, or remove my voice altogether. There is nothing to be gained by staying true to the original mix. We want to reward creativity. Just keep it clean and don’t do anything that the copyright police would disapprove of.

Not at all. There are scratches and sticker residue on this instrument. I bought it secondhand and never meant to give it away or make it look presentable. But it’s a useful/functioning piece of gear, it makes terrifically weird noises, and it was used in a Simple Carnival song. What more could you want?

They’re not online as of this writing. I still have more work to do to get them together. They should be posted next week.

See that little sidebar thing on the right, near the top of the page that says “Mailing List”? Put your e-mail address in there and click the “Send” button. After responding to the confirmation e-mail, you’ll receive a message the moment a new article is posted on Songs and Sonics. I post only about one article a week, and I don’t share your address with anyone. The next article should contain information on where to download the tracks.

So tell your friends, post about it online, let everyone know: Songs and Sonics wants to hear some really really creative stuff!