[Idea] 'Big Brother' Remixes

[Legion]

Ok, I just saw this on Reddit. Is it a realistic idea? Probably not. BUT, I feel like there are some great vibes going on in the post and thought I might throw it up here for the heck of it. As far as I know, this is a new concept, but maybe it's been thought of before. Idunno. Some copy/paste for those who don't click the link:

"Ok, I had this weird idea. Bear with me.

So I read this one post somewhere about a week ago where a professional artist would professionally draw the work of children.

That got me thinking.

I'm a very amateur musician, and so even though I might sometimes have a good idea, I'm not very good at executing it. I just lack the talent and skill. I'm sure there are some others who might feel somewhat the same.

So I thought it'd be cool if some of the pro musicians in the brony community, the really really good ones (or, at least, the ones who have skill and are better than us amateurs) could take some of the amateur songs and remix them, re-imagine them professionally.

Like a "big brother" remix. Like "ExampleTalentedMusician big-brother's ExampleNewMusician".

Ok, that's a dumb example, and that terminology kinda sucks.

Haha, there could even be a "big brother" charity album. But that's getting REALLY far ahead, and assuming a lot.

I do have doubts about the idea, though. I just don't know if it'll work. So don't feel bad when you think of criticisms, because I have a knack for coming up with really bad ideas."

[Navron]

The idea in itself isn't bad, but a couple problems I think were overlooked:

1. Once you give your song over to a professional to remix, you lose your side of its creation. Comparing this idea to the artist recreating children's works is apples to oranges. A closer comparison would be to create a song, and have a professional do to the mixing and mastering. Basically cleaning it up and making it as good as possible. The OP's idea pretty much eliminates the creativity on the original artist's end, because a professional remixing your song is not going to make the amazing song the original musician envisioned.

2. It's quite obvious, but the amateur musician will not become a better musician.

One of my goals as a musician is to create a song that many people enjoy, to the point a lot of the professional musicians want to remix it themselves. If I had a professional step up and remix my song based solely on something like this, I wouldn't feel as if I really earned that remix.

I'm a little tired, but hopefully I was clear.

[colortwelve]

I like the idea, but something perhaps more realistic would be something along the lines of mau5hax - get a group of professionals or, in our case, high-profile artists, and match them up with an equally-populated group of amateurs, and have them collaborate on a large scale, so you end up with maybe 2-3 tracks for a group of about 10 people, but the amateurs get both the advice and tutoring of professionals and possibly recognition, since a project like this would inevitably draw attention to itself due to the bigger names participating.

Just to lay out the example a bit, mau5hax Miami consisted of 5 amateur musicians working with deadmau5, Kill the Noise, Feed Me, Steve Duda, Moguai, and Foreign Beggars, and they produced two tracks, one electro house and one glitch-hop. You could sort of tell that they weren't completely professional tracks, as the production and mixing weren't quite top-notch, but all of the elements of solid, label-quality music were there. And according to deadmau5, it was a very profitable experience for the amateurs, so much so that he considered lining up multiple mau5hax events in the future. (And by the way, here are said tracks. Dem titles.)

[[voodoopony]]

It's difficult when it comes to measuring production ability. Not that I care, I don't compare artists to things they are not.

Maybe this fits the description? I loved the song's idea and ended up remaking it.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAIgbN_Ewsw

I like the idea. I just feel we're inevitably going to stir up some hard feelings, like some unfortunate souls who didn't make it onto the final Balling Party album. Or maybe when the original artist hears the remix, they are tormented with the thought that they may never reach that experience or talent and toss their equipment out the window.

[Gray Ham]

I like the idea, but something perhaps more realistic would be something along the lines of mau5hax...

Definitely. I personally think that the original idea does nothing much to improve the skill of the amateur.

[Freewave]

Yeah this is a good idea and was something that was tossed around a little during the Lesser Known startup. But remixing vs a collaboration really does the more amateur artists not a lot of good (other than show what they could do and improve upon which is still something). I get a Rainbow Dash / Scootaloo kind of concept of this project. I think it's a cool idea and ultimately ANY collaboration with another brony both parties should get something from each other. Whether that's techniques in your DAW or just learning other methods of making music I'd encourage you to look for this despite any event.

Now that Balloon Party is over it would be cool to see something like this happen but the "bigger bronies" would need to sign up for this as well. Seeing as how a lot of them don't even frequent this forum someone would have to let them know and they'd have to be interested and make it something that they'd want to particpate with.

[Mallard]

I'd certainly be interested in helping with this, and I hope it's not presumptious of me to say I'd like to be on the big brother side for someone. I'm not the most expert composer, but I think I am safe when I say I have a better understanding of dance music structure and audio design than a lot of this community! NOT MEANING THAT IN A CONDACENDING WAY AT ALL.

But seeing as this is about making unpolished tunes more polished in terms of sound, I think I'd be well suited to this role.

[Freewave]

And "bigger" is a subjective term. There are some mid-tier artists who could still fit the bill or have better audio skills than recognition (you and HMage for example). My first brony ep NSFW was basically some drum samples a friend sent me that really had no real structure and i threw everything else around them as well as a concept. While they were still amateur compared to most brony tracks they came out at least as something that was better then where they started and it got me aware and involved in the brony community which i can't thank him enough for (he was a brony way before me and got me into it).

Hopefully if someone got Mallard and was looking for Alex S or JackleApp instead I would hope that wouldn't be a deal breaker (cause in reality that might not happen). Bartekko and I offered to help or remix on the "Lesser Known" project when it started up and haven't heard anything since so if that translates into something like this (again I'm still learning and improving as well) that would be cool. I hope people don't ever forget that people should always be improving and that anyone even at the top of the chain needs to continue as well. As dj shadow said "I'm a teacher but I'm also a student"

[bartekko]

bigger =/= better. there is a certain VERY huge brony artist out here, who i won't mention by name, but everyone should know who I'm talking about, who i wouldn't mind collabing with, but I'd prefer someone else, as his music is not really groundbreaking, and most of his songs sound the same to me.

on the other end there is someone like zorg, who is just a plain awesome musician, but he's only got like... 300 or so subscribers. Many people don't know him, and would disregard a chance to collab with him.

[colortwelve]

bigger =/= better. there is a certain VERY huge brony artist out here, who i won't mention by name, but everyone should know who I'm talking about, who i wouldn't mind collabing with, but I'd prefer someone else, as his music is not really groundbreaking, and most of his songs sound the same to me.

on the other end there is someone like zorg, who is just a plain awesome musician, but he's only got like... 300 or so subscribers. Many people don't know him, and would disregard a chance to collab with him.

I remember Zorg's name from the Remix War... I think that if this went down, the people who had been floating around the music community before actually getting involved (like me) might find it easier, simply because it's more likely that that group would be aware of more talented musicians than just the standard name-drops.

So, as I understand it, this is drifting towards something to the effect of the mau5hax idea. The question there would be, would it be easier in a logistical sense to pair or group up (probably 3 max, 2 amateurs to one pro) and make more tracks, or stage a whole pseudo-workshop and make only a couple really good ones? (I realize that, depending on who gets in, this may be impossible due to timezones, so it's why I'm asking).

[Ed Viper]

I'd jump at the chance to collaborate with anybody. There's something to be learned from every musician, regardless of how "amateur" they are.

Although the original idea presented is cool, it doesn't seem as practical or as much of a learning experience as a sort of mau5hax event would be.

[Cii]

This is weird...I had the same idea a couple nights ago when I listened to my first song again. I thought about something like "Alex S. befriends Cii" and have him do a remix of an amateur song of mine, but I see what you guys are saying about the learning process for amateurs.
But after hearing what you guys said, I love the idea of having a collaboration better. Personally, I always wanted to learn how Dr. Dissonance makes that orchestral stuff, and I think an idea of something more like "Dr. Dissonance x Cii" would be much more beneficial and better.

[Freewave]

I've gotten some midi's from the great Dr. before (my first remix was his Discord track) so taking a look at what and how detailed one of his tracks is is a great education in itself. I'd recommend opening one up in your DAW and possibly entertaining a remix or at least an exploration of looking at a composition. Just give him a pm (he is very friendly) as I'm sure he may be able to get you a few. Or you can ask him if something like this would be of interest to him as it ultimately will take a few big names to be involved for a project like this to get rolling.

[Legion]

I completely forgot I wrote this. Yeah, the more I think about it, the more the 'mau5hax' idea makes sense. It avoids all the hurt that Balloon Party triggered, plus is beneficial to the artists involved. Why does everybody like deadmau5 so much, again?

[colortwelve]

Why does everybody like deadmau5 so much, again?

Because he did a great thing for five amateur musicians, and gave us a new Foreign Beggars song in the process

[bartekko]

Why does everybody like deadmau5 so much, again?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... n.Deadmau5

[spacebrony]

Oh hey! I'm the one who made the Reddit thread. Funny that this happened.

Yeah, I agree with basically everything so far.

The idea just came to me when I was listening to a song I had made about a month ago. I think it's a good *song*, it's just that the mixing/instruments/balance is all that of a first timer (because it was made literally during my first ten hours with FL Studio, ever).

So yeah. Another idea I heard of that I liked was "WIP borrowing" or something, where you would present a WIP and other people would "finish" it for you, and then you'd end up with three or four somewhat similar songs that were all reimagined in different ways.

[colortwelve]

Another idea I heard of that I liked was "WIP borrowing" or something, where you would present a WIP and other people would "finish" it for you, and then you'd end up with three or four somewhat similar songs that were all reimagined in different ways.

There was once a thread called 'WIP Hijacking.' The general consensus, as I recall, was that it's basically collaborating without releasing the track as a collaboration.

[Legion]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Music/Deadmau5?from=Main.Deadmau5

I'm going to regret clicking this.

[UnderpΩny]

I like this idea. Sometimes I hear a song and I think, "It has potential, but I would have done it like THIS", but I don't ask for the stems to do a remix because I know that I would do it better and I don't want to damage someone's self-esteem.
I actually know what it's like though, because ArtAttack remixed one of my songs, and improved it greatly... so I one-upped him by making my own mix.

[Ed Viper]

but I don't ask for the stems to do a remix because I know that I would do it better and I don't want to damage someone's self-esteem.

Ask away if you ever see something of mine that you want to mess with.

You can't damage what doesn't exist, eh?

(Oh, self-deprecating humor, you come through once again.)