What software/hardware do you use in creating mashups?

December 4, 2004 1:38 PM

What software/hardware do you use in creating mashups?

The Wired CD has been released, and it's full of Creative Commons licensed material. It says on the site:

"Return to this site next week, and we will debut our new mashup community site, where you can upload the new tunes you build from these tracks."

I really want to participate in this. I just downloaded the new free Traktion, but I'm wondering what else people use? Any tips?

posted by buriednexttoyou to media & arts (7 comments total)

For mashups, ACID and Ableton are god. There are other programs that are more powerful for this kind of application (like some of Native Instrument's line), but they have a very high learning curve.
posted by Jairus at 1:50 PM on December 4, 2004

IMO, software is really the way to go on this one. I use music hardware for most of my other music making ventures, but the nature of mashups seems to be better suited to audio software. You can really use almost any competent multitrack audio software. I am comfortable with Adobe Audition, and have used it to make a couple of mashups inluding this: http://tomtheisen.com/audio/Prime%20Mover%20-%20Get%20Busy%20(Remix).mp3
This is a self-link of questionable legality, but I am just offering it to show what can be done in Audition. Perhaps the fact that it's not actually a link it magically makes it OK.

In the meantime, check out Boom Selection and Get Your Bootleg On if you haven't already.
posted by recursive at 1:57 PM on December 4, 2004

Not that this should disuade you in the least, but one of the Gods of mashups, Dsico, has recently posted that Bootlegs / Mashups are Over.

"Mash-ups are ultimately a One Trick Pony, continuing to mix up these tracks is just floggin a dead horse."

But of course, he's actually good at it, so that could be a bit like Picasso saying, "Screw this 'painting some fruit' bullshit." That doesn't mean you shouldn't try. Anyway, his old list of mashups might give you some inspiration. I've played around with Sony's ACiD Studio 5, and it's definately the way to go. You need supreme control over your loops.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 2:10 PM on December 4, 2004

FYI, buriednexttoyou, the mashup community site mentioned is CC Mixter, you might want to post a question in the forums.
posted by revgeorge at 8:25 AM on December 5, 2004

Yeah, with all due respect to Dsico, he can suck it. Who decides when something is over?

That being said, I love the stuff he's done to Christina Aguilera.

I think, personally, that the future of mashups is to get away from pop, and go more towards the avant-garde. I'm working on a mix of some avant-garde stuff like Stockhausen and Steve Reich with stuff like Aphex Twin and Autechre.

To each his or her own, though, I guess.
posted by geekhorde at 1:24 PM on December 5, 2004

Definitely take a look at Ableton Live. It does traditional sequencing like Acid but also has a session view where you can compose on the fly, non-lineraly. This makes it much easier to try new ideas very quickly.

I used Acid for years, and it was great at the time but the latest versions have been extremely buggy. You can download trial versions of both programs.
posted by lasm at 5:42 PM on December 5, 2004

Ack! Linearly, that is.
posted by lasm at 6:56 PM on December 5, 2004