Who can remix my recordings into a song, for (very modest) pay?

February 25, 2006 8:55 AM

I've got two recorded conversations, in .wav format, that I would like remixed into a single song, preferably with a hip-hop beat.

I'd like the resulting song to be 2-3 minutes in length, in a digital audio format such as .wav or .mp3, using the funnier snippets of these recordings (each recording is about five to six minutes in length). I have tried every obvious search on Google, trying to find someone who might do this, and have come up empty. Any suggestions?

Keep in mind that my budget is small, so I'm not looking for genius.

posted by jayder to media & arts (25 comments total)

How much are you offering? Do you want melody as well, or just backing harmony bits with the beat, and the words mixed in over?

Depending on what you want and what you're offering, I'd be happy to give it a shot. Email in profile.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 9:42 AM on February 25, 2006

Post the files or email them to me if you like the idea of someone untalented doing something that will probably not be what you want with them. I'm free, at least :]
posted by moift at 10:04 AM on February 25, 2006

I called dibs first, moift! :P
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 10:05 AM on February 25, 2006

Wow, that was fast. I will e-mail you both a little later today or this evening. (I need to go through the recordings and take note of the parts I would like to be used.) Thanks.
posted by jayder at 10:16 AM on February 25, 2006

I'll do it!

If you are linux-adept at all, check out Hydrogen!
posted by phrontist at 10:20 AM on February 25, 2006

No problem. If you could also include more detail of exactly what you want to hear, beat and melody-wise, how much of the ocnversation you want used, how much you want it tied to the beat, how much we can screw around with the sound of the words, etc etc etc.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 10:21 AM on February 25, 2006

Why don't we just post them online and we can all do mixes?
posted by cyphill at 10:42 AM on February 25, 2006

I would love to post them online so you can all do mixes. But there's identifying information (my name and my interlocutor's name) that I don't want publicly disseminated. I don't think there's any reference to our location, but I don't want that in there either. I don't want there to be any way we can be identified (except for by our voices). If I sent one of you a link to the files, could you blur our his use of my name and my use of his name, so that there's no way we can be identified? Then I can post the files for everyone's remixes.

(Keep in mind, it's possible that these tapes are not really good material for a remix. But the person I'm speaking to is being so hilariously abusive that I would really enjoy hearing a song that kind of ridicules that.)
posted by jayder at 10:55 AM on February 25, 2006

I could do a glitch obfuscation type thing on it to just make it sound like it skips really fast when it gets to names, that sounds cools sometimes. Although since you like the hip hop maybe an old school BEEEEEP would be more apropos. :] If it's just first names I don't think it's an issue, but it's your call obviously.
posted by moift at 11:17 AM on February 25, 2006

No, it's last names, Mr. This and Mr. That.

If it's completely obfuscated, then it's not terribly important to me how it is done. Thanks a bunch--I'll e-mail you.
posted by jayder at 11:20 AM on February 25, 2006

No email yet and I've got some errands, so you might want to recruit another obfuscator if you want to get this thing rolling while it's in prime front page real estate. If it's more than 10 megs you'll need to mp3 it or host it temporarily to send it to gmail, if that's an issue.
posted by moift at 11:36 AM on February 25, 2006

fake edit: got 'em, but I still need a little time.
posted by moift at 11:38 AM on February 25, 2006

Please don't send us the files as mp3's. It's not worth the quality loss, unless you're encoding at an incredibly high bitrate, which makes the compression pointless anyway :) Just .zip or .rar them, and use yousendit.com or some such.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 12:55 PM on February 25, 2006

Is it easy to .zip or .rar something?
posted by jayder at 2:08 PM on February 25, 2006

Extremely. Just use WinZip or WinRar.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 2:29 PM on February 25, 2006

I'd have a crack at this... though my net connection is crap right now, so the downloading might take a while.

With regard to the identifying info and posting online... you could zip the files together with a password and then disseminate the password only to the Mefites with their hands up.
posted by pompomtom at 3:05 PM on February 25, 2006

That's a good suggestion, pompomtom. However, moifte, I think, is actively engaged in obfuscating the identifying info --- so I will let him or her finish it.
posted by jayder at 3:23 PM on February 25, 2006

These are recorded from a phone so I'm sure they can take quite a lot of compression before it'll make a bit of difference. I'm just muting the names because I don't think it really affects the eminently samplable parts. Whether any of it really is eminently sampleable is also debatable, but I'm working with the OP to get it sufficiently anonymized and then of course you can judge for yourself.
posted by moift at 6:30 PM on February 25, 2006

I don't want to sell it short or anything, there are a few genuinely good lines and the guy has a kind of foghorn leghorn mystique about him that probably lends itself to some kind of creative interpretation.
posted by moift at 6:31 PM on February 25, 2006

Yes, their suitability for this project is definitely in question. But I have sent the recordings to those who have expressed interest.

I am a bit embarrassed to have made this such a big production, but thanks to all who have shown an interest. Basically, the tapes are of some semi-abusive phone calls I received from a Homeland Security-affiliated family member of the person involved in this incident. The guy's rantings and threats got me wondering whether they could be made into some kind of absurd song. (A friend says I don't come off well in the tapes myself, possibly providing additional material.)

With regard to that collision, just to simplify my question a week ago, I stated it as if I was the driver, but it was actually my wife.
posted by jayder at 8:33 PM on February 25, 2006

And, as I should have said at the very top of my last comment, many thanks to moift for cleaning up the recordings.
posted by jayder at 8:35 PM on February 25, 2006

you do know that it is illegal to record phone calls without telling the person on the other end, don't you?
posted by b1tr0t at 10:22 PM on February 25, 2006

b1tr0t: Not in my state. (Trust me, I checked.)
posted by jayder at 7:18 AM on February 26, 2006

I threw together something quickly (I was bored) with a beat shamelessly stolen from the Sound Providers. I tried emailing you, but it wouldn't go through.

link
posted by cyphill at 11:48 PM on February 27, 2006

Cyphill: Unbelievable --- I love it. Amazing how a good beat can defuse the man's hostility into something so funny. Thank you!

(Also sending you an e-mail.)
posted by jayder at 8:57 PM on February 28, 2006