Tips or Tricks of the Trade

[beeboy710]

I was wondering what the key is to getting your remixes to sound right... I cant seem to get the lyrics and the beats to match up. What do i need to look at or understand to work this out?

[moww]

What are you using?

[Brother McDuff]

If you're reppin' protools then "grid mode" comes in handy.

[landos_dad]

Firstly, it helps alot to know the acappella's tempo/bpm. You can find a list of tempos here (http://www.beastieboys.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=21925) or you can use this online tool here (http://www.freeloops.co.uk/bpmcounter.htm).

Not sure what method you are working with...computer software? Turntables?

I work with software, so... Once you have found out your acappella's tempo and have imported it into your software (FL Studio, Acid, Reason or whatever sequencer) of choice, it's then a good idea to set the software's global tempo/bpm to match the acappella's.

Next you need to position the acappella in the sequencer timeline up to the bars. Here you need to listen to the original track you are remxing. Let's take 'Alive' for example: Listen to where the first kickdrum drops with the vocals... you will hear that the first main kickdrum drops as Mike D says "rhyme" ("We got RHYME selections in a wide array")
. So, you need to line up your acappella's "Rhyme" lyric with the first beat of a bar in the sequencer.

I hope that made sense and helps.

Lando's dear old Dad.

[MarkedCube]

The first thing you want to do before you start is set the correct BPM (http://www.beastieboys.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=21925) otherwise it'll be off tempo and then you'll have to start over like I did with my remix. Trust me, you don't want to go down that path.

[beeboy710]

thanks for the help... anyone know where you can download songs without lyrics? like karaoke?

[moww]

They usually get put out along with singles or on an instrumental album if you're lucky. Just search "instrumental" and the name of the song or artist in your file sharing program and you might be in luck. Also, you can try this (http://www.beastieboys.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=23467) out.

[The Wedge]

I just use acid to get the bpm. when you load the vocal track into acid it asks if you want to use the beatmapper. Click yes then just follow through the steps