Unauthorised remixes of existing CDs by 'amateurs'

[Kosmische]

I've used the quote marks because I'm not sure if the people I'm thinking of are actually amateurs or professionals.

Anyway, what prompted this post was seeing a couple of comments on the likes of YouTube where folks would talk about remixing existing music to make them clearer/better etc.

Is this even possible? How could you do it without the original tapes? I'm not a professional mixer/producer etc myself but I am a music lover and often post on the SOS keyboard and Windows forum s(but never so far on this one).

[Hugh Robjohns]

They may mean 'remastering' rather than 'remixing' -- equalising and altering the dynamics etc -- in order to achieve a perceived improvement.

But they may genuinely mean re-mixing without the original source multitracks as there are now software applications than are capable of splitting a mixed track into it's constituent parts -- usually outputting vocals, bass, drums, and everything else. Sometimes keyboards or guitars might be extracted reasonably cleanly, too, but often not.

These systems aren't perfect, but nevertheless, make it possible to alter the relative balance of the main parts changing EQ, dynamics, FX etc, to remix the original. The results can be quite convincing.

Whether it is legal from a copyright point of view is highly doubtful, however...

[James Perrett]

Do you have links to any examples? As Hugh says, this could range from remastering from the old original studio mix tapes or a complete remix from the original multitrack tapes to someone in their bedroom running Spectralayers or Demucs and extracting all the stems. Stem separation can be remarkably good on the right material and it is improving all the time - the one I use is good at extracting guitars as well as the more normal percussion, bass, vocals and others. In theory it can also split drums into the separate parts although I've not got that going yet.

If any unofficial remixes start making money then the original artists are likely to want to be paid - in fact, with YouTube, you can often use copyrighted music in your videos without any problems provided YouTube can show adverts to generate money to give to the original artist.

[OneWorld]

They may mean 'remastering' rather than 'remixing' -- equalising and altering the dynamics etc -- in order to achieve a perceived improvement.

But they may genuinely mean re-mixing without the original source multitracks as there are now software applications than are capable of splitting a mixed track into it's constituent parts -- usually outputting vocals, bass, drums, and everything else. Sometimes keyboards or guitars might be extracted reasonably cleanly, too, but often not.

These systems aren't perfect, but nevertheless, make it possible to alter the relative balance of the main parts changing EQ, dynamics, FX etc, to remix the original. The results can be quite convincing.

Whether it is legal from a copyright point of view is highly doubtful, however...

I did this for friend of mine as a favour, with the original being an ancient trad jazz song recorded eons ago, so the quality was quite poor. However I submitted it to an online service and it did manage to isolate the basics, and strip the vocals out so it could be re-worded and re-sung, my friend wanted the song about her.

I played the instruments where the originals weren't stripped out as well as the rest of it. What surprised me was that some of that trad jazz stuff had some quite tricky bits and was quite an interesting exercise. Anyway in the end the whole thing turned out quite well and my friend was delighted, and much of that was down to the software doing such a good job. OK it needed working on, but the brass section for example was used without any work needing doing on it.

[jimjazzdad]

... in fact, with YouTube, you can often use copyrighted music in your videos without any problems provided YouTube can show adverts to generate money to make huge profits while throwing a small bone to the original artist.

Fixed ot for you James

[James Perrett]

Anyway in the end the whole thing turned out quite well and my friend was delighted, and much of that was down to the software doing such a good job. OK it needed working on, but the brass section for example was used without any work needing doing on it.

I've used it quite extensively for some of our Cutting Room material and it is hard to tell what elements have been separated and what elements are new. In this case I know the rights owners so there are no legal problems with doing this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLpLs2n4A4k

Has elements from an old cassette as well as new recordings but which is which?

[OneWorld]

What I liked most about, and my friend too, was the end result. Because I was able to use much of the original material, recorded in the 50’s, it had that certain 50’s ambiance about, I sounded like an old crooner on an old 78 Parlophone, I found my true vocation, a 50’s crooner

[Zukan]

Many artists offer their music as downloadable audio tracks for remixing purposes. This marketing angle works quite well. Gets people clicking on the originals and thus promotes click thru counts. Some even get to commercial release stages...

I've often come across modern day well known artists offering acapellas for remix purposes. Some of my students use them for their exercises. All legit. Not sure about music from decades ago as that's a whole different can.

[alexis]

Many artists offer their music as downloadable audio tracks for remixing purposes. This marketing angle works quite well. Gets people clicking on the originals and thus promotes click thru counts. Some even get to commercial release stages...

I've often come across modern day well known artists offering acapellas for remix purposes. Some of my students use them for their exercises. All legit. Not sure about music from decades ago as that's a whole different can.

That's pretty cool!

[alexis]

...

I did this for friend of mine as a favour, with the original being an ancient trad jazz song recorded eons ago, so the quality was quite poor. However I submitted it to an online service and it did manage to isolate the basics, and strip the vocals out so it could be re-worded and re-sung, my friend wanted the song about her.

I played the instruments where the originals weren't stripped out as well as the rest of it. What surprised me was that some of that trad jazz stuff had some quite tricky bits and was quite an interesting exercise. Anyway in the end the whole thing turned out quite well and my friend was delighted, and much of that was down to the software doing such a good job. OK it needed working on, but the brass section for example was used without any work needing doing on it.

That's definitely pretty cool!

[OneWorld]

Many artists offer their music as downloadable audio tracks for remixing purposes. This marketing angle works quite well. Gets people clicking on the originals and thus promotes click thru counts. Some even get to commercial release stages...

I've often come across modern day well known artists offering acapellas for remix purposes. Some of my students use them for their exercises. All legit. Not sure about music from decades ago as that's a whole different can.

Even though I did it for a friend, at her request, I was going to squirt it up the internet, it sounds ok'ish, but thought better of it even though the original artist, it was George Formby, has long since hung up his ukeleyly it's quite a racy number (It's called Fanlight Fanny - it doesn't leave much to the imagination!) with all his double-entendres, but it was covered in the 60's by some trad jazzster, Max somebody. I changed all the words to suit my friend. Anyway, I decided against uploading it, I didn't want the George Formby Appreciation and Heritage Society getting into a lather "Oooo er Fanny, I'll go t'top of our stairs, this bloke's besmirching you"

[forumuser936783]

Or check out Moises.ai. Its one of a few tools that can separate a song into stems that are fairly good quality. Some artifacts, yes. But a very usable tool. Won apples music product of the year for 2024.