It was only a matter of time
Anyone else get this email from those Radioheads today...The DIY remix. If I knew anything about GarageBand I'd have a go
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To celebrate this week's single release (we still have those in England) Radiohead have broken up the song 'Nude' into pieces for you to remix.
For those of you who enjoy this sort of thing, you can buy the separate components or 'stems' (bass, voice, guitar, strings/FX and drums) and remix your own version of the song. You can do this by adding your own beats and instrumentation or just remixing the original parts. More information here: http://www.radioheadremix.com/information/
You can buy the stems here: http://www.radioheadremix.com/buy/
You can upload your finished mixes here http://www.radioheadremix.com and be judged and even voted on by 'the public'.
You can also create a widget allowing votes from your own website, Facebook or MySpace page to be sent through too.
Hope you enjoy it
For those of you who aren't that way inclined, Nude is also available in its entirety on CD and 7 inch (UK release) at the usual retail outlets.
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This does allow a whole new way for fans to get involved with the band and their tunes. But is it a good thing I wonder?
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Multi tracks
There are other multi tracks knocking about on the web for freemans - Queen and the Beatles notably. A friend of mine downloaded some Beatles ones and says they are fascinating. I will do but haven't got round to it yet. Ssunds fun!
It does sound fun
and this is legit. It's been going on for ages in the dance music world but how many 'rock n roll' bands would let civilians loose to rework their precious tunes.
Been done, but still fun.
Some people have been running remix competitions like this for some time.
There are lots on AcidPlanet (designed for use with Sony-owned software "Acid"). Real World Records had various tracks for use in their Noodle application and more recently offered full multitracks (including Peter Gabriel's "Shock the Monkey") on their RealWorldRemixed site. Nine Inch Nails did a Garageband version of "The Hand That Feeds" and a few other tracks from their "With Teeth" album and are currently inviting people to make their own videos to the Ghosts I-IV instrumentals.
It is fun, by the way. I just wish I had more time to enter these things.
The Shamen
did this in the early 90s with a their Pro Geny compilation of remixes of Progen. It was 3 LPs containing all the remixes ever made of the tune (You know the one - 'I can move, move, move any mountain' and all that) containing an extra disc with all the drum loops, vocals and synth lines as samples and the sleevenote 'we are sick of remixing this - go out and do it yourself!'
Isn't it a bit cheeky...
To run a remix competition and then charge people money to download the component parts necessary to take part?
First sell the song
Then when they've all got it, sell them its components separately. Brilliant!
Especially
You had bought the box set. And after 2 months it still hasn't shown up and their online shop isn't stepping up to the plate.
Is there a "Stem" available
that consists of the sound of Thom Yorke sitting quietly in a room minding his own business and not bothering the rest of us with his waling and gnashing of teeth?
I'll buy that one.
This is annoying on every count
Jaded rock band, stuck for ideas gets them free from unsuspecting adoring fans. Plus, note the scraps are for SALE, not free. Time to make way for new talent.
Why "stem"? That's the real annoyingly pretentious clincher.
Because "loop". . .
Just sounds soooooooo 1990s.
Stems
A stem is just the term for a submix of multiple tracks - so you get a drum track rather than a kick drum, snare, hihat, etc., track. "Loop" would be wrong because they aren't loops.
Get annoyed about Radiohead for the other reasons if you want, but they are using the proper words for things.
In all my 22 years of
In all my 22 years of working in london studios I've never heard the word "stem", other than in discussions about herb gardening. I'm more familiar with the word "part". So, I'm updated.
I have a 80s demo record for a spring reverb with "stems" from a Paul Young song - so for original thinking Radiohead are up there with the greats.
Fair enough then
I've heard them used quite a lot in post for tv and film where you'd have dialogue, music, sound effects, etc., mixed as stems so that you could easily have a version without score for a trailer or a version without dialogue for dubbing into foreign languages, that sort of thing.
Maybe you hear them referred to as groups or busses? That's the problem with tech terms when things tend to float back and forth across the Atlantic depending on who is working where.
Why would they be free?
It's the song in bits that you put together. You don't download the song for free. I don't get why you shouldn't pay something. You could have got their whole album for free though so you can't really complain on that score. Also you say 'jaded', 'stuck for ideas' when last album was reckoned to be one of their best, and offering the album as download was generally thought to be fairly original.
Re: paying for downloading -
Re: paying for downloading - I'm against it, especially for scraps of songs......but then that's my personal opinion, which most people would disagree with.
Their best? - you're right - it is their best ever!