Remixing 101
So what is a remix, exactly? The concept is simple: take an existing track, then transform it into a new version somehow! Creatively speaking, this can range from simple sonic adjustments to the mix, alterations in arrangement or structure, a creative reworking of the original’s aesthetic, or any combination thereof.
Repurposing a track into something more your style is obviously taken for granted nowadays, but it wasn’t always so common. The first ventures into experimental reworking were pioneered by the musique concrète movement, in which artists explored then-cutting-edge tape-splicing, editing and looping techniques to transform snippets of prerecorded audio into things that were entirely new.
Rerub-a-dub
Many of the principles behind musique concrète’s editing techniques are still used in today’s DAW software, but we can trace the roots of modern remix culture to the Jamaican music scene of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
“Computer-based recording gave birth to the mash-up”
Producers such as King Tubby, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and Errol Thompson remixed existing multitrack recordings of hit ska, reggae and rocksteady songs live using their mixing console’s volume level, EQ and mute/solo controls, alongside overt tape echo and reverb, to create fresh mixes of the original tracks, stripping back vocals and musical hooks to focus more on drum and bass syncopation. These remixes (or ‘dubs’) got the dancefloor moving, but still retained recognisable elements of the originals.
Soon enough, remixing became popular among other genres of music. In the mid-1970s, disco DJs began creating extended mixes of popular disco tracks using tape editing tricks alongside drum machines. These records became essential cuts in the DJs’ record bags, as the tracks’ extended structures increased their dancefloor appeal.
Early hip-hop was also a form of remixing: DJs would use two turntables to loop, cut and scratch two identical copies of songs creating an entirely new form of music as a result.