Sunday, September 16, 2012

Unreal Volume

Unreal-Volume-600

Unreal Volume
Yello - Unreal
MARRS - Pump Up The Volume
4:26 / 320 kbps

After my summer vacation, and before I was able to get back to producing the next mash-up track for my movie soundtrack series, I was tempted and seduced into producing this mash-up track for Sound-Unsound's 80's Mashed 2 compilation project.

Some of you may recognize pieces of this track from a second version of my very first mash-up production, Thinking About Pumping Up the Volume (Touched by Love Unreal Mix). I was never happy with that version, as it sounded like two different songs mixed like a DJ mix instead of a mash-up, and some vocals just seemed to be slapped in between other vocals.

So this was an opportunity to take an old idea and give it a proper mash-up production. And, unlike my first production, I made use of the original MARRS sample pack to produce this track, which allowed me to do a few different things with those sources, and it provided me with a little more control over the final sound.

Friday, September 7, 2012

80's Mashed 2 Compilation

Sound-Unsound has just released their new mash-up compilation project, 80's Mashed 2, containing 54 tracks totalling almost 4 hours of mash-up music. As hinted by the title of the project, each mash-up track contains one or more tunes from the euphonious 80's.

The first song leading this huge pack of tracks is Unreal Volume by yours truly, where sources from MARRS and Yello mix it up to kick things off with an 80's house rhythm.

You can grab more details, track listings, previews, and download links from the project host site at http://chocomang.org/mashup/80smashed2.htm

Or you can also view the Sound-Unsound forum.

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Carmina Luna (Songs of the Moon)

Carmina Luna (Songs of the Moon)

Carmina Luna (Songs of the Moon)
i. Fifth Phase (Full Moon) 3:49
ii. Miss Fortune 8:05
iii. Voices from the Moon 10:50


Sources:

  • Jean Michel Jarre - Miss Moon
  • Inva Mulla Tchako - Lucia Di Lammermoor
  • Therion (composed by Carl Orff) - Carmina Burana: O Fortuna
  • Yello - Monolith
  • Goldfrapp - Voicething

Movie Soundtrack References:

  • Lucia Di Lammermoor is from the movie The Fifth Element.
  • Carmina Burana: O Fortuna is from the following movies:
    • Excalibur
    • Glory
    • Hunt for Red October
    • The Doors
    • Natural Born Killers
    • The General's Daughter
    • and many others

Track Notes:
This is the first cinematic track released from my new mash-up series, Behind the Silver Screen.
Click here to read more about Behind the Silver Screen.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Behind the Silver Screen

Behind the Silver Screen

Very shortly, I will be releasing the first mash-up track from my new series, Behind the Silver Screen. Each mash-up track in this series will contain source material from one or more movie soundtrack songs.

Throughout the upcoming year (or so), I will release additional mash-up tracks for this series as I produce them. Each track released for this series will be identified with cover art similar to the one shown above in this posting.

The idea for this series was originally spawned in September 2008 while I was putting together a mash-up that contained a track from a movie soundtrack. I thought it would be a cool idea to produce an entire album containing mash-up tracks based on movie soundtrack songs. However, at that time, I didn't quite have the skills yet to maintain a good enough quality mash-up production for this type of album. So I set it aside for a later date.

While I was completing my Continuum 08 singles remaster project in the middle of 2009, I re-opened my movie soundtrack mash-up track and worked on improving the quality of the production. However, I wasn't happy with the overall arrangement and mix... I couldn't quite capture my vision for the track. So again, I put the track aside.

In the following couple of years, I would return to this little movie soundtrack project every 4-6 months and do a little more work on the track, then put it aside again. And when I wasn't working on it, I was writing down ideas for other movie soundtrack mash-ups. Although I didn't have a completed track for the project, I now had a lot of ideas for the project.

It wasn't until the past few months, over 3.5 years after the original conception, that I was able to fully realize my vision for this first mash-up track of this series. Hopefully, it won't take me that long to produce the second track. :)

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Earthly Temple of My Bonnie

Earthly-Temple-of-My-Bonnie-600

It's been a year since I produced a new mash-up. Music/mash-up production is only a hobby for me, so it took a back seat this past year while things got busy for me.

But I'm planning to get back into some serious mash-up production this year. I've purchased a new laptop and new production software, so I'm hoping to work on a few productions this year. And this one is the first mash-up track produced from my new set-up.

In fact, while evaluating the different music production programs I was considering buying, a couple of the test tracks I chose to use for the evaluation process had started to come together while I was evaluating the programs. I made my software selection and then continued to finish off the mash-up track, which was then initially released on The 4th Point of Procrastination compilation mash-up release.

The mash-up track is now available here in this posting, along with an instrumental version, which highlights how well the instrumental sources work together and play off each other.


Earthly Temple of My Bonnie
Imogen Heap - Earth
Janah - Temple of My Body
Cynthia Lynn Douglass - My Bonnie
3:33 / 320 kbps

Earthly Temple of My Bonnie (Voxless Lullaby)
Imogen Heap - Earth
Janah - Temple of My Body
Cynthia Lynn Douglass - My Bonnie
3:33 / 320 kbps

Thursday, April 26, 2012

The 4th Point of Procrastination Genre-Smashed Compilation

The 4th Point of Procrastination

Once again, Chris "Envision" Manning has released his 4th annual genre-smashed mash-up compilation album, called The 4th Point of Procrastination. It contains 60 tracks from 35 fabulous DJ's and mash-up producers.

I've finally produced a new mash-up track, called Earthly Temple of My Bonnie, which you'll find on this compilation (track #30). It's been a year since I've produced anything, and in fact, my last track was released on last year's smash the genre compilation. I was evaluating new music production software for myself and some of the test sources that I set up for the evaluation had started to come together into an actual mix. It was an ideal track for Envision's compilation, so I polished it off and submitted if for this compilation.

You can download the entire compilation album with my new mash-up track at http://www.envisiondesign.com.au/the4thpoint.html