How I Did It
Remixing is Okay (Lessig and ...by spinmeister
Uses samples from:
Samples are used in:
more...Tools I Used
Cubase 4, Stylus RMX, Hypersonic, m3
Process
I decided on the basic storyline - i.e. I wanted to maintain the message in this one, but make it a bit more fun.
First I cut the original track into smaller chunks with significant phrases.
Then I narrowed it down to a subset with only one person speaking at a time.
Then I picked the major drum loop.
Then I worked each slice over a bit, deciding which syllable was going to get the rhythmic emphasis, and a whole lot more trimming.
And the I re-assembled a few longer slices to make rhythm flow better and also decided to make Colbert advocate remixing in opposition to what he actually said (consistent with the satire of his character which spoofs the right wing nut-jobs, which actually get highly rated TV programs in the US.)
Out of those I did a whole bunch of re-arranging of the conversation - almost in a storyboard sense: First two "verses" describe the problem, the last 2 the solution. And of course the happy chorus just had to be that for it's simplicity. Consider it my tribute to da-da-da!
I time stretched a couple of syllables in the very beginning, but for the vast majority of the stuff I only cut and spliced. If I was to start over, I would do more time stretching, because it turned out to be easier than I thought with my software. I just hadn't used that feature before.
THE MAIN TRICK:
spreading out the slices across several tracks. It does two things: it allows you to overlap snippets and have the sound of both play at the same time, and it is a convenient way to introduce spacing. In this case I used 5 tracks (each just slightly compressed and large volume differences fixed for each individual slice):
track 1: Lawrence: panned 50% to the left
track 2: Colbert: panned 50% to the right
(and yes, the left/right is on purpose - a much too subtle joke!)
track 3: A hard LEFT track for snippets from either gentlemen, panned 100% to the left
track 4: a hard RIGHT track for snippets from either gentlemen, panned 100% to the right
track 5: A BACK track (just my name for it) panned to the middle, but hard filtered to remove high and low frequencies, and boost a narrow mid-range. Some people call it the "old radio" or "telephone" kind of EQ or filter.
Other Notes
Obviously I agree very much with Prof. Lessig's sentiments and I'm also very grateful for his work in creating the creative commons idea and licensing mechanism and of course for the creation of ccMixter by the Creative Commons organization.
I also believe that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are bright shining lights on an often grim news media landscape.
So without trying to be too sentimental, this is my tribute to those people, and also to my fellow creative commons publishing artists and the crazy and wonderful bunch of remixers here.
Since I prefer happy tributes to sad ones, this had to be a tongue-in-cheek remix, rather than a deep one.
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