Hi, Ive composed music for about 13 years. I know this is a remixing site, but back when I was a teenager. Anytime I heard a remix of my favorite bands song It usually sucked in my opinion, so I never checked out the remix scene even though I have been making electronic music for a while. I’ve done tons of songs over the 13 years that are purely instrumental and I want to practice writing songs to vocals. But I always thought you had to have a singer that lived near you to work with and I’ve never found one yet. So I stumbled across this site and found out lots of singers just upload acapellas for you to use. Here are my questions.

1: I know there is a search by bpm in the acapella section but when you click on the actual acapella it doesn’t give the exact bpm or much info about it. Also it doesn’t say what key the vocals are in. Am I missing something or is it just not there?

2: Like I said I never checked out the remix scene in my life. What is a remix? What I plan on doing is writing whole new compositions/songs with these acapellas and whats the difference between that and a remix? Thanks for reading this.

First of all, welcome to ccMixter!

The community members who share a capellas have various levels of musical sophistication, skill, experience and knowledge so some will list the bpm and/or key with their uploads, and others will not. Some artists include a reference track (such as guitar or piano), and others do not. Some vocalists share lossless files with their uploads, and others do not.

There is no requirement for vocalists to include bpm/key information with their uploads (although I know it is helpful for the folks who want to remix them).

As for composing original music to go with an a capella, that completely works as a remix in our sights, and is one way that many of our community members remix.

Also, if you do choose to create a remix in this way, we encourage you to share your instrumental stems if you upload the remix to ccmixter. In that way, you facilitate the continuation of the musical conversation, as other artists may be inclined to remix your stems. If you do not upload your remix to ccmixter, but upload it somewhere else,we encourage you to do a trackback to the pella you use so at least the artist knows s/he has been remixed.

I hope this answers your questions. Look forward with what you have to share with us!

Hey CJ, Welcome to ccM!

Although cc mixter started essentially as a remix site (and I guess still is), its flexibility means it can be what ever you want it to be.
The definition of a remix is quite wide. Basically if you include a sample in your new work that is sourced from the site, it qualifies as a remix. This could be as little as a single drum hit, an accapella, or a reconstruction of an entire group of song stems from the site.
You can also post samples onto the website - inviting “strangers” to continue the “musical converstaion” and come up with something different ie. a remix.
Sometimes the result can be totally unexpected and suprising. It takes a leap of faith for an artist to hand creative control to someone they have never met. The results are completely unpredictable and if you keep an open mind, can be incredibly enlightening.
You could wake up the next morning to find your piano ballad transformed into a eurodance hit, a hard rock song,a reggae trip or anything possible in between. Musically, you can grow by sharing.

For me there are 6 types of participants on ccM;

1. Remixers. They transform a sample sourced from the site into something else and post it to the site, sometimes adding their own instruments. Some upload some of their own components of their mix as seperate samples, allowing the conversation to continue.

2. Mashers. Combine various “complete” works into something new. Maybe they put a new pella to another backing.

3. “Source” providers. Some peeps just post pella’s and leave the musical interpretation up to the ccm community. Others post complete stems (individual tracks) of as finished work and invite the community to transform it into something else.
The most successful of these post “incomplete” sketches, leaving plenty of room for the remixer to interpret and transform. They also (sometimes) include helpful information, eg the key, the BPM etc.
Think of a remix as a building. Some source providers say:
“Here’s my completed building and its parts, knock it down and build something else”. Others may say: “Here’s the foundations, go and build what ever you like on these footings”.

4. “Collaborators”. Once you become known on ccM, its easy to reach out to another member and collaborate. Someone might be pretty cool on the guitar and you may suck, its a meeting of minds , and often the some of parts its much greater than the whole. Someone that does instrumentals may put out a call for vocalists/lyricists in the forum or contact members privately.
Collaboration is often done off line away from ccM and then each colloborator posts the individual parts in addition to the completed song so they can be transformed into something else, by someone else.

5. “Curators” Make podcasts and playlists and promote various works found on the site into a coherent songlist.
If they are an editor they may select something great as an “editorial pick” - highlighting the work to as many people as possible.

6. “Format shifters” - They make use of the cc licensed works found on ccM and use them in their YouTube vid or short film or any other project off-site. (as long as they comply with the terms of the cc licence -this is encouraged.

There a members that construct new songs around pellas exceptionally well - Unreal DM is one of my favourites here.
Admiral Bob is an example of prolific provider of high quality content.
There are many more, too many to list, surf the site and you will find examples of each of these categories I described above.

Hey didn’t mean to write an essay, but I listened to your stuff on soundcloud and its really good. There are plenty of vocalists that would be eager to lay a vocal over the top of a backing or better still, post the component tracks of a song to ccM and let the community do anthing they like with them - I’m sure you will be surprised with the outcome.


Anyway, Welcome again.

Cheers
Scomber