I have written this article to explain - from my perspective – what the best ways are to come up with ideas for mashup songs.
Although
I've been making mashups for 7 years, I still don't know how to sync
music up to beats. I could easily figure it out if I tried, but so
far, I have gotten by well enough without resorting to learning how
to use tools that would allow me to do that. As far as I'm concerned,
it's easier to use Audacity (and approximate the tempo) than
FruityLoops.
But
be warned, also, that lacking a solid, stable, consistent backbeat -
that has the same tempo the whole time - is practically an
indispensible tool, which will help you mask any syncing problems, or
quiet or overly complicated percussion, which you may have to deal
with if you try to make a mashup without it.
I
should really learn to use FruityLoops or another program, and/or
take DJ lessons, but using Audacity without syncing has worked for me
so far. So I'm not yet a valuable teacher on making mashups.
But for those whom are interested in learning how to come
up with ideas for mashups,
I at least have the following advice to offer.
If
you're interested in music, then you might have seen a video, or read
an article, about “songs that use the same four-chord progression”,
and how dozens of songs are the same. Here are some links which
pertain to that topic.
You
could choose any two of those songs – or any three, or four, or
even all 73 – and mash them up together.
However,
when learning how to make mashups, keep it simple at first. Don't try
to make more than two or three songs run together at the same time,
until you have had enough practice mixing two and three songs
together.
Here's
an article about “piano fake books” that allow you to “fake”
a song by reducing its complexity.
These
books, written for guitar and piano and other instruments, provide
usually just the lyrics and chords. If it's a guitar book, it will
often show how to finger the chord; and if it's a piano book, then it
will often contain written music (such as the melody of the vocal
part).
If
you can't find a song in a physical music book, then you can find the
chords to songs by doing an online search for the title of the song
plus the term “chords”. Sometimes they are wrong, however; you
can make sure that the song hasn't been transposed into a different
key, by playing the written music on an instrument while you play the
audio of the original song out loud on a speaker system.
Another
way to find out the chords, keys, and tempos of songs, is to visit
the website http://tunebat.com,
upload the audio file of the song to www.audiokeychain.com,
or use an Apple application called “Song Key Finder”.
If
you look up the chords to songs, you'll notice that many of them tend
to follow certain common patterns and structures. A song whose chords
are “C, F, Dm, G” and a song whose chords are “G, C, Am, D”
would have the same chord progression if they were in the same key.
In
music theory, the way you would notate both of these chord
progressions is “I, IV, ii, V”. This means that the first chord
is a major chord based on the root note, the second chord is a major
form of the relative fourth of that root note, the third chord is a
minor form of the relative second of that root, and the fourth chord
is the relative fifth of that first root note. LOTS of songs follow
the pattern “I, IV, ii, V”, but lots of OTHER songs follow a
pattern loosely based on the same one, such as “I, iv, II, V7”,
and countless other combinations.
So
many songs have such similar chord progressions, that you could put
many of them in the same key and tempo, and it would sound like one
song (very noisy, but it would still sound like one song).
You
have to train your ear, and know a little about music theory, to
recognize when songs have the same chord progression. But there's an
easier way: the more you notice that two songs are similar to each
other – for instance, if their tempos are close, they're in the
same key, or they have the same tone and timbre (or genre) - the more
likely it is that they will sound cool when mashed together.
Audacity
is available for download online for free. Find out what operating
system your computer is, and specify it in the search for the
program, along with the term “free”.
I generally follow
these ten steps when I make a mashup using Audacity:
1) Choose two, three, or four songs that sound
alike.
2) Make sure that all of the sound files are the
same format (usually mp3 or wav). You can convert audio clips into
different file types by visiting the following
link: http://online-audio-converter.com.
3) Import the audio files into Audacity.
4) Isolate the part that's the same in each of
the songs. Do this by moving unmashable portions that you intend on
using, and by deleting unmashable portions that you don't intend on
using.
5) Use the Tempo tool, to decrease or increase
one clip and/or the other, in order to make the tempo of the audio
clips the same.
6) Use the Pitch tool, to decrease or increase
the pitch of the audio, by a certain number of notes (or half-steps),
in order to make the key of the audio clips the same.
7) Match the clips together in different
combinations.
8) Listen to those mashed combinations of clips,
and decide which combinations you're going to use.
9) Decide in which order each combination of
clips will appear, so you can start developing the structure and flow
of your mashup.
10) Complete the mashup and export it as the
audio file type of your choice.
The
following link leads to a list I published in early 2019, which
consists of more than 600 sets of songs which have similar
structures, chord progressions, and/or timbres. I would make mashups
based on this list, but I have better ideas saved away. I published
them because I'll never be able to create all of them.
All
of my readers are free to use ideas on that list. I suggest choosing
a set of songs by doing the following: Visit the list online, pull up
the “search” or “find in page” web tool, see whether an
artist or song you like is on the list. and choose a set of songs.
If
you're ready to try Audacity and FruityLoops, or learn about how to
use them, check these out:
Video
about making mashups in Audacity, and finding instrumental and a
capella versions of songs:
Making
mashups in FruityLoops:
Email
me at jwkopsick@gmail.com with any questions. Requests for
mashups may or may not be honored; the shorter the clip you request,
the more likely it is that I'll help you.
You
can learn more about mashups by searching for the topic on YouTube
and Wikipedia.
Written and Published on
April 24th, 2020
