Posted 05 Jun 2010 — by karl
Category Music
The latest focus for my efforts has been another Nine Inch Nails song. Of the material available for producers on the NIN site, the two songs I was most interested in remixing were “Lights in the Sky“, and “The Beginning of the End”. “Lights in the Sky” was a pretty experimental project and took some time to develop, but “The Beginning” I knew almost right away how I wanted it to sound. It’s taken a while to get my vision tracked accurately, but this is pretty representative of how I originally thought about my remix. The ghostly sounding pads’ melody for the chorus is an element I knew I would add right away, and it sounds almost exactly the way it did in my head.
The tempo is maintained at the original 140 BPM in this mix, replacing guitars for a glitchy, persistent bassline which I think adds a “marchy” quality to the song. I really like the breakdown near the end which then tears back in to the main chorus’ melody, without Trent’s vocals on the second round. Short and sweet, but not short on excitement.
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NIN – The Beginning Of The End(Karl D mix)
Update: This remix is now also live on the NIN official remix site here: http://remix.nin.com/play/mix?id=20407
Posted 20 Apr 2010 — by karl
Category Music
“Finally”, you shout at the computer, “Some new content on randombeats.com!”
I’ve been working on this for quite some time now, probably since the last piece of music that was posted here. I wanted to start doing more remixes of other artists’ work, and with NIN having some of the most accessible source material around, I decided to start there.
I wanted to start with “Lights in the Sky” because it was my favorite track from The Slip. “Lights in the Sky” is an incredibly challenging piece of music to work with, firstly because of the slow 55 BPM tempo, and because of the dull chords throughout the track. I’ve heard one or two other really neat mixes of this song, but my mix adds(rather than subtracts) to the track in very subtle ways. I added some bass effects throughout the track, with some extra-deep bass during the chorus. Trent’s vocals also have a slight glitch effect applied to them, which gives the song a much more synthetic feel to it.
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NIN – Lights in the Sky(Karl D mix)
Update: This remix is now also live on the NIN official remix site here: http://remix.nin.com/play/mix?id=19799
I am working on another NIN remix, but I won’t say what or when it’s coming! Be on the lookout!
Posted 29 Sep 2009 — by karl
Category Music
This mix of “Momentary” is the next track to be included in the soon-to-be available “Electronic Monk” EP. Like the last two remixes, a drastic change in tempo changes the feeling of the track.
The track has the same overall structure of the D&B original, but changes were made to the bass, drums, and FX which all contribute to the change in flow of the track. The vocal sample that is included in this mix was originally meant to be in the original, but I felt the minimalist approach to the original mix worked best. It definitely pumps up the excitement in this mix!
Karl D – Momentary(Dark Breaks mix)
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Posted 21 Sep 2009 — by karl
Category Music
The next remix candidate for the upcoming EP(which will be titled Electronic Monk) is Evening, another one of my favorites from “Existential Funk”.
This EP is quickly evolving into a series of experiments on the tempo of the remixed tracks. The Modify Your Mind EP changed the remixed songs dramatically, but without much change to their tempo. The first song remixed for this new EP, “The Exchange”, gained around 50 BPM in it’s remix.
“Evening” is a fascinating track to me in it’s original form because on different days, it sounds different to me. Some days, it sounds fast and vibrant, others, slow and paced. “Evening” loses 15 BPM in this mix(down to 110 from 125). This remix is decidedly slow and chilled out, and generates a much different listening experience. Although the original “Evening” is meant to be enjoyed much later in the evening, the “Sunset Mix” is meant, as the title suggests, to be enjoyed closer to dusk, cold drink in hand.
Karl D – Evening(Karl’s Sunset mix)
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Posted 29 Aug 2009 — by karl
Category Music
I felt so passionately about the last remix EP I did for “Existential Funk“, I decided I’d continue. There is plenty more material to remix, and lots more material that needed a platform to be released on(i.e. Toxin).
The EP will be released similarly to “Modify Your Mind”, by releasing the individual songs one by one in the main blog. Once the EP is complete, all the songs will be available in a ZIP file in the download section.
The first remix that will be included in this EP is one of my favorite tracks from “Existential Funk”(Stream here): “The Exchange”. “Exchange” was literally the last track I completed, and it was done within a day. Like some of the other remixed tracks from the last EP, this track is taking on a vivid metamorphosis. The ambient trip-hop drama is transformed into a dubby, introspective drum and bass track in this remix.
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Posted 07 Apr 2009 — by karl
Category Music
The next remix from the Existential Funk Remix EP(Coming soon to the downloads section) is of what became one of my favorite songs from the album. The psychedelic tech-house track is transformed in this dubstep remix, accentuatting the dub influence and changing the melody slightly without differentiating it too much from the original(If you haven’t heard it yet, you can stream or buy it on the Existential Funk page).
This was a great remix to do mostly because of the vivid transformation the track took on.
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Posted 25 Jan 2009 — by karl
Category Music
Something I’ve been thinking about lately is posting some older original tracks for listeners who may not be familiar with some of the older material. This is the first in a series of related posts.
I mentioned in a previous post that one of my major influences is Eurodance, and nothing shows that better than “No Greater Love”. I believe I composed this track in late 2001/early 2002. This song is significant for several reasons:
- At the time, I used a different kind of sequencing software which was nearly impossible for a serious musician to use, however I had grown very proficient at using it, despite it’s limitations. The sample based software only had 3 “tracks” which consisted of 16 positions each where you could place notes or drum samples, for a total of 48 total notes or drums in a bar.
- This was one of the first real melodic songs I ever composed. I had done some other things, but they were mostly beaty hardhouse.
- It eventually rose up on independent music site SoundClick’s Euro chart to a top position of #51 out of 1,820.
So, dear listener, I give you, the original and remixed versions of “No Greater Love”.
Karl D – No Greater Love
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Karl D – No Greater Love(Remix)
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Posted 19 Nov 2008 — by karl
Category Music
Years ago, I entered a remix contest for the band Lunik. For those of you who don’t know, Lunik is a Swiss pop/trip hop(a la Cardigans) band featuring the lovely Jaël as the lead singer. She has also done a couple tracks with Canadian group Delerium.
Lunik held the contest to promote their new album “Weather”. The objective was to remix the title track from the album.
I entered the following to the contest. I felt the tune was perfect for a dnb/trip hop treatment, but I needed to slow it way down to match the tempo I had in mind. You may find the timestretching of the samples sounds obviously “fragmented” in some places because of this.
Sadly, I didn’t win the contest. Either it was because I was American or they just plain didn’t like it. I still feel it’s some of my best work. I’ll let you make up your own mind.
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