Anatomy of a Mashup
May 31, 2011 3:32 PM Subscribe
Anatomy of a Mashup - an amazing visualization of "Definitive Daft Punk."
HTML 5. One of the best current examples too.
One of the best of the web!
posted by gen at 3:41 PM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]
One of the best of the web!
posted by gen at 3:41 PM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]
Would like to see this for Bach cantatas, Beethoven symphonies or anything from Geogaddi.
BoC, you bastards, give us some new music.
posted by Devonian at 3:48 PM on May 31, 2011 [3 favorites]
BoC, you bastards, give us some new music.
posted by Devonian at 3:48 PM on May 31, 2011 [3 favorites]
Hmm, I would call this a mix and not a mash-up. Or do you kids think the difference is moot in this age of virtual synthesizers and and horseless carriages?
posted by audiodidactic at 4:24 PM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by audiodidactic at 4:24 PM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]
Here is Alive 2007, where Daft Punk themselves mix their work together live in Paris. One of the best live albums I've ever heard.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 4:24 PM on May 31, 2011 [5 favorites]
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 4:24 PM on May 31, 2011 [5 favorites]
That was a fantastic visualization and I liked the mix/mash as well. I didn't have high expectations and almost didn't click through. Do click it. One of those I love living in the future moments.
posted by Babblesort at 4:51 PM on May 31, 2011
posted by Babblesort at 4:51 PM on May 31, 2011
Ditto not-a-mashup. This is a mashup.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:48 PM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:48 PM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]
The author himself calls it a mashup.
At the 1:00 mark there's 6 tracks in play. Is that a mix?
posted by gen at 6:01 PM on May 31, 2011
At the 1:00 mark there's 6 tracks in play. Is that a mix?
posted by gen at 6:01 PM on May 31, 2011
Love, love, love, Daft Punk, and that link was amazing. Thanks for sharing.
posted by 4ster at 6:25 PM on May 31, 2011
posted by 4ster at 6:25 PM on May 31, 2011
Fantastic, best of the web for sure. Wish they'd do some live shows for Tron...
posted by vorfeed at 6:29 PM on May 31, 2011
posted by vorfeed at 6:29 PM on May 31, 2011
If it happens, I will fly to see them.
On my motherfucking light-jet.
posted by vorfeed at 7:12 PM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]
On my motherfucking light-jet.
posted by vorfeed at 7:12 PM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]
While excellent (and it is), this pushes the limits of the meaning of "mashup," at least musically. Back when mashups were gaining widespread attention, some of the earliest champions of the genre were insisting that mashups should involve minimal manipulation of the source tracks themselves. Generally, pitch-shifting and tempo-shifting were OK (and usually necessary) and EQ-filtering was a common way to remove vocals or instrumental parts*, but chopping up the tracks was "cheating" and came to resemble a roughly-hewn remix. There will be other mashup artists who'll disagree and none of this diminishes the awesomeness of this re-compositional feat, but the point I'm making here is that not everyone is going to recognize this as a mashup. I wouldn't call it a "mix," though, in the sense of a "DJ mix," since that usually corresponds to a DJ "set" of beat-matched, overlapping tracks that lasts at least an hour and often much more. I would say that this sits somewhere between a mashup and a remix; I might call it a collage, since a lot of the musical precursors to mashups were often considered to be "collage artists" of sound.
Coming from the other end, though, you could look at examples such as Richie Hawtin's Decks, Efx, and 909 series of recordings. The first (in 1999) was a recorded DJ set by Hawtin where he used a pair of turntables (and a mixer, of course), supplemented by "effects" devices (e.g., reverb, delay, harmonize, etc.), and a Roland TR-909. In the next album-length recording, DE9: Closer to the Edit (2001), Hawtin uses then-cutting-edge vinyl-digital playback technology Final Scratch to take numerous tracks and break them into discrete loops (i.e., to sample repeatable sections of these tracks) and then remix the loops into the composite "tracks" that make up this recorded set. The third of these mixes, DE9: Transitions (2006), uses Ableton Live software to break tracks down into minute elements (e.g., a bassline from here, a handclap from there, a brief vocal stutter from that…) and build even more intricate composites that are often unrecognizable in relation to their sources.
Is that a mix? A very long remix? A very intricate and finely-honed mashup? It's hard to say. These recordings are usually described among its fans/consumers as something between a "vinyl set" (i.e., overlapping mixes of previously recorded music) and a "live set" (i.e., an improvised performance that combines musical elements with the aid of sequencers, laptops, drum machines, etc), but it remains an unusual case.
(Sorry for all the Wikipedia links in the last paragraph, but their explanations are often more comprehensible to a general reading public than the promotional websites of their respective labels/manufacturers.)
*There's also the technique of phase-shifting one channel from a stereo recording and compositing it with the other channel to cancel out anything that was placed in the "middle" of the mix (i.e., usually the vocal part).
posted by LMGM at 8:15 PM on May 31, 2011 [4 favorites]
Coming from the other end, though, you could look at examples such as Richie Hawtin's Decks, Efx, and 909 series of recordings. The first (in 1999) was a recorded DJ set by Hawtin where he used a pair of turntables (and a mixer, of course), supplemented by "effects" devices (e.g., reverb, delay, harmonize, etc.), and a Roland TR-909. In the next album-length recording, DE9: Closer to the Edit (2001), Hawtin uses then-cutting-edge vinyl-digital playback technology Final Scratch to take numerous tracks and break them into discrete loops (i.e., to sample repeatable sections of these tracks) and then remix the loops into the composite "tracks" that make up this recorded set. The third of these mixes, DE9: Transitions (2006), uses Ableton Live software to break tracks down into minute elements (e.g., a bassline from here, a handclap from there, a brief vocal stutter from that…) and build even more intricate composites that are often unrecognizable in relation to their sources.
Is that a mix? A very long remix? A very intricate and finely-honed mashup? It's hard to say. These recordings are usually described among its fans/consumers as something between a "vinyl set" (i.e., overlapping mixes of previously recorded music) and a "live set" (i.e., an improvised performance that combines musical elements with the aid of sequencers, laptops, drum machines, etc), but it remains an unusual case.
(Sorry for all the Wikipedia links in the last paragraph, but their explanations are often more comprehensible to a general reading public than the promotional websites of their respective labels/manufacturers.)
*There's also the technique of phase-shifting one channel from a stereo recording and compositing it with the other channel to cancel out anything that was placed in the "middle" of the mix (i.e., usually the vocal part).
posted by LMGM at 8:15 PM on May 31, 2011 [4 favorites]
This is great. thanks for sharing
posted by voferreira at 2:12 AM on June 1, 2011
posted by voferreira at 2:12 AM on June 1, 2011
not really a mashup, but still a great mix and a fantastic visualizing technique I would love to see more of.
posted by Mchelly at 6:51 AM on June 1, 2011
posted by Mchelly at 6:51 AM on June 1, 2011
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