Recycle Songs?

[AaronM]

This may sound a bit strange, but have any of you ever thought of reusing one track to create another? An idea like this wouldn’t usually enter my mind except for an experience I had earlier. I was in the middle of a mastering session and for whatever reason, I started listening to one of my cinematic instrumental masters slowed way down. It sounded like a completely different track! It had a very Ambient, New Age kind of sound and I was enjoying listening to it in a whole new way.

Anyone have any similar experience?

[Art Munson]

I constantly go through old tracks and re-work them, either by updating or as a starting point for another cue.

[MichaelL]

Hi Aaron….I can’t tell you how many time John Barry wrote the same film score.

Sure, I do it all the time. One cue can easily become ten, when produced and arranged in different styles, genres, keys and/or with different melodies and/or different instrumentation.

Plus: in this age of “give us your music for free, exclusively, for no money up front” …I would ask the question, “how far does exclusive go?” Maybe it’s just the lawyer in me, but I wouldn’t extend it to new works from old works.

[bradymusico]

Plus: in this age of “give us your music for free, exclusively, for no money up front” …I would ask the question, “how far does exclusive go?” Maybe it’s just the lawyer in me, but I wouldn’t extend it to new works from old works.

+1 on that! I have done this frequently on exclusive deals. Particularly when it’s a good cue that gets traction somewhere. I do spend time making it different in some unique ways ( I think that’s important if you go that route). I wouldn’t personally do this for anything you are paid for upfront by a high end lib (but even then depends on how much the cue is altered, I think!) I’ve only done this in the lower end blanket libs…

[AaronM]

@Art: Sounds like a good business practice to me. I did something like that with a song that was doing well on an RF site with some success. Perhaps, I should do this more often.

@Michael: I’m glad to hear your perspective on this and I like the way you think. You’re right! And who better to decide about whether or not one piece of work was different enough from another but the creator of that work. If you’re happy with a piece you’ve created, why not capitalize on it and improve it into something even more great!

@bradymusico: Good point! Kind of like having your own semi-perfect stencil to work from at the beginning.

[MichaelL]

@Aaron: There is so much technology out there that you can use for this purpose. I’ve literally recycled old audio with Propellerhead’s Recycle, converted to REX files and made new cues with Stylus RMX.
You can clean up old audio with RX. Change pitch of old audio with Melodyne and Zynaptiq. Slice and dice with SLayer and Stutter Edit. Reinvent with Iris.

The tools are out there, if you’re creative.

Have fun!

[AaronM]

@Michael: Well said, as always! It’s just like everything I guess. If you’re creative, the possibilities are endless. Speaking of Propellerhead in particular, I’ve been using Reason for years and I’ve never even tried Recycle. Now I’m really starting to get some ideas!

[gdomeier]

Yes, I do that also.

[Desire_Inspires]

This may sound a bit strange, but have any of you ever thought of reusing one track to create another?

Yes.

[Denbo17]

Okay so yes I do reuse some tracks for new tracks but it is more like reworking the main melody or reversing the melody. But I’m more of an audio guy and less a digital midi guy. So I can’t really just speed up or slow things down and get a different result.

[Author]

Posts