First Steps

After listening and searching for mash ups I got interested and was wondering how people made these and if it was possible to do this myself.

I do not have any DJ-experience but in the eighties made my own projects, sometimes mixing in with looping tapes as well (those were the days). I was a proud possessor of a sampler, a Yamaha MSX computer (32K memory!) with a build in DX9 FM synthesizer and step sequencer, a basic Roland drum computer and later an Atari ST 1040.

Somewhere in the 90's I started living and working in Latin America for seven years, always on the move and simply had no opportunity anymore to make my own music.

The whole mash-up craze relighted my fire to do anything with music.
So, here are my first five after toying around with some software for about six weeks.


In order of creation:

1. 1 Sledgehammer
Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer vs Amerie - 1 Thing

When still experimenting with my new tools I was already thinking to do something with Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer. I stumbled on the combination with Amerie's 1 thing and noticed that this could be a successful combination.



2.Slave To Love U Baby
Donna Summer - Love to Love You Baby vs Britney Spears -Slave 4 U


Immediately I wanted to follow up and thought Donna Summer's I Feel Love would be an easy one to mash but out of curiosity I decided to listen again to Love To Love You Baby instead . When I heard it I knew that that would be a lot more interesting to do and here is the result.




3.Love Or Hate Perfect Fashion
David Bowie - Fashion vs Princess Superstar - Perfect vs Lady Sovereign - Love Me Or Hate Me

Then I was messing with Fashion by David Bowie but did not know with what to combine, I chose an easy way out and combined this with two rap acapella's ( I could not chose so decided to use both) by Lady Sovereign and Princess Superstar. I had my doubts because it was a bit of an 'easy' mash-up, but I got carried away and decided to finish it.




4. Country Hocus Pocus
Nelly - Country Grammar vs Focus - Hocus Pocus

I was searching for a good guitar riff to use for my next mash up, even searching on the web if there are lists of the best guitar riffs ever to get inspiration (there are), but then thought about the dutch group Focus that had a song with a good riff, which as far as I knew had not been used yet.

Having the riff, I needed something to combine this with, I searched my small collection of acapella's and came up with Nelly's Country Grammar but sped up quite a lot.
I did not even know the original song otherwise I probably would not even haven thought about doing this. The result is that fast paced rapping Nelly.

It's a pity that the acapella I have is a bit distorted in the verses which only gets worse by speeding it up. I first tried to cover this up by heavy filtering and delay but that sounded cluttered. So I stuck to this one, it has some flaws but the result I still like so much that I decided to post this. Hopefuly one day I wil find a better acapella.




Additional (direct) link: fileden


5.Independent Peter
Destiny's Child - Independent Women vs Duane Eddy - Peter Gunn vs Talking Heads - Seen and not Seen vs Perfecto All Stars - Papa's Got A Brand New Pig Bag

It sounds so simple but this one took me quite some time to complete. To keep the song interesting I tried many variations on the basic concept (which was DC and Duane Eddy) and finally after getting the idea to use a kind of drum roll when the sax blows its tune the pieces fell into place. I still have the feeling that it can be better and would like to hear your opinions.