An idea my band is kicking around

capnreverb · Post by **capnreverb** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 6:50 am

We played the Calatrava art museaum here in Milwaukee a bit back and it was multi track recorded extremly well to pro tools (Room mics, di's, close mic'ing all the amps, drums, reeds). We are planning on putting this out as normal cd realesase with maybe a dvd (it was filmed as well).

The idea that we are playing with is to release the pro tools files also with the release so people could remix, add, subtract, mess with and do whatever they want with. We are a trio with drums, guitar, and me playing bass guitar, loops, electronics, saxes and bass clarinet. The music we do is improvised, largley ambient with turns into hard blowing free jazz and math rock that would lend itself well for this type of experiment.

Has a band done this before? How might we include the files for this? On the regular cd, on a seperate cd, on the dvd? Do you all think this is a dumbass idea? We dont want to charge people if they rework what we do and they want to put it out. Would this be a legal headache?

Any thoughts?

thanks

mikeyc · Post by **mikeyc** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 7:18 am

I'm pretty sure a few bands/artists have done it, but the only one that comes to mind is Duncan Sheik's White Limousine. I think he released all the tracks and a free copy of Live or something so anyone could remix it. You might check it out for the packaging/legal details.

Sounds like a cool project. Best of luck with it.

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 8:43 am

Yeah, there've been threads here about releasing "mix it" tracks. Some are for it, some are not.

Paul McCartney, Radiohead, Trent Reznor, David Byrne & Brian Eno, and Peter Gabriel have all released multitracks for fans to remix.

RefD · Post by **RefD** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 9:14 am

dwlb wrote:Yeah, there've been threads here about releasing "mix it" tracks. Some are for it, some are not.

Paul McCartney, Radiohead, Trent Reznor, David Byrne & Brian Eno, and Peter Gabriel have all released multitracks for fans to remix.

Deerhoof, as well.

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 9:21 am

RefD wrote:
dwlb wrote:Yeah, there've been threads here about releasing "mix it" tracks. Some are for it, some are not.

Paul McCartney, Radiohead, Trent Reznor, David Byrne & Brian Eno, and Peter Gabriel have all released multitracks for fans to remix.
Deerhoof, as well.

See, now you're just making up band names to mess with Electricide.

RefD · Post by **RefD** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 9:31 am

dwlb wrote:
RefD wrote:
dwlb wrote:Yeah, there've been threads here about releasing "mix it" tracks. Some are for it, some are not.

Paul McCartney, Radiohead, Trent Reznor, David Byrne & Brian Eno, and Peter Gabriel have all released multitracks for fans to remix.
Deerhoof, as well.

See, now you're just making up band names to mess with Electricide.

okay, kinda lost me there...

ashcat_lt · Post by **ashcat_lt** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 9:36 am

Even a DVD is gonna fill up fast! CD quality audio is about 10M/min/track. Your files are probably recorded at higher bit rate and likely a higher sample rate as well. 24bit/88k would be somewhere around 30M/min/track. 8 tracks * 5 min * 30 M = over a gig right there. Compression is not an acceptable alternative here for a number of reasons.

I'd think the best way to do it would be to find some server space and bandwidth and make the files available for download. I think Creative Commons can cover the rights. You will have to make sure that the engineer who recorded the performances signs off on this use of their recording. Also, if there's a label or publishing company involved, you'll need to check these deals. Otherwise, you are perfectly free to give away your music any way you want.

If you're going to do it, though, you've got to be prepared for the inevitability that somebody's going to win a Grammy and make millions without sharing a penny with you.

dsw · Post by **dsw** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 10:26 am

Do it. Music was always meant to be shared.
Great idea for sure.

The Scum · Post by **The Scum** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 11:13 am

If you're worried about the legal aspects, be careful and explicit about how you license it. Standard copyright/BMI/ASCAP licensing doesn't extend too politely to "derivative works."

I'd suggest that you look at the Creative Commons licenses - there are several variations where you can state how you want people to use, sell and disrtibute your stuff, and other works (remixes, samples, etc) that are derived from it.

As for the files, I'd opt for a set of .wav files that all start at the same point. Then they're easy to import into whatever DAW people want. Please don't marry them to PT, particularly if you want them to be remix-friendly.

RefD · Post by **RefD** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 11:46 am

The Scum wrote:As for the files, I'd opt for a set of .wav files that all start at the same point. Then they're easy to import into whatever DAW people want. Please don't marry them to PT, particularly if you want them to be remix-friendly.

DEFINITELY.

Gentleman Jim · Post by **Gentleman Jim** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 1:27 pm

First, very cool idea. The world would be a more interesting place if more people did this sort of thing.

Have you thought about only putting out the tracks for as many songs as would fit on a DVD? I think that may be one answer.

FYI, 15 mono tracks, at 39 minutes in length each, recorded at 24/48 ends up being 4.71 GB. That's just too long to fit on one DVD.

Also, have you considered that most of the people who buy the cd won't ever do the remix thing? Perhaps a coupon inside that entitles them to get a free DVD would save you money on manufacturing and packaging.

Even better, go with what ashcat_it said and do it as a download-only thing. Then you can just point people there from the cd package, your website/myspace, or wherever.

As far as the legal stuff goes, if you have all the rights, do whatever you want. With all due respect, I wouldn't sweat a court case arising from remixes of music described as "...improvised, largley ambient with turns into hard blowing free jazz and math rock" from what I assume is a basically obscure trio. I mean no disrespect, but the only way you'll end up in a legal tangle is if you instigate it. If you want to pursue the Creative Commons route, that probably wouldn't hurt, but it's not likely that your chromatic bass clarinet riff in 7/32 time is going to get lifted for the next Celine Dion single.

I say do what you want without fear of fallout, and be as free as your jazz.

joelkriske · Post by **joelkriske** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 5:03 pm

the scum's idea was on point re. creative commons... Also, I agree that doing an FTP, Yousendit type download thing for the individual tracks is a good idea. When we released a remix record, we made whatever we could into loops, just to reduce file sizes.

drumsound · Post by **drumsound** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 9:16 am

I think the download idea is a good one because it will help make it a more affordable project. I'm not sure how popular your band is, but unless you are huge the number of folks who might take advantage of this could be low. You don't want wrap up a bunch of money in additional duplication that could be better spent on promotion of the record.

joelpatterson · Post by **joelpatterson** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 9:25 pm

Yeah... realistically, it's going to be a tiny fragmentary fraction of the public that will have anything like the time or the inclination to put into remixing your album.

NeglectedFred · Post by **NeglectedFred** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 9:36 pm

Not sure if it's always available, but last time I was on the Nine Inch Nails site you could download sessions for garage band.

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An idea my band is kicking around

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