My 24 hour YouTube video remix challenge (done in 10 hours)

I’ve been wanting to remix a YouTube video for ages, but it’s something I always put off. Not a video in particular, just any random video that inspires me.

A bit of background on myself. Making my music (Synaecide) involves a lot of heavy editing to samples. There’s just something about zooming all the way into the arranger view of Cubase, cutting up, then manipulating little bits of audio into a track that gets me going. In high school I did a bit of video editing in media class, but since then I haven’t touched the visual side of things. Having said that, it’s an idea I’ve always been excited about.

To get myself motivated, the idea was to pick a video and have a finished remix in 24 hours. The video I picked was Elders React to Dubstep (Skrillex).

I ended up finishing it after about 10 hours of work. Here ’tis!

For those interested, this is the outline of the process:

1. Record the audio from the video
2. Bring the audio file into Cubase and cut out single audio samples (ones that don’t have any background music or sound that taint the sample)
3. Create a drum beat and main ‘hook’ bassline
4. Put the sounds from the video into a (very) loose order of narrative to give it some form of cohesion
5. Limit the sh*t out of the mix
6. Rip the video
7. Pop the audio and video into Premier
8. Spend hours editing the video and making it look like the people being interviewed are doing the sounds with their mouths
9. and Presto!

Carpe Zythum – Kinect controlled pipe organ (full performance)

“Carpe Zythum”, a performance with Elise Richards (Vocals) and Chris Vik (myself controlling the organ with the Kinect) along with a pre-composed piece written by both Elise and I. It was performed in November 2011 at the Melbourne Town Hall. This is the full video of the performance. If you’d like to see a video explaining how it works see last weeks video Controlling a 4-story organ with the Kinect

I’ve created my own software Kinectar, which allows the use of the Kinect to control MIDI devices, ie. playing notes through simple gestures and motion – I hooked this up to the organ.

For more information on my gesture-based music projects, see my blog I love the Future
Video produced by Unkle Nicnac Films

Screaming Mushroom

I was cooking some Cep mushrooms (Boletus edulis) with a friend the other day in a sandwich press and discovered the agonizing screams that are contained within.

Turns out if you’ve got a big mushroom, and put some weight on them while they cook they’ll let out an almighty shriek.

 

New Synaecide track out on Enig’matik Records

A good mate of mine, Sun In Aquarius, has gathered together a team of awesome electronic producers and released the first compilation of his new record label Enig’matik. This beauty features tracks from Sensient, The Mollusk, Vaetxh, S.I.A and of course yours truly, Synaecide plus many more. Make sure you give it a listen and and be sure to check out my track De-Virtualization :

Go to their label page

Exploring the vast and unexplored expanses of Experimental Electronica, Enig’matik Records presents 16 Artists From Australia,The U.K & New Zealand that have been meticulously handpicked by Label Creator and Artist SUN IN AQUARIUS. All these artists bring forward thinking glitch tinged productions to the table. Songs that contain unsurpassed attention to detail , rich emotional depth and blistering sound design techniques, creating dense Sonic Environments begging to be explored. 

facebook.com/enigmatikrecords

Live vocal manipulation

Toying around with live vocal sounds done by a friend, Thom. I fed the voice through a chain of effects (delays, reverb, granular processing) that I played with at the same time. Some nice moments among it.