hey there guys....ive been wondering...how often do you do this sort of thing...if at all....im quite keen to learn how to do this....ive been fiddling about with logic and beat mapping and trying to get drum machines to replace the drums and the other things but im finding it hard to do....constant problems with the track drifting out with the musical elements i had planed to keep in....

the truth is i havnt the first clue how to do this..
i can make dance music(if its good or not is another kettle of fish)
i can record rock bands

but i cant get the 2 to go together...

hows best to go about it...maybe ive been doing it the wrong way..ie start with the rock band mix in front of me in logic and start trying to add samples ,synths etc...should i be treating it as a new song and just steal the bits from the arrrangement as i need them

even as i write this down i can see how daft a question this is...i have answered my own question there really...

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www.myspace.com/onemanandalaptop

I don't know nothing about this and I'm not sure if I know what a rock song remixes into a dance song is but if I had to approach this, I would rather try to incorporate the rock elements (mostly guitars I guess) into the dance production, not the opposite (incorporating dance element into the rock song to finally struggling to replace most of the rythm section tracks). Or I would look at this as only one production and plan all the "rock" recording in relation to the project which will need to be registered to a click track.

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http://soundcloud.com/orgasmo-sonore Revisiting Obscure Film Music

You would be better off using Ableton. And also cutting the track up into at least verses and choruses so only portions of the song are stretched at a time.

Sometimes Ableton is so good, you can drop a kick onto any track and it will be bang on as soon as you press warp.

Unless the track has wide tempo variations.

Anyhow that is the mash-up software of choice. Try the demo.

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The usual thing (assuming you have access to the separated parts, remix stems, whatever) is to extract the essence of the tune - signature guitar riffs, the hooks, the chorus vocals - and build a club track around that -- the structure will likely be completely different to the original.

I recently did this with one of my tracks as an exercise (well, no vocals) and it was quite a learning experience. Both are still heavily works in progress, but let me see if I can link the most recent rough mixes...

Soundcloud link to Spacey Prog-ish Rock version

Soundcloud link to rough cut of Club Mix

So what carried over was the guitar bits, a couple snippets from the FM bell lines, some heavily processed snippets of the original bassline, and the pad. All-new percussion and bassline, and I'm still debating adding other elements like gated choir pads, atmospheric sounds, etc...

(And yes, the current club mix is the "not enough bass track and too much lead guitar" mix.)