Category: On music

Mashup stands apart from other musical genres because it combines two or more songs from different...

Mashup music has gained a high level of popularity in the last decade. You can hear many mashup...

Do you dream of being a famous DJ that entertains stadiums full of people with his sick beats? Well, dream no more because you can become an international music artist through a lot of hard work and determination. The good news is that the first step in that direction is right up your alley: mashup music. You can start creating individual playlists by mixing music at home, on your computer. It does not matter if your first group of fans will include only your mom, your cat and some of the local neighbors. You have to start somewhere, and the mashup is your best option.
What you will need
Some people believe that to become a successful music artist you need to have a great voice, to master an instrument, or even both of them. Fortunately, today’s music industry allows anyone with a basic musical knowledge to earn fame and money without ever practicing any chords, regardless if they are vocal or instrumental. To become a mashup DJ, you need to have these minimum requirements:

A personal computer
One free mixing software
A reliable sound system
General knowledge of music genres

The internet provides you with alternatives for all these prerequisites. You can find a cheap, second-hand computer to buy. There are thousands of music mixing programs available for free to download, and you can read and study about any music genre you desire.
How to extract vocal samples
Once you have acquired the elements listed above, you can start working on your first mashup hit. Pick a song of your choice and use a free mixing program to extract the vocal sample. This process eliminates all the instruments from a track, leaving you with only the voice of the singer to work with.
Find the right instrumental background
Next, pick a different song that represents a different musical genre and eliminates the vocal track. The result will be the negative sample, which you can alter depending on your taste. Now, add the previously extracted vocal sample over it and tune it to be in key with the instrumental part. Most programs do this automatically, but you will be able to complete the process manually after working on a few mashup songs of your own.
Does it sound right? Change it!
The key to creating a great mashup hit is to mix it regularly. You can do so by adding other vocal tracks or by including sound effects from other songs and jingles. Never stop experimenting! Even when the mashup sounds perfect, you can still improve it by tuning several of its features. Work on the frequency, the fading effects, repetition, and the tones. In the end, you can have several variations of your initial mashup idea, and the one that will be more appealing to others might be the one that you dislike the most.
Share your mashup songs
The internet gives you the opportunity to find out if your musical creation is worthwhile by sharing it with strangers from all over the world. Create your Youtube channel and release your mashup hits into the ether. Let people know about your DJ skills and they will let you know where you can improve.