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- Kanye West - Love Lockdown
- Radiohead - Reckoner
Both Kanye West and Radiohead are participating in a long overdue trend that seems to now be emerging where musical artists are beginning to release “stems” from their tracks. Until recently, a mashup or remix artist would feel lucky just to find an instrumental version or acapella (vocals only) of a favorite track. But these musical stems allow us much more control.
Most modern recordings have many tracks, usually more than ten, and sometimes more than a hundred. Each track typically represents a single recording or electronic sound. Traditionally, before all these tracks are mixed down into a final stereo mix, it is first mixed down into about four to eight separate audio files (stems). All the foreground vocals might be on one stem, all the drums on another, while the guitars and keyboards might be on yet another. When all the stems are added together, you hear the song as it was originally meant to be heard. The traditional purpose of these stems was to enable the mastering engineer to give the final mixdown just the right sound for various formats (radio or club, CD or vinyl).
Now, with DIY remix culture exploding, we sonic manipulators are growing hungry for disassembled pop music, and the music industry is beginning to see the benefit of increased exposure through releasing stems directly to the public, allowing us much greater freedom than if they had simply released the instrumentals and acapellas. Now we can choose which instruments are playing.
This new trend augers well for us in the mashup community, and I look forward to the practice expanding. Thank you Kanye, thank you Radiohead, and thanks to all the other musicians (and music execs) that are starting to see the light!
November 26th, 2008 at 12:35 am
Wow. I can’t even get the right words together, It’s just so good.
November 24th, 2008 at 12:02 am
Awesome Track, makes me feel excited!!!
November 23rd, 2008 at 9:18 pm
SICK
November 20th, 2008 at 5:56 am
Wow…this is amazing. I loved Kanye’s “Love Lockdown” single from the get-go, a great pop song, but Radiohead’s otherworldly, beautiful backing music provides a perfect contrast. This is much better than the original “Love Lockdown” - this is a work of true beauty. I’d like to know how the sampled artists feel about it…I know Kanye has commented on Yorke’s genius in the past (and even sampled Yorke’s solo song “The Eraser”). Anything to bring attention to Radiohead’s excellent ‘In Rainbows’ can only be a good thing.
November 20th, 2008 at 12:16 am
Your Music is on fire, Thanks for all the clips you put on your site. Keep the trend going!!
November 19th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Hott shitt. Your blog’s layout is the shiznit too homie. 5 stars alllll day.
November 9th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
very nice work, new favorite song. great remix.,thanks
November 3rd, 2008 at 4:27 pm
[…] 02.) Kanye West vs. Radiohead - Reckoner / Lockdown […]
November 1st, 2008 at 3:39 am
SO WELL DONE AND SO AWESOME TO LISTEN TOO.
November 1st, 2008 at 12:01 am
This is unreal. I love “Reckoner” and don’t know the Kanye song. At this point, I don’t think I WANT to know the Kanye song; this mashup is all I need. I haven’t been able to get this out of my head for days — absolutely stunning.