Remixing a 3/4 tune to 4/4, is it possible?

malenko · Post by **malenko** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 8:28 pm

Hi
My girlfriend is a dance teacher and is putting on a show with her students in a few months and has asked me to remix a song for her so that its more uptempo to dance to but the problem is this-
Its a song that is in 3/4 timing and to get it to be mixed into a dance kind of song it needs to be in 4/4 timing (standard dance timing yes?)
Because of Live's AMAZING elastic audio anything is possible but I just cant figure a way of remixing it to 4/4 time.
Has anyone got any suggestions as to how I could make this possible cause it certainly is a tricky one.
The song to be mixed is Madonna's - Dont cry for me argentina, tough one I know but luckily its really only vocal to be mixed into some kind of 4/4 dance loop.
Ive tried warping it to a 4/4 time but it just dont seem to be working, also I thought of playing the vocal hook and then changing into a 4/4 dance tune but this is very awkward and isnt really going to give the layered vocal i want to achieve.
So any suggestions would be very helpfull indeed.
Please note I am not intending to break copyright laws

its going to be a one of show and I only want to do it to help the missus out since the song is very slow and has a difficult rythim to dance to

Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars![/quote]

djgroovy · Post by **djgroovy** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 8:56 pm

I suggest cutting up words or phrases, load them in your sampler and fine tune them to your 4/4 beat.
Use pitch shifting &/or time stretching to fit the faster time.
Try to rebuild the vocal track as close as possible, or go for a more dubbed out vibe, using just key words at key places.
Use liberal amounts of delay.

Receive praise from girlfriend.

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 9:41 pm

djgroovy wrote:I suggest cutting up words or phrases, load them in your sampler and fine tune them to your 4/4 beat.

yes^

It will come down to playing with the rhythm of the melody. Reminds me of a song called Bluesette which is originally a waltz but sounds really nice in an uptempo latin-jazz style. They just take the triplet melody of the original and rework it in various ways over the new rhythm

chapelier fou · Post by **chapelier fou** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 9:40 am

FUCK 4/4

rbmonosylabik · Post by **rbmonosylabik** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 12:12 pm

how about

Code: Select all

Don't cry for   me       argent-
1         2         3         4
-iiiiiiiiiina
 1   2   3   4

and so on?

malenko · Post by **malenko** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 5:09 pm

Hey just logged on to see the great ideas so will be definetly trying them and nice one rbmonosylabik for actually giving me a basis timing to work on! thank you very much and to all but Fuck 4/4????? I am trying to put it into a dance track so tell me if you have ever heard a dance track in 3/4 waltz cause i dont think I ever have!

laird · Post by **laird** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 5:23 pm

waltz = dance.

If you are more comfortable in 4/4, then try it.

But seriously, there's no reason why a good club track can't be something other than 4/4. If you've never done anything but 4/4, then this is a good chance to try. I think writing a good beat in 3/4 will be easier than warping the rest of a song to 4/4.

Just keep a good kick on every quarter note and no one will know the difference.

dootdoot · Post by **dootdoot** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 6:21 pm

The good news would seem to be that you picked a song that isn't really written in a hard 3/4 signature. I can't remember ever hearing that version, but as I run through the song in my head it doesn't seem like it is even in 3/4.... I do know that the Me First and the Gimme Gimme's version is in 4/4! maybe that would help?

I also wouldn't think of this kind of thing as a "remix"... you are looking at recomposition if the source really is in 3/4. There is even a dance mix out there already, saving you countless hours of time.

But don't take my word for it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_Cry_ ... _Argentina

I will now hang myself out of self loathing for replying to this thread.....

malenko · Post by **malenko** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 6:52 pm

i never realised that it had been covered by so many and I shall try to track the Gimme gimme version down if it is in 4/4.
Trust me the madonna one is 3/4, I spent a good few hours warping it and couldnt work out why I couldnt get a decent hook to the beat and then the penny finally dopped

that it was in 3/4, cause yeah it really does sound like 4/4
But i will have a go in 3/4, its only for a one of show after all but it just dont feel natural to me for that clubby kind of dance. Can you imagine trying to waltz in a night club after many a beer, very tricky

peter181 · Post by **peter181** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 7:03 am

I don't know the song in question but maybe you could set it up as a 3 against 4 polyrhythm (ie a measure is 12 8th note triplets and the original downbeats go on every 4th triplet) and come up with some other triplet rhythms to work it out. I guess that could end up more confusing but hey, there are already some really weird dance records out there so don't worry too much... there are plenty of club tracks with a triplet shuffle beat too, you might end up with that.

dootdoot · Post by **dootdoot** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 12:32 pm

malenko, I'd try to track down the mixes referenced in the wiki here:

"Madonna starred in the 1996 film Evita and recorded the song for its soundtrack. She also released a dance mix in both English and Spanish in early 1997, as the second single from the album. This dance remix, the Miami Mix Edit, can be found on the CD single."

And I'm not poking fun, but I am saying that if it took you "a good few hours" to determine the time signature then you might want to get some help, in person, from someone like a drummer with some training. There are a lot of ways to subdivide a measure, and you can give a song in 4/4 a "3-feel" with the rhythmic phrasing you use.