Tuesday, February 28, 2023

Malfunction EP - All Stems



https://lowentropy.bandcamp.com/album/malfunction-ep-all-stems

I created these stems on the occasion of last year's Malfunction EP remix competition; which was completed successfully, and the remix EP has been released on Nethercords since then.
I now had the idea to make the original stems available, too.
I.e. a release with just stems - no complete tracks!

I do this for the following reasons:

1. It's like a reverse-remix competition - or an open-aim competition. Feel free to download the stems, play around with them, manipulate them, add new sequences, things, whatever. There is no deadline, there are no style limits, there is no pre-made plan for a release; nothing. But if you make something good with it, at whatever point, in whatever way, feel free to send it my direction, and maybe a release or something else will still come out of it. But - there is no pressure, no fixed concept that is enforced, no path that has been already set.

2. Build your own track! Maybe you think the drums could be more distorted, the synths were too loud, some bass-lines or other elements needed to be added, maybe even vocals? More Bass, EQ, FX? Download the stems, manipulate them and create your own mix-down of the tracks!

3. Even back when I was using Impulse Tracker in the 90s, I've often been asked to make the .Mod files (essentially the project files) available - but I never did. So, this is finally something in that vein; not the whole of the files, but at least the stems.

3. "I donate this body of art to science!". Well, no, I don't. But maybe they have some educational value, and (newcomer) producers can look at these sounds and see how a Hardcore is (or can be) made up? "Listen and try to learn something".

4. Older Techno and Dance tracks often had various mixes on one EP (well, I assume they still often do). Including mix-downs without vocals, or synths / melodies (just bass-drum and percussion), or, on the opposite, without beats. This is taking this approach to the extreme: a multitude of "tracks" that are just pure stems without any other elements added.

5. And, well to be honest, it's not that novel. Early Techno, Dance, Rap releases, as well as those from other genres, occasionally had extra tracks that were really just the "single track" of a multi-track mix-down (even in the days of analog band-machine mixing). Just the vocals, for example, or just the beats. So this is a continuation of this tradition, in a sense. (And again, it's still done today, too).

So, that's it. Feel free to play around with these stems, and, as I said, if something interesting happens, you can contact me.

Further links:

Malfunction Remix EP: nethercordslowentropy.bandcamp.com/album/malfunction-ep-the-remixes
Original Malfunction EP: praxisrecords.bandcamp.com/album/malfunction-praxis-digital-00101
About the Malfunction EP and the original remix competition: lowentropyproducer.blogspot.com/2022/10/malfunction-remix-competition.html

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