A few weeks ago, Spinning Records put together another great remix contest featuring the artist KSHMR. The song chosen for this particular contest was Jammu, named after a district/state of India in turmoil. There is a great traditional/acoustic feel to this song and I was eager for the opportunity to dissect each part of the mix. They provided MIDI stems as well as a few vocals to get you started. The video below provides the overview and walk through of how the song was made in Ableton Live.
Remix contests are always interesting to me for a few reasons. First, it’s a great opportunity to jump into a new project. If you’re running out of steam on your own work, it’s helpful to switch gears. Second, it’s another chance to hone your own sound. The foundations are already laid for you to work with, so put your spin on things. If you’re feeling a creative block or just can’t get started on something new — take a crack at a remix. Dig into your “ideas that aren’t quite complete” folder, and try to find something that fits. Finally, it’s always great to see workflow and setup from other producers. This can be helpful when it comes to managing your own song setups.
Below is a link to a how-to video that Spinning Records put out for this contest. I’m impressed that a label put out this video in the first place. It breaks down all the pieces of the song individually in a VERY clear way. This isn’t a recreation by a random producer, it’s a straight line-of-sight into the song.
As for the stems, I’m just excited that KSHMR has put the actual midi clips online for his song. Fairly often stem packs just include the audio outputs (which are more difficult to work with). To be honest, It’s a bit of a blessing to have the full midi. My general struggle with remixing is having to reconstruct the song first, before I truly start my project. When this happens I always find myself focusing on the tiniest details instead of the big picture. Typically this will get me so bogged down that i scrap a remix after just a few hours purely out of frustration. On one hand, it’s a great learning experience to recreate all pieces of a song by ear. As Deadmau5 likes to say, “You gotta DO that shit, cause that’s how you learn.” However, it can be a frustrating and your time might be better spent on other projects… up to you.
As another quick overview, I’ve listed some of the VSTs that KSHMR uses throughout his song. You’ll notice he has a number of common tools in his kit including:
- Kontakt ( for few instruments(piano, guitar, organ, flute))
- Serum
- Spire
- Nexus
There were also a number of and audio effects and tools in place, but otherwise nothing too out-of-the-ordinary here. Regardless, none of the stem files require you to have these plugins; they just make it easier to recreate the song. Connect with KSHMR below:
Twitter – @Kshmrmusic
Soundcloud – KSHMR