Anyone use it regularly?
Your opinions on ccmixter
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- KVRist
- 38 posts since 20 Jul, 2005 from Allen, Texas
I regularly post and participate at ccmixter. I've found it to be a very good site. The samples collection is extensive, and the site is very easy to use.
The name of the game at ccmixter is Creative Commons. One licenses each creation so that it may be used by others for this purpose or that.
One can apply a mere attribution license, giving the user the right to use and remix with only attribution, or one can use an attribution non-commercial license if one worries about having one's work commercially exploited.
One nice side benefit of ccmixter for me has been the exposure of my music in uses I might not have achieved otherwise. I make ambient, chill and near-ambient music, although when I remix I sometimes will work in other forms such as minimal techno or traditional soundtracks to spoken word. My remixed songs posted on the mixter have been used in everything from a German documentary about the dangers of over-restrictive copyright laws to a podcast about the virtue of workplace democracy to an Italian youtube which rails against turbo-charged gasoline. As I hoped when I made it, my work tends to be the drone in the intro or the little bit of noise in the background. It's gratifying that I can share music with people in this way for their own creative film-making and podcast-making uses. Other mixter artists have achieved more exposure than I've achieved, but it's not one of those "we're all gonna compete to be rockstars" kinda places. It's more a set of people sharing approaches to songs and mixes. The critique level at the site is neither quite fawning nor quite savage, but tends to be low-key and yet sometimes right to the heart of the thing. More people on the board are into electronica and hip hop material, but I've been really pleased that the board is open to other styles, including my own quirky near-ambience.
I release material on netlabels, including on the netlabel I co-own, Negative Sound Institute. It's fun to take my own body of ambient works, and add beats and sound fx to create entirely new and different works.
My original works also get exposure this way, which is nice. I don't think of mixter as one big myspace-y "gee, hear my song, pay itunes for me" site, though, as the name of the game is the sharing of remixes. Indeed, folks who just upload their completed tracks rarely find them remixed, while the folks with a solid a capella, useful little quirky sound, or even well-done spoken word track can often strike remix gold.
The site is the grand central station for the notion that we can all participate in a sharing of music. I first got into the site when my friend Lisa DeBenedictis, a wonderful alterna-pop singer, was featured in one of their remix contests. Lisa's music got remixed hundreds of times, she got lots of exposure, and it was a win-win for everyone. Some of the mixter contests involve larger-selling artists. Sometimes projects unrelated to mixter generate substantial interests, such as the wonderul a capella tracks which Calendar Girl posts each month, with the idea of creating a calendar year's worth of songs (www.calendarsongs.com). Lately, there have been some wonderful a capellas posted for remixing.
For me, though, the wonderful way to mix at mixter is to use the samples from the Freesound Project, Magnatune ("we are not evil") Records or those posted by mixter users, to construct new instrumentals. I've had my own work sampled some 80ish times for other people's songs, which may be a function of the fact that I make little drones and sounds that sometimes fit in an intro, extro, background pad, or break.
I'm not very good with my software for mixing a capella tracks, and must work to either get more software or learn to use better what I have, as right now I have to do a lot of calculation and pitch prediction I suspect others are doing more easily with their software. I prefer to work on instrumentals using my synths and samplers, and on remixes which snip and mash disparate things up into pleasing ambience.
I came to ccmixter with an orientation towards noise/drone mash-ups, and I've stayed because it's a fun site, and because I've learned a great deal. My style has evolved, and now I make things on mixter I could not have made when I began. I credit mixter for moving me from lo-fi novelty ambience into being able to do a lot more things.
Count me a big fan of the mixter.
The name of the game at ccmixter is Creative Commons. One licenses each creation so that it may be used by others for this purpose or that.
One can apply a mere attribution license, giving the user the right to use and remix with only attribution, or one can use an attribution non-commercial license if one worries about having one's work commercially exploited.
One nice side benefit of ccmixter for me has been the exposure of my music in uses I might not have achieved otherwise. I make ambient, chill and near-ambient music, although when I remix I sometimes will work in other forms such as minimal techno or traditional soundtracks to spoken word. My remixed songs posted on the mixter have been used in everything from a German documentary about the dangers of over-restrictive copyright laws to a podcast about the virtue of workplace democracy to an Italian youtube which rails against turbo-charged gasoline. As I hoped when I made it, my work tends to be the drone in the intro or the little bit of noise in the background. It's gratifying that I can share music with people in this way for their own creative film-making and podcast-making uses. Other mixter artists have achieved more exposure than I've achieved, but it's not one of those "we're all gonna compete to be rockstars" kinda places. It's more a set of people sharing approaches to songs and mixes. The critique level at the site is neither quite fawning nor quite savage, but tends to be low-key and yet sometimes right to the heart of the thing. More people on the board are into electronica and hip hop material, but I've been really pleased that the board is open to other styles, including my own quirky near-ambience.
I release material on netlabels, including on the netlabel I co-own, Negative Sound Institute. It's fun to take my own body of ambient works, and add beats and sound fx to create entirely new and different works.
My original works also get exposure this way, which is nice. I don't think of mixter as one big myspace-y "gee, hear my song, pay itunes for me" site, though, as the name of the game is the sharing of remixes. Indeed, folks who just upload their completed tracks rarely find them remixed, while the folks with a solid a capella, useful little quirky sound, or even well-done spoken word track can often strike remix gold.
The site is the grand central station for the notion that we can all participate in a sharing of music. I first got into the site when my friend Lisa DeBenedictis, a wonderful alterna-pop singer, was featured in one of their remix contests. Lisa's music got remixed hundreds of times, she got lots of exposure, and it was a win-win for everyone. Some of the mixter contests involve larger-selling artists. Sometimes projects unrelated to mixter generate substantial interests, such as the wonderul a capella tracks which Calendar Girl posts each month, with the idea of creating a calendar year's worth of songs (www.calendarsongs.com). Lately, there have been some wonderful a capellas posted for remixing.
For me, though, the wonderful way to mix at mixter is to use the samples from the Freesound Project, Magnatune ("we are not evil") Records or those posted by mixter users, to construct new instrumentals. I've had my own work sampled some 80ish times for other people's songs, which may be a function of the fact that I make little drones and sounds that sometimes fit in an intro, extro, background pad, or break.
I'm not very good with my software for mixing a capella tracks, and must work to either get more software or learn to use better what I have, as right now I have to do a lot of calculation and pitch prediction I suspect others are doing more easily with their software. I prefer to work on instrumentals using my synths and samplers, and on remixes which snip and mash disparate things up into pleasing ambience.
I came to ccmixter with an orientation towards noise/drone mash-ups, and I've stayed because it's a fun site, and because I've learned a great deal. My style has evolved, and now I make things on mixter I could not have made when I began. I credit mixter for moving me from lo-fi novelty ambience into being able to do a lot more things.
Count me a big fan of the mixter.
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- KVRer
- 15 posts since 28 Sep, 2006
A month ago I wrote a review of ccMixter. In the meantime I've been thoroughly convinced, that it's the best remixing site on the web.
However, it's rich with (often quite unique) features, which may be easy to overlook for first time users. For that reason I've written a couple of articles of quick tips for new ccMixter users:
ccMixter quick tips 1
ccMixter quick tips 2
Hope that helps
/spinmeister
However, it's rich with (often quite unique) features, which may be easy to overlook for first time users. For that reason I've written a couple of articles of quick tips for new ccMixter users:
ccMixter quick tips 1
ccMixter quick tips 2
Hope that helps
/spinmeister
Last edited by spinmeister on Mon Aug 27, 2007 4:16 am, edited 1 time in total.