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Hey, did a few searches on this; couldn't find anything. How does one go about remixing a song? How do you separate the instruments out from each other so that you can work with them individually?

Typically for remixes (be it from an official competition or the producer knows you and wants you to remix a song of theirs) you'll be given the stems of the song. Stems are essentially what you're curious about, the separation of instruments for the entire track, each instrument would be in a separate stem (stems are usually just audio files btw).

Now, say you're not in a competition and you don't know the original song writer/producer, how do you remix the song? Well now it gets tricky, you don't have access to each instrument separately so you'll be working with the final product and technically you're producing a "bootleg" now. I haven't done any bootlegs myself but I would look for pieces of the song I can isolate starting with the beat. Then identifying the key movements that everyone would recognize (chorus, vocal hook, etc) and then work with those.

Most importantly don't be afraid to be "wrong", there's no such thing. Just trust your gut and produce what you feel sounds good.

either get the stems or work with what there is i.e. original track, instrumental, or acaplla

I recently worked 2 remixes for someone and was given audio files,first remix i was given just the acapella and synth riff,the second i was just given the acapella.With the second track i stole a few bits from the original to build the intro.They were the first remixes i have ever undertaken and must admit i really enjoyed doing them but feel i could of put a lot more in if i had all the stems.There is a website that is for remix comps http://www.remixcomps.com/.9 times out of 10 you get all the stems with most of the tracks and should be a great site for getting remix material to practice with.

How to Remix?

Its kind of like doing the dougy, except not at all.

ive never attempted to remix an electronic track, but as far as remixing hip hop tracks goes i just grab the (highest quality possible, of course) acapella & instrumental, load em up into audio tracks, warp em in ableton & chop up bits and pieces i like into a new midi track to play around with. then its just about making sure your drums & bass are all in the same key as the original track, and you can get creative from there. make sure you EQ the acapella & instrumental properly to avoid muddying things up.

if it's a populair track there's a good chance you'll find the midi files somewhere .