The Art of the Mashup
Lesson 1: Deconstructing a Mashup
Introduction: The art of the mashup
A mashup combines different tracks to form a new musical work. In these examples, song files have been combined, manipulated and edited within music software to create a mashup production.
Each of the clips below introduce the key elements that are needed to make mashups work: time-stretching, pitch-shifting and looping.
Time-stretch
The White Stripes vs. Nirvana mashup combines two classic rock tracks.
Listen to the mashup then have a brief listen to the original tracks
Q.
Which has been sped up or slowed down to fit the other?
Which elements are being used from either track and which are missing?
What else do you notice?
Looping
In the introduction of the BeeGees vs. Pink Floyd Mashup you can hear that both songs are looped.
Q. What length are some of the loops that are being used in this mashup?
The chorus section is interesting, if not a little jarring, because of the way “Stayin’ Alive” is offset against “Another Brick In The Wall, Pt. II”.
Q. Why do you think the tracks have been offset against each other in the chorus?
Pitch-shift
This Linkin Park/Billie Eilish, Khalid & Slipknot mashup connects three songs in a really seamless way.
It feels like a call and response between the vocal parts.
In the introduction section, “Lovely” and “New Divide” are used together.
Q. Which track has been pitch-shifted to fit the other?
Original Songs used:
Billie Eilish & Khalid – Lovely (uses intro & vocals)
Linkin Park – New Divide (uses instrumental, vocals, drums)
Slipknot – Snuff (uses instrumental)
Practical Task: Warping for mashups
Warping is a functionality in Live that lets you change the pitch and speed of an audio file independently of one another, in real-time. To effectively create a mashup, all the files need to be Warped so that they are in sync with Live’s global tempo.
Task steps:
Set up preferences and import songs into Session View
Set the start point, loop length and timing within clips
Combine different clips from different songs to create a mashup
Warping for Mashups - Live Set
The downloadable Live Set can be used by students in class to practice warping. It is an empty Live Set, but includes four full length songs in .aif format that can be used during Lesson 1’s practical task.
Download: Warping for Mashups - Live Set*
Opens in Session View as empty Live Set
Audio Files in Current Project / Samples folder
Overview of what is included within the Live Set
* The audio recordings downloadable in this project have been licensed by Ableton to be used by teachers and students in this classroom project. It is not part of the licence agreement to make works created with these recordings available to the public – to do so would require additional permission from the license holder.
Warping for Mashups Step-by-Step Guide
The step-by-step guide explains the process of setting up preferences and importing the supplied audio files into Ableton Live.