For this activity I decided to remix a song called Gas Pedal. The beat that you hear in the background is one that produced myself on my Macbook. In order to get the vocals only, I had to take the original song into a music software called Audacity, and strip the instrumental portion. Finally, I uploaded both files into Virtual DJ and mixed them.
Making the beat was very enjoyable and free because I get to start with a blank slate and create any style beat I want to. It is fun to be able to mess around with different sounds, take a risk, and having it blend seamlessly into the piece.
I think Copyright seems to be working okay. While it is impossible to monitor stolen property on a micro level, these laws are set in place so that someone cannot make copies of your work and distribute it. It could be modified so that it can catch smaller infractions which can slip through the cracks.
For this work, I have chosen an All Rights Reserved Copyright because this beat is something that is totally mine. I made it without the help of anyone, but I would be willing to sell the beats. The lyrical melody has been modified and sped up to avoid any copyright infractions.
I think my piece came out really well. I explained a little bit about how I did it above. This beat took me about 5 hours to produce and arrange so that was the strenuous part. My greatest challenge was mixing the beat and lyrics because I had to arrange the song even more so that the melodies I wanted landed with the beats. It was so much fun, and now I have a great song to jam out to when I cruise PCH!
Dimitri Petrakis 