Schneider TM Remix Contest

Winners:

 
Dirk chose two winners, so we've got a tie!

Prizes

Vegas 4.0.
Three Loops for ACID loop libraries.
Goodies from Mute.

About the Contest

For those clamoring for an electronica remix, ACIDplanet delivers. In spades.

Acclaimed artist Schneider TM, on probably the hippest source of new electronica, Mute…where else are you going to find stuff this great?

You know how it’s done…download the loops. Download ACID Xpress if you don’t have ACID already (where you been, baby?). Remix.

In some ways, Dirk Dresselhaus is like an AP citizen. Records at home, plays with new technology. He’s a kindred spirit. Remix “Reality Check” and show him what you can do.

About the Artist

Mute recording artist Dirk Dresselhaus, aka Schneider TM, delivers electronica with soul. His second full-length album, Zoomer, harnesses a sublimely modern depth of musical vision to the hard won wisdom of life experience. A proper album, developed over the course of three years, Zoomer is the sound of electronica, at last, with something to say.

Schneider TM develops electronica using his singer-songwriter sensibilities. Lyrics, hooks, melodies…all there, but developed with his unique technological purview. He calls it "chemical listening,” being able to hear layers of ear-teasing, soul tickling sounds, threaded personal beliefs and hopes. The more you listen, the more you discover. It's hard to think of another artist in the field of electronica who has yet to come up with the goods as he does with blinding success.

Dirk is no newcomer to the electronic scene. A veteran drummer, guitarist and singer in successful German bands since his teenage years in the late 1980’s, Dirk abandoned traditional song forms on his Schneider TM debut, the 1998 instrumental album, Moist. He followed Moist with the EP Binokular. That disk’s cover of The Smiths’ “There is a Light That Never Goes Out” entitled “The Light 3000” gave him back his voice.

"With 'The Light' I wasn't so confident about the way vocals could sound with this kind of music. They're very hidden, some processed, some real—I tried out everything to put it together!" he smiles. "But on Zoomer, it came from the heart. I didn't feel to sing for a long time but it's a good feeling, it's good for my soul, it's some kind of expression you can't do with machines or even guitar. And with this record, even playing a drum machine or doing effects, I tried to follow my heart."

When recording Zoomer, Dirk discarded an entire studio set up for the bare essentials of a laptop and a few instruments in his living room, where over time, friends, neighbors and daily life became part of the music. "It's the best situation to record at home," he muses. "I wake up, have a coffee and am really inspired by dreams..."

A Note to Remixers

Dirk wrote Reality Check in 7/4 time. That means that the loops are seven beats long. You're probably more used to loops that are 4, 8 or 16 beats long, so you'll need to make some adjustments.

If you make you'e own loops, then you're all set. Just make them seven beats long.

If you're using premade loops, you won't need to do any destructive editing on them. ACID gives you the ability to draw specific portions of a loop, and lets you cut/split events. For example, one way to get a repeating 7/4 loop from a 4/4 loop is to draw an event with a length of exactly 7 beats. Then copy and paste it over and over again along the time line. More complicated grooves can be made by splitting up the 7 beats into groups 4 and 3, and by using multiple loops together to create the 7 beats.