Hey all you trance lovers! I'm currently studying for a midterm i have tomorrow morning, on adderall, and listening to some great trance =) love it!
but anyways, i had a question i kept forgetting to ask, it actually has to do with like how they name the songs
So, for example, when i listen to Universal Religion 2008 by Armin Van Buren, the album is by him but most of the songs are by other people? What does this mean? Does this mean, the artist of the song composed it and armin made it to the trance song it is?
I understand when it's like "artist - title (artist remix)", i know this means that an artist took another song and remaked it. But I don't understand what it means when a trance artist releases an album, and most of the songs say the artist is someone other than the person releasing it. Good examples are most of teistos ISOS and Magik albums.
Secondly, when it says "ARTIST vs ARTIST" as the artist, what does this mean? I remember seeing this in a banner for featured artists to an upcoming rave, does this mean they're both mixing together simultaneously?
and lastly, what does dub mix or dub remix mean? ;p
Those are compilation albums. It's basically a set the DJ did for the purpose of pressing and releasing as an 'album.' So it's other people's songs, but the DJ mixed them together.
Artist vs Artist is usually used when whatever song you're listening to is a mashup. If it's used in an advert for as how or event, then yes, it generally means they'll be playing together, or back to back. Depending on what kind of venue or the purpose of the event is, it may be some sort of competition, but that's usually more reserved for hip-hop and the like.
Dub or Dub remixes are generally the same song, but without the vocals.
oh okay thanks bro but for the dub or dubremixes, you said generally it is the same w/o vocals, what about when the original never had any vocals?
example is showtek - colours of the harder styles
then here's the dub mix
it seems what changed is the main melody of the song, but is there some kind relationship in how they changed the melody? i feel like they used the same notes/keys but mixed it up different, or almost in a reverse method
* I'm not an expert but I'll try to answer these questions based on my own experience.
What you have with an album like Armin's Universal Religion "by" Armin. It is a compilation where he picks the tracks and mixes it. Universal Religion is a mix - the endings of each song are blended with the beginning of the next. A mix is like a way for a DJ like Armin to showcase songs by other artists that he likes, and also a sort of showcase of his talent for making a good mix (ie. picking songs that have good synergy with each other, or using his talent to make songs sound good together to make a pleasurable "journey" for the listener.)
I'm not quite sure about the second question, but when a song is credited in the form of "ARTIST vs ARTIST", it usually means it is a collaboration between the two artists. The two artists produced the track as a joint effort. Although sometimes this can mean that one artist used work from another artist to create a mashup type track, or if the "ARTIST VS ARTIST" comes in parentheses after a song, its a mashup/remix by a third party that is neither of the two artists. I am really not sure about this question though, so someone should clear this up.
An important thing to realize is that talented DJs are also producers. That means that in addition to performing selection and mixmaking duties, they also create music or tracks. For example, Armin van Buuren is a very talented producer in addition to his abilities as a DJ. He has solo albums such as Shivers, or Imagine, that are completely created by him, as well as mixed by him. Every track in these cases will be accredited with his name.
Last of all the question about dub mixing. The word dub has a lot of different meanings depending on the context. In your case, the context is the "dub mix" of a song. In it's earliest roots, the method of dub mixing was actually a subgenre of reggae music. Artists take existing songs, by them or other people, and remix the track. The dub style of remixing usually involves taking away vocals, and emphasizing drum and bass timbres. Another thing they commonly did was add reverb and echo effects to the song. So nowadays when you see a song that says "dub mix" behind it, it means that the artists took the original song, removed the vocals, emphasized the rhytm section, and made it trippy or ambient (two characteristics that are often found in some trance)
I can't think of a trance example off the top of my head. But a good example is the song Safe and Sound by the reggae-rock artists Rebelution. In the album, they also included a Safe and Sound Dub. Here are the links to the song on Youtube so you can hear the differences before dub and after dub. The dub version actually includes a single line of verse, but the rest of the vocals are removed.
ENJOY THE MUSIC
EDIT: Ahaha I took longer than I expected to write this. The explanations by other people are a lot more straightforward heh. \
I'm not quite sure about the second question, but when a song is credited in the form of "ARTIST vs ARTIST", it usually means it is a collaboration between the two artists. The two artists produced the track as a joint effort. Although sometimes this can mean that one artist used work from another artist to create a mashup type track, or if the "ARTIST VS ARTIST" comes in parentheses after a song, its a mashup/remix by a third party that is neither of the two artists. I am really not sure about this question though, so someone should clear this up.
\
Artist vs artist is a mash up if used as an artist name not so much a "collaboration" if used to promote an event a la "the best of both worlds" armin van buuren vs markus shulz then it means they'll be playing back to back. but like markus shulz vs sander van doorn - unprepared bliksem is just the vocals of unprepared by markus played over the track bliksem by sander van doorn. It's usually produced by someone other than one of the two artist afaik.
EPT
