First Mashup (noobie) seeking feedback!

That is awesome that you are starting to make these. It’s so much fun and really lets you learn a lot about editing, the artistic side of music, and immersing in music in general (especially how much all music is similar as opposed to different).

The best tips I can give you (I’m a novice myself, but have made near 100 mashups in the past year and a half or so that has given me experience) are that you want to break up your mashups in this general order (it’s the tried and true method for me):

1. Find 2 songs that you think can go together and just play them together to see if it seems doable. You will most likely get a green light or red light from this point. If you have an idea for 2 songs and they don’t sound in the same key, that’s okay, because you might be able to shift one, or both, of the songs’ pitch to make them match up. This is a really open and abstract step that can be fueled by simply an idea for what you want to put together or intuition. I tend to use one instrumental track of a song, and an acapella track of another, and then make sure to keep either an acapella track of the instrumental tracked song, or the full song, to be able to add in vocal parts of that song. Some times I can use up to 5 or 6 songs, though, even mixing instrumentals with each other.

2. Get the songs in your editing device (computer program/turntables/whatever), and attempt to match the keys of the songs match by altering the pitch of either song, or both. It is usually better to alter the pitch of the singing track to match the instrumental track because there seems to be less of a drastic quality drop (in my opinion) in sound. Try to not alter the pitch too far down or up, as it will quickly make the song sound silly. My general rule is that if I have to alter the pitch more than 2 steps in either direction, I should give up on the pairing. But if it still sounds okay to you, then you don’t have to necessarily follow that rule.

Keep in mind that there are usually keys you will find that will match some parts of the song, but not all. If this happens, you’re likely not in the right key, which is the best key. The reason some parts match is by chance. Keep searching for another key. There should be a key where all parts sound together, which is your key to work with. You can search out this key in a textbook musical way (finding the listed keys of the original songs and adjusting up or down accordingly if you know music theory), or do it by feel, which is what I do. Either way works. The best way is up to you.

Once you are able to successfully match the keys of the songs together, you can listen to it and hear the magic happen. It’s at this point that you can hear whether the mashup will work or not.

3. Work on the timing. I tend to leave the instrumental track at whatever normal speed it is, and take the acapella track and cut it up and speed/slow any section however I like. This is where the most work happens, and if you enjoy editing (as much as anyone can) this will be a labor of love. How far you want to match the timing up to make the songs seem seamless is up to you, and you get better at it with time, learning your own little tricks and strategies. You can get it just right enough to sound ‘okay’, or spend extra time to get each part exactly fitting in the way you want to. It’s up to you.

4. Adjust EQ to make the volume between all tracks balanced and sounding good. Mixing/mastering is easy to do ‘okay’, but very hard to do very well. Effects can also be added herwe, but my experience is that less is more with effects. I wouldn’t use them unless it needs it for fixing. It’s too easy to get into effects and over produce a track.

That’s the basic process for me, and hope any of that helps you. But main thing for mashups is to pay attention to 2 things that will make your mashup mesh: pitch and timing (not just tempo, but making every individual part fit).

Your first attempt is pretty good. Some parts don’t fit as well as others, and that could either be a case of the songs not being in the same key (the one where all parts sound together), or simply the timing of some parts. This is stuff you will get better and better at recognizing and molding to your will. You already have shown you know what you’re doing here, so keep at it, and keep sharing! Thanks for reading me pretend to be a teacher!