DJ Dain Presents: The Remixes

I'm working on a new batch of mash-ups, but they're going to take some time to complete. In the meantime, I've re-uploaded my old remixes to SoundCloud. Enjoy!

DJ Dain Presents: The Remixes by DJ Dain

Glory Lasts Forever

Digital Nightmare - Bass-y (DJ Dain's "Glory Lasts Forever" Remix)
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Bass-y (DJ Dain's "Glory Lasts Forever" Remix) by DJ Dain

My friend Tom from Digital Nightmare asked me to try my hand at remixing one of his tracks, and this is the final result. I really wanted to produce something along the lines of The Prodigy, Pendulum and The Crystal Method (I had been listening to a lot of their respective material at the time). I dug up the same synthesizer sound I had used on the Jefferson Airplane remix and tweaked it to produce a much darker, 303-like sound for the latter half of the track.

Keep on Raving, Little Dreamer

DJ Dain - Guild Wars (Keep on Raving, Little Dreamer)
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Guild Wars Theme (DJ Dain's "Keep on raving, little dreamer" Mix) by DJ Dain

I admit that this isn't really a "rave" track, but more of a trance-like break-beat. My favorite part has to be the 8-bit break-down at about the 3:45 mark. The droning bass-line really helps flesh-out the sound for me, and add some contrasting colors while the pianos and synthesizers play brightly over everything else.

Last Day to Rave

DJ Dain - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (Last Day to Rave)
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Last Day (DJ Dain's "Last Day to Rave" Mix) by DJ Dain


What is easily one of the most somber tracks in the game, "Last Day" also provides a chord progression that was just made for trance. I might go back and work on the opening string section a little bit since they don't sound as "padded" as I want them to. However, I'm very pleased with the saw sound that takes over about half-way through. The chord progression and arrangement work amazingly well for the continuous build-up that good trance music is founded upon.

Ghetto-Glitch

Justice - New Jack (DJ Dain's "Ghetto-Glitch" Mix)
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New Jack (DJ Dain's "Ghetto-Glitch" Mix) by DJ Dain

Its amazing what a few simple tricks can do to transform a song. The majority of this remix is based around tweaking a few Ableton Live audio effect devices such as "Auto Pan" and "Beat Repeat" to get just the right kind of glitch sound. I also loved expanding the 'start-stop' feel which you can hear around the 4:10 mark.

Lucky Night

DJ Dain - Pokemon Gold (Lucky Night)
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Lucky Channel (DJ Dain's "Lucky Night" Mix) by DJ Dain

I'm tempted to go back and try my hand at this remix one more time. There are only two things that still bother me about it:

1) The "crowd noise" extends too far into the song
2) The out-tro could be significantly better

Other than that I'm fairly pleased with the results. I think I sampled my GameBoy Advance using a cheap PC microphone, which worked wonders for "cheapening" the sound. It really helped build contrast between the original tune and the remix when it finally drops.

Union of Friendships

DJ Dain - Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles (Union of Friendships)
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Kaze No Ne (DJ Dain's "Union of Friendships" Mix) by DJ Dain

I started working on this track several years ago as a birthday gift for my friend Chris. To the best of my knowledge, the song went under about nine revisions. I'm not sure why a number of my remixes have a piano/flute solo combination, but it seems to work well. I really enjoyed exploring multiple genres within this track, and the water/rain effects really helped color the overall mix.

I have to admit, if I wanted to accurately convey playing this game with three other friends, the sound would be much angrier with lots of swearing about having to hold the goddamn bucket. Good times.

Naughty Night

Armand Van Helden - Come Play With Me (DJ Dain's "Naughty Night" Mix)
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Come Play With Me (DJ Dain's "Naughty Night" Mix) by DJ Dain

Here's another old remix that's been sitting on my computer for ages. I had a lot of fun remixing this track as a Drum 'n' Bass tune. I really think the two-step beat complements the guitars and vocals. The addition of the warping baseline didn't come into play until much latter in the production process, but for me it really helped fill out the track.

How Lovely, How Lonely

DJ Dain - Katamari Damacy (How Lovely, How Lonely)
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Lovely Angel (DJ Dain's "How Lovely, How Lonely" Mix) by DJ Dain

This was my second officially released videogame remix. I had to restructure the song to fit a 4/4 time signature, but doing so allowed me to expand some ideas regarding the overall song progression (such as the flute and piano solos). The aim was to create something of a chill-out, ambient piece with a slightly somber overtone.

Never Die

DJ Dain - Cave Story (Never Die)
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Last Battle (DJ Dain's "Never Die" Mix) by DJ Dain

This track was my contribution to the Cave Story Remix Project. Its a remix of a track called "Last Battle" which takes place during the ultimate/secret ending of the game. Click on the banner below to learn more and get access to the full album.

21 and still kickin'

It's my birthday today, but this time I've go gifts for all of you!

First of all, a reminder that I'll be performing at the following venue tonight:

Thursday Night this Week

Open Mic @ The GCSU Backlot

With Special Guests,

DJ Raven, DJ Dain, MD, and "That Mexican DJ"

No Cover

Come out play some tunes and enjoy specials from 9-11pm

ID for 19 required

Lineup (may be subject to change):
9:30 PM - 11:00 PM (DJs)
11:00 PM - 11:45 PM (Open Mic)
11:45 PM - 12:00 AM (DJs)
12:00 AM - 12:45 AM (Open Mic)
12:45 PM - 1:00 AM (DJs)


Secondly, I present to you the much sought after Half-Life 2 remix!


DJ Dain - Half-Life 2 (That Long Train Ride)
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I've been contacted numerous times over the years about this track ever since VGmix v.2 was taken down, so it's about time I re-hosted it for everyone to enjoy. I've also got another treat for you:


DJ Dain - Half-Life 2 (An Alternate Perspecitve)
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Originally titled "Inside the Mind", this Half-Life 2 remix never really got to see the light of day (at most I think it was in the WIP process on VGmix v.2). I'm considering re-producing both remixes for a 2008/2009 re-release (I recently found an old folder sitting on one of my computers that may contain that sample data I originally used) but I won't make any promises about that.

Finally, I'll be posting regular updates until around late December in the following Two-week rotation format:

Monday - Mash-up
Thursday - Remix
Monday - Mash-up
Thursday - Videogame Remix
Satursday - Videogame Remix

Enjoy!

I Want You Back Under My Umbrella

I Want You Back Under My Umbrella (Rihanna vs. The Jackson 5 & DJ Z-Trip)

I Want You Back Under My Umbrella (Rihanna vs. The Jackson 5 & DJ Z-Trip) by DJ Dain

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Another fairly old mash-up that I figured was good enough share. This went through a lot of revisions, mainly due to the fact that Rihanna's vocals kept key-clashing with the instrumentals. Eventually I stumbled upon DJ Z-trip's remix of "I Want You Back" and things finally started to shape up. I kept a few samples of the original Jackson 5 song with some filter effects to keep everything nice and funky. I'm tempted to go back and try and edit the vocals again, but there are a ton of other projects and things I'm focusing on right now.