Remixing

Use the cut and crossfade method of remixing can take some time, effort, and energy – but it keeps the song artistically true. If you’re in a pinch and just need something fast, you could instead use Adobe Audition’s remix feature (which is also found in Adobe Premiere, Adobe’s video editing software). This tool allows you to drag a block to the desired length and Audition will identify musical phrasings and do the work for you! Let’s try it out …

1.  Using your already open Multitrack session, mute the original tracks and add “3 – Home.wav”.
2. Next, right click on the block and enable the remix feature … Right Click > Remix > Enable Remix
   
3. Audition will now do some processing to figure out how to best remix your clip.
   
4. Once finished you’ll notice a new squiggly line in the top right corner of your block. If you hover your mouse over you’ll see a cross fade icon.
   
5. Try dragging the block using the corner, much like you would if you were trimming the block. We would like to shorten this song, so drag the block to the left. You’ll notice while you’re dragging that the waveform scrunches rather than crops. Also, you’ll notice that if you go too far to the left that Audition just won’t let you shorten the song any further; this means you’ve found the artistic limit of the musical phrasing.Once you let go of the block, Audition will do another calculation. Once finished you can see squiggly lines down the block. This is where Audition has made a crossfade. Take a listen at every single one of these locations to make sure that the computer AI did a good job and that something isn’t awry. If it is, try dropping the end of the block at a different time location in order to create a different cut of the song.
   
6. Let’s try the other direction. Mute this track and add “4 – Astor Piazzolla”. Repeat the “Enable Remix” process and this time, try to double the length of the song. Oh my goodness that was so much easier.
   

Remixing is amazing, but nothing compares to the artistic intentionality and creativity of a human. So it’s important to know how to utilize both methods.