I feel like I'm not understanding something when people say it doesn't matter. Maybe I'm just closed minded, but Bitwig is definitely the best. Ableton crashes regularly, making it really hard to finish big files. Also, the interface is weird to navigate and annoying for my workflow (which I think is pretty similar to the majority of workflows). FL's interface is nice, and super convenient, but it doesn't lend itself well to controllers and feels like it's meant to be easy for beginners while still retaining a full set of features, which I consider a negative trait. Also, I never understono the whole 'give automation it's own track' thing.

Bitwig has better plugin effeciency, as well as sandboxing in the rare case that it does crash, so it takes literally one click and 5 seconds to restart a project that crashes. Also, the plugins can be reloaded 1 at a time if they crash. Bitwig's native instruments and effects are enough to make a whole track (then again, so are FL's and Ableton's), and run really smoothly in Bitwig's engine. Speaking of the engine, it compensates for plugin latency, which is kinda unnoticable in most situations, but in the cases it isn't, it's really obvious (I think Ableton might've gotten it recently, but the point is that Bitwig was first). I think the biggest benefit to Bitwig is that it's the most recent. People left Ableton to make Bitwig because they wanted to rebuild it from the ground up, using their previous experience to make a whole new project. Because of this, it''s really easy to fix issues, as well as add new features. Updates come around every month or so, and when there are big bugs, they get fixed in about a day. Bitwig may be the newest big DAW to the scene, but even in the 1.xx versions, it can still compete more or less evenly with the 9.xx and 12.xx versions of other DAWs.

If I got anything wrong, please let me know, I would hate to guide someone to the wrong DAW.

It depends on the song. Generally, all I think is necessary is the vocals, but sometimes chopping up a lead or changing some chords can lead to cool ideas. Really all you should think about when doing a remix is taking a song and imagining how you would've made it.

To add to this, I would experiment with changing modes, whether for chord substitutions or for melodies. This song is one of many examples of dynamic chord progressions. For some reason, Japan has a bunch of this kind of music, where the chords kinda go everywhere. If you look up other songs by this artist, you'll see a lot of this. Good luck with your experimentation.

To add to this, there are a ton of different modes, which no one really uses except like classical musicians and stuff. I think they're useful, though, because you can shift between modes in a song to add character. Here's a resource on other modes: http://www.classicfm.com/discover/music/guide-to-musical-modes

Quote from: Shew on January 06, 2016, 08:25:16 am

Quote from: clearskys on January 06, 2016, 06:31:52 am

Quote from: Krane on January 06, 2016, 06:28:51 am

Quote from: clearskys on January 06, 2016, 06:21:27 am

It's usually a simple two step process.

1. Identify whether the song is in a major (typically happy) or minor (typically sad) key.
2. Determine the tonal centre. This is the note that every other note depends on and revolves around.

These steps aren't ordered, so feel free to work the opposite way.

That's what I suggested, are you able to find the tonic center by ear though without using an instrument while the song is playing to find it?

I do both, instrument + using relative pitch and ear training to guide me. Unless you have perfect pitch, you need to learn relative pitch. That way you can identify intervals much quicker and determine the key of a song more effectively.

Do you have any tools or recommendations to learn relative pitch?

There's no easy way about it - you're going to have to train your ear. Go to the Play Store or App Store and use the keywords "Ear Training" or "Pitch Training". There's a lot of good apps that can teach you. You'll eventually start to make out the tonal difference between a semitone, a whole tone, etc.

Alternatively, if you want to do it on a computer, this is the website I use: https://www.musictheory.net/exercises/ear-note