Hello, this is an issue I've been wondering about for a while. I can't figure out how to do a proper remix. Like I don't understand how people take the "stems" which are just audio files of the song and blend their own elements into it and make it sound like one song.

Like for remix competitions, why on earth do they give out the stems ? Do people actually take the long ass wav file of the songs "drums (example)" and do shit with it?

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.

It really depends on the song and what elements you want to retain from the original track. Of course if its a vocal track you'll want the acapella, but you can pretty much do anything with it. 95% of the time when I do vocal remixes I write a  a completely different set of chords for the vocal and it can feel like a different song.

Sadowick has a great video tutorials on this topic like this one here with him remixing Animals.

I don't necessarily use the entire stem, but I will take parts of it to use for my interpretation. I break it up in samples for me to use.

It is all down to personal preference but a method I found very effective, is to start with the acapella (assuming you are wanting to remix a vocal track). Select which part of the vocals you want to have as a vocal shout before the drop and work that into a build. Starting with a build is a very unusual technique as commonly people start with the drop, however when making a remix, the drop has  to sound good and link in with the vocals. Keep experimenting until you have a drop that works with the vocals and then build the rest of the track around that. Generally when I make remixes, I only use the vocals and nothing else, that still keeps essentials from the original while allowing me to turn it into my own song. I find remixes that are exactly the same as the original but with a different drop, intro & outro, very repetitive and really not very impressive, but if you're inexperienced in remixes it can be good to start out.

Hope some of this helps,

Harwood

On a side note, I always wondered this: There's always this condition in remix competitions to use at least one stem. So ... if you sample a kick drum, or crash cymbal, you can enter with original song as long as this little sample is in?

On a side note, I always wondered this: There's always this condition in remix competitions to use at least one stem. So ... if you sample a kick drum, or crash cymbal, you can enter with original song as long as this little sample is in?

Hmm, well within reason, I'm sure it still has to be identifiable as a remix. You can't just create an entirely new track using the same kick and pass it off as a remix in my opinion.