Edit vs Remix ?

bsuwolf

Please explain to a non-producer person what the difference is between an Edit and a remix. I have been under the assumption that Edits usually involve just extending the intro and outros of a song along with enhancing sonically the best bits of a tune while a Remix involved introducing all new music or production to the song. This may all be wrong but its just my guess. The reason why I ask is that I have heard some Edits lately that seem to be verging on the Remix territory. I mean at what technically classifies the work as an edit or a remix. Inquiring minds want to know...

the_dL

remix = what the hip hop kids call it
edit = what the house/disco kids call it
your explanation is probably very close though

crazypoprock

You are right to be confused because the lines have really been blurred between edits and remixes lately. Traditionally an edit was done on tape and thus it was a tape edit...each part you wanted looped up you did so by splicing the tape at the beginning and end loop points, removing that piece of tape and taping the ends together and playing the loop on the tape machine, looping as many times as needed. You would record that loop to a new piece of tape on a second tape machine and then splice that newly recorded loop into the original master. I've never really done this but from what i understand that was how it was done. It was very labor intensive to say the least.

In my mind an edit should stay true to that spirit...using a digital 2-track editor to make splices to loop up good parts are remove unwanted material.

Of course nowadays an edit is more of an Ableton affair where in addition to editing the parts you want extended you add efx and maybe even add synth parts and percussion thus taking it into remix territory.

However doing a straight remix is pretty different from doing an edit or even an edit/remix because you start your remix with the multitracks of the source material and not just the 2-track master...so in effect you can create a whole new track using whatever parts of the original you want to use.

Hope this makes some sort of sense.