Side by Side

Objective: Arrange two audio clips in a track to be played back, one after the other, in as seamless a way as possible.  The clips are each to be one complete formal unit of a song (such as a verse or a chorus) that make sense following one another.

    Ex:  Verse one in clip 1 could be followed by verse two or a chorus in clip 2.

The clips could come from two different versions (“covers”) of the same song, or any two songs that you feel go well together (even ones that are very different stylistically).  You will want to think about tempos and pitch as you begin this process.

Steps:

1. Listen to the example attached below.

   • Does the merging seem natural? pleasing? surprising? etc.

   • What are the musical differences (i.e. style, tempo, pitch/key, instrumentation, etc.).

2. Create two sound clips, each of a complete formal section of a song.  Combine them into one track (copy and paste).

3. Play the result and edit one or the other clip to blend them as seamlessly as possible.  You may need to zoom in on the audio wave to see if your splice is at the right point.

4. If necessary, analyze the tempo and pitch of the two clips.  Apply software effect for changing tempo and/or pitch to one or both of the clips to match for better blend.

5. Export to an MP3