The Max Mix 10 is an 11 track megamix by José María Castells and Toni Peret released in 1990 on their label Max Music. This mix primarily features euro house songs. The key strengths of this mix are its use of sampling and transitions. Sampling is the process of reusing a section of one sound recording in a new musical context. Sampling is especially used to aid transitions by drawing the listener’s attention away from changing tracks. An example of this method is a vocal cut of a man yelling “pump it” which is cut up, doubled and looped in rapid succession during the transition between the first and second song. The transitions in this mix are seamless. The megamix is ordered such that adjacent songs in the mix share similar drum rhythms, making it difficult to tell where one track ends and another begins. This is demonstrated in the 6:33 transition between 49ers – "Touch Me" and Technotronic – "This Beat Is Technotronic ('My Favourite Club' Mix)" where both songs have almost indistinguishable hi-hat rhythmic patterns.
The key weakness of this mix would be its track order. The megamix doesn’t gradually increase or decrease in intensity, but rather stays at a relatively constant level with the occasional deviation in intensity before returning to the same level. Therefore the listener may interpret the mix as tedious and repetitive towards the end. This has the potential to be improved by increasing the intensity through a different track order and finishing the megamix with the anthemic 49ers – "Touch Me". Another weakness of this megamix is its abrupt finish. At 10:58 minutes in, the beat cuts out without any drum build-up or riser and is replaced with a Spanish voice recording. The very final sample in the whole mix is a burp sound effect, which may be interpreted as somewhat undermining the artistic integrity of the mix.
The track Black Box – "I Don't Know Anybody Else (Free Sample Mix)" has been significantly altered from its original version. The first prominent change is its structure. The track begins at 3:06 in the megamix with its 2nd vocal chorus, as opposed to the instrumental piano intro in the original mix. The song is then altered by looping the “I don’t know” vocal at 3:10 with scratch samples overlaid on the song between vocal repetitions. At 3:22 the song is altered further by resampling the intro’s piano into a new rhythm on top of the preexisting drumbeat. The effect of these changes to the song are that it is faster paced, with a shorter length of time building up to the catchy vocals and funky bassline and it is more rhythmically diverse, with the resampling adding another element of syncopation to the song than what was present in the original mix. This song has also been transposed up a few semitones from the original mix, making the vocals especially sound more energetic and upbeat. The bassline is also more easily listenable than in the original mix now that the song has been pitch shifted upwards. “I Don’t Know Any Body Else” has ultimately been modified to suit its context within the megamix, as a more upbeat piano house song.
One segue between tracks is the transition between Black Kiss Feat. Cherita – "Jump On the Floor" and Test Pressing Feat. DJ Spa – "Calvo Sotelo." The transition begins at 9:49 with the intro synth riff of “Calvo Sotelo” being layered on top of Jump On the Floors’ drum outro. This lasts for two bars of music; during the second bar of which “Calvo Sotelo” is looped, creating a beat repeat effect that foreshadows the song transition by increasing the intensity. Suddenly both songs are replaced by the impact sample that begins at 48 seconds into the original “Calvo Sotelo” track, before the “Calvo Sotelo” vocal one-shot signals the start of the track. The looping element of the segue is gradual and the hard cut between songs at 9:53 is abrupt. The iconic “think break,” breakbeat drum sample at 9:58, featuring two vocal chops, a “yeah” and a “woo” sound assists in bringing the beat back in after the abrupt cut. This transition is also an example of harmonic mixing, as “Jump On the Floor” is in the key of F minor, and “Calvo Sotelo” in A# minor. These two musical keys are adjacent on the circle of fifths, the chart that “shows the relationships among the twelve tones of the chromatic scale, their corresponding key signatures, and their associated relative minor and major keys” (Dubspot 2016) F minor and A# minor share all the same musical notes bar one, so transitioning between them sounds harmonic. The exact term for this harmonic transition is “going down a fifth” (Dubspot 2016).
Part 2
The megamix uses techniques described by Robert Ratcliffe to a significant extent, with most techniques utilised multiple times. Robert Ratcliffe’s Proposed Typology of Sampled Material Within Electronic Dance Music includes short, isolated fragments, loops and phrases, larger elements and transformed material. Short isolated fragments used in this megamix are pitched elements used as a basis for new musical material. A key example of this is at 0:19 when one chord from Technotronic – "Get Up! (Before the Night Is Over) (Dance Action Mix)" is rapidly repeated and pitch shifted creating a new rhythm and chord progression, serving as a quick introduction to the song. This result was likely achieved by using a sampler, to “facilitate a form of stored waveform synthesis” (Ratcliffe 2014). Another short isolated fragment technique commonly used in this megamix is ornamental sounds. The ornamental sound used is the vinyl scratch. This sound creates the effect of the megamix being performed live on vinyl turntables by a skilled turntablist. This creates a mimetic discourse; the “signifying potential of referential or extrinsic attributes of sound” (Whale, 2007). It is used in many instances in the mix, for example 0:43, 2:29, 3:08 and 8:11 to “evoke a certain genre or historical production style” (Ratcliffe 2014) in particular the style of hip-hop turntablism.
A prominent technique used in the megamix is looping and phrasing. The use of “referential non-musical material” (Ratcliffe 2014) is common, for example the “ladies and gentleman” vocal sample at 0:27 and the “one, two, three, four” vocal sample at 0:31. These samples are used for their narrative qualities, creating an atmosphere of commencement at the beginning of the mix. Sections of songs are commonly looped for rhythmic effect for example during Black Box – "I Don't Know Anybody Else (Free Sample Mix)" at 3:54 to create a syncopated beat. Looping is also used in this song to create new musical phrases by grouping chords together, for example at 3:22. According to Ratcliffe this use of phrasing is self-referential as the track is essentially sampling itself. The key larger elements used in this mix are acapellas. Extended acapella samples are used to aid song transitions, for example as the megamix transitions between Technotronic – "This Beat Is Technotronic ('My Favourite Club' Mix)" and Lonnie Gordon – "Happenin' All Over Again (Extended Mix)" a rap acapella is layered upon the first instrumental chorus of “Happenin' All Over Again” to smoothly segue between tracks. The female vocal rap acapella used is washed out in reverb and lacks high frequencies so it was likely isolated using production techniques such as EQing, as opposed to being a studio released acapella. Clearly this megamix utilises a variety of the sampling techniques described by Robert Ratcliffe.
The production techniques used in the megamix are closer to hip-hop conventions than to electronic dance music (EDM) conventions. A key hip-hop convention used is looping, which is frequently employed within the megamix to repeat short sections of songs creating new rhythms and melodies. This effect is well described by “While looping may not change the sound of the music… it changes the entire sensibility within which this sound is interpreted. Melodies become riffs” (Schloss 2004). An example of a melody becoming a riff is the looping used in 3:10 when the “I don’t know vocals”, originally just a fragment of a larger phrase become recontextualised as a riff.
This megamix uses the hip-hop production process of “locking up” a beat where a variety of different musical tracks, loops and samples are combined into a new product. This is highly evident in the first track of the mix, Technotronic – "Get Up! (Before the Night Is Over) (Dance Action Mix)" at 0:27 when a short section of the song, containing a drum beat and one chord is looped and combined with vocal samples, scratches, and self referential vocal chops shaping a new introductory beat for the track. This contrasts the EDM production technique of “not doing too much to the sample… just adding drum machine hits at relatively low volume behind” (Morey, McIntyre 2014). Unlike the typical EDM practice of remixing an individual sample into a new song this megamix uses the hip-hop convention of combining a large number of different samples together. This megamix focuses on maintaining a constant groove through its rhythmic structure. This is a staple hip-hop production technique and “many producers see the rhythm as the essence of hip-hop” (Schloss, 2004). EDM focuses on sound design, timbre and atmosphere, which aren’t as heavily emphasised in this megamix’s production techniques. Samples are chosen in EDM for “the atmosphere that it gives [to] something” (Morey, McIntyre 2014) as opposed to hip-hop where they are chosen for the groove it brings. Clearly this mix employs hip-hop production techniques more so than EDM techniques.