How to Make a Remix: From Acapella to Your Own Beat

You hear a song and instantly think: this needs a different beat under it. That's when you want to make a remix. But where do you start? With the acapella, the beat or the tempo? This guide walks you through how to make a remix step by step: sorting out the rights, finding the BPM and key, and getting the vocal on tempo in FL Studio or Logic Pro.

What is a remix, exactly?

In a remix you take parts of an existing song, usually the vocal, and build a new production around them. New drums, new chords, sometimes a completely different genre. The vocal stays recognizable, everything else is yours.

That's different from an edit (you cut and rearrange the original, for example a longer intro for DJs) or a mashup (you layer two existing songs on top of each other).

Step 1: pick a song and check the rights

This is the boring step, but don't skip it. A remix uses someone else's work, and two kinds of rights are involved:

• The composition: the lyrics and the music. These belong to the songwriters and often their publisher.
• The recording: the master, with the actual vocal you're using. That often belongs to a record label.

Dutch collecting society BumaStemra explains that you need permission from the original creator to make an arrangement, and that using a recording also requires permission from the master owner. SoundCloud says the same: before you publish a remix, you need permission from the original creator and every relevant rights holder, including the record label. So the artist's OK alone isn't always enough.

What that means in practice:

• Practicing for yourself is always fine. You'll learn a ton from it.
• Official remix contests are a great route: you get the stems and the rules are spelled out.
• Want to release it or post it online? Get permission from the rights holders first. Without it, your remix can be taken down.

Step 2: find the BPM and key of the original

Before you make a single sound, you want to know two things: how fast the song is and what key it's in. Everything else builds on that.

Analyze the original song, not the isolated acapella. A BPM finder mostly listens to drums. An acapella without a beat gives it very little to work with, so a wrong estimate is more likely.

1. Open the free Beat Lab and drop the song in (MP3 or WAV, up to 25 MB and 5 minutes). Your audio isn't uploaded, everything happens in your browser.
2. Read the estimated BPM and key.
3. Turn on the click and listen. If the click locks with the drums, the tempo is right. Not sure? Tap along yourself or use the half and double BPM buttons.
4. Check the key by ear: play the home chord along and listen for clashing.

Working with several stems, or want to check a whole folder of remix ideas at once? The Batch BPM & Key Finder is faster for that. More detail in how to find the BPM of a song and how to find the key of a song.

Step 3: get a clean acapella

The best acapella is the official one: the isolated vocal supplied by the artist or label. If you get permission for your remix, ask for the stems right away. It saves you a lot of hassle.

If all you have is the full song, you can pull the vocal out with stem separation. Two DAWs you might already own can do it:

• FL Studio: according to Image-Line, Stem Separation splits a track into four stems: vocals, music, bass and drums. It's included in Producer Edition and up.
• Logic Pro: according to Apple, Stem Splitter extracts vocals, drums, bass, guitar, piano and other parts from an audio region. Control-click the region and choose Processing > Stem Splitter. It runs on Macs with an M1 chip or later.

Heads up: a separated vocal is almost never completely clean. You'll often hear leftovers of the beat or a slightly smeared tone. That's fine for practice, but for a release the official acapella is always better.

Step 4: choose your new tempo

Now for the creative call: what tempo will your remix be? You have three routes.

Keep the same tempo

The easiest option. The vocal sounds exactly as it should and you can start on the beat right away.

Use half time or double time

A smart trick: a song at 70 BPM fits a 140 BPM beat without any stretching, because you're just counting the same pulse twice as fast. That's how you turn a slow ballad into a drill or trap remix without the vocal sounding weird. It works the other way around too.

Actually change the tempo

Want to pull an R&B song up to a house tempo? Then you'll need to stretch the vocal. That's doable, but the bigger the jump, the sooner you'll hear that the voice has been processed. So for your first remixes, stay fairly close to the original tempo.

Important: if you speed up or slow down audio the old school way (like a turntable), the pitch moves with it. That's fun for a slowed or sped up version, but for a remix you usually want the pitch to stay put. So use time stretching, as shown below.

Step 5: lock the acapella to the grid

First set your project tempo to your remix tempo. Then make the vocal follow it.

In FL Studio

1. Load the acapella into a Sampler channel and open the channel settings.
2. Under Time stretching, set Mode to Stretch. According to Image-Line's manual, this mode keeps vocals in key and in time when the tempo changes.
3. Right-click the TIME knob. If you know the original tempo, set your project to that tempo first and choose Project tempo: the sample is now locked to tempo. Then set your project to the new tempo and the vocal follows.
4. Using an audio clip in the Playlist instead? The clip menu also has Fit to tempo.

In Logic Pro

1. Drag the acapella into your project and select the region.
2. In the Region inspector, set the Smart Tempo menu to On. According to Apple, Logic then uses the file's tempo as a reference and conforms the region to the project tempo, including tempo changes.
3. Detection a little off? Pick one of the options that also align to bars or beats and fix it in the Smart Tempo Editor.

Then zoom in and check that the first beat of each phrase really lands on the grid. Nudge the whole vocal until the stressed words hit where they should. It's more precise work than you'd think.

Step 6: build chords in the right key

The vocal is in a key, so your new chords have to fit it. Otherwise it clashes, no matter how hard your beat hits.

• Take the key from step 2 and look up which chords belong to that key.
• Don't feel like clicking everything into the piano roll? In the free Chord Progression Generator you pick a mood, major or minor, your key and tempo. Download the MIDI with chords and a bass line and drag it straight into your DAW.
• A remix gets really interesting when you flip the mood. A happy pop song over dark minor chords suddenly feels completely different, while the vocal melody stays the same. Do check it by ear though: not every vocal line works over every chord.

Key doesn't suit the sound you're after? Shift your own instruments rather than the vocal. A voice that's pitched far up or down quickly sounds unnatural.

Step 7: turn it into a real track

Now it becomes your production. A few tips:

• Start with the chorus. That's the moment people judge a remix on. Once that part works, build the rest around it.
• Leave room for the voice. Keep your instruments calm in the midrange where the vocal sits, especially during the verses.
• Think about DJs. Making a club remix? Give it an intro and outro that are mostly drums, so it's easy to mix in and out.
• You don't need the whole acapella. Sometimes a remix works better with just the chorus and a few lines, chopped or repeated.

How to turn a loop into a full arrangement is covered in from loop to beat.

Step 8: mix and master

The vocal in a remix is often already mixed and mastered for the original beat. So go easy on compression and EQ. Usually some EQ to make it fit your beat, plus a bit of reverb or delay timed to your remix, is enough.

Done? Check your master with the free Master Checker. You'll see your LUFS and true peak and roughly what Spotify, YouTube and Apple do with your track. How to read those numbers is explained in how many LUFS for Spotify.

Rather have a remix made for you?

I've been making remixes of Dutch hits for years. No time to do it yourself? Take a look at ghost production and ghost remixes. And for more free help, check out all our free music tools.

FAQ

Can I make a remix without permission?

For yourself, as practice, yes. If you want to release it or share it online, BumaStemra and SoundCloud both say you need permission from the creators and the owners of the recording. That often includes a record label.

Where do I get an acapella?

Ideally the official one, from the label or the artist, for example through a remix contest. Otherwise you can pull the vocal out of the song with stem separation in FL Studio or Logic Pro, but it's rarely completely clean.

How do I find the BPM of an acapella?

Measure the tempo on the original song with drums if you can. An isolated vocal gives a BPM finder very little to grab onto. Beat Lab estimates the BPM and lets you tap along to check it.

Can I remix a song at a different tempo?

Yes. Use half time or double time if you don't want to stretch the vocal, or use time stretching if you really want a new tempo. The smaller the change, the more natural the voice stays.

What if the vocal isn't in the key of my beat?

Fit your chords and instruments to the key of the vocal. That almost always sounds better than shifting the voice itself.