Tag Archives: edit

Prince tribute for dance studios

Purple-RainIt is with great sadness to learn that the amazing musician and talented artist, Prince, has passed away. For many of us, his music is an integral part of the soundtrack of our lives.

It has been my honor to edit and remix some of his amazing music for dance studios and dance teachers. If you are interested in using a Prince song for a dance routine, here is an edited version of one of his songs that has amazing funk, yet is not very well known. It’s popular with the kids these days to say “Werk it!” but more than 30 years ago, Prince was already singing “Let’s Work!”. Enjoy this edit!

Here is Let’s Go Crazy from the movie Purple Rain. This version has all objectionable lyrics omitted, has been remastered, and edited specifically to be optimized for a jazz or tap dance routine:

And for dance studios interested in a mix that pays homage to “The Purple One”, we are pleased to present this 3 minute mix that includes five of Prince’s more popular hits:

This 4:55 production mix starts with Let’s Go Crazy, and includes Let’s Work:

This 4:45 production mix is similar but starts with Purple Rain:

You can get ALL of these Prince edits and remixes for an amazing bargain price in this album:

Get more Squirrel Trench remixes at Legitmix

I Get to Love You by Ruelle

Brand new, a beautiful and moving song for a lyrical routine, the heartfelt I Get to Love You by Ruelle. Not only is this song lovely to listen and dance to, the official music video features the talented dancer, Ms. Brianna Roland, who has won numerous competition titles using Squirrel Trench Audio-created remixes. She is the first dancer seen in the video, and is featured throughout it.

Squirrel Trench Audio has three edited lengths of this routine, ready for your next competition or recital lyrical or contemporary routine, at 2:55, 2:43, and 1:57.

Get more Squirrel Trench remixes at Legitmix

Enjoy the official video featuring Brianna Roland:

To learn more about the titles that Ms. Roland has won with Squirrel Trench Audio-created soundtracks, here is info about her Starbound senior title (2013), Starquest title (2012), and OnStage New York title (2013).

Stand by You, Rachel Platten, Squeaky Clean

rachel platten huge smile on stageDue to popular demand, Squirrel Trench Audio is pleased to present a squeaky clean version of the new hit Stand by You by Rachel Platten. All instances of the word ‘hell’ have been replaced with the word ‘fire’. This cleaned song is available in a full-length (3:33) version as well as a 2:24 shortened version. Enjoy!

Get more Squirrel Trench remixes at Legitmix

Barbie Girl by Aqua – Squeaky Clean

barbie with lipstickI am honored to be on the Advisory Panel of YPAD; Leslie Scott​’s organization to educate the dance community about the dangers to impressionable young minds when they dance in inappropriate routines. To further that goal, I am pleased to offer the song “Barbie Girl” minus the words “undress me anywhere” and minus other suggestive lyrics that occur in this otherwise fun and bouncy song. And I’m offering it for FREE ($2.28 if you don’t already own both versions used to create this cleaned edit). If your studio is already using this song this season, I will match your existing edit with this squeaky clean version for FREE so that no re-choreo’ing is needed. Don’t let your routine take deductions for inappropriate lyrics. Click the graphic below to take a listen and hear for yourself how great this song can still sound when the suggestive lyrics are removed.

In addition, Squirrel Trench offers three other shorter lengths of this squeaky clean edit at $9.99 each.

Get more Squirrel Trench remixes at Legitmix

Radioactive – a cappella

Imagine Dragons performing at the Made in America Festival. (Colin Kerrigan / Philly.com)

Imagine Dragons performing at the Made in America Festival. (Colin Kerrigan / Philly.com)

The song Radioactive by Imagine Dragons has been incredible popular ever since it was released. Scores of other musicians have covered it, including a collaboration between Pentatonix and violinist Lindsey Stirling which is also available in a 2:50 dance routine length. Below are links to an a cappella edit of the song from the original recording. This version is available in three lengths for your dance routine: 2:56, 2:42, and 2:07. This amazing tour de force performance could be used in a jazz, tap, lyrical, contemporary, modern, or even a hip hop routine.

And here is the Pentatonix/Lindsey Stirling cover of this fantastic song:

Get more Squirrel Trench remixes at Legitmix

When saving edits as mp3s, always choose 256k or higher

11882514-ear-and-sound-waves-Stock-Vector-hearingFor all of you fabulous choreographers who edit your own music: When saving your music as an mp3, NEVER save it at anything less than a 256k bit rate. Why is this important? Because when you save it at 128k or lower, you are throwing away some of the detail in your music. The stereo field is reduced, meaning that it sounds more like it’s coming from a mono source. The higher frequencies can sound more “swishy.”

Basically, it’s similar to saving a digital photo. Instead of the crispness and clarity of high-resolution, you get the fuzziness, graininess and lack of clarity when it’s low-resolution.

You may not hear the difference in quality between low-res and high-res mp3s on your laptop or iPad’s speakers, but when played on a good sound system (like in your studio, or at comp or recital), it won’t be as clear. And it just gets worse if you open up that same low-res file and re-edit it again.

Also worth noting: once you save an edit as a low-res mp3, re-saving it at a higher rate later does not fix it. Once you’ve saved it as a low-res file, then it will always be low res.

I know all the “export” or “save as…” options that are presented in most audio processing programs are greek if you don’t know the details or reasons behind the choices. Way too many of the music edit files I get for repair are saved as 128k mp3 files, and it makes me sad to know that dancers are not dancing with the cleanest version of their music possible, for no good reason other than the choreographer was not aware that saving at a 128k rate (or lower) degrades the audio noticeably.

Also, if you are not sure what the quality of an mp3 is, there’s a fairly easy way to tell, by checking the file’s size in Mb. A 2.5 to 3-minute edit saved as an mp3 or m4a should be roughly 5 to 6 Mb in size. If it’s only 2 to 3 Mb in size, then you know it’s low-res, and too much audio quality has been thrown away.

I can understand why so many people save their audio at low resolution. While you are working on the file, it sounds fine, because it hasn’t been saved to a low-res format yet. And when you save it as a low-res mp3, you can’t immediately HEAR that it doesn’t sound as good as what you have been working on. In other words, the quality gets reduced when you save it, but you don’t even know that that has happened. So I am very happy to help spread the word. Now you know!

Bottom line: When doing a “Save as” or “Export Audio” to an mp3 file, always choose the 256k rate or higher!

Congratulations to Connecticut Miss Outstanding Teen 2015

Is it possible to fuse funk with Irish Dance? The answer is yes, as proved beautifully by Tara Shaye Lynch. Tara’s mother asked me to create a 90-second custom clean edit of Uptown Funk last year, and congratulations to Tara for winning Ms. Cheshire Outstanding Teen of 2015 with it! Enjoy this fun 90-second routine:

Squirrel Trench Audio’s clean versions of Uptown Funk remain one of our best selling tracks on Legitmix, and prices have been reduced to $4.99 for any version that you may need.

Get more Squirrel Trench remixes at Legitmix

Eden Ryder – Encumbered

It is always with great joy that I get to see a video of a dance routine for which I’ve done the music editing. The latest comes from Roberta Ryder, whose daughter Eden performed contemporary choreography by Ausia Jones, set to the song Death of Murad by Nathaniel Mechaly from the Taken 2 motion picture soundtrack. The piece is titled Encumbered. Congratulations to Eden and Ausia for creating a remarkable routine, and also scoring 2nd place in Junior Contemporary at YGAP!

 

Confident by Demi Lovato – Clean lyrics version

demi_lovato___confident_cover_by_littlemonsterlovatic-d96cwvpConfident by Demi Lovato is a hot new song that has a great beat for dance. There is both an Explicit version and a Clean version on iTunes. However, even the clean version has some lyrics that are not suited for kids.

Squirrel Trench Audio now has three great-sounding edited versions with cleaned lyrics, suitable for all ages and situations, including dance studios, competitions, recitals, and talent shows. Any of these edits is $9.99.

Preview the 2:45 length version.

Preview the 2:15 length version.

And preview the 1:58 length version.

For more great songs that have been cleaned of objectionable lyrics, Squirrel Trench Audio has a collection of clean songs edits and mixes here.

Emergency by Icona Pop — Clean lyrics version

After the smashing appearance in the opening number to the recent Dancing With the Stars episode, Emergency by Icona Pop has been flying up the charts. Unfortunately, for dance teachers and choreographers, the only version currently available on iTunes is Explicit.

Squirrel Trench Audio now has a great-sounding version with clean lyrics, suitable for all ages and situations, including dance studios, competitions, recitals, and talent shows. The full-length clean version is $4.99. Also available is a 2:15 length version. We have also created a Spicy Clean remix with a 2:32 length.

For more great songs that have been cleaned of objectionable lyrics, Squirrel Trench Audio has a collection of clean song edits and remixes. View the listing of songs and remixes here.

Email morriss@squirreltrenchaudio.com.