Recorded music generally went both significantly brighter (in terms of frequency balance) and significantly more compressed in the early-to-mid 80s, and has never gone back. Lots of reasons for that, and lots of upsides and downsides to it. But that's a whole thread on its own. Possibly a whole forum on its own.
 
But it does mean that in a superficial sense, mixes post 85-ish tend to sound sort of slicker than anything before then. But that's always the way. Modern stuff looks modern. Doesn't mean that non-modern stuff is flawed, you just need to appreciate the context it was made in, to some extent.

also untill the late 80's imo music was produced for the listeners (record companies controlled everything) where nowadays often music sounds 'mixed for the band'. 
Personally I think that old method results in better music.

I'm all for it and I too agree it should be with Sonar included plugins only. This way we can see, ummmm hear what other Sonarites can do with them.

I can see this idea as a 2 part exercise - firstly collaboration in the writing of a piece, and then the mixing.
 
So lets say for example someone sets up a Sonar template under a specific music genre. The template has say a maximum of 12 tracks set up in it. The tracks could be anything specific to the genre choosen but lets say we have drums, bass, 3 guitars, piano, 2 synth, vox, 2 bv's and a loop track. Twelve people nominate for each project to write and record one part on the template ie they nominate guitar 1 or bass or main vox etc etc. The project is saved as a bundle and maybe Dropboxed around to each project participant who then adds their part and uploads it again for the next person. It would be interesting to see how the piece develops as each part is written.
 
Once all parts have been written and recorded, it then goes to say 3 mix guru's who nominate for each project to take the tune and mold it into the finished product. We would then have 3 variations of collaboration for each project - it could get extremely interesting!!
 
This way, each "Community Project" would involve not only the talent pool of mixers out there but also the artists.
 
Obviously there would need to be a facilitator for each project to keep things on track and there would need to be guidelines in place like who starts each project? Does it start with a vocal, a melody part or does it start with a groove or just a guitar part? Also do the mixing dudes just use Sonar plugs etc etc. And to keep things ticking along the facilitator would need to ensure parts are recorded quickly and moved on to the next person.
 
Could be fun!! Hope this adds to the collective of ideas!!!
 
 
 
 

Interesting.  Question: Since so many different mixes of a song could be equally valid, would this be for fun with no winner?  Or would we all start with a mix that had a lot of issues and see who could do the best salvage job?
 
Either way, I would not win: I am a writer and wold never claim to be a world-class mixer.   Still, it could be fun!

Thanks for all the comments guys, but could we stay on the topic please. To do that review the first post.

I'm using this thread to gauge the level of interest in a "remix" competition. Remix will become defined by the members and their comments in this thread. So the important things are:
A) do you want to support a remix competition
B) how would you like to see the competition structured

Thanks.

A) yes happy to make small donation
B) 1 rule -> no rules
 
CW could perhaps include a project file in a Platinum update for users to practice with (or use some bits in their own music).
And maybe add a small competition to it (winners get some free download from the E-store).
Perhaps just start small/easy as a try-out.
For those who can't wait there's enough remixcomps out there...fe:
www.remixcomps.com
http://www.cambridge-mt.com/ms-mtk.htm

After reading the whole thread, I am interested.

Never remixed. Willing to try anything.

Mike I know you started this and it's your baby, run it like you want. But man, are there some great ideas here or what!!!

Like this idea. I would be happy with just a whole produced song and a copy of the lead vocal. But however it ends up being defined, I'd love to have a go.

millzy
I can see this idea as a 2 part exercise - firstly collaboration in the writing of a piece, and then the mixing.
 
So lets say for example someone sets up a Sonar template under a specific music genre. The template has say a maximum of 12 tracks set up in it. The tracks could be anything specific to the genre choosen but lets say we have drums, bass, 3 guitars, piano, 2 synth, vox, 2 bv's and a loop track. Twelve people nominate for each project to write and record one part on the template ie they nominate guitar 1 or bass or main vox etc etc. The project is saved as a bundle and maybe Dropboxed around to each project participant who then adds their part and uploads it again for the next person. It would be interesting to see how the piece develops as each part is written.
 
Once all parts have been written and recorded, it then goes to say 3 mix guru's who nominate for each project to take the tune and mold it into the finished product. We would then have 3 variations of collaboration for each project - it could get extremely interesting!!
 
This way, each "Community Project" would involve not only the talent pool of mixers out there but also the artists.
 
Obviously there would need to be a facilitator for each project to keep things on track and there would need to be guidelines in place like who starts each project? Does it start with a vocal, a melody part or does it start with a groove or just a guitar part? Also do the mixing dudes just use Sonar plugs etc etc. And to keep things ticking along the facilitator would need to ensure parts are recorded quickly and moved on to the next person.
 
Could be fun!! Hope this adds to the collective of ideas!!!
 
 
 
 

Hey millzy, that's sort of the idea. Can you provide a bit more structure to your idea. Obviously if some of us don't make the running everyone else will just happily wonder where the remix thread went.
The idea of the 2 aspects of song creation then a remix are pretty much what I suggested in one of my earlier posts #34. I think it would be a bit different to your run of the mill remix because there's lots of them around.
One idea that seems pretty consistent is using Sonar and Sonar plugins only, maybe even stretch it to be only Sonitus plugins as lots of folks aren't on Platinum or previously producer so don't have access to the top range plugins. Anyway I think if we could get the bones of a format together (that will work) were on our way.

Folks have mentioned Cakewalk doing this or that but no-one has shown their face to offer any support so I think we should go on our own. I've got plenty of storage space on Onedrive and could open up my home server with a website front end but think the my download speeds would be terrible especially with big audio files being uploaded and downloaded. MP3 for the initial create the song I guess and wav files for the remix.

Thanks millzy.