History:Object Model/Representing Remixes

Thoughts on Representing Remixes in the ObjectModel

Remixes make the layers of the ObjectModel between the ../PerformanceObject and the ../TrackObject a royal pain. Actually remixes would be the only reason to use the ../MixObject at all.

The whole issue can be greatly simplified if a remix is seen as a performance. If we define a remix of being a ../PerformanceObject of its own, this has the following consequences:

• A ../MasterObject belongs to exactly one ../PerformanceObject. Anything that combines multiple performances is a remix and therefore a performance of its own again.
• The ../MixObject can be merged with the ../MasterObject. Defining the boundaries between these two objects was close to impossible.
• Remixes can be modelled by AdvancedRelationships from the ../MasterObjects that get remixed to the ../PerformanceObject they get remixed in.

So things have becom simple again. Good sign.

But there are also negative consequences: If you have no differentiation between recording and mix and every remix becomes an own performance then you have to relate the performing artists to all of them - which was the reason again to originally build several layers.

Hmm, maybe we should clarify what a performing artists is in the sentence above: First, let's get straight that only the ../PerformanceObject and the ../TrackObject are related to artists (how exactly we do not know yet). The ../MasterObject is not related to artists. That means that a remix can be represented as a performance done by the remixer, that combines different masters (which in turn are based on performances of their own). The original performers of the remixed masters are not related to the performance representing the remix, but only to the performances that the remixed masters are based on. Uh that was a complicated sentence. Basically we have a concatenation of performance (1)--(1-m) master (0-m)--(0-m) performance (1)--(1-m) master, etc as much as we like.

The performing or remixing artists are all related to their appropriate level of performance. No confusion here.

At the end of this chain, we have a ../TrackObject. This is the point where things get confused, but this has nothing to do with the way we represent remixes. The confusion comes from the ../TrackObject!

People expect the properties of a track (the TrackTitle and the displayed TrackArtist) to document in a condensed form what we have ripped into pieces with the ObjectModel. There probably is no simple way to condense this information, but this is not a problem of this way of representing remixes.