Game lets users turn beat around

Ever wanted to combine the vocals from "Call Me Maybe" with the guitar from The Jackson 5's "I Want You Back"? With a new game, Boston-based music video game giant Harmonix -- makers of the iconic Rock Band franchise -- you can add these two songs, and hopefully better combinations, together, to make your own mash-ups using a smartphone, a high-tech gameboard and deck of cards. "There's a feeling you get when you hold the cards in your hand and slap it down on the board, you transform into a music maker, you feel like a DJ," said Steve Janiak, Harmonix' chief executive, during an interview at PAX East last night. "You're in control of the mix in a way you wouldn't feel if you were just doing it on a screen." The new game, Dropmix, lets players combine the vocals of one song with the bass line from another and add the drums from a third song to make an entirely new tune. When it is released later this year, the game will include current hits from Bruno Mars, The Chainsmokers and Ed Sheeran, as well as classics like The Jackson 5, Run-D.M.C and Barbra Streisand.