I've spent the last two hours making a mix cd. Anyone without an mp3 player will appreciate the ammount of work that needs to go into a proper mix cd.
To start, I create an empty playlist in iTunes, and I give it some sort of temporary name. I then go browse through the library of music I've imported recently (starting at the newest additions first). As I come to songs that I like or that are particularly memorable, I toss them haphazardly into the playlist. Since I import mostly full albums, I usually toss two or three songs from an album at a time...
If I'm designing the mix for someone else, I try to find tracks that I think they may like (or that I would like them to try out). My entire library is usually open in this instance, and the final track list depends entirely on the person.
Designing a mix CD for myself is an entirely different ballgame however. I listen to a few different styles of music, and a proper mix should contain a good selection of my newest favorites from the variety of genres that I'm interested in. Unless I am really into an old favorite, I try to stick to only my newest music. (That way the mix becomes something of a time capsule as well, illustrating what I was most excited about at this particular time.)
I can't tell you how many times I've forgotten about a band (or at least forgotten about my favorite songs by a band). I sometimes move to new bands so frequently that old favorites get left behind rather quickly. Old mixes can be a wonderful reminder of what I liked best at a certain time.
(For example... last November I was huge on the Arcade Fire, Interpol, Belle and Sebastian and the Unicorns. I've never listened to them as religeously as I did that month, but at least I've been able to go back to my favorites at any whim. And I do get these "whims" quit often...)
Generally, I'll keep adding "potential" songs to the temporary playlist until I've well exceeded the capacity of a normal CD. This eventually leads me to the next (hardest) step... trimming the list down to just under eighty minutes.
There's no direct method that I follow for trimming. However, I try to avoid duplicating single artists too often, and I do my best to keep the genre's varied. Longer songs that don't completely rock (too much repetition, long uninteresting solos, etc) get cut first as well. Obviously, this step takes the longest, because this is where the contents of the mix are finalized.
Once I have decided exactly what is going to be on the CD, I start to sort the tracks. It's important that the songs be interesting enough to keep me entertained while playing in any random order, but their also has to be enough order to the tracks so that I can find something if I'm looking for it.
Example; my mix tonight started with a comedy track that I need to play for a friend for a bet we're having. Then the first half of the CD is all the newest "indie/rock" stuff that I've been playing. Half way through I have the "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en" track, followed by a dance song with a haunting theme. The rest of the CD from there is other dance music.
This way I can find the comedy track I need to win the bet. I can listen to them in a random order and be pleased almost no matter what plays. But if I feel in the mood for rock... or if I feel in the mood for dance... i can jump to a portion of the cd and turn off random and exist in whatever genre my mood is asking for.
And the last step is renaming the playlist with some sort of mildly clever (or at least "identifying") name. Helps with the whole "time capsule" aspect of remembering what the CD was all about in the first place.
Oh, and then I have to burn it of course.
Anyways, this is probably lost on all you people with awesome mp3 players... but to me the mix cd is an art. And a good mix is very different from a bad mix, so it's an art form that is not to be taken too lightly!
To start, I create an empty playlist in iTunes, and I give it some sort of temporary name. I then go browse through the library of music I've imported recently (starting at the newest additions first). As I come to songs that I like or that are particularly memorable, I toss them haphazardly into the playlist. Since I import mostly full albums, I usually toss two or three songs from an album at a time...
If I'm designing the mix for someone else, I try to find tracks that I think they may like (or that I would like them to try out). My entire library is usually open in this instance, and the final track list depends entirely on the person.
Designing a mix CD for myself is an entirely different ballgame however. I listen to a few different styles of music, and a proper mix should contain a good selection of my newest favorites from the variety of genres that I'm interested in. Unless I am really into an old favorite, I try to stick to only my newest music. (That way the mix becomes something of a time capsule as well, illustrating what I was most excited about at this particular time.)
I can't tell you how many times I've forgotten about a band (or at least forgotten about my favorite songs by a band). I sometimes move to new bands so frequently that old favorites get left behind rather quickly. Old mixes can be a wonderful reminder of what I liked best at a certain time.
(For example... last November I was huge on the Arcade Fire, Interpol, Belle and Sebastian and the Unicorns. I've never listened to them as religeously as I did that month, but at least I've been able to go back to my favorites at any whim. And I do get these "whims" quit often...)
Generally, I'll keep adding "potential" songs to the temporary playlist until I've well exceeded the capacity of a normal CD. This eventually leads me to the next (hardest) step... trimming the list down to just under eighty minutes.
There's no direct method that I follow for trimming. However, I try to avoid duplicating single artists too often, and I do my best to keep the genre's varied. Longer songs that don't completely rock (too much repetition, long uninteresting solos, etc) get cut first as well. Obviously, this step takes the longest, because this is where the contents of the mix are finalized.
Once I have decided exactly what is going to be on the CD, I start to sort the tracks. It's important that the songs be interesting enough to keep me entertained while playing in any random order, but their also has to be enough order to the tracks so that I can find something if I'm looking for it.
Example; my mix tonight started with a comedy track that I need to play for a friend for a bet we're having. Then the first half of the CD is all the newest "indie/rock" stuff that I've been playing. Half way through I have the "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en" track, followed by a dance song with a haunting theme. The rest of the CD from there is other dance music.
This way I can find the comedy track I need to win the bet. I can listen to them in a random order and be pleased almost no matter what plays. But if I feel in the mood for rock... or if I feel in the mood for dance... i can jump to a portion of the cd and turn off random and exist in whatever genre my mood is asking for.
And the last step is renaming the playlist with some sort of mildly clever (or at least "identifying") name. Helps with the whole "time capsule" aspect of remembering what the CD was all about in the first place.
Oh, and then I have to burn it of course.
Anyways, this is probably lost on all you people with awesome mp3 players... but to me the mix cd is an art. And a good mix is very different from a bad mix, so it's an art form that is not to be taken too lightly!
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
nikonjustice:
sounds like your mix philosophy is pretty close to mine! 
colette79:
I'm never too good at this because I can never decide what to include. Also, NJ has this crazy program where you can blend the beginnings and endings of tracks, and I don't know how it works.