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Rules for making a mix cd:


Ombre Vivante

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Hey, anyone remember that speech in the book (or movie) High Fidelity about mix tapes? Well, this is the thread where you can add or break more rules, include tips, discuss cd burning and cover art software, etc.

Myself, I've been doing this as if I was living in the stone age. I put songs into mix and burn. No cover art, no liner notes, no nuthin'. One common problem I seem to have by doing this is that I sometimes end up with songs that were recorded at super-high volume and others at really low volume. Is there an easy way to combat this problem?

:beatnik:

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I sometimes end up with songs that were recorded at super-high volume and others at really low volume. Is there an easy way to combat this problem?

Yep, you're looking for an Audio Normalizer. I don't have any specific suggestions for one, but I guess google can help you find a good freeware tool for that :)

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To me, making a tape is like writing a letter — there's a lot of erasing and rethinking and starting again. A good compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do. You've got to kick off with a corker, to hold the attention (I started with "Got to Get You Off My Mind", but then realized that she might not get any further than track one, side one if I delivered what she wanted straightaway, so I buried it in the middle of side two), and then you've got to up it a notch, or cool it a notch, and you can't have white music and black music together, unless the white music sounds like black music, and you can't have two tracks by the same artist side by side, unless you've done the whole thing in pairs and...oh, there are loads of rules.

:beatnik:

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- I've done two consecutive tracks by the same band: the band has more than one lead singer or had a guest vocalist.

- I've done two consecutive tracks by the same artist: one with a band and one solo.

- I've also done two tracks by the same band: one with vocals and one instrumental.

I think these are the exceptions to the rules. I wouldn't really put two songs by the same band or artist in the same mix unless the mix is comprised of two songs by each and every artist or band. The latest compilation I'm making doesn't start off with a corker; it's actually quite slow. However, I tried to maintain a theme and make it go from one kind of tempo to another. The first ten songs are either a bit of a downer or sound slower, a bit Folksy. The problem is the Wednesday song - it's too freakin' LOUD. So it goes from a soft sound to a shocker right off the bat. I also don't like the Beck and Asobi Seksu songs because they go into weird noisy interludes that don't fit into the overall sound I want. I'm thinking of switching the order for Japan and Alphaville to go before Air and place the Jessica Harper and The The songs after 10,000 Maniacs. Oh, there are loads of rules...

01. "Lovely Lauren" by Oliver Jones (piano Jazz)

02. "Red Roses For A Blue Lady" as performed by Bert Kaempfert And His Orchestra (Orchestral Pop)

03. "Happy Birthday, Love" by Springs (Soft Rock)

04. "Days Like This" by Van Morrison (Singer-Songwriter)

05. "These Are Days" by 10,000 Maniacs (Alternative Rock)

06. "All Tomorrow's Parties" as performed by Japan (New Romantic)

07. "Forever Young" by Alphaville (New Wave)

08. "Sunday Sun" by Beck (Alternative Rock)

09. "Rainy Days And Mondays" by The Carpenters (Singer-Songwriter Pop)

10. "Tuesday Afternoon (Forever Afternoon)" by The Moody Blues (Classic Rock)

11. "Wednesday Week" by The Undertones (Post-Punk/New Wave)

12. "Thursday's Child" by David Bowie (Pop Rock)

13. "Friday, I'm In Love" by The Cure (Pop/New Wave)

14. "Saturday Night" by The Bay City Rollers (Pop Rock)

15. "Special To Me" by Jessica Harper (Folk Rock)

16. "This Is The Day" by The The (Post-Punk/New Wave)

17. "Sing Tomorrow's Praise" by Asobi Seksu (Indie Rock)

18. "Remember" by Air (Electronic Pop)

19. "Lauren Caught My Eye" by The Crash (Pop Rock)

20. one second blank

21. one second blank

22. one second blank

23. "One More Time" by Daft Punk (Electronic Pop)

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BA, did you put a hidden track on your mixtape? That's good stuff.

If we're talking about making a mixtape for someone special, here are my suggestions:

- Check the Songs that are Commonly Misinterpreted list to make sure you don't do something stupid.

- Keep it upbeat. Easy on The Cure.

- Slip in a few obscure songs that you think she would like, but surround them with more popular stuff.

- Include a personalized message, meaning audio of you saying something about her and the tape. You can open with this, or put it somewhere in the middle. Most computers have built in microphones, and that's good enough. Or you can send me your script and I'll voice them for you. I used to do answering machine messages for my friends.

- Put in a Stevie Wonder song, just not this one.

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I have a rough draft of the compilation, which is what I posted above, but it isn't final. It's really a mix of downbeat all the way to upbeat. The lyrics are mostly funny and life-affirming, but I felt I had to include a few sad songs in order to provide a decent contrast and crescendo. The Cure song is actually very radio-friendly (I'd never include "A Strange Day," for example) and I think it sounds alright when placed before The Bay City Rollers' "Saturday Night."

I don't put in any messages into mixtapes and cds. However, I used to spell out "MERRY CHRISTMAS," "HAPPY BIRTHDAY," "MANY HAPPY RETURNS," "HAPPY ST VALENTINE," names, and other things by using the beginning letter of the song titles to line up vertically (all mixtape rules still apply). This time around, I just inserted one-second blank tracks to push the track number to "23" (the person's day of birth). Had I inserted more blank time, then the last track would be considered "hidden"... which I guess I can by placing 5 second blanks :beatnik:

Hmmm. The personal message sounds intriguing and cool.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Anyone know how to include data into a mix cds? As in, how does one include song and band names into a mix cd? Usually, every song comes out as "title 1," "title 2," "title 3," and so forth. What proggy can one use to do this better? Also, programmes where one could make a cd cover or somethin' would be cool to know about :beatnik:

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Currently, I just rip and burn with WMP because it's simple. However, the result is less than desirable. I have Roxio installed in the computer, but I have never used it. It looks like it also has the volume leveling function, so I might give that a shot. Yeah, so, basically, I'm looking for:

1. Real volume leveling across tracks.

2. Include song titles/text into a mix cd.

3. Ways of making a cover for a cd case (I suppose I could just cut out a white piece of paper and just draw the whole thing out).

:beatnik:

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  • 2 months later...

I've made many mix CDs (and, in earlier years, cassettes) for family and friends as gifts in the past. Sometimes I simply write out the song titles in a fancy free fashion but on other occasions I put some effort in where I'll write them up in excel or word with an attractive font and colours and also include photos of the artist, ie, actually making a CD cover and back. Once I made a Stevie Wonder CD for my wife where I had photos on the front, one in the middle under the clear plastic and one on the back as a watermark behind the song titles. It can be a lot of fun to do!

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I used my crappy Roxio: no volume control, but I could get rid of the 2-second interlude between each song and, thus, I was able to fit one more song into the cd. Even though it didn't follow my OCD way of arranging things, there is an intended order by way of sound and tempo - nothing upbeat follows anything downbeat, and I didn't include songs by the same band or artist. Transitional songs have similar qualities to the songs that precede and follow them. The result being that it starts with a Jazz piano instrumental and ends with an Electronic Pop tune. I included 20 songs and 6 blank tracks. It looked something like this:

SIDE 1

01. "Lovely Lauren" - Oliver Jones

02. "Red Roses For A Blue Lady" - Bert Kaempfert And His Orchestra

03. "Happy Birthday, Love" - Springs

04. "Days Like This" - Van Morrison

05. "These Are Days" - 10,000 Maniacs

06. "Special To Me" - Jessica Harper

07. "This Is The Day" - The The

08. "Changes" - David Bowie

09. "Strange Little Girl" - The Stranglers

10. "Everything Will Flow" - Suede

11. "More Than This" - Roxy Music

12. "She Rides (Vocal Version)" - Soul Ballet/Rick Kelly

13. "The Captain Of Her Heart" - Double

SIDE 2

14. "Steppin' Out" - Joe Jackson

15. "Temptation" - NewOrder

16. "Forever Young" - Alphaville

17. "Remember" - Air

18. "Lauren Caught My Eye" - The Crash

19. "This Is Tomorrow" - Saint Etienne

20.

21.

22.

23. "The Look Of Love, Part 4" - ABC

24.

25.

26. "One More Time" - Daft Punk

For a cover, I did what you said and just measured the sizes for front and back, but then gave up on the back and didn't go with the sides of the disc case. I thought, "Hey, I could hand design this thing." BIG MISTAKE. I don't know how to draw anything! So I ended up looking for an image of a rose with a white background. I printed that in colour and cut it in the size of the front cover. I used the same image for the back cover, except I made a transparency of it and cut a white piece of paper and handwrote the titles (it looks like the image is a background, but it's a foreground). Cheep, but effective for its purpose. I rather liked the way it looked and sounded :beatnik:

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  • 3 years later...

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