The future of the compilation CD/mix tape

Everyone's made one for someone or at least gotten one from someone at SOME point: the mixtape/mix CD.




For those of you who love giving and getting these little masterpieces, I have the following questions:

* Which is your favorite format? CD-R or are you still rocking the old skool blank cassettes?

* Have you made someone a mix on a USB flash drive? They actually make flash drives that look like cassette mix tapes, for this very purpose.

* Are there any other new-fangled, fancy-pants methods of making a music mix for someone which you use, have tried, or want to try?

TELL ME NOW.

Aaaah! Nice!

I stick to cd-r. I don't think most of my friends have cassette player anymore.

If I'm really in the mood I add a decent or funny cover, but usually just a basic tracklisting.

I don't understand usb/mp3 as a gift. People do send me this, a mp3-cd chuckfull of mp3's or an album or song through mail. This rarely makes me go get the album and I seldom play the thing.

I like the thought that's been put in a compilation, the selected tracks, the order, how they vibe together. Then it says something about a person and towards a person.

High-Fidelity rules: Never an artist twice, unless it's a gimmick. Start off with a great song and then a song that's even better, before slowing it down a bit.

I think all of my cassette players are dead

The problem I see with it all is once you get it on your HD, the point is lost. I do prefer getting Mixed CD's like your Xmas ones.

well, i've been thinking a lot about USB flash drive mixes. i think i'm going to try a couple out on a few unsuspecting guinea pig friends over the summer and see how it goes.

there are so many cute/funky USB flash drive designs that it could be an interesting idea to simply load the mix to the drive, and include the liner note artwork as an additional file. that way, you wouldn't even have to limit yourself to CD liner note format. you could create a powerpoint presentation describing all the songs on your mix if you wanted!

plus, if you were preparing this for someone with an iPod, you could include icons for them to use when selecting album art for your compilation, and provide them with personalization geared specifically toward their iPod, which might make it more attractive for the recipient if that's how they choose to listen to most of their music.

a big part of me is with you guys, though...there's just something FUN about putting together a mix CD, even if there are more fancy-schmancy, up-to-date ways of putting together comps. still, i wanna give the flash drive mix a shot, just for chuckles.

I just skip the physical medium completely and .rar up a few files.

Of course you don't usually want to bombard most people with hours and hours of recommended listening so it's a good idea to just keep your zipped file of mp3s to contain enough to burn on cdr anyway, which gives people the option.

Cinnie said:

Anxiety said:

Cinnie said:

I just skip the physical medium completely and .rar up a few files.

Of course you don't usually want to bombard most people with hours and hours of recommended listening so it's a good idea to just keep your zipped file of mp3s to contain enough to burn on cdr anyway, which gives people the option.

yeah, i'm totally not interested in tossing someone a mix of my favorite 600 songs, though i'm terribly tempted.

i DO however like to put together "bowie 101" compilations for people, which ends up being my own little mini-homemade bowie box set. it'd be a lot easier to dump all that into a USB drive and make a funky little guide to the music on MSWord or something.

Cinnie said:

Anxiety said:

yeah, i'm totally not interested in tossing someone a mix of my favorite 600 songs, though i'm terribly tempted.

i DO however like to put together "bowie 101" compilations for people, which ends up being my own little mini-homemade bowie box set. it'd be a lot easier to dump all that into a USB drive and make a funky little guide to the music on MSWord or something.

I can't believe you want to add a spreadsheet to your usb mixes

If you can meet in-person, I still believe cd-r's are the best way to go.

One of the funnest mixtape swaps I was in.. a group of about ten people each made a mix cdr for everyone and wrote track by track notes.

I mean, I made one mix that went to ten people. And got nine mix cds back.

i used to do these all the time
i'd include remixes that i created myself by using a dual-cassette recorder
i'd try to match songs by keys -- same key, or a major's minor, etc.
if radio stations today played their songs in order like a mixtape...
wouldn't that be the coolest thing?
seems like everything is on a random shuffle these days, and no dj in sight
"Mix Tape Radio"

There's just something very satisfying about perfecting a compilation or mix CD. I mean, honestly, I can go through a whole 100 CD-R spindle just trying to perfect a single disc or home-made box set. Although at a certain point, it does start to feel a little icky/pshycotic. I actually haven't made one in many, many, many months. It feels good, because it can be an avoidance crutch for me, plus I'm not really listening to my music that way anymore. But I should post the tracklists/artwork for some of my comps. I'm fucking awesome at it. It's funny, though, after I've worn myself out working on a compilation and gotten it perfect, I don't listen to it very long. I guess I enjoy making them more than I enjoy listening? That or I'm just burnt out on the whole thing

I used to do the same thing with cassettes, and at the time it gave me the same satisfaction and obssessive/compulsive feeling. In retrospect, tapes seem really f'ing annoying.


Not sure about this flash drive thing. Seems weird. But then, I resisted the idea of an iPod too, and I can't live without it now. Maybe flash drives are the next step in the evolution of the mixtape. Or they could just be something that modern ways of doing this stuff skipped over and they're completely unnecessary. I might try one, though I guess you kind of have to be at a computer to listen, right?

I actually compile "mix CD's" for a living!

Well, the majority of our customers have gone over to an automated hard-drive format now (like an iPod but programmable and properly licensed for public use)


So yeah, I am sick of the damn things!

On a personal level, I actually prefer to listen to one artist/ band at a time.

I have spent ages compiling mix discs for myself only to discard them after the first listen.

Always always CD though, never tape these days. Those things are dead and buried for me.

rocknrolldave said:

R3V said:

rocknrolldave said:

I actually compile "mix CD's" for a living!

please tell me how i can make a living doing this?!

This topic is going make me get back into putting together compilations,being a fan of music I always enjoyed putting together a favorite mix to groove to.

Snap said:

i used to do these all the time
i'd include remixes that i created myself by using a dual-cassette recorder
i'd try to match songs by keys -- same key, or a major's minor, etc.
if radio stations today played their songs in order like a mixtape...
wouldn't that be the coolest thing?
seems like everything is on a random shuffle these days, and no dj in sight
"Mix Tape Radio"

R3V said:

Sander said:

Cinnie said:

sextonseven said:

I prefer CD-Rs over cassette tapes any day but you can't correct mistakes on a CD-R. Once you record it, it's there forever. There is so much manipulation you can do in rewinding a cassette, going back to the part where the mix didn't flow correctly or where the beat from one song got away from the other song and messed the mix up. With a cassette, you can go back and use the pause button to start re-recording over where you messed up rather than going back and doing the whole mix over again and possibly messing up in the same spot again. I have thrown so many CD-Rs away because of making a mistake in the mix.

I've learned to make the mix on a cassette tape first so I can correct the mistakes, then record the perfected mix onto a CD-R from the cassette tape. Only one problem though, when side 1 ends when recording the tape, it disturbs my train of thought when I'm on a roll making a good mix. It's hard to get back in that mood again and get that good feeling back once I've been interrupted. On a CD-R, there is 80 minutes of recording time that doesn't stop until the end of the CD-R. It would be perfect if CD-Rs could be manipulated like cassettes.

Anxiety said:

sextonseven said:

I did this recently with an ex-coworker who rounded up 40 people for this project. Everyone sent him a disc of ten obscure songs that we loved. He then compiled them all onto DVD-Rs of 400 songs with self portraits and liner notes that everyone wrote for their tracks about why they thought their songs were so great and shipped them out to everyone. He called it 'The Great Unheard'.

It would be cool if there was some way to do that here.

i would *LOVE* to be part of an org mixtape/comp cd exchange project.

Anxiety said:

Snap said:

i used to do these all the time
i'd include remixes that i created myself by using a dual-cassette recorder
i'd try to match songs by keys -- same key, or a major's minor, etc.
if radio stations today played their songs in order like a mixtape...
wouldn't that be the coolest thing?
seems like everything is on a random shuffle these days, and no dj in sight
"Mix Tape Radio"

a lot of the time, though, when i make a mix for someone it's anything but random. it might have a narrative that only i could explain, but it might be about a certain time in my life or about a certain mood or kind of energy i want to capture for someone, or it could be about sounds that make me feel better when i'm stressed, or just a bunch of songs that remind me of someone or a cycle of songs that i feel tell a story that i think the recipient would understand. rarely is it just a bunch of random songs cobbled together, you know? i think that's the joy of getting a mix tape - figuring out why the person decided on a certain combination of songs and what went through their heads to put this thing together for you. usually it's not all that deep, but sometimes it is...and even when it's not that deep, it's a nice window into that person's mind/soul/personality.

Anxiety said:

sextonseven said:

I did this recently with an ex-coworker who rounded up 40 people for this project. Everyone sent him a disc of ten obscure songs that we loved. He then compiled them all onto DVD-Rs of 400 songs with self portraits and liner notes that everyone wrote for their tracks about why they thought their songs were so great and shipped them out to everyone. He called it 'The Great Unheard'.

It would be cool if there was some way to do that here.

i would *LOVE* to be part of an org mixtape/comp cd exchange project.

lol did ya'll forget what I do here?

Anxiety said:

R3V said:

Not sure about this flash drive thing. Seems weird. But then, I resisted the idea of an iPod too, and I can't live without it now. Maybe flash drives are the next step in the evolution of the mixtape. Or they could just be something that modern ways of doing this stuff skipped over and they're completely unnecessary. I might try one, though I guess you kind of have to be at a computer to listen, right?

you have to be at a computer to access the mix, but you could easily load it into an iPod or whatever other mp3 player you own, probably with less headache than it takes to load a comp CD. i mean, with a flash drive, you already have all the songs labelled, and you can even include customized cover art to load on the iPod. half the time, when you make someone a comp CD and they try to load it to their iPod, they have to manually enter the track titles. so that's one coup.

another coup is, with a flash drive, the person can dump the song files on their hard drive and then hey! they have a flash drive to do with as they please - hopefully they'll use it to make a comp of their own, and return it to me, but it's not as sacriligious to re-use a flash drive as it is to record over a cassette compilation. it's very green-friendly, i guess. you can just keep recycling the media and using the same flash drive to send comps back and forth. ideally, it sounds like a neat idea.

i think the challenge with a flash drive mix is RESTRAINT. depending on the size of the drive, you have room for lots and lots and lots of music, but really you don't want to go much over an hour or two. BUT THE SPACE IS THERE TO ADD MORE. you don't wanna overwhelm someone with your compilation, so you have that to contend with. but like i said earlier, if you want to do a catalog overview kind of mix, like i do for folks sometimes with bowie music, it'd be cool to have all that music one one handy little flash drive mix. plus i can add photos, liner notes, and other goodies to it. so the extra storage space can be a good thing, depending on your purpose.

i dunno...i'm gonna give it a shot. i might hate it or i might find a whole new creative playground for making comps for people this way. and my recipients may hate it! i'd love to know if anyone else has gotten a mix in this format, and what they thought of it.

Good God, this thread took off.

Question one: Does the mix in mix-tape actually suggest the music is mixed (blended) into each other like Vainandy implied? This I don't do, I compile.

Question two: I LOVE the idea of 'the great unheard'. Perfect title as well! I'd like to be apart of it. And actually it might not even take too much time does it? People send you ten songs with a certain theme, plus some info on why these tracks are great and a photowhore picture of their left toenail. Compile it onto a dvd or make available on a website, with an extra document file. Mmh, thinking about it...

Question three: RocknRollDave: So, tell me, where exactly do you live? Thing is, there might be similar jobs where I hail from... Those compilations you make, do they consist of 'yesterday - on harp mix' and 'hotel california - and-you-thought-the-regular-version-was-easy-listening-remix'?

Question four: Sexton, I know you're pulling my leg, but really those rules are holy!

Question five: reaaalllly loving the 'org-exchange' idea. How much would it cost to send a flashdrive across the ocean?

.sp.
[Edited 5/14/08 14:27pm]

What is the capacity of this flashdrive?

Anxiety said: