The Mix Tape

I've always loved making compilation albums. For my sixth (or so) birthday I got a black boom box that contained a CD player, tape player/recorder, and FM/AM tuner. As well as recording my own radio show (which I had previously done on our family's answering machine), I made a lot of mix tapes for my family and friends. In particular, I remember making my dad a tape that played Weird Al Yanchovich's "Spam" (a parody of R.E.M.'s "Stand") over and over as a birthday present. Now, I make a lot of mix CD's, still not knowing what to call them. I am currently working on my girlfriends 11th mix.

In High Fidelity, John Cusack's character gives lengthy monologues on the "right" way to go about it, saying something like "It's a very delicate thing... You're using other people's poetry to express yourself, and that can be dangerous." He goes on to explain how the first track needs to really "grab their attention," the second track needs to "kick it up another notch," and then the third track needs to "take it down a notch." I am paraphrasing (badly), but I agree with him one hundred percent. Making a "mix tape" (I usually do CDs this day, but have no such snappy term with which to call them) is an art form, as Cusack points out, and "there are a lot of rules." I all to often have heard a mix tape some friend has made (for a girl, a birthday, a party, whatever) that is a simple, heterogeneous trash heap of their "favorite songs," i.e. there is no flow, no or not enough attention paid to the selection or more so the arrangement.

Why would you make a mix? Often times mixes are created for a specific instance: a party, a wedding, a funeral, etc. Also mixes are commonly created along the lines of a certain theme or tone: songs about love, songs from the 60’s, slow jazz songs, music to make out to, etc. I feel like mixes are a fantastic gift for holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. In these instances, especially when the mix is for a close friend, a mix tape says “I spent time making something just for you!,” which everyone loves to know. In addition, the recipient, being that you two like similar music, might actually use their present!

How do you make a mix? I could probably transcribe some kind of step by step guide to my approach at compiling mixes, but I don't really see why I should. That sounds hard. Plus, there is no concrete rule system that fits. Like mixing drinks, mixing CD's (tapes, whatever) is an art form, not a science. Sometimes a splash is 15ml, sometimes its more, sometimes its less.

However, I think I can put down something more abstract and general. The tracks, the songs themselves are solid. They cannot be altered or doctored in anyway. However, they are (hopefully) not all the same, that is to say, they are not congruent copies of each other; they are not like a pile of bricks. They are all different shapes, sizes, textures. You did not create them, you found them (assuming it is all unoriginal music), thus the songs are like naturally occurring rocks. Some are huge and hollow, some are tiny and grainy. Whereas with bricks it does not matter what goes where (as they are designed to fit together), these rocks were not designed with the other rocks in mind. You have to carefully choose where you place them. Which rock can be the base to support another? Which rocks are small enough to fit here? Which rocks can fill in this space? And which have the right look, the right shimmer or luster, the right shape? Sometimes you love a certain rock, but it just can't work within the structure, so you have to save it for another time. Sometimes you don't love a certain rock, but it is just the right size to fit in a certain space. On top of all of this, you are not making a flat wall, as you would with the bricks. The creation is something more distinct, a unique sculpture designed for the rocks, whereas the bricks were designed for the wall. Hmmm... I'm actually starting to want to write a guide to mix-taping. Maybe I will...

Some Guidelines:

Once again, these techniques are not essential. They are not really rules, they are just habits I have a developed that I think make for a good mix. I will write them authoritatively, but take them with a grain of salt. Once again: art form, not science.

Guidelines 1-3 / Choosing your music

1.) Unless you are setting out to create a greatest hits compilation, a single musician should only have one song per album. The whole point is to arrange a variety of different music into a single work. This is one of my most solemn rules, though I have broken it a handful of times. Sometimes I have used multiple bands containing the same musicians (The Magnetic Fields and The 6ths, for instance, are both bands of Stephin Merritt). Still, I try to avoid this all together.

2.) Use up most of the CD. Generally, a CD-R or CD-RW (which I would recommend against using if it is a present because that makes your artistry re-workable) is 74 to 80 minutes long. Usually, I shoot to make a mix over an hour long. Bands put out short albums all the time (I feel like people are still stuck on the 44 minute length of an LP) and I just don’t think that is enough music. If you are drawing from a large enough body and variety of music, and hour’s worth of music should be easily entertaining. Plus, I feel like mixes are a good way to encourage people to discover new music. An hour gives you roughly 20 songs, thus 20 different artists, so the audience has a lot to choose from. I have nearly always followed this rule, but I have been considering lately that a shorter mix might create a very different effect, as would an even longer mix (say a double album). It all depends what your goal is.

3.) Selecting the music itself is probably the hardest step to guideline. Once again, themes (love, baseball, high school, etc.) and tones (sad songs, upbeat songs, etc.) as well as styles (jazz, rap, folk, etc.) and other specificities can be criteria from which to base a mix. Another approach can be to come up with a message (I’m so hot for you, I’m sad today, I love our country, etc.) and chose songs to fill your conceived frame. Most often I take both of these notions and disregard them. What usually happens is I’ll be listening to some song and say to myself “Hey, I bet [so and so (as the expression goes)] would really dig this tune!” and I put it in a playlist. With the creation of a playlist, I then have in mind that I should be on the look for other songs that that person would like. However, I usually don’t go searching at first. For several weeks, sometimes months, I let the songs find and then dump them in the playlist. Sometimes I have too many, sometimes not enough. In the case of the latter, when I’m getting ready to turn the playlist into something more substantial, I go searching to find some other songs I think the other person would like (and that I usually like as well). I do pick some songs based on those specific criteria listed above (theme, tone, style), for instance, on one mix I chose six different songs with the word “time” in the title, but I do not let these criteria become the governing force behind my decisions. It is a lot of trial and error. Sometimes I love a song but it just seems to conflict with the others on the playlist (often times because the style is too similar) and I shelve it to be used later. I really cannot say what to chose, but you know when you have an album and every song on it is a good one? That’s what you’re trying to do, except it gets more complicated then that when you begin to arrange the tracks.

Guidelines 4-7 / Arranging the Tracks

4.) Pay careful attention to the transitions between songs. This is really tricky and what I probably spend the most time on. The transition from one track to the next makes a huge difference, in my opinion. Strategically placing one song in front of another can bring out ‘flavor’ in the latter. A song fading out slowly followed by a song fading in slowly has a very different effect than following with a song that starts suddenly and loudly. I can’t cite any rule for this process, but just keeping in mind the importance of transitions should help you create a good flow within your mix. I think one of the biggest problems with other mixes I’ve heard is that transitions were not considered at all. This commonly determines where I will place a song within the track list.

5.) Creating a flow among the songs is essentially taking the same principals of structuring transitions and applying it to a larger scale. If you have chosen a variety of music, tones and styles, instrumentation, and so on may differ greatly from song to song. Some might be fast rock music, some slow acoustic ballads, some spoken word, some 80’s pop music. Organizing the songs depends heavily on there similarities and differences. To show how I generally organize, I will make a diagram!

/ / / - songs that go up; fast, catchy, danceable, etc.

\ \ \ - songs that go down; slower, often sadder, elongate breathing cycles, more contemplation needed, etc.

~ ~ ~ - songs that go out; that is, “out there,” the weirder, less conventional songs that break heavily, like spoken word or experimental music, etc.

First of all, I get all of the alike together:

/ / / / / / / / / / \ \ \ \ \ \ \ ~ ~ ~ [I do gather them on more specific criteria as well; for instance, all the blues songs together, all the female singers together, etc.

Like I said, I don’t like to many similar things together. I don’t want this.

/ / / / / / / / / / ~ ~ ~ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
But I don’t want continual rise and fall either. Than can wear a person out.

~/\/\/\/\~/\/\/\/\/~ I’m already worn out!

I want some gradual movements.



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/ \ ~~~ beauitful!