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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | DanAbnrml9@aol.com |
| Subject | Re: the art of the mix |
| Date | Tue, 11 Feb 2003 13:01:47 -0500 |
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>I'm really not looking forward to discovering that all the songs I like
>are pretty much the same song. :)
I have actually found that the best way to turn someone on to new music is through a well-assembled mix like this. My roommate has similar tastes to me, but is far less adventurous when it comes to finding the stuff himself. He also doesn't necessarily glom on to much just because I happen to be playing it and he happens to be home. So over the years, I've made a mix every few months of the most killer cuts of the past few months and made elaborate art, etc... I'm currently on the 20th one. These mixes have turned him onto tons of acts, including many that are now amongst his favorites, and in the process I've gotten a lot of feedback about what can make a good mix.
Personally I've found that:
1) Too much sameyness buries the songs. For example if you have a run of straight-up power-pop and you bury, say, a Model Rockets song in the middle, its probably not going to do anything for the listener. And that's too bad because the Model Rockets are great! But if you sandwich it between two things that are different but somehow complimentary then it works a lot better. That said, I would definitely separate songs with a similar tempo that are in a similar key, unless the POINT is that they compliment each other well.
2) Try to build the mix to have a nice pacing. Start with a good opener and let things build for about 1/3 of the way through, kick the tempo way up and then toss in a ballad. The middle is a great place to mix things up--though not too much, you don't want to LOSE the listener--before you build things up again for a nice finale. Close with something that really demands your attention (a really strong ballad, a charging rocker, or something that's really oddball and off-kilter).
3) As a personal rule, I keep the mixes to one song per artist. I don't necessarily recommend this to others but I've found that the mixes are generally the better for it unless the explicit purpose is to introduce a select handful of artists and you're really just making a sampler of their work.
4) Think of albums you enjoy. How do they play? I like Fountains of Wayne's "Utopia Parkway" a lot, for example, so I think of how that plays--where does the tempo go, where are the highlights? It's funny how you can restructure the "feeling" of one album you love without actually using any of the material from it.
That's all I can think of right now. I love mix CDs. I want to go make one now.
--Jason
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