continuous mixes

[Ayyax]

Has anyone ever done a continuous mix of synthpop-type songs? I recently completed one but have trouble with the burn process. I seperated each song into a track and and burned them using "0-second gaps" though I still get a glitch between songs. I could just burn the whole mix as one big wav file but where's the fun in that? I used Sonic Foundry's Acid DJ to do this and it was a long process but is very rewarding to listen to all these different songs in a mix. For anyone interesting my track listing goes something like this:

Blur - Girls and Boys (PSB Mix)
Neuropa - Near to Me
Electronic - Until the End of Time
Saint Etienne - He's on the Phone
Wolfsheim - Once in a Lifetime
Devision - Dinner Without Grace
Mesh - Trust You
Moenia - Regreso A Casa
Pet Shop Boys - For Your Own Good
And One - MovieStar
Anything Box - You Make me Feel
Club 8 - Missing You
Dare 2 b difrent - a world of love
Iris - annie...
Lightning Seeds - Life's too short
Distain! - Remote Control
Eventide - Dancing in Vain
Children Within - Efermeris
Blue October - Incoming

[Synapse]

I'm not sure that I understand what you're doing. Let me see if I can help in some way.

1. Are you trying to take a bunch of separate songs and seamlessly get them on a CD with no "dead space" in between?

Or are you

2. Beat mixing everything and just trying to get them all on the CD with track markers in between?

The only way that I know how to get your mix CD to keep from clicking when it hits the track change is by doing the following:

1. If you're taking a bunch of songs and trying to compile each one separately on a CD without beat mixing them, you need to fade the edges. Meaning that you will need to set your volume from 0% ramping up to 100% within 2 milliseconds of the beginning of the track. Then repeat this process in reverse at the end of the track. That way you will have enough silence that when the files meet together they won't click.

2. If you are beat mixing the files together, just export all the tracks together as one .wav or .aiff file and use Sound Forge CD Architect to place all of your track markers.

These are the only two ways that I'm aware of.

Any questions?

[And_Juan]

Hell, I was wondering about the same thing...I have several mixes that are longer than the cd-rs I have....and want to make them shorter without turning them into humongous wav files...just keeping them in mp3 format while I'm editing them.


any suggestions?

[Synthpopalooza]

I used to do that ALL THE TIME ... of course, this was back in the 80's when all I had was a couple of tape decks and a patchwork of cables that looked like black spaghetti ... not to mention I physically slowed down the turntable when mixing vinyl to get the beats to match, not to mention pause the tape deck EXACTLY on the beat and manually start it in order to synch the songs.

That was fun, I actually have a lot of mixes done that way from those days.

One synthpop-only mix I did consisted of these tunes:

She Drives Me Crazy - FYC
Sometimes (Two Ring Circus mix) - Erasure
The Promise (O.N. Mix) - When In Rome
Boing Boom Tschak - Kraftwerk
New Song - Howard Jones
Techno Pop - Kraftwerk
She Drives Me Crazy - FYC

I'm thinkin of redoing these now that I have ACID DJ.

I also did an Erasure-only megamix in this fashion, which even got played on a local college radio station. I felt so BUZZED! The highlight was the mix between "Hideaway" and "Chains of Love" ... there's just one section where the songs sound exactly the same, it's chilly) :-)

Who Needs Love Like That (mexican mix)
Stop! (12" mix)
Oh L'amour (12" mix)
Hideaway (Two Ring Circus version)
Chains of Love (Marks Bros. mix / Shep Pettibone Mix)
Stop! (ending)
Victim of Love (vixenvitesse mix)
Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Another set I need to redo now that I have ACID DJ.

[Ayyax]

Hi Synapse, thanks for the reply. I am actually beatmixing these songs w/ track markers in between just like you said. Unlike trance, house, or techno the glitch seems more noticeable with
synthpop/pop songs with lyrics n' all. Here's basically what I did on Acid DJ. I edited the songs' pitch and volume and arranged them accordingly. After that, I manually seperated the songs into tracks and saved them as .wavs. I made sure everything was precise using zoom tools. Then I used Nero to burn it using "0-second gaps". I haven't tried Sound Forge CD Architect but I'll look out for it. Is there a shareware version of it or a demo? Thanks.

[Synapse]

I dunno about a demo of Sound Forge. It would be best to take a look at Sonic Foundry's website and see what they have to say. As for Nero, that's the prog I use to burn, rip, copy. I love it.

Did you follow my instructions? If so what was the result? You may have to edit each file separately after you've exported each one as a .wav file. You know, the latest version of Nero comes with a simple wav editor that's not too bad. Have you used it?

I've not done what you're trying to do. If I have beatmixed a CD I will export everything as one .wav file then add it to CD Architect and add all the track markers after the fact. I don't know if there's an easier way than that. Other than what I've suggested, I don't have any more ideas. Sorry.

[dj_rodent]

That must be a pain in the neck to get that all synched up.

I prefer doing it the old fashioned way- using a mixer and a dual cd deck... or even turntables...