rules for a good mixtape?

Hi!!!!

Last week I happened to find on cinemax one of my all-time favourite movies: "High Fidelity", and there's a part where Rob Gordon, (played by John Cusack) the main character, says a few things about mixtapes:

"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."

so, do you guys have any particular rule when making a mixtape?

"And the third and final rule:

If this is your first month at the Monthly Mixtape...

You have to make a mixtape."

But seriously:

• Double artists is something I try to avoid (but sometimes it happens).
• I try to keep them within the range of an audio CD so you can burn them.
• And yes, a flow, always try to find one flow or another.

SevenUp said:
My mixes are almost never longer than 45-50 min. After that, you're starting to bore the listener, and i assume the people (i know who you are! :P ) who make these 2 hour mixtapes are just in it to prove how elaborate their music collection is. There skill in honing and keeping sometimes some good songs out of the mix, not to disturb the force ehhhh flow.

:)

I'm sticking to 60 minutes, but I agree with the basic point - at a certain point, it stops being a mix, and just becomes a number of songs piled after another and you stop paying attention to how they fit together.

The previous point about not repeating artists I almost always follow, though the theme will have to decide what is acceptable and not. It can be a nice bridge between sections of a mix if the same voice appears again. I really like the current trend of artists appearing as guests on each others works.

On a technological level, I think rules of this group already states that files with a reasonably good bit rate should be used, and I'd like to add that common file formats should be used. Mp3 isn't the best file format in the world, but it is as close to universal as it gets. Everyone can play it in their music players. Wma, m4a etc is a hassle. If you want to use an unusual file format, ask the receiver first if they can even play it.

Otherwise, I make up new rules for myself for every new mix tape, and break them when I need to. Making a mix tape is a creative process, and too many rules stifles that process.

I find that, like writing, the more you work and rework your work, the more likely you'll think it's good when it's not. Songs may seem to hang together just because you've heard them repeatedly.

Whenever I can, I build a song order then leave it for a week before re-listening. Sometimes in that fresh listen I'll hear something not working like I thought it did.

When I don't have time (or inclination) to leave it alone, I come up with some goofy "rule" that explains the lack of flow, and live with it. Good goofy rules include 'bookending' (first/last song similarity - or better yet, if you can at least pair songs off you can do a mirror structure), song name length (for designing a cover!), and the ever-popular shuffle. Of course, anything you can justify is a "rule."
See my January mix:
BODY PARTS

btw, when my wife & I saw "High Fidelity" in the movie theater, she complained of being elbowed in the side all through that John Cusack monologue. Love it.

I agree with all these tips. I don't think there's any rules, but there's always good advice to follow when making a mix. Sometimes I'll put songs in a certain order and a story sort of comes out of it, even if I don't do it on purpose.

I try to not use the same artist twice in the same mixtape. I also try to have some variety, like don't choose songs that sound the same, use different genres, slow songs/fast songs, etc. There's this other mix group I'm in (I've only done like one swap with this group though) and one of the things my partner said was to not use any artists from your partner's top 50. I think that's a good idea to help your partner discover new music... though sometimes it's okay.

I agree with leaving your mix alone for a week. Usually, I'll make a "draft" of a mix the first week we get our theme. Then I leave it alone for a while and come back to it at the end of the month and change any things I don't like about it. That usually works pretty well.

I approach a mix like composing a song - songs, films, books - any sort of creative composition has an emotional pathway.
In a simple example, it's the verse/chorus/verse/chorus... of a song - the repetition and rhythm that connects the listener. Additionally it needs peaks and complementary valleys to keep someone's attention. For example, it's easy to imagine in a film - there is generally a build-up to a climax and then resolution. Modern film making plays with this formula by having multiple build-ups, or reordering them. A good mixtape has a similar pacing - something that delivers some variety but also hopefully in way that seems tied together throughout.
This is also where I disagree with most people above - it doesn't matter how long it is. If a mix is boring it doesn't matter if it's 20, 40, 60 or 80min long - if there's not emotional variety, or the songs don't interconnect with each other, it will be boring. If done well, you won't feel like 60 or 80min. went by - IF the journey was paced.

The only other point I think that is manditory, is technical execution. Get a program like Mixcraft (PC) or Adaptec Jam (Mac) so you can both normalize the volume of the various songs - nothing worse than hearing two pieces of music next to each other at unintentionally drastically different volumes because the MP3s or whatever were ripped at shitty levels. Also another note - ideally MP3's should be AT LEAST 192kbs encoded - below this is easily noticeable on any speakers better than normal PC desktop crap.
Also these tools allow you to overlap and fade things in/out against each other, to create the right emotional transitions. Sometimes you only need part of a song - don't be afraid to edit bits out - that's a big part of what DJ'ing or making a mixtape is all about. If you've got an emotive vibe going on, don't blow it by waiting through half of the next song until it hits the same vibe - just sew them together at the point that keeps the vibe alive.

Lots of mixes that I hear have absolutely no consistency because of the gaps between songs or level issues - in those cases you may as well just put your iTunes on random and take the top 15 songs - that's what it ends up sounding like.

rule 1 - put your iTunes on random and take the top 15 songs
rule 2 - get iTunes