Whether for your self or for a friend, making a mix tape or CD is one of the
joys of owning a music collection. It's a way of guaranteeing you get to hear
Donovan's "Sunshine Superman," without having to listen to any of his other
music. Making a mix is also a good way of fixing that Michael Bolton tape your
mom left in your car, the one the used music store won't take from you if you
pay them. It can also end the age-old conflict between passenger and driver over
what to listen to in the car. "Fine, you pick ten songs, and I'll pick ten
songs."
Even the latter example can prove problematic when you try to resolve who
picks the order of the songs. You can't just cram them on the tape any old way,
lest the tape result in an awkward jumble of songs that don't sound good next to
each other.
Certified experts in the field of music mixology are hard to come by no
matter how ridiculous the curricula at accredited universities have become. A
Google search to find such experts turns up a series of articles written by
student journalists, some of whom are so convinced they know the perfect mix,
they tell you what songs to put on it.
It's not an exact science, but three things are clear:
Don't let sorority girls at the campus paper pick out your songs for you.
Don't let Dave put the songs in order because he doesn't care about flow.
With practice and a few pointers, you can create your own perfect mix tape
or CD.
Be Prepared
Step one is easy. Go to the shelf. Look through your collection. Pick out
your favorite songs.
If you're using a computer to burn a CD, you can arrange your songs in order
onscreen and the time is calculated for you. Still, it doesn't hurt to work out
your ideas on paper.
If you're working with a cassette, working it all out on paper first can save
you a lot of tedious rewinding and fast-forwarding, not to mention the
embarrassment of having the tape stop mid-song. You'd hate to have, for example,
The Who's thundering eight-minute live version of "Magic Bus" click off two
minutes in, just as it's building up steam. Conversely, you'd hate to have a lot
of dead space where you must either sit in silence, or reach for the
fast-forward button.
In short, plan your song selection according to the time you have on the
cassette or the CD.