Tag Archives: mixing

Fretting

So I posted this latest mix in a bit of a hurry. It compiled a few different efforts that never got recorded in a way I was happy with individually, but I didn’t really convince myself 100% about the all-in-one effort by the time I was about to press ‘publish’. So I was calm (for once). I listened to it again. Twice. And then I posted it. Later that night I wasn’t sure if I’d done the right thing. And the next morning I still wasn’t sure. It’s exactly on the fence between calling something done with the energy of risk versus attempting to perfect the errors that come out from the aggressive efforts (which would have been quite a chore given that this is already a distilled collection of tracks).

To get technical… there isn’t an easy mix in the first 50 minutes. All-told there’s one mix I hate (although neither track has any prominent, steady high-end to mix with), one mix I’m incredibly happy with (followed immediately by a rushed mix with horrible EQ/levels b/c I held the previous one for so long that there was no time left for the next), a mix I just can’t get my head around (possibly because I had to drop the tempo about -3 to -4 to get the mix in at +8 on the incoming track and I can’t tell if listeners will think this squashes the momentum, consciously or otherwise) and another mix near the end that was purely fatigued.

All told, I’ve found my comfort with this collection of challenges and errors on the aggregate, but it took me a few days and I don’t think I’ll do another mix for a while. I’ve been really longing for access to my digital collection when putting mixes together, and I even did an edit of The Eurythmics “I’ve Got an Angel” the other day (which I played at Plex) and is something I hope to do much more of. I’m just not happy with sticking to a 110-140bpm format anymore. I really want to open up the access to that 90-115 bpm stuff without making it sound chipmunked and without dropping the tempo that low for sustained periods. Anyway… it’ll be some time before I can do that, as property purchase priorities are about to supersede the musical, and in my last month of care-free music budgeting I’m going to round out the studio, so it’ll prolly be a while before my next mix. I’ve done a bunch this year, and the archive is plentiful, so fuck off if it ain’t enough for you! 🙂 Actually I may just start digitizing the ’92-’97 archive from tape, which is a bunch of the stuff I want to be playing anyway!

Sloppy Ass Broken Beat Mix

I did this mix to give an audio accompaniment to a broken beat thread on [313] lately. Have a gander if so inclined. Here’s the disclaimer:

Unfortunately, this mix didn’t turn out like I’d hoped. It’s kinda sloppy in a couple of parts. Hopefully you don’t think any of my mess is too disastrous. I’ve never actually tried to mix an entire set of broken beat stuff before. While I’m usually telling people it’s not *that* hard to mix, I was making that assessment based on including a few songs in a varied mix, but to put together a whole set is an entirely different matter. It’s really difficult. I tried to work it out almost every night this week, but after tonight’s go, I decided I’d accomplished the introductory mission and I didn’t have the energy to try and perfect such a difficult mix (I almost always abandon preconceived mixes). So I figured better to produce something rough than nothing at all…

I’m not totally happy with the breadth of what I covered either, but I really do love all the songs, so hopefully it will be enjoyable on that merit if flawed in other respects. 14 tracks clocking in at 51 minutes (the last track has mysteriously disappeared – think I ran out of disk space while adding maximization). Arghhh… Sorry for the abrupt ending. Doh! Anyway, here it is:

Sloppy Ass Broken Beat Mix

Tracklist:

Domu – The Long Way Up – Neroli

Dapp – First Off (Dub Version) – OMOA Music

Recloose feat. Justin Chapman – Ain’t Changin’ (Extended Mix) – Planet E

Nutmeg – Oscar’s Shed (Rima Re-prise) – Neroli

Mustang – Twilight (Freedom Soundz re-edit) – Visions

Alex Attias & Ed Motta – Sus 4 Jam – Visions

Russ Gabriel – Offenbach West – Out of the Loop

Seiji – Second Nature (Exclusive Dub) – Bitasweet Records

Seiji feat. Lyric L – Loose Lips – Bitasweet Records

Red Nose Distrikt – N.Y. Boom (Domu’s Nose-Beast Mix) – Rushhour Records

Plutonia – Wear Your Size – Visions

Russ Gabriel – Flip Down to Break – Emoticon Recordings

Nubian Mindz – Burning – Twisted Funk

Somatik – Prismatik – Twisted Funk