Mix Theory - Tracked or Continuous?

It really depends on what I'm trying to achieve. For instance if I'm reaching for atmospherics I'll go continuous but if I'm doing a straight up mixed genre mix I'll often opt for individual tracks. I do find trimming the silence off the beginning or end of a file where appropriate lends itself well to 'the flow'.

In actuality I usually make 2 versions and if the continuous blend is too lumpy I serve up the zip.

I mostly favour the continuous mix as well, though, like for Barry, it does depend on what I am trying to accomplish. If I am doing a single-artist or even single-genre mix (where that genre is something fairly straightforwardly song-oriented, such as indie pop or country), then I usually figure that tracked will suffice, and laziness will prevent me from making that extra effort of a continuous mix (though, yes, I might also trim off a silence here or there and add it to my collection). On the other hand, if there is a lot of switching between styles or an ambient/experimental thing going on, it feels like a continuous mix is almost a must. And in any case, I do feel like I'm on slightly less shaky ethico-legal territory when it comes to publicly sharing a continuous mix, as compared to a zip file of individual tracks, so that's another reason why I generally have a bit of a preference for the continuous mix. But really, sometimes laziness just prevails.

I think Alexandra summed it up for me perfectly. The continuous mixes are fun, especially with juxtaposition of styles, but some mixes don't open themselves up for that.

Yeah Alex is on the money. Right now I'm preparing my first submission for this place and it's basically 60's inspired pop from 2008, a follow up to my "The Universe is Walking..." mix over at artofthevirus.org (ok a little harsh but after two hard drive reformats I reserve the right to get a bit testy) I've selected the songs and the order but the fade out is my nemesis right now so I might have to zip although I disagree with Gabe as I need to take every single track and try to equalize volume, rename the album and track number, and add cover image to each file. So for me the zip is a lot more work.

I'm still using acoustica for continuous mixes. How about you guys?

I use Audacity - I'm sure there's plenty of software that is more specifically geared to the purpose of making continuous mixes, but I like the fact that it's free and open source and, ultimately, does the trick.

I use Audacity - I'm sure there's plenty of software that is more specifically geared to the purpose of making continuous mixes, but I like the fact that it's free and open source and, ultimately, does the trick.

-collectedsilences

I've yet to use Audacity, though it's one I've looked at from time to time. There's another one that's open source as well which is supposedly very good, especially for people with large collections, but it's only Linux-based.... so that leaves me out. I'm not brave enough to make that jump, despite my general loathing for all things Microsoft.

Cool Edit was the one for me for a couple of years. That's until Tom (nomates) gave me a copy of 'Mixmeister Fusion'. Wow! It was like all my christmas's had come at once. It's a wonderful tool, not cheap, but you may be able to download a free trial on the net, and I'd recommend it.

It enabled me to make my mix '3 2 1 Electropop', which was awarded Mix of The Week last year. Not to the delight of everyone I know, but anyone who did give it a listen believe it was justified. A nice professional sounding mix with minimum fuss or indeed effort.

I'll post it here soon..

Continuous. Always. As a DJ, it's just where my mindset is. A great deal of the fun is getting tracks to seamlessly blend, one into the other. This can be a real challenge (which I have failed at miserably on more than one occasion). That being said, I always slice up my continuous mixes if I'm burning them to CD so that people can skip to any particular section they want.

That being said, I always slice up my continuous mixes if I'm burning them to CD so that people can skip to any particular section they want.

-djabstract

Oh yeah, I do that too. There are a couple of mixes that I've made mostly for my own enjoyment and for sharing with people online, not for handing out physical copies, where I ended up never getting around to it and of which I thus never burned physical copies at all, but those are certainly the exceptions, and it wasn't part of the plan there either, just laziness - this is certainly my least favourite part of making continuous mixes. I still keep a few original wav files around in the hope that I'll one day get around to doing this and can then make an archival copy, but it's probably not happening.

Oh yeah, I do that too. There are a couple of mixes that I've made mostly for my own enjoyment and for sharing with people online, not for handing out physical copies, where I ended up never getting around to it and of which I thus never burned physical copies at all, but those are certainly the exceptions, and it wasn't part of the plan there either, just laziness - this is certainly my least favourite part of making continuous mixes. I still keep a few original wav files around in the hope that I'll one day get around to doing this and can then make an archival copy, but it's probably not happening.

-collectedsilences

Agreed. I've also got a friend who is completely obsessive about his iPod and needs to know what every track to every mix is. Easiest way is to slice 'em up, tag them, and pass 'em on.

Continuous is the way to go in my mind but for my own listening it must be track marked as well, and that is not possible with mp3 files. The mp3 adds an artifact during the save process which lends itself to mini-gaps or bumps between tracks. That is unacceptable.

So for posting purposes, you have to go with one long track. However, when making a mix it is always put together with wav files and tracked individually.

I've always preferred individual tracks. If I'm forming a mix out of various disparate songs, I have this wierd thing about maintaining the integrity of each song, or keep them seperate and distinct, as it were. Even if, like Barry mentioned, I'm trimming the silence from each end, or shortening the fade, I still like keeping the tracks seperate. Plus, if I'm sharing the mix or giving it to someone, who's to say they may not hate one (or more) of the tracks and would prefer the option to skip it when they listen...

I absolutely despise continuous mixes..... there, I've said it!
I rarely have the opportunity to listen straight through an 80 minute mix and I like to know which track I've stopped on. When I have downloaded an MP3 of a continuous mix I am invariably frustrated and distracted trying to figure out which track I'm listening to.
Let me state, in a Club I do appreciate the talents of a good DJ and if you are making a continuous mix as background for a party or event, I am all for it, but that is rarely the context in which I am listening. I don't jump around when listening to someone's creation but I do like the flexibility of being able to go back to the beginning of a track if I really like it (or if I've been interupted). I also want to be able to use the tracks out of context for my own purposes once I've downloaded a mix.
As far as creating mixes, I would love to have a program that would allow me to control the length of the gap between tracks and have some volume control (iTunes is absolutely horrible in that respect) but I don't do any cross-fading or blending or overlaying so it keeps it fairly simple.
Conrinuous mixes, don't make 'em, won't download'em. sorry.

So do you prefer the CD format to tape, Mark?

Actually, back in my mixTAPE days, I had a cassette player in my car that would find the gap between songs and allow you to skip to the next or return to the last track So even THEN I didn't like the continuous format (LOL)

I have a thousand cassettes floating around and I don't think I have a working cassette deck (I have a few stacks of LP's and I haven't had a working turntable since '87, noticing a treend here?)

Mark, you sound like a kindred spirit to me, though I do like the feel of continuous mixes for certain themes. I do have actually 1 1/2 working tape decks (I don't trust the car one much), but the one tape deck that works is just a jambox, not on the stereo or hard-wired into the PC or anything.

The reason I work in wav format rather than mp3 is that I can track mark a contiuous mix, so you kind of get the best of both worlds. Of course you can't post wav files as they are way too large for downloading an entire mix.

I try to give both options - individual and continuous - when posting to satisfy all tastes. But some mixes, like the party mix I just submitted, are made to be listened to in one sitting and as a caveat, it has significant cross-fading and other audio tweaks.