Brainsik mixes
An experimental attempt to codify my mix process. Experimental because I'm not sure what codification will achieve, but i'm curious to see if it changes the way I look at the process or understand it. Uhh, yeah. Anyway, what follows is a braindump. I fear reading it again.
Naming works as follows:
mixNAD
- N is an integer
- A is a letter
- D is an unpadded decimal
all works beging with the word "mix" to indicate it is a compilation or mix of music (typically) intendeed to be produced onto a cd-r.
the integer indicates which mix we are on. ideally, each mix number should have a single, final, produced item (typically a cd-r).
mixes are created by accumulating striking music over time. this usually goes into a play list called mixN src. (for example, i am currently building out "mix7 src") when enough music is accumulated such that a theme or interesting thread is developing, mix playlists are begun. these are indicated as mixNA (for example, "mix3a", "mix3b", etc). each playlist typically embodies it's own themes, threads or moods. over time, a single playlist tends to become the focus of my energies. this generally occurs when the playlist has enough music to fill a single cd-r.
when a playlist has enough music to fill a cd-r and is the main focus of my energies, it will undergo a refining process. it is very important for the mix to have a self-similarity of coherence. this means at any level of view there is a coherency between the components. i.e., each track cleanly leads into the next, groups of songs make sense together, and the compilation as a whole has an understandable structure. this is often the most difficult part of the mix process which is why so many different playlists are formed and why there tend to be a couple of refined versions of the selected playlist. (e.g., "mix4c1", "mix4c2"). Refinents can get very nitpicky at the end swapping two tracks or removing an extraneous track will often lead me to use a decimal value for this minor refinement. (e.g., "mix6c2.1")
the final stage of the mix process is making the songs flow into one another using software like Roxio Jam which gives you great control over how songs will merge into one another by letting you overlay songs and shape amplitude curves. this process can be visited while forming playlists in order to experiment with how tracks can be placed together and often leads complete changes in mix direction.
"interesting" statistics:
- no mix has had more than 3 playlists
- no mix playlist has had more than 3 refinements
- one mix was never produced but scrapped as a major disaster
- one mix had two playlists which reached a state of final production, but one was liked better and the other was never produced