here's some good info I found for those wanting to send out a mix tape/CD.

Mix Tapes

What is a mix tape?

Well it's the DJ's equivalent of an indie band's demo CD, it's an hour and a half of you mixing tracks which shows off your skills and ability on the decks and gives whoever you send it to a feel for the music you are into.

The jury is out on mix tapes. Most people in 'the business' say they are a waste of time and club promoters complain that they get at least a dozen a week and they are all rubbish. However, a good mix tape will show off your talents and if you aren't DJing regularly in a club or venue it will be the only way people can hear your stuff.


Originality is key

Everyone we asked about mix tapes said the same thing - 'make them original'. Don't copy someone else's mix or style, make it your own. Most of the mix tapes club promoters receive are almost identical to the previous Saturday night's sets. Either that or they sound like a set from Judge Jules, Yousef or whoever is big at the time. That's an instant turn-off.

Spend a lot of time deciding what you are going to play and how it will go together. Don't just play all the big tunes, put new tunes in there to show you are buying current stuff. Even better, put in some obscure (but good) tracks not many people will have heard of. It's important that DJs really know their music and this is the best way to show it.

"Club promoters are absolutely sick of hearing all the big tunes. They don't want to hear like Iio's 'Rapture', Energy 52, or any of those big trance classics. They want to hear something that they haven't heard before, and tracks put together in an interesting way. Try and pick upfront tracks, if you can, that noone else has, or pick old tunes that people have forgotten but still sound great, or mix up different sorts of tracks that people wouldn't normally expect to hear together."
Viv Craske - Senior Editor, Mixmag

How to start a tape

It's recommended to make you mix tape last somewhere between 45 minutes and the full 74 you can fit on a CD. However the person you are sending it to will probably not listen to the whole thing. With this in mind it's important you don't structure it like a club set, i.e. building up slowly to something big at the end. You need to grab the attention of the person listening straight away to make sure your tape stands out.

"If you're making a CD mix, I think you can go for the full 74 minutes or so. But there's no point making 74 minutes where nothing really happens. To be honest, if in the first two or three tracks there isn't something that makes me feel really excited, or something different, I tend to get bored of it and it ends up getting chucked off the stereo. You want to be doing something clever and interesting at the start so it grabs people's attention and it stays on the stereo."
Viv Craske - Senior Editor of Mixmag


Don't cheat or overdo it

When putting together your tape don't be temped to do it all on computer. If you send someone a perfectly mixed tape and you cannot mix that well live you'll have a lot of explaining to do.

Also don't spend forever trying to put together the perfect tape. It's fine if there's the odd mix you are not happy with. All you will end up doing is spending weeks working on your tape when you should be trying to get a gig. Also by the time you are happy, the tunes on your tape will be out of date!

"Mixing tapes are OK. I generally have a quick listen to them. I've had occasions where people have done them on a computer and on the night when they've played, the mix tape was nothing like what they did live. I'd be more inclined to listen to a live tape recorded at a venue in front of a crowd."
Chris Langshaw - DJ and DJ Booker for Newcastle venues

"[If you are a Trance/Progressive DJ then] avoid loads of effects. I think people get obsessed with buying their decks, a really nice mixer and then loads of effects and sticking them all on a tape. I think all you need is two basic turntables and a really basic mixer. And if your mixing's okay you'll do well. The last thing you want to do is loads of clever EQs and effects. I mean, those are great things you can mess around with when you've got a gig, but people won't be listening out for that. It does impress if it's really great, but often it just swamps the tape and you listen to it thinking, well, it would have been better without all that mess on top."
Viv Craske - Senior Editor of Mixmag

for the rest of the article, go here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/onemusi...398162841796874

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