In 1991, I ran across a little radio station in Los Angeles called
MARS-FM (103.1FM) which played techno. At the time I was a top-40
kind of listener but always liked dance music -- I just didn't
know that it really had a name. =) Once I heard techno, I was
hooked. Unfortunately, mismanagement and a lack of audience
resulted in the station's demise in early 1992 and I was left
looking for music on my own. Soon after, I found Riders of the
Plastic Groove (RotPG) on KUCI-FM which aired live DJs for three
hours on Friday nights. Hearing full DJ mixes in all their glory
was an eye opener for me -- I thought that I could make my music
last longer if I could just mix it in different ways. Over
the course of two years, I managed to save enough to purchase
a mixer and two pitch control CD players. It's been downhill
ever since... ;-)
Today I have a Denon DN-9000 pitch control (amongst countless other features) CD
player, two Technics SL-1200 Mk3 turntables, and
a MTX-1550 mixer. Some past equipment included Denon DN-1000s
and a ATUS-200AM mixer. (The ATUS-200AM has the unique honor of
having been used by Ron D Core
on a live set broadcast on KUCI.) I use an Echo Gina 24 with CoolEdit to
record.
Below are a few results of my mixing endeavors...
-Steve
| Mix: Rejuvinate |
Mix date: July 4, 2002 |
Style: House |
|
Story: Around the time that I mixed this, I was coming home pretty tired
and was listening to more dubby stuff. What is of course great about house
is that even the dubby stuff picks you up and puts you in a better mood
so that by the time I was ready to put down the headphones, I was up to
songs that were more energetic. With the theme in mind, I started laying
down tracks until I had this mix complete. From a technical point of view,
the mix is solid with lots of really long transitions. (Some transitions
last over a minute...) Only one noticable flaw where I miss my cue by
a split second. (Corrected on the fly of course.)
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Gear: Denon DN-1000Fx2, MTX 1550 mixer, recorded down to a Gina24
and CoolEdit 2000
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| Mix: NRG-1995 |
Mix date: Est. 1995 |
Style: High-Energy Dance |
|
Story: I was really into "NRG" in 94/95 which was right around
when I got my second Denon. This mix represents my second stab at an
organized, pre-planned mix. Most of the transitions are short and quick
usually lasting no longer than 16 beats. I always meant to go back
and find one more song to help ease a transition around the 20 minute
mark, but I never got around to it.
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Gear: Denon DN-1000Fx2, Atus AM-200 mixes, recorded down to type IV
standard audio tape. Tape converted to digital format in 2003 via a decent
tape deck and Gina24 with CoolEdit. Amplified up, no filters applied.
|
| Mix: All Abigail |
Mix date: Est. 1998 |
Style: House/Dance, songs only by Abigail |
|
Story: Abigail rules. Plain and simple. I had enough singles to
throw together a mix. This was an unplanned, one shot, let's see what I
get recording. The final cut was pretty good and aside from one rougher
transition towards the end and the unplanned ending (ran out of tape),
it came out well. |
|
Gear: Denon DN-1000Fx2, I think I just got my MTX-1550 when I
did this. Recorded to type II tape and ripped via Gina24 to CoolEdit.
Small cleanup to remove some hiss and a fade out rather than the recorded
abrupt stop. |
| Mix:Continuous Static |
Mix date: Est. 1996 |
Style: Electronica |
|
Story: Like the all-Abigail mix, this is a "all Eat Static" mix.
The recording was especially fun since I had just started looking for
the longer transitions and was trying out all kinds of insanely long
mixes. There are transitions in this mix that probably go for a good
two minutes with a really slow bleed. Intro material came off of tribal
house mix CD (Total Kaos) and the outro came off of Leonard Nemoy's
CD that had all his odd poetry on it. Given Eat Static's bias towards
to alien-kind, I thought both worked out well. The mix was done unplanned
and in one shot. |
|
Gear: Denon DN-1000Fx2, Atus AM-200 mixer. Recorded to type II tape
and later ripped via Gina24 to CoolEdit. No real clean up. Boosted volume
by 10db since the tape deck replaying it wasn't loud enough. |
| Mix: Start of a Weekend |
Mix date: April 17, 2004 |
Style: House |
|
Story: Had a glut of new vinyl I had recently picked up. Figured
I'd toss them into the mixer and see what I got. Technically, the mix
is solid. No real errors, galloping horses, or other artifacts. The
down side is that it is also pretty dry with no real flow. Everytime
I found a good build-up, I managed to screw it up by picking the wrong
record. Granted, I was more or less picking records at random, so it
could have been worse. :) The mix was (clearly) unplanned and done in
one shot, literally starting minutes after I woke up on a Saturday
morning. |
|
Gear: Technics SL-1200mkIIIx2, MTX-1550 mixer. Straight into the
Gina24 and CoolEdit. |
| Mix: Fartin' Around with Progressive House |
Mix date: March 3, 2002 |
Style: Progressive House |
|
Story: Another unplanned one-shot, "hey, I have some new records"
mix. In this case, I had the records a little longer than I had for
Start of a Weekend so I knew the breaks a little better. This represents
my first recorded mix with vinyl. Only one galloping horse, and in hindsight,
it isn't that bad. |
|
Gear: Technics SL-1200mkIIIx2, MTX-1550 mixer. Straight into the
Gina24 and CoolEdit. |
| Mix: Techno 2005-07-05 |
Mix date: July 5, 2005 |
Style: Techno |
|
Story: Unplanned, one-shot. Got a new record and threw it down
to see what I'd get. A few mistakes, not my best work. Had an idea
during the mix and plan to redo this particular mix. |
|
Gear: Technics SL-1200mkIIIx2, MTX-1550 mixer. Straight into the
Gina24 and CoolEdit. |
| Mix: Progressive 2005-06-14 |
Mix date: June 4, 2005 |
Style: Progressive with bits of random other stuff |
|
Story: Unplanned, one shot. Just happened to record this particular
session that came out pretty okay. The biggest gripe I have with this
mix is the uneven mix volume. It isn't too bad, but it drives me nuts. |
|
Gear: Technics SL-1200mkIIIx2, MTX-1550 mixer. Straight into the Gina24
and CoolEdit. |
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