HOW TO MAKE AN ANTISEPTICALLY PERFECT MIX CD:
1. Record all tracks to hard disk -- protools, or PC, doesn't matter.
2. Pick a tempo.
3. For each track, figure out the track tempo, and then pitch shift it
to the target tempo.
4. lay tracks out in a multitrack editor, and slide them so the downbeats
line up where they overlap. Crossfade to taste.
There are plenty of examples of this kind of action out there, and this
in fact is done for some of the B96(Chicago) mix shows. As you can
imagine, this approach does tend to remove all personality from the mix.
For one thing, the only skills involved are being able to spot a downbeat
in a digital audio file, and being able to do a little simple math.
I've done something similar with my own tracks on my "Phase Change"
CD, but I feel like that's just my way to come up with a continuous sequence
that flows between tracks, and you expect a studio CD to be tweaked within
an inch of its life.
What's more common I think is to simply roll a DAT and mix live. If you
trainwreck a mix, just back up the outgoing track to before the mix, and
redo the mix. Then when it's dumped to hard disk, you can cut out the
fuckup. I've done this too, because while I'm a big fan of my taste in
music, I'm not the worlds greatest DJ.
By the way, if you've not checked my mix
http://avalon.net/~kent/maymix/
give it a listen -- anyone who can spot the two digital edits will win
a copy of my Phase Change CD.
kent williams -- kent@avalon.net