IDM Mailing Archive

Just did my first radio show since i had stopped last year. It was lots of fun, particularly the phone calls from people who were regular listeners of my friday night show... Anyway, now I only have 1 hour, compared to three hours, so 8 minutes songs do take up a lot of precious space on my playlist. Is it proper radio etiquette to mix long songs after 4 or 6 minutes? What would you prefer (supposing you were within range), full versions, almost full (when it starts to fade, mix the other on top of it), or clearly cut 25% or something like that (or more) of the playing time? I mean, i had stuff like pyrex (david kristian) clocking 6:45 and coltrane - fire mix (System 7) at 8:45 (from memory), and hmmm, silversub - fm remix (autechre), over 7 minutes etc... I almost played them all, mixing them as they would start fading or loosing momentum. (btw, pyrex and coltrane - fire mix, go *extremely* well together) Ciao, -- Francois Dion (IdMEDIA) [> Email: francois@hyperreal.com <] ' [> C.P. 278, St-Lambert, QC, Canada, J4P 2N8 <] [> Raving Up North Ezine: run-request@hyperreal.com, subject: help <]

Francois Dion said once upon a time:

quoted 4 lines Is it proper radio etiquette to mix long songs after 4 or 6 minutes? What

>Is it proper radio etiquette to mix long songs after 4 or 6 minutes? What >would you prefer (supposing you were within range), full versions, almost >full (when it starts to fade, mix the other on top of it), or clearly >cut 25% or something like that (or more) of the playing time?

Since it is so rare that I hear tracks of this type on the radio, I prefer the "almost full" when I'm listening to stuff off the radio. If I wanted to hear mixed, I'd go to a club or a rave, but when I hear something for the first time, I like to soak in the whole thing. The "almost" just makes things flow a little nicer. Of course, what I really like is when the radio "I wish I was a celebrity" DJ talks through most of the intro to a vocal song then jumps out right before the artist starts singing. If this method was applied to IDM, our favorite DJ's would be able to talk through the WHOLE SONG! **DANGER WILL ROBINSON! DANGER!**

On Thu, 6 Jul 1995, Francois Dion wrote:

quoted 14 lines Just did my first radio show since i had stopped last year. It was lots of

> Just did my first radio show since i had stopped last year. It was lots of > fun, particularly the phone calls from people who were regular listeners > of my friday night show... Anyway, now I only have 1 hour, compared to three > hours, so 8 minutes songs do take up a lot of precious space on my playlist. > > Is it proper radio etiquette to mix long songs after 4 or 6 minutes? What > would you prefer (supposing you were within range), full versions, almost > full (when it starts to fade, mix the other on top of it), or clearly > cut 25% or something like that (or more) of the playing time? > > I mean, i had stuff like pyrex (david kristian) clocking 6:45 and coltrane - > fire mix (System 7) at 8:45 (from memory), and hmmm, silversub - fm remix > (autechre), over 7 minutes etc... I almost played them all, mixing them > as they would start fading or loosing momentum.

Well, personally, i've been doing a radio show for about 6 years now in Guelph, ontario (93.3 fm cfru, 10-12 sunday nights). I've talked to both listeners and musicians who tune in to my show and they prefer to hear large tracks of music. Not to say that you can't play around with mixing (especially ambient, which i tend to mix up a bit more) but for the more idm type stuff i like to play the full song. People are usually listening to hear full cuts to decide if they like it enough to buy or are possibly listening on a more intellectual level (ie-sitting down at home with the music on and relaxing or whatever). That is, radio gives people a chance to focus on the musician as creating a piece of art rather than paying heed to the mixing skills of the dj. In other words, i think there's two kinds of djing. The first focuses more on building a vibe up and getting a crowd of people moving-track selections are short and mixed up by the dj as artist. The second in radio djing, which focuses on the the people making the music and enlightens the listening audience to what is interesting and current in todays electronic music scene. That's not to make it sound like radio djing is boring! I find there's still lots of latitude at the beginning and end of most songs to do a nice beatmatch/mix/whatever to make the songs flow nicely-just let them play most of the way through is what i'm saying. carl

quoted 1 line Is it proper radio etiquette to mix long songs after 4 or 6 minutes?

> Is it proper radio etiquette to mix long songs after 4 or 6 minutes?

The only radio etiquette that really matters is a) back-announce everything you play b) don't forget your station IDs (we don't want you to lose your slot)! :-) laz

Dans la Matrice, Eric Harris a dit:

quoted 3 lines I don't know what type of equipment you have at your hands at the station or

> > I don't know what type of equipment you have at your hands at the station or > even how your skills are as a DJ, but here are my suggestions.

We have a pair of Tascam cd players with pitch and autocue, but they aren't that great for beatmatching. Cant be worst than the Technics we had before. And of course a pair of Technics SL-1200 turntables. I've been djing for several years, so it is not a problem doing good beat matching or any other djing trick. However, this is IDM style music (orbital, spicelab, system 7, link, autechre, aphex twin etc) and close to that style (cross between ambient and acid for example), and that's why i am not sure it is a good thing (tm) to play only half a song, when the song really evolves over much more than this.

quoted 3 lines Since you only have an hour I would do as they do in Chicago and just quick

> Since you only have an hour I would do as they do in Chicago and just quick > mix everything!!! You get more songs on the radio in less time and people > may not get bored as quickly if songs change often enough!!!

Which, i guess, is a good format for house, but somehow, particularly because i also write music, i feel that the songs are totally different if incomplete. Ciao, -- Francois Dion (IdMEDIA) [> Email: francois@hyperreal.com <] ' [> C.P. 278, St-Lambert, QC, Canada, J4P 2N8 <] [> Raving Up North Ezine: run-request@hyperreal.com, subject: help <]

Dans la Matrice, Horrigan@aol.com a dit:

quoted 3 lines I prefer the 2nd option--- but whatever you do, try to avoid the standard

> I prefer the 2nd option--- but whatever you do, try to avoid the standard > college radio thing of playing sets which are so long that no one can > remember what songs you played. (This is less of a problem on a Techno show,

As i have 44 mins of music, 9 of microphone (including my 30 second intro jingle and 30 second outro jingle), 1 minute of promo/publicity (the news take up the last 6 minutes of the hour), i cant put more than 3 songs consecutively, and in fact, have not put more than 2 last time, because i didn't have a single song under 6 minutes (with the almost full length mixing that is 7 songs only). So, my dilemma is great. I guess 8 songs would be a reasonable number of tracks, or even maybe 9, so either i use shorter mix (radio edits or whatever - they are not named that way for nothing), or cut a little more.

quoted 2 lines since the songs are fairly long, but it's not uncommon to hear a 45-minute

> since the songs are fairly long, but it's not uncommon to hear a 45-minute > set consisting of 15 or 20 grunge or power pop or punk tunes, and it's

Yikes, 2 minute songs? I bet not a single idm track is that short. In fact are there many clocking under 5 minutes? Ciao, -- Francois Dion (IdMEDIA) [> Email: francois@hyperreal.com <] ' [> C.P. 278, St-Lambert, QC, Canada, J4P 2N8 <] [> Raving Up North Ezine: run-request@hyperreal.com, subject: help <]

On Sun, 9 Jul 1995, Francois Dion wrote:

quoted 4 lines Yikes, 2 minute songs? I bet not a single idm track is that short. In fact

> > Yikes, 2 minute songs? I bet not a single idm track is that short. In fact > are there many clocking under 5 minutes? >

u-ziq: Tango'n'Vectif One of the all-time best, and exactly 4 minutes. My radio program is three hours and after midnight, so I am free from many requirements such as mosaics, and other types of things, such as news, or weather. My big problem is requests, nobody ever calls me, my suspicion being that they don't know what to request, as I tend to not repeat songs. Usually when I get requests it's for older things like little fluffly clouds, 3a.m. eternal, didgeridoo, and other things along these lines. Philip Downey

Francois Dion said once upon a time:

quoted 5 lines Is it proper radio etiquette to mix long songs after 4 or 6 minutes?

>Is it proper radio etiquette to mix long songs after 4 or 6 minutes? >What would you prefer (supposing you were within range), full >versions, almost full (when it starts to fade, mix the other on top >of it), or clearly cut 25% or something like that (or more) of the >playing time?

If I had a radio show, I'd try mixing every 3 minutes, playing two or more cuts at once, mic the dacquiri blender through a flanger etc, etc. Just playing cuts seems so tame. -- "This unit might get hot while operating, but there is nothing to worry about it." -- Chapter 1, Verse 10, the book of MKS30. -- kent.williams@cadsi.com [Kent Williams/CADSI/2651 Crosspark Rd/Coralville IA 52241/(319)626-6700]