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[Fatalah]

My friend Dan has created like 4 albums now all by himself. He's got about 40 songs altogether but its about time I sorted through them and created one solid album.

My methodology behind this mix cd is to start with a soft song....and then go back and forth between a soft/slow song and a fast/energetic one. What else do you guys think about when you make a mix cd?

 

[MrAngryFace]

Songs I Like

 

[ocelittle]

I throw random tracks onto it and hope for the best.

 

[pops619]

The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but you don't wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules

 

[fallout]

Alternating slow and soft doesn't always work. Most of the time, I like to start off with 3 or so heavy tunes, then slow it down with fluctuations here and there. Another thing to take into account is quality. Some songs you prefer, others you like, but don't care for as much. The standard setlist ideal is to put your second best work at the beginning, your absolute best at the end, then your mediocre stuff in the middle.

I've noticed this isn't a common thing with albums these days ... probably due to people with short attention spans. Regardless, the most important thing I find is the flow. How one song moves into another is really important. Most of the music I have progresses around all over the place, so it's nice to have a mix that progresses together.

 

[Schmo Florez]

Having a theme is key. Like Ska-o-rama or The Best of AFI. I made a theme mix that had the first track of my favorite cd's. Problem was after hearing a track I would want to listen to the whole original album.

 

[robox]

i spend an absurdly long time trying to get the tracklist just right. besides whittling down the number of songs, i gotta get the right order too.

i like to start off with a small bang. something to catch your attention, something to set the mood to the rest of the cd. after that, turn it back down a bit. then with each track, build up to a climax somewhere past the middle of the cd, where the best song is. each adjacent song has to have some cohesive link, whether a similar instrumentation or progressing the tempo/mood. after the best song, i like to find songs that complement the climax, something softer and end with a few songs like that. or buid to second, softer climax. like an appropriate ending song.

after all that, sometimes i'm still not quite satisfied with the results, perhaps because i'm more tolerant to the seeming randomness of other albums.

 

[Star Power]

Start with a bang, end with an even bigger bang.

 

[Teknopathetic]

I generally keep a theme. I have a Weezer mix MD, one that's a heavy rock headbang type stuff MD, a Photek MD, stuff like that.

The songs aren't usually in any particular order, although, they might be grouped by CD simply because it's easier for me to find songs I want by CD than just wandomly searching.