Pet Peeve: 'mixed' albums

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

Pet Peeve: ‘mixed’ albums

Here’s something that’s really starting to annoy me… Albums or compilations that are ‘mixed’, usually with a < 5 second crossfade. When I rip the cd, the tracks almost always start and end very abruptly, instead of fading in/out the way the artist intended.

Really annoying when I’ve got to worry about fading out a track manually to avoid a jarring end to a track instead of letting it naturally dissipate. Yes, as a dj I should be well equipped to handle this tiny detail… but the music I mostly play (chill/world/psy), and the way I mix (looong, multi-layered) really lends itself to nut just cutting a track off.

I’ve started to rip some cds as a single track, and then manually cut out tracks with a bit of extra head and tail, then fade them out properly. But that’s a pita, and I would much rather just be able to get unmixed versions from the label.

So from now on, when I buy cds (usually from the label directly), I’m going to push to have unmixed versions of the tracks made available to me.

m.

2

Who buy’s CD’s anymore???

Sorry man. I know what you mean. It can be a bitch sometimes, but it’s something you really can’t change.

3

Im a Pirate and JACKs ALL MY MUSIK!!!

4

So you are saying you use tunes for mixing from mix cd’s?

5

no.. I’m saying that tracks on a lot of the albums and compilations I buy are not separated by silence. Rather, they are mixed into each other with a short (say 5 seconds or so) crossfade.

For the home listener, this is great since you get a continuous flow of music. For the dj, not so good since you wind up with a bunch of tracks with the intor/outro truncated.

6

i just look for the single on whatever track i like from a comp album, or try to find the unmixed / “djs only” version of the comp.

it is crazy to see how many times a decent single will end up on different comps, though.

7

It’s even crazier to see how many times an amazing tune is available only on a single compilation…

8

when that happens, i usually hit up

the line to flame about possible piracy starts here

9

I don’t have an album like that in iTunes at work so I can’t double check this, but you should be able to go into preferences for each song and select “part of a gapless album” under options. You might be able to select all of the songs on that album at once and do it one time. You may need to specify album artist and track number for each song individually in info.

10

must admit i stopped buying mix CD’s a long time ago, but since restarting mixing I have accidently bought Mix Albums via DJ Tunes, only twice because I really liked a few of the tracks but they were only being sold as a package, only to find out that they were mixed right at the end, bit of a pisser but something I got round by just looping them out :slight_smile:

now I am very stringent on touching anything that’s in a package if push comes to shove i just don’t buy the track.