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Multitrack mixtape methodology


Steve

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To anyone that makes them, how do you go about it?

 

I make all of mine with one deck, a mixer (obviously) and Audition. I never know exactly what I'm going to do before I begin, other than having a theme for the mix in mind. I will try and think through the mix in my head - just the basics though, not a full track listing in order or anything like that.

 

Sometimes I have an idea for an intro, so I build that first. Other times I'll build it last or whenever an idea comes to me. Sometimes I'll make the outro first.

 

For the main body of the mix, I start by recording the first track into Audition in full. Then I'll beatmatch the second track and record that in. Then I build the transition manually, editing and experiment and adding extra layers of scratching or whatever as I see fit. Sometimes I have an idea in mind of how I want it to sound, but sometimes I haven't got a clue. Either way, there's always some experimentation involved.

 

Other than the intro/outro, I work from left to right making sure everything is absolutely spot on and 100% complete before I continue on with the next track. That way, I know that when the last track is done, other than adding the intro/outro if I haven't already made them, I know that the mix is basically complete. As I'm building the mix, I'll also play all of what I've done from time to time, just so I can tell if the overall thing sounds good to me, but I rarely make any changes - if I do, it's usually minor things like adjusting the volume of some scratching, for example. If I'm 100% sure that everything is good up to a certain stage, I'll bounce it down to a single track then I'll start a new session and import that single track into it and continue on from there, just to make the multitrack view much less cluttered.

 

Once the whole thing is laid out in Audition, I'll export it to a single WAV and listen to it a couple of times on different systems. As long as it's all good, I'll chop it up into separate tracks and it's basically done and dusted.

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To reflect what was said in the Knibbox earlier:

 

I'll have the mix split into sections of probably 2-6 tracks usually. I'll record all these sections individually, sometimes live but sometimes multi-tracked. Then once I have that done I'll tie them all together in my DAW. Then I'll add on any samples I want to use, often re-recording them by cutting them in somehow.

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I'm just starting out. I got myself a interface the other week still haven't tried it out yet though. Can I make a mixtape with audacity? It doesn't look like its multi-track. I know nothing about this stuff though! Any advice on cheap or free software for multi-track would be appreciated!

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Audacity is multitracking software mate.

 

I use Audition, which is basically the same thing, but a bit better. I wrote a guide on getting started with multitracking here: -

 

http://www.digitalvertigo.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=29794

 

And a more in-depth one in 2 parts on DJ Tech Tools here: -

 

http://www.djtechtools.com/2011/07/27/a-guide-to-making-a-multitracked-mixtape-part-1/

http://www.djtechtools.com/2011/08/03/a-guide-to-making-a-multitracked-mixtape-part-2/

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Axel, try REAPER - it's not free but you can DL the full version without paying. After while you should pay though. It's about as powerful as Audition or, I dunno Pro Tools or something.

 

Fuck knows but it is amazingly well-featured

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Dopp always goes on about reaper, I've heard good things too. It's basically free, you're meant to start paying after 30 days but they don't enforce it, as far as I've heard.

 

What interface you got? I wanna get one to start doing the same thing!

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BTW, Joe, I use Audition cos I started out with Cool Edit Pro back in the day and I learned how to use it fairly well. Adobe then bought the company that made CEP and changed its name to Audition, so I use it out of familiarity - I'm certainly not saying it's the best tool for this job, but I like it.

 

For a multitracking n00bazoid, I would certainly try a few different bits of software, including Reaper that dopp mentioned (and uses).

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Dopp always goes on about reaper, I've heard good things too. It's basically free, you're meant to start paying after 30 days but they don't enforce it, as far as I've heard.

 

What interface you got? I wanna get one to start doing the same thing!

 

Yeah it's only $50 as well. I really need to pay. If you don't then a nag screen comes up for like 10 seconds every time you open it. It's more just laziness than anything else.

 

You could start with a good but massively cheap one like the Behringer UCA202 at about £25.

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To anyone that makes them, how do you go about it?

 

my mixes are all just only slightly multi-track, meaning it's basically a live mix where sometimes I'll have a part where I know I'll add scratching later, or some vocal sample or whatever. A couple times I've done "fake doubles" when I actually only have 1 copy of a record. So the set-up is just like a gig set-up, and it's planned out to a greater or lesser extent. If I fuck up I'll either leave it in if it's small, or start the whole thing over if I'm close enough to the start, or cheat if I'm right near the end.

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