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makin’ tea in your underwear

+ Wed, December  1

The Art Of The Mix

I don’t know how many years ago it was now, but way back in the day, I considered writing a series of articles on what’s involved in the process of making a great mix.  Think of those 30 seconds of High Fidelity expanded into pages and paragraphs.  Never happened though.  Never got off the Follow Up On These Things list.  Until today, that is.

Two things happened.  In the last year I’ve made exactly 1 mix for someone.  Back in high school I was doing 6 or 7 in that timeframe.  Downtime happens periodically and that’s about the best reason I can give for this disparity in output.  In any event, I’m making a few for friends at the moment and that’s got the wheels turning – thinking through the logistics of what makes a mix enjoyable to someone unfamiliar with this thing you’ve made.  It’s complex, it’s emotional, it’s an important statement you’ve promised to make and that takes time to ponder over.

The other thing that happened is that The Michigan Daily is doing a Top 50 Of The Half Decade right now.  Alongside yesterday’s installment was this op/ed piece on what it is to be a music geek.  Nothing new on the subject is said, but what is said is said well.  I balk at the idea of “perfectionism”, but by and large, yes:

What instills music elitists with such a sense of social duty, of perfectionism, even in others, isn’t economics, it isn’t convenience and it sure as hell isn’t some sense of social Samaritanism. It’s the slight delay on the organ on “Like a Rolling Stone,” or the whistling coda on “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay.” It’s the throaty howl of “Disorder,” the perfect, fleeting romanticism of “Summer Babe,” the playful gush of “Gigantic,” the sailor’s rant of “Louie Louie” and a billion other microcosms of girls, God and growing up.

The Michigan Daily
November 30, 2004

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