Schenectady Synecdoche

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May 13, 2005

Compilation tapes vs. mix CDs

I had a lovely birthday, thanks in no small part to the well-wishes blogged here—especially from Gabe the Cat. I've never had a cat wish me happy birthday before; ya never quit having new speriences. I also got my new glasses (I'm HEALED! I can SEE!); was showered with bouquets of tulips and daffodils from the garden; was treated to a damned fine home-cooked meal; and received three CDs burned from LPs: Desire, The Basement Tapes, and Before the Flood.

I spent a good part of the day making a compilation tape. Not a mix CD, and I'd like to explain why. In High Fidelity, John Cusack has a transcendent moment where he explains the zen of compilation tapes and prepares to make one to mark an important passage of his life. I love that movie and especially that scene; I know zakly what he's talking about, and it makes me smile to know that some screenwriter shares the enthusiasm that BP and I have for compilation tapes.

I also make mix CDs, and I like them, but they are totally different. The compilation tapes are far more intense and important. The mix CD is simply a matter of choosing songs and deciding their order. Actually making the CD takes a matter of moments. Making the compilation tape, in contrast, requires that you sit there in real time through the making of the tape; you are physically part of the music. As you do so, you're working the equalizer (and we have a doozy of an EQ; our stereo system has been assembled one expensive component at a time over a number of years, and at the far end of it is a pair of concert-quality Klipsch La Scala speakers; yeah, we take music s-e-r-i-o-u-s-l-y) so that you're tweaking the instruments and vocals—or correcting muddy or scratchy recordings. And you're remedying volume inconsistences; groups like White Stripes and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club consistently issue CDs whose volume is too high to be played compatibly with other CDs. Most of all, you're establishing the transitions between songs. Will you cut one song off before its end, interrupting it with another song whose lyrics or melody makes an interesting intertext? Will you bang one song right up against the other, or leave a little white space? Will part of the tape be a pastiche of bits from several songs? Sometimes we'll scatter bits from familiar comedians like Bill Cosby, Firesign Theatre, or Tom Lehrer (well, okay, you have to be of a Certain Age for them to be familiar) through a compilation tape, giving a whole new context to the music. Or we'll use serious spoken word; we have, for example, a copy of Nelson Mandela's speech upon his release from prison, and we have an interview with Charles Mingus. One interesting challenge is when there's crowd noise at the end of one song and also at the beginning of the other. You can't let that crowd noise fade all the way down from the end of the first song, because it creates too much of a lull in the tape. So you need to find the spots at the end of Song 1 and the beginning of Song 2 where you can match the level of crowd noise; then you cut Song 1 and begin Song 2 right there; and you work the transition so there's no white space between, and it sounds (as nearly as possible) as if it's one crowd.

And then, when you're all done with the tape, you make two CDs: one that has side 1 of the tape, and the other that has side 2.

So here's the tape I made on my 59th birthday:

Posted by senioritis at May 13, 2005 10:04 AM

Comments

Posted by: Mike at May 15, 2005 11:55 PM

Posted by: senioritis at May 16, 2005 06:49 AM