mixtape | Digital DJ Tips

August 26th, 2011 Training

7 Ways To Beat The Mixtape Blues (Or, How To Get Inspired)

by Phil Morse

Beat the mixtape blues with our 7 ideas for getting inspiration. Pic: Hryckowian

If you regularly make mixtapes, you’ll know the feeling: All that music, all those ideas, all those gigs you’ve played recently, yet now it’s just you and a bit of spare time to actually record your mix, you’re stuck for ideas. You’ve gone blank. Nothing is inspiring you, and you don’t think anything you do today is going to be any good.

Creativity doesn’t always come easy, so here are 7 simple things you can try to beat your DJ’s “writer’s block” and produce something worthwhile at the end of the process:

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November 1st, 2010 Software

MixTape: The Fastest Way to Record a DJ Mix?

by Phil Morse

Mixtape software has a clean and visual interface, but looks absolutely nothing like normal DJ software.

If you’ve ever wanted a way to just get a mix “down”, quickly and easily, without having to keep re-recording it because you’ve messed up, then MixTape (US$69/US$39) may be the software you’ve been looking for.

It’s for Mac only I’m afraid (we seem to be reviewing a lot of Mac software at the moment, I promise it’s not on purpose, PC users) – but apart from that, anyone who knows how to count musical beats and bars could in theory make a passable DJ mix with this. Or so the developer claims. Let’s find out…

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October 22nd, 2010 DJ Culture

Reader Profile: Marvin Kamikaze

by Phil Morse

DJ Marvin Kamikaze from Mexico has been DJing for so little time he's not even decided if he likes name yet...

DJ Marvin Kamikaze has certainly hit the ground running. From discovering Digital DJ Tips (through searching the web for “how to choose a DJ name”, something he’s still not decided on for sure) to producing his first mixtape, it’s been just three months.

Here, Marvin tells us about recording his first mixtape, what digital DJing kit he uses, what the opportunities are for young DJs in his home town, and where he hopes DJing will take him in the future.

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September 24th, 2010 DJ Culture

5 Ways to Promote Your DJ Mix on SoundCloud

by Phil Morse

SoundCloud has been a game changer, not least for the number of CDs that haven't been burned & binned since it came along.

Just last week our making a mixtape series got loads of feedback proving how popular mixtapes are with DJs wanting to promote themselves. Of course, they’re not mixtapes or even CDs a lot of the time nowadays, and it was obvious from your comments that your favourite place for posting digital mixes is SoundCloud.

But after spending so much time getting your mix just-so, the last thing you want is to post it online for it to sit there, unlistened to and unloved, for eternity. So how do you make sure it gets the attention you know it deserves? Time to get your promoter’s hat on.

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September 16th, 2010 DJ Culture

The Definitive Guide To Making a Mixtape – Part 4

by Phil Morse

Mastering turns your finished mix into the masterpiece it was always meant to be. Photo: Englishsnow

All this week, Digital DJ Tips is dedicated to helping you to make better mixtapes. On Monday we showed you how to assemble a fantastic shortlist of tunes for your mix. On Tuesday, we looked at how to plan your mix. Yesterday we actually recorded it, and today we will look at mastering and burning your mix. Finally, tomorrow we’ll help you with ideas about how to get your mix out there to the people.

The whole point of this series is to encourage you to stop thinking about your mix and actually do it! So if you’ve followed this far, be sure to make it count. If you’ve already done your mix, great. If not, keep reading. There’s a whole weekend starts tomorrow evening, so why not put some time into recording a mix by Monday?

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September 13th, 2010 DJ Culture

The Definitive Guide To Making a Mixtape – Part 1

by Phil Morse

From blueprint to your fans - making a great mixtape is easy when you know how.

All this week, Digital DJ Tips is dedicated to showing you how to make a mixtape. Today we’ll consider how to assemble a shortlist of tunes for your mix. Tomorrow we’ll look at how to plan your mix. Wednesday will be all about actually recording your mix, before we master and burn it to CD on Thursday. Finally, on Friday we’ll help you to get your mix out there to the people.

Of course, no two DJs are the same, no two reasons for making a mix are exactly the same, and hopefully your music style is different enough from that of other DJs too. Otherwise, why bother? So we don’t expect you’ll follow everything in this guide. Nor do we think this is the only, or the best, way to produce a mix. But…

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September 9th, 2010 DJ Culture

Next week: The Definitive Guide to Recording a Mixtape

by Phil Morse

Photo credit: Anie-Bee

All next week, Digital DJ Tips will be handing the whole blog over to our Definitive Guide to Recording a Mixtape. From Monday through till Friday, we’ll carry a series of five articles dedicated to helping you to record the perfect DJ mix.

From choosing the right songs, to planning your mix, to recording and mastering it, and finally to getting it out there on CD and the internet for the world to hear, the series will build into a valuable free guide to getting that mixtape perfect for your audience..

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