Fanmix musings
Oct. 31st, 2007 09:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
athenaltenaFinally got around to doing the preliminarily parts of the Anthy fanmix I've been tossing around in my head for a while, and I realized something:
I have a hell of a lot of Anthy music. In particular, when "God of Wine" by Third Eye Blind came on I actually shivered because it was so eerily perfect. Ironically most of the songs are sung by men, but that's to be expected since most of my music library is made up of male singers, though I do have a decent number of girls there too, including Sarah McLachlan, Vienna Teng and Allison Krauss. I've got 17 so far, though that'll probably go up and down.
And just because I'm bored, I'll go ahead and outline the steps I go through just in case anyone's interested and because it's good practice in describing how I do things and why.
1.) Initial concept -- Coming up with the idea, often spawned by one or a few songs that already fit.
2.) Rough Cut -- Essentially the stage of copying songs into a folder and test-playing them to see if they work. I actually intentionally try to avoid putting a lot of popular radio tunes in just to make it a bit different and maybe expose people to songs they haven't heard before. I've bought multiple CDs because of other people doing this in their mixes.
3.) Pruning -- Deciding what does and doesn't fit and adding or removing different files depending on how they feel in the overall picture.
4.) Ordering -- This is when I start renaming and converting any files that are .wma into .mp3 and deciding what order to put them in. I then order them, make the naming consistent, put them in one album, etc. I try to have a certain amount of flow with the mixes, so I often start with a song that introduces the concept and a wrap-up at the end. What can I say? I like order.
5.) Cover Art -- If I don't already have an image in mind I browse scan sites to find one that's appropriate and start editing it in GIMP. I also usually decide on the final track order at this point.
6.) Final Listen-Through -- Usually at the same time I'm doing the cover art to sure up any holes or uncertainties. I then save the cover art (usually a front and back), zip the entire thing, chuck it up on a file sharing site (usually Sendspace) and start on the actual post.
7.) Making the Post -- My usual formula is the cover art at the top, followed by any introductory text that might be necessary, followed by each of the songs and a sample of the lyrics that's most appropriate to why it's there. Sometimes I add why it's there to put it in context, but I don't necessarily do that for every one.
And that's how I do it. I like doing it because it combines three of my favorite hobbies: graphic design, music and writing. And hey, it's fun. :)
I have a hell of a lot of Anthy music. In particular, when "God of Wine" by Third Eye Blind came on I actually shivered because it was so eerily perfect. Ironically most of the songs are sung by men, but that's to be expected since most of my music library is made up of male singers, though I do have a decent number of girls there too, including Sarah McLachlan, Vienna Teng and Allison Krauss. I've got 17 so far, though that'll probably go up and down.
And just because I'm bored, I'll go ahead and outline the steps I go through just in case anyone's interested and because it's good practice in describing how I do things and why.
1.) Initial concept -- Coming up with the idea, often spawned by one or a few songs that already fit.
2.) Rough Cut -- Essentially the stage of copying songs into a folder and test-playing them to see if they work. I actually intentionally try to avoid putting a lot of popular radio tunes in just to make it a bit different and maybe expose people to songs they haven't heard before. I've bought multiple CDs because of other people doing this in their mixes.
3.) Pruning -- Deciding what does and doesn't fit and adding or removing different files depending on how they feel in the overall picture.
4.) Ordering -- This is when I start renaming and converting any files that are .wma into .mp3 and deciding what order to put them in. I then order them, make the naming consistent, put them in one album, etc. I try to have a certain amount of flow with the mixes, so I often start with a song that introduces the concept and a wrap-up at the end. What can I say? I like order.
5.) Cover Art -- If I don't already have an image in mind I browse scan sites to find one that's appropriate and start editing it in GIMP. I also usually decide on the final track order at this point.
6.) Final Listen-Through -- Usually at the same time I'm doing the cover art to sure up any holes or uncertainties. I then save the cover art (usually a front and back), zip the entire thing, chuck it up on a file sharing site (usually Sendspace) and start on the actual post.
7.) Making the Post -- My usual formula is the cover art at the top, followed by any introductory text that might be necessary, followed by each of the songs and a sample of the lyrics that's most appropriate to why it's there. Sometimes I add why it's there to put it in context, but I don't necessarily do that for every one.
And that's how I do it. I like doing it because it combines three of my favorite hobbies: graphic design, music and writing. And hey, it's fun. :)
