And it don't stop...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ashura
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Ashura

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I'm in the works of putting together an album and am seriously thinking about track order and how each song flows into the next track. My plan is to kind of blend in each song with the next, exactly how a DJ gradually mixes from one song to the next beat, with a good, subtle transition. Basically, I want the 10 songs on my album to be "joined", flowing from one song to the next, at least when listening (I still want to be able to put it into any CD player and go to any track). I haven't begun recording yet, I wanted to clarify this before anything was started. I am confused as to how this is done. Is this something that you normally do in the mixdown stage? I am running Cubase at the moment...what would be the best way to go about this?


I guess a good example of what I mean would be any of the Buddha Bar CDs, all of them are very nicely mixed together.


Thanx...
 
I do this all the time and it's a piece of cake. Just do your tunes all as individual songs as normal and mix them to two track. Then open a new session in what ever multi track program you're using and place the two track mixes of your songs on their own track in their play order. Drag them into position so one ends and the next begins where you want them to an use volume envelopes to craft your crossfades/ panning tricks, etc. Render that to a two track and then in an editor like SoundForge or whatever you're using, cut out the individual songs again at their crossfade points and name and number them and drop them into a new folder for the album.
Now when you make a CD, drag them into your writer in play order, be SURE to burn the disc at "DISC AT ONCE" and it'll play as a continuous piece of music complete with crossfades with no hicups yet you can still access individual tracks.
 
This would normally be done at mastering, I believe. Of course, if you're not having it mastered, that's more-or-less irrelevant.

If you are having it mastered, doing cross fades (or even plain old non-cross fades) yourself will probably irritate the mastering engineer. Possibly a lot.
 
Track Rat, thanx for the help...you said that I should burn 1 CD at a time...now my plan was to make 1 master CD and have that shipped out to a duplication facility so I can reproduce the CD in packaging with the covers and all...now if they are doin the duplicates, is that gonna be a problem? Are there special instructions that are needed, or does doing multiple copies disrupt the continuous flow? That is, what's wrong if I burn more than one at a time? Thanx again...
 
You misunderstand me. DISC AT ONCE doesn't mean one disc at a time (well, your CD burner does ony make one at a time but that's another story). You burn your Master Disc with a burning option in your CD burning software called DISC AT ONCE. You select this so the burner won't shut down between tracks and insert 2 seconds of silence thereby ruining your crossfades. Get it?:cool:
 
that's why CD architect is still the best, imo. You can do all that and more with it. My old Plextor..when it dies (as CD arch only supports certain burners..and no really new ones that I know of), I guess I'll have to start using wavelab or something, but CD architect has been the champ for me. Track Rat...it does exactly what you've described....plus making your PQ list separate, etc...
 
How well can you tweak fades and such?
 
very well...it has the "rubber band" kind of envelope...so adjusting volumes is pretty straightforward. The big thing is that the audio is completely separate from the PQ list...which is just like a spread sheet...and easy to adjust...and is completely separate from the play list....

Basically, I find it REALLY fast to use....and you can set default times for spacings...or just drag...or go to the PQ list and type in your times..or on the play list...whatever. If you want song 3 to start at 15 seconds into song 2...just type it in the PQ list. Useful for live recordings, for instance. I haven't use Wavelab all that much yet, but I haven't found anything I couldn't do with CD arch. yet.
 
I guess I'm a Luddite. I like the visual of all the tunes up in a DAW and being able to just drag things around.
 
well...I sound like a Sound Forge salesman... but...you can see the wav forms and drag them around too. And of course you can make each section of the screen, whatever size you might need. Like if the play list only has 3 entries...use the extra space for your wav forms...or whatever you desire.

I DO have to tell you....I bought some Sound Forge stock back when it was going ballistic...from $30 up to $120...in a couple months. ..when it came down to $15...I bought 50 shares. It went down to $9....I bought 50 more... It is now around $3...last time I looked:(
 
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