Mixes

There's two ways I do mine:

1) 2 turntables, mixer, cable into audio socket of computer, several cans of red stripe. Record it all live into "soundedit" or similar bit of software which basically just works as a big tape recorder. (or alternatively record it all onto a tape or CDR and then play that into the computer in the same way)

2) Record stuff as above and then give it to Paul to do obscure technological things with which I don't understand.

I think KAOS pads just do soundeffects, so yes you could make "music" on them in the sense that music is organised sound, but probably not conventional "tunes". Best bet is to go into one of those shops on Tottenham Court road and ask them to have a go, I would guess.

the cheapest way (i'm assuming you own a computer) is to get a copy of Acid Pro, which will allow you to drag, drop, cut up and manipulate music files visually into a mix, so it is very easy to use with a little practice.

quite a lot of people use acid- i would guess tWiSt's mix is done using it, the love thy neighbour reggae mix was made using it (record the vinyl as john mentions above, then slap it in acid)

kaoss pad is an effects box that works with a mixer- mainly for use with record decks. excellent fun though

I use 2 decks, CD deck, mixer and delay unit

I record into my Mac using Peak or Logic, but all sorts of audio programs are suitable for this... there are even several free apps that will let you record and then edit audio.

Or were you planning on "mixing" on the computer itself, rather than recording a turntable mix?

A KAOSS pad is a unique effects box that replaces the usual knobs and sliders found on effects units with that big touch-sensitive pad on the front. you can then control the various parameters of each effect by running your finger around the pad - so pushing your finger in a certain direction might increase the amount of delay, for example. it's more fun than turning knobs or clicking things on a screen and is designed as a "performance" tool primarily to bring a random element back into applying effects.

Acid is the way to go. Turntables are nice for spontaneous, quickie things but if you want something that you will listen to over and over you are much better off with Acid.

The pros:
* Perfect beatmatching every time.
* Ability to edit out annoying bits, loop good ones.
* Ability to switch between records at an inhuman pace and have more than 2 tracks going at the same time
* Change your mind about the order of tracks and re-edit to your hearts content.

Cons:
* Takes up lots of harddrive space
* Takes lots of time to do (I would estimate that for every minute of the final product you would probably spend about 5 minutes preparing it. This includes: getting the track into wav format, deciding where it will go in the mix, beatmatching, aligning it properly, making edits, applying volume envelopes, listening to result)
* I don't know about the newer version of Acid but in the old one the timestretching process introduced artifacts to the sound. Does the new version allow resampling without timestretching (ie. preserving neither pitch nor tempo)

I've done a couple of mixes this way. I took tracks that I would never listen to on their own and cut out the best parts and this way I have a 90 minute mix for the car that I can enjoy listening. I would put them up somewhere but don't have the space. Anyone interested? One is a '90-'91 rave mix and the other is a '93-'94 dark 'ardkore mix.

this is about dj mixes, but not so much technical as much as aesthetic aspect:

when I make mixes in the studio they all tend to feel really abstract, formal, dark, and kind of cold. it is the sort of thing that I myself enjoy listening to when I'm alone, and I use the sort of tracks with interesting sounds that are fun to mix and overlap. I mean the dance mixes ARE funky and danceable, and the hiphop mixes ARE head noddingly dopelicious, but they all tend to be more technical and more abstract.

when I play live it's party rocking all the way, making the girls grind and the guys rock, but my studio mixes are an entirely different thing altogether.

anyone else feel the same way?