Arcane Gazebo

I put the CD in OCD

I remember being shocked back in May when Amanda at Pandagon said, "A mix CD takes like half an hour, tops, which means that you can pretty much arrange it, drop the disc in and by the time you've finished making your sandwich, it's done." My procedure for mix CDs takes about a week and goes like this:

1. Open iTunes and start a new playlist dedicated to the mix CD. Create a text file with the same title.
   
2. Go through my master playlist looking for songs that fit the theme and intended recipient of the CD, which are added to the new playlist.
   
3. Switch to the new playlist. Select the leadoff song, and start arranging the subsequent tracks based on what songs will go well together. Sometimes I'll choose the closing song right away too. There are probably more than 80 minutes worth of songs on the playlist, so I leave the extra ones at the bottom (in case I want to switch them in later) and make a note of where the 80-minute cutoff is.
   
4. Note the current tracklist in the text file.
   
5. Listen to the playlist all the way through to the 80-minute mark. While listening, make notes in the text file on the overall flow of the CD and the feel of each track in context. I usually mark songs with + or - signs based on whether I like their current position, along with more specific thoughts when appropriate.
   
6. Revise the playlist based on my notes, both rearranging the order and replacing songs entirely. Usually the original ordering gets heavily revised, as there will be lots of song pairings that I thought would sound good but sound terrible in actuality.
   
7. Repeat steps 4-6 until satisfied. This usually means three or four times. I tend to do one iteration per day so I don't get too sick of the songs.
   
8. Burn a disc from iTunes and play the whole thing through on good speakers to get a sense of overall flow. Usually I have done the previous steps on headphones, so this allows me to listen to it in another context. I tend to be pretty happy with it at this stage. Almost done...
   
9. Wait! While walking to work in the morning, my iPod shuffles up a song that has to be on the mix. I don't know how I overlooked it! Since the CD is already 79 minutes and 53 seconds, I have to pick a song to drop to fit the new one, and this introduces a perturbation into the (unstable!) tracklist equilibrium. Go through another iteration or two of arranging.
   
10. With the final tracklist in hand, go to my music shelves and track down the original CD for each song. I buy most of my music on CD rather than through iTunes or otherwise, so I usually have the albums I need.
    
11. Rip the tracks off the original albums in an uncompressed format.
    
12. Burn a master copy of the mix from the CD-quality files.
    
13. Listen to the master once to make sure no glitches were introduced in the rip/burn process.
    
14. Make copies directly from the master for each recipient.
    
15. Distribute copies appropriately, file master in personal archives.
    

In fact, it just occurred to me that parts of this process are strikingly analogous to the process of editing a paper for submission to a peer-reviewed journal. Just substitute figures and equations for songs, and a limit of four pages instead of 80 minutes. Somehow the mix CD version is a lot more fun, though.