Live is such a creative tool for making ‘tapes’. Over the next few weeks, I’ll post a series of techniques for making kick-ass mix tapes.

For the last tape I made back in July (below) I picked a large selection of tracks and imported them into Live’s session view for auditioning. I use harmonic mixing where I can to ensure that vocals, melodies, and basslines sound good together. To help me with this, I tag my tracks with key, tempo and genre metadata, and used iTunes smart playlists to group tracks based on the metadata.

I set up my tracks in Live’s Session view like I would if I was preparing a DJ set, cutting up each track into clips to allow me trigger sections and any nice loops. I did some experimentation mixing different track elements using my Akai APC40 controller to jam out, and was able to create a couple of nice edits by reworking song structures, and some interesting transitions by layering elements from different tracks. I also triggered some audio samples, like crashes and white noise, to colour the mix some more and add something extra to my transitions.

I recorded my set into Arrangement view, then listened to the entire mix and added markers where I thought things needed tweaking. I did some additional editing, added EQ and volume automation to level the mix, as well as some extra effects like delays.

More on these techniques in the coming weeks. Until then, enjoy the tape

Mixtape tracklist:

Martin Buttrich – U Must Be This High
Anja Schneider and Sebo K – Rancho Relaxo
Shlomi Aber – Blonda (Funk D’Void Remix)
Maya Jane Coles – What They Say (Dyed Soundorom Remix)
D-Nox and Beckers – Jacaranda
Maya Jane Coles – Play The Game
DJ T – Shine On (Vinyl Mix)
Justin Martin – Nightowl