Where do I cut a mix into different tracks?

D

danny_funguy714

New member
I just layed down a dj set into a continuous wav file in Sound Forge. I need to go through and set my track points so I can cut it into different tracks. Where should I cut the tracks? Should I separate the tracks right when I throw the next record in? Or in the middle of the segue? Or when I throw the first record out? anyone get my drift? anyone have any thoughts? Its a tribal/tech house/deep house mix by the way if that makes any difference.
 
usually the way the pros do it, is they cut it right at beat one, when the new song is the stronger than the old, or when the old fades out/kills. I think this is so you can skip to the next song, if you don't like the current one.

There are no rules for where you should cut it

I made a cd a few weeks ago, and I cut it right at the beginning of the mix, i.e. when I first bring the new record in. . . sometimes a little earlier, so I can hear my, ahem, skills. I try to make my mixes long ( I bring them in early ) without being shitty about it, and there is usually 1.5 to 2 mins before the old song cuts out.

The way I figure it is, I know what the songs sound like, and I'm not putting the cd out so people can hear the songs that I like. I want to showcase my <cough> talents, and not my song selection.

I would recommend doing it this way if you are making a demo to distribute, so people can "fast forward" to the action, and not to the next track
 
Thanks for the input. I agree with your philosophy on showcasing my "skills" :) for a demo. i like to mix long too. personally i don't prefer a lot of scratching in a house mix so to make the mix stand out a nice long segue (or however you spell it) sounds good. anyone can just play tracks. but its track selection and how the dj makes them work with each other that makes a dj stand out from the rest. good lookin out. im going back to my editing. peace
 
Also Remmeber that in audio editors your dealing with
SMPTE or 30fps frame format meaning that your Timing on your
WAV file for the first beat is going to be something like
5min22sec423frames or somesuch where as your CD
is going to have 5min22sec15frames ,75frames a second as its lowest time format measurement. ALL CD's use frames!

Go outside of frame boundary and you get padding w. zeros to
the end of the track exacly by the bytes you missed the frame block.

This method work best for me

A) You need a DJ CDPlayer for this USU Pioneer etc.
Burn your one big wav file onto CD
- Play the mix, find a place where you best feel the next track should kick in, CUE it in the CD Player. Look at the Display it should say something like XXm:XXs.XXf make note of the number, launch the track, this is what your listeners will be hearing when they fast forward to that particular "track". If you like what you hear w.o Artifacts and misplaced beats or phrazes, Keep it, otherwise RE-CUE. All CD's work on frames so you cannot use your sound ediotrs more percise time measurement. (This also saves me alot of headaches with Math, where I have to round off SoundForges .999frames to .75frames on CD and only then listen to what i have..)

B) Get CDRWIN and use the numbers you've obtained from you DJ CD Playback to punch up the track catalogue with the FRAME time encoding, Feed it that one wav file and you are done with-out going through the tedious process of chopping
your mix or using retardo CDwriter software.


Alternatives -
Protools has some nice "bounce features"
SonicFoundry used to make CDMastering software that would
help you do exacly that, NO demos avail as of 3 mo ago.
Chop files/ Go crazy.
 
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-ouch, that's quite a lot of relevant info. . .but let's not confuse the young man. If you are a mastering engineer, you might need to be precise like that, so I'm not belittling NYC's advice. I'm sure a ~1ms skip in your cd will not prevent you from getting a gig.

-I've heard of some 'export sections' function in there, but if you just set markers in Sound Forge, and just highlight one at a time --> ctrl-c / ctrl -e / ctrl-s (name it 01) / alt f, c . . .it goes pretty quick.

-To highlight a section hit ctrl + home which takes you to the beginning of the file. Now hold down shift, hit ctrl + (right arrow) and that highlights the first section. When done hit left arrow, then ctrl + (right arrow) to move to the second marker (ctrl moves to markers). Now shift+ctrl+right arrow to highlight, now rinse and repeat.

-Save all these files in separate folder, and then you can just drag that folder into your burner window. You might want to make sure that the tracks are stacked up sequentially.
 
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