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chillwaves2024-05-09 05:32 pm
🎧 resources + tutorials
want to make your own mixtapes but don't know how? never burned a CD? here's some quick tips and resources for doing both of those!
burning a CD
what you'll need:
- blank CD-R discs: you can find these on amazon or used, but beware that used discs may have bitrot or degradation of some kind.
- computer with an optical drive OR computer and an external optical drive: if your computer doesn't have an optical drive, you can buy an external optical drive for cheap, brand new or used.
- disc burning software: for windows i recommend imgburn, though i have little experience with it. for macOS, though i have not tried it, macOS seems to have built-in functionality for burning discs, as detailed in this guide by how-to geek. lastly, for linux distributions, i personally use k3b, and it is excellent - alternatively, brasero is also a handy application, especially if, though less related to the interests of this community, you want to create ISOs from DVDs.
- (OPTIONAL) disc markers: entirely optional, but if you want to write directly on your disc with a marker, i highly advise that you use markers designed for writing on optical media, as using a regular marker from any brand, including sharpie, can contribute and accelerate the aforementioned potential bitrot/degradation of the disc. i've bought these disc markers from this amazon link and have had no issues with them. just make sure you only write on the label part of the disc and not the shiny part, or else the disc will be rendered unreadable.
how to burn a disc:
the process will differ depending on your software of choice and operating system, but generally, the process essentially boils down to popping in your blank disc into your optical drive, making sure your system reads the disc, then opening your software of choice, collecting your music files, importing them into your software, and start the burning process. if you need more detailed instructions, feel free to leave a comment, though as a linux user, i am limited in what software i can provide instructions for.
recording a cassette tape
this process is far more complicated than burning a disc, as cassettes are an analog format compared to CDs being fully digital, so you may want to do some research on how cassettes work before jumping in, because if you don't know the basics of how they work, some of the following instructions may be confusing.
what you'll need:
- cassette recorder: cassette equipment prices have skyrocketed in recent years, so while most cassette nerds would recommend you splurge and buy expensive refurbished tape decks or standalone recorders or dual portable players/recorders, i personally use a low cost jensen MCR-75 portable player/recorder that i bought from the linked amazon page for around $30 USD. the quality may not be as good as a vintage model, but it does the job, and is a good entry point for recording tapes.
- blank cassette tapes: these are actually quite easy to come by, and relatively inexpensive. you can thrift these often, or you can buy dead stock from amazon or eBay or secondhand sites like mercari. i most frequently see maxell UR-90 blank tapes for sale as dead stock online, and i have bought a 10-pack of those before from amazon, and i've had no issue with those.
- aux cord (3.5mm to 3.5mm cord): these are also quite common, but if you don't already have one, they are easy to come across in electronics stores or online. i haven't bought this listing but for me, this cord was the first result on amazon.
- digital device to record from: i use my fiio x1 ii music player to record from, as it would not be interrupted by phone notifications or any other internal system audio, and it's also simple for me to transfer my music files to a folder on there and then record, but that is kind of over-complicating things. TL;DR - you can record from basically anything that has a headphone jack, as long as you leave your playback interrupted for the length of the mixtape, and mute any system sounds (unless you want to leave them for the ~vibes~ lol?)
how to record & more:
from here on out, i'll refer to the mixtape recording guide i previously wrote in february 2024. it's quite long and detailed, but as mentioned before, having some understanding of how cassettes work will make this easier to follow. you can find the guide on my personal wiki site, meta. alternatively, you can download the page as a PDF from mediafire, in case the wiki web server is offline.
miscellaneous cassette tape resources:
- j-card template generator by unixispower at gitlab: EXTREMELY handy for generating quick and easy to print j-cards for your cassette cases! all it takes is following the interface and then printing a PDF from the web page, then printing that PDF from your printer of choice. that's it! you can even add your own cover art. it's highly customizable. sometimes i use this generator as a baseline and then edit the PDF in photoshop to make cover art that stretches the whole front instead of just a square. you can do a lot with this template! i highly recommend it
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Also, shoutout to the other best ways to make mixtapes, which involve sitting beside your radio with record-play-pause pushed and very quickly un-pausing or the also-workable-with-dual-cassette-boombox 'record large chunks of radio repeatedly, snag the good songs out of that' method.
(I'll have to post some of these at some point, I do still have them...)
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omg yeah my mom was telling me that's how she used to make mixtapes, it makes me wanna put in a blank tape in my portable and play the radio and just hit record and see what i can pick up! it'd be cool to get some scrambled sorta station surfing style tapes....
i encourage you to post!!!!
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https://cdm.link/2023/09/maxell-still-makes-cassettes/
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