Fanmix tutorial, because I can!
A couple of you guys signed up to waywardmixes even though you've never made fanmixes before and gidgos THAT MAKES ME LOVE YOU SO MUCH, but I figured because I'm already working on the first draft of mine, I might as well make a sort of tutorial post. I'm definietly not an expert, and this method is only perfect if you're using itunes & plan to upload your music, but you can probably adapt it to whatever method you choose to use. Basically, I'm probably just going to ramble at you, but I know when I'm starting out with something new, it's nice to see how other people do it - even if I end up doing it a completely different way to them. Hell, I still find it useful to find out how other people make fanmixes, because chances are I'm missing something obvious.
My first task in making fanmixes is collecting songs. I'll make a playlist - usually named after the pairing or character or whatever until I have a title, after which point it'll usually be [title];[pairing]. Do whatever you want for that, I just like to be really organized.
For this first step, I don't give a shit how appropriate the song is. If I'm half-listening to it and I think "ooh, that suits xyz pairing", I'll chuck it on the playlist. Making sure it actually works comes later.
Usually at this point I also set up a file to keep notes in. I'll put the fandom, the pairing, the title (if I have one already) and a sort of 'theme' I'm going for. Sometimes this'll be something as simple as 'the canon version of events' - for example, I once made a Kurt/Blaine fanmix that focused on the unrequited love aspect. They don't have to be this specific at all! Sometimes generic works better, and that's okay. These three mixes are all pretty generic, vs these three mixes which have more of a theme.
As you can see, the theme for this one is 'It starts, and then it is, and then it's not', which, other than being terrible writing, isn't amazing but it doesn't have to be. It tells me what songs I need to focus on - ones that fit the keywords of crush/start of a relationship/love/break up/angsty mccreyparty. You don't have to be super eloquent! It can be complete nonsense, so long as you can break it down. Because I write fic and I'm used to thinking in terms of plots, I try to aim for something that could be a plot. In this case: Brad & Nate start something and it's awesome and fabulous, but then it ends. Badly.
Which, when you think about it, is probably a terrible theme when I'm making this for waywardmixes and the challenge is OTP. Oh well, let it be known that I won't even let my OTPs be happy :P
So, okay, I've got a bunch of songs, I've got a theme I'm looking for. Now it's time to start cutting songs down. There's already some songs I can get rid of because I put them on the mix before I identified my theme and while they work for the pairing, they don't work for the mix. I'll make note of them somewhere for another mix.
Usually, at this point, I google the hell out of lyrics. I look for anything that works. Maybe a song is actually about the singers favourite pair of shoes, but if I feel the lyrics work - be it the whole song or just a couple of lines - I make note of those lyrics in my file and keep the song on the playlist. If I realize that no, I wasn't paying any attention to the song and it's actually an awful song for the theme, I just scrap it. No hard feelings.
More than once, I've hit this stage and realized that all but two of my songs don't actually work. Don't get discouraged! Frown at yourself and go back to your library. Google lyrics as you pick songs out, if it helps. Ask twitter/livejournal/your friends for suggestions! Honestly, half my fanmixes have started off as two songs I've chosen and then I've asked people for songs and I've built from there. For example, my Erik fanmix was pretty much a collaboration between one of my friends & myself because she's an Erik stan and I kept asking her opinion on songs. Don't be afraid to ask for help or opinions if you know someone who loves the subject!
Now, after the lyric-related cull, my playlist is a good length, but a lot of the time it's still a little long. I start from anywhere between 12 and 50 songs, and I usually aim for about 8 - you can choose whatever number you want, though I've always seen 8 considered as the 'base' limit. If you're uploading your fanmix, keep file sizes in mind. A 30 song mix is awesome, but the file's going to be pretty big.
To cut down my playlist some more, I start listening to the sound of the song. The lyrics are all appropriate, but a sudden heavy rock in the middle of some dainty indie music would sound awkward. If most of my song choices sound like one thing and theres a few songs that really don't fit in, I'll cut those. That usually helps.
I also have a self-imposed rule of not repeating artists on a playlist, so that usually helps me keep songs down. That is entirely self-imposed, from my own preference. I've seen people make great mixes using the songs of only one artist before. Do what you think is right! If you want completely ridiculous rules on your work, go ahead and use them. If you don't want them, then don't. And take it from me - banning certain songs just because they're on every fanmix ever will make your task more difficult. Don't do that. Embrace the love for little lion man and fix you /ramble.
So, by this point, I have a good amount of songs. I'm over the minimum limit of 8, as imposed by the challenge. Now I start arranging them. Like I said, my theme is "it starts, and then it is, and then it's not". I find it best the break my theme down into sections and then have the mix follow that, so I'll use songs about the start of a relationship/a crush, songs about love and passion, songs about a breakup/missing someone. Sometimes, I'll realize I have way too many songs for one section and then I'll have to go back and flesh out another section. It's okay to not have it perfect first go.
This is where the notes I made on lyrics come in handy. I can just reference back to those, see which fit where and then arrange them.
That's pretty much it for the music side of things. Now it's time to make the graphics. There's not much I can say about the covers, it's all down to personal taste. I usually go for 400x400 and keep the front & back covers similar somehow. Some people have completely different front & back covers, but I don't usually like to do that, just because I prefer them to match. You can see ~examples~ of my covers here.
Occasionally, I go through a couple of drafts for the covers. This is the case for this one - I made this one, saved the PSD so I could do the back cover once I'd decided on music and then decided I didn't like it so much. I quickly stuck a back cover together for this post, just as an ~example~, but this won't be used when it comes to posting the mix. Tbf, I wouldn't be surprised if the whole mix had changed by the time it gets posted.
Usually at this point, as I make the cover, I listen to the playlist. This gives me a chance to pay attention to how it all sounds together & see if there's anything that doesn't actually work. If I do it while I work on the covers, I can pay more attention to the theme than if I was poking around on livejournal or something.
Now, this following stuff is really only relevant to itunes. Once you've got your cover & your playlist, it's time to edit the information so everything is cohesive. You'll want to select all the songs on your playlist, right click and click 'get info'.
As you can see, I change the album title to include the fanmix title and the pairing (this is personal preference, because I like being able to find fanmixes in my library just by searching the pairing). I add my usernames to the comments section, so I can get my credit in somewhere and change the artwork to my cover (you can do this just by dragging & dropping). That's all I do, but some people edit everything. Lots of people edit nothing.
Now the fanmix is pretty much done! All that's left for me is to copy all the songs to the folder for this fanmix, then zip & upload it :) Tada!
Like I said, this is probably just the first draft of the mix. You don't need to do a million drafts, most of the time I don't, but sometimes the first go around just isn't quite right. There are a couple of issues with this draft that I need to work out that I can pinpoint, so I'll basically redo a few of these steps over and over until it's golden.
If I wasn't clear on anything or if you have any questions, let me know!
My first task in making fanmixes is collecting songs. I'll make a playlist - usually named after the pairing or character or whatever until I have a title, after which point it'll usually be [title];[pairing]. Do whatever you want for that, I just like to be really organized.
For this first step, I don't give a shit how appropriate the song is. If I'm half-listening to it and I think "ooh, that suits xyz pairing", I'll chuck it on the playlist. Making sure it actually works comes later.
Usually at this point I also set up a file to keep notes in. I'll put the fandom, the pairing, the title (if I have one already) and a sort of 'theme' I'm going for. Sometimes this'll be something as simple as 'the canon version of events' - for example, I once made a Kurt/Blaine fanmix that focused on the unrequited love aspect. They don't have to be this specific at all! Sometimes generic works better, and that's okay. These three mixes are all pretty generic, vs these three mixes which have more of a theme.
As you can see, the theme for this one is 'It starts, and then it is, and then it's not', which, other than being terrible writing, isn't amazing but it doesn't have to be. It tells me what songs I need to focus on - ones that fit the keywords of crush/start of a relationship/love/break up/angsty mccreyparty. You don't have to be super eloquent! It can be complete nonsense, so long as you can break it down. Because I write fic and I'm used to thinking in terms of plots, I try to aim for something that could be a plot. In this case: Brad & Nate start something and it's awesome and fabulous, but then it ends. Badly.
Which, when you think about it, is probably a terrible theme when I'm making this for waywardmixes and the challenge is OTP. Oh well, let it be known that I won't even let my OTPs be happy :P
So, okay, I've got a bunch of songs, I've got a theme I'm looking for. Now it's time to start cutting songs down. There's already some songs I can get rid of because I put them on the mix before I identified my theme and while they work for the pairing, they don't work for the mix. I'll make note of them somewhere for another mix.
Usually, at this point, I google the hell out of lyrics. I look for anything that works. Maybe a song is actually about the singers favourite pair of shoes, but if I feel the lyrics work - be it the whole song or just a couple of lines - I make note of those lyrics in my file and keep the song on the playlist. If I realize that no, I wasn't paying any attention to the song and it's actually an awful song for the theme, I just scrap it. No hard feelings.
More than once, I've hit this stage and realized that all but two of my songs don't actually work. Don't get discouraged! Frown at yourself and go back to your library. Google lyrics as you pick songs out, if it helps. Ask twitter/livejournal/your friends for suggestions! Honestly, half my fanmixes have started off as two songs I've chosen and then I've asked people for songs and I've built from there. For example, my Erik fanmix was pretty much a collaboration between one of my friends & myself because she's an Erik stan and I kept asking her opinion on songs. Don't be afraid to ask for help or opinions if you know someone who loves the subject!
Now, after the lyric-related cull, my playlist is a good length, but a lot of the time it's still a little long. I start from anywhere between 12 and 50 songs, and I usually aim for about 8 - you can choose whatever number you want, though I've always seen 8 considered as the 'base' limit. If you're uploading your fanmix, keep file sizes in mind. A 30 song mix is awesome, but the file's going to be pretty big.
To cut down my playlist some more, I start listening to the sound of the song. The lyrics are all appropriate, but a sudden heavy rock in the middle of some dainty indie music would sound awkward. If most of my song choices sound like one thing and theres a few songs that really don't fit in, I'll cut those. That usually helps.
I also have a self-imposed rule of not repeating artists on a playlist, so that usually helps me keep songs down. That is entirely self-imposed, from my own preference. I've seen people make great mixes using the songs of only one artist before. Do what you think is right! If you want completely ridiculous rules on your work, go ahead and use them. If you don't want them, then don't. And take it from me - banning certain songs just because they're on every fanmix ever will make your task more difficult. Don't do that. Embrace the love for little lion man and fix you /ramble.
So, by this point, I have a good amount of songs. I'm over the minimum limit of 8, as imposed by the challenge. Now I start arranging them. Like I said, my theme is "it starts, and then it is, and then it's not". I find it best the break my theme down into sections and then have the mix follow that, so I'll use songs about the start of a relationship/a crush, songs about love and passion, songs about a breakup/missing someone. Sometimes, I'll realize I have way too many songs for one section and then I'll have to go back and flesh out another section. It's okay to not have it perfect first go.
This is where the notes I made on lyrics come in handy. I can just reference back to those, see which fit where and then arrange them.
That's pretty much it for the music side of things. Now it's time to make the graphics. There's not much I can say about the covers, it's all down to personal taste. I usually go for 400x400 and keep the front & back covers similar somehow. Some people have completely different front & back covers, but I don't usually like to do that, just because I prefer them to match. You can see ~examples~ of my covers here.
Occasionally, I go through a couple of drafts for the covers. This is the case for this one - I made this one, saved the PSD so I could do the back cover once I'd decided on music and then decided I didn't like it so much. I quickly stuck a back cover together for this post, just as an ~example~, but this won't be used when it comes to posting the mix. Tbf, I wouldn't be surprised if the whole mix had changed by the time it gets posted.
Usually at this point, as I make the cover, I listen to the playlist. This gives me a chance to pay attention to how it all sounds together & see if there's anything that doesn't actually work. If I do it while I work on the covers, I can pay more attention to the theme than if I was poking around on livejournal or something.
Now, this following stuff is really only relevant to itunes. Once you've got your cover & your playlist, it's time to edit the information so everything is cohesive. You'll want to select all the songs on your playlist, right click and click 'get info'.
As you can see, I change the album title to include the fanmix title and the pairing (this is personal preference, because I like being able to find fanmixes in my library just by searching the pairing). I add my usernames to the comments section, so I can get my credit in somewhere and change the artwork to my cover (you can do this just by dragging & dropping). That's all I do, but some people edit everything. Lots of people edit nothing.
Now the fanmix is pretty much done! All that's left for me is to copy all the songs to the folder for this fanmix, then zip & upload it :) Tada!
Like I said, this is probably just the first draft of the mix. You don't need to do a million drafts, most of the time I don't, but sometimes the first go around just isn't quite right. There are a couple of issues with this draft that I need to work out that I can pinpoint, so I'll basically redo a few of these steps over and over until it's golden.
If I wasn't clear on anything or if you have any questions, let me know!