Six Tips for Making a Good Mix CD

Six Tips for Making a Good Mix CD for Friends
by William McRand Sr

In this age of CDRW drives and digital music, it's easier
than ever to create a CD of various songs for your
friends. This is a lot of fun, because not only can you
bring a smile to your friends' faces with a thoughtful
gift, but you also expose each other to bands and songs
the other may have never heard before.

However, there is a certain "art" to creating a good mix
CD, and here are some tips to help you:

MAKE A PLAYLIST FIRST
You may find you didn't choose your song list or order as
well as you could have. If you've built a playlist before
burning the CD, you can listen to it a few times to make
sure the flow is what you were aiming for. You'll also
save money and the environment by not having to throw away
a bunch of CDs if you change your mind.

DON'T REPEAT THE SAME BANDS
Unless you're making a "best of" compilation for a
specific group, it's best to only have one song per unique
band per CD. Unless all of your chosen songs are
particularly short, you'll only get 15-20 songs per CD
anyway, so there's really no need for repeats.

VARY THE TEMPO
Think of a movie soundtrack. It usually starts out with
either a fast-paced or upbeat song, slows down, and then
picks back up again. Your mix should do the same. This
allows the listener to ride the "wave" of emotions and
will increase its chances of being listened to repeatedly.

NORMALIZE THE VOLUME
If you've ever made a mix CD before, you may have noticed
that newer songs always seem louder than older songs, even
if you extracted them from their CDs with the same
program, computer, and settings. It can be somewhat
annoying to the listener if he or she has to keep
adjusting the volume while the CD is playing. Various CD
burning and MP3 extraction software have a setting to keep
the volume the same between different tracks. You can also
use a separate utility, such as MP3 Gain to adjust the
music files themselves.

START THE CD WITH A MOVIE OR TV SAMPLE
Using a recorded piece of dialog from a movie or
television show can really set the mood for the entire
disc. For added effect, you can add samples throughout the
CD or as the final track.

MAKE SURE YOUR SONGS LEAD INTO EACH OTHER
Don't shift genres or pacing too quickly between songs.
You can almost disorient your listener by going from a
slow country ballad, to a fast-paced speed metal song,
then following that with a classical piano piece. With
some well-chosen songs in between, you can pull off having
all three of these types of songs on the same CD, but it
takes a lot of thought in order to do this successfully.

You'll find that making mix CDs gets easier each time you
do it, so don't fret if you think you're spending too much
time getting it together. If your friends love and
appreciate it, it'll be worth every minute you spent.

William McRand Sr is a professional Affiliate residing in
Mobile AL. His web site at
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Finding the Perfect Anti-spyware Software

Anti-spyware
Finding the Perfect Anti-spyware Software
by Richard Rossbauer

The whole arena of spyware intrusion is extremely fluid with the spyware writers trying to outsmart everyone, and the software protection writers diligently working to keep up with the hundreds of new worms and viruses appearing nearly every day.

Fortunately, there are generous individuals and organizations who have the facilities to review the work of the Anti-spyware developers and make the results available for all of us everyday users of the Internet.

The challenge for us is to know where to go for these results and recommendations, and to know which of the anti-spyware and anti-virus programs to use on our computers.

There are many web masters, newsletter, and Blog publishers who constantly monitor the results published by the anti-spyware reviewers. Most of them pass these information alerts on to their readers and subscribers, often offering suggestions and advice based on their own personal experiences and expertise.

A real benefit for us is that most of the top rated anti-spyware and anti-virus programs are free, or available in Trial or Demo versions.

All we need do is find out where to get them. But first, we need to find the reviewers who post the alerts.

If subscribing to newsletters and Blogs isn't your usual surfing activity, you can do a search for security alert newsletters or security alert blogs. For example, do a Yahoo search for "security alert newsletter" (use the quotation marks to get the most appropriate search results). Do the same for a Yahoo or Google search on "security alert blog". (Blogs are web logs).

Investigate the first and second pages of the search results and select three or four of the listings as a starting point. Many newsletters are published on a monthly schedule and may not contain the most current information. Some are published weekly. They may be better choices.

Blogs are usually much more current since Blog authors often post their information every couple of days - some even on a daily basis.

Blogs are riding a major wave of popularity. For the serious searchers of current information, this is a great benefit. There aren't as many Blog sites as web sites yet, so it's often much easier to find the information you're looking for.

Many Blog authors make their publications available for RSS (Real Simple Syndication) readers. If you have added a RSS reader to your browser, you can get up-to-the-minute alerts presented to you automatically. You don't need to go looking for them.

Many updated browsers, like Netscape 8 and Firefox include this feature as part of their package. Expect the newest Internet Explorer to have a RSS Reader, too.

Don't be overwhelmed by all of the information you get. After doing these searches and reviews once or twice, it will be a simple task to select what you need to keep yourself current.

For starters, it is generally accepted practice to select and use at least two anti-spyware programs. Choose from among the two or three that receive the highest recommendations and ratings from the newsletter and Blog authors. Be especially watchful for and select one of those programs that provides 'Real Time' monitoring. (Which means that they monitor and catch any incoming bugs that may try to infect your machine while you are online).

Downloading instructions are nearly always present with the reviews. If not, you'll find sites like c|net.com to be a good source for download links.

Just don't forget to check for and update your security software. The spyware writers won't give you a break if you do.
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