One of the most important part of any party that is also one of the most overlooked is the music situation. All too often people hosting parties take music for granted while in the planning stages. Party planners frequently assume food and alcohol will be enough to create an appropriate atmosphere. The reality is that alcohol and to a lesser extent food is only part of the battle. Music is key and changing CDs every 2 minutes is pain and annoying as hell.
If you want guests to stick around and enjoy themselves, you’ll have to provide a number of other items into the mix, including great music. While this article is about music, you should check out Citynet Magazine’s article on ‘How to throw a great party’ for additional useful information.
Way Back When
In the ‘old’ days, making a party mix was extremely time consuming. You would need a double cassette (tape) deck stereo, take out or borrow as many tapes as you could, cue tapes to exactly where you wanted them to start, and hit the record button. If you were lucky, you had high speed dubbing so it would record at twice the normal speed and could be done with more tapes in a shorter period of time.
Using this method, it could easily take 2-3 hours for every 1 hour of tape to make a really good party mix. Today, the Internet has revolutionized the way we live our lives and making party mixes fits right in!
Oh! How we love technology!
Creating a CD is a multi-step process but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be pumping out CDs faster than J Lo changes men. To get the process moving, you’ll need a few things.
First, you have to have a CD writer or ‘burner.’ It’s called a ‘burner’ because you are actually using a laser to burn the songs into the disc. The burner can be set to different speeds but the truth is that the faster it goes, the more chance you have of making a burning error which sometimes leads a song to skip partway through.
Aside from burning at a slow speed, you want to shut off Internet connections and other programs on your computer. Burning is a very delicate process and there are a lot things that can lead to a messed up CD.
The CDs themselves are now made by many major companies and can be purchased in bulk. Each CD could ultimately cost you about 25-50 cents which is amazing! So you can afford to mess up a few CDs before getting it right!
The Burning Program
There are three main programs you will need to burn your CD. First, the burner that you bought most likely came with some software to install and use the burner. One of the most popular programs to burn a CD is Roxio’s Easy CD creator (formerly known as Adaptec’s Easy CD creator). If you need suggestions for other CD burning programs (or you need a free trial version of different programs), try download.com which has a lot to chose from.
Downloading Programs
So, where do you get songs from?! Ultimately, the most efficient place to get songs from is through music file sharing programs. A popular one that was shut down as a free service was Napster. Today, a handful of programs exist that you can download and easily set up on your computer. Two of these include WinMX.com and kazaa.com.
The media talk about these all the time because they are controversial in that the music industry says that downloading music is harming the industry. Yes, a few people have been sued but as incredibly pathetic as that may be, you really don’t have to worry since the odds of getting caught are very small.
In any case, once you download the small program and install it, just open it up, type in the songs you want and download them! Sometimes you have to wait in line as people limit the number of songs that can be uploaded from their computer at a given time. Also, sometimes you will see multiple people offering the same song but the file sizes are varied. That’s because people frequently make the file sizes smaller to download that much faster, even though they are compromising the sound. If you feel a little lost, don’t worry, you’ll figure it out once you get going!
Finally, make sure you have anti-virus software to check all songs that are downloaded. While most will be clean, you have to remember that you’re downloading from a stranger’s computer and so you never know what evil lurks in their computer.
MP3s make Waves!
At the end of every file on your computer, you have a 2 or 3 letter combination, called a file extension. This shows the type of file that it is and allows programs to read the info appropriately as it opens. One of the most common extensions for music is the .wav format. The problem with this format is that it has a large file size. So it could take hours to download a 3 minute song.
To account for this problem, a new format was created, called .mp3 which is able to maintain the high quality of your song but downloads much faster because the file size is much smaller than a .wav file. Again, try download.com which offers free conversion programs, some of which are entirely free. Be sure to read the reviews of each program to see which best suits you. Note that some programs convert songs while maintaining excellent sound quality while others can reduce it so when you blast the song, it may sound distorted.
Conversion Process
You can listen to the music files that you downloaded on your computer but .mp3 files won’t work in most CD players so you can’t listen to them on your stereo, in your car, or through your walkman. Once you have the song in .mp3 format, you need to convert it to the .wav format. This sounds like a pain in the butt but it can be pretty quick.
Since .wav files are larger, they will take up a lot of room on your computer’s hard drive. As such, you can actually fill up the memory space on your computer! Try to avoid converting songs that you don’t intend to burn to save room on your hard drive.
The songs that make the party
The bottom line is that if you want to throw a great party, the music you play is crucial. If people dance, they will have an even better time! With the right music playing, people will dance and stay longer making the party a success.
Once thing you want to avoid is have people come and go all night. If a few people come and see that you’re party is quiet and lame, they will leave. This problem becomes a vicious cycle of people arriving, seeing that there’s no one there, and then leaving! One way to avoid this problem is to make CD mixes and limit access to the audio equipment so you don’t have a bunch of people fighting over the music.
Burn it!
Once you have the CD burner, the burner program, access to a music downloading site, an mp3 to wav converter, you’re set to burn your music! You should listen to the entire song that you have downloaded because they do get cut off in the middle on occasion and you don’t want to burn a half a song.
To make the CD, just select the songs you want from your list and you’re ready to go. If you’re having a party, you should have at least a couple different main CDs for dancing and one with chill out music for when the night is winding down. Each CD will only take a few minutes to make, once you have the songs ready.
That’s All Folks
So there you have it, the burning process and tips on custom making your very own party CD. Note that if you want to just burn a copy of a CD, you need 2 disc drives, one of which must be a burner and the other can be any CD-ROM drive. Just choose the copy option and away you go!
Choice of Songs
Below are some suggestions for songs that you may want to include on your party CDs. Of course, one the best things you can do is mix it up by add some of the suggestions below to the most current songs (outside of 70’s and 80’s), of which there is always one or two that is hot and you just ‘have’ to have it! You may not know the names of some of these songs but you’ve probably heard them!
Choose
Dance/Hip Hop/Pop
Dance/Techno
The 80s
The 70s
Dance/Hip Hop/Pop
Pink – Get this party started
Eminem – Without me
Kylie Minogue – Can’t get you out of my head
Black Legend – You see the trouble with me
Kosheen – Hide u
IIO – Rapture
DJ Kool – Let Me Clear My Throat
N Trance – Stayin Alive
N Trance featuring
Rod Steward – Do Ya Think I’m Sexy
Quad City DJ’s – Come On Ride The Train
Stardust – The Music Sounds Better With You
Destiny’s Child – No No No (Remix)
Wu Tang Clan – Gravel Pit Wyclef – Stayin’ Alive
Wyclef Jean – Guantanamera
Tamperer & Maya – Feel It (Original Club Mix)
Ultranate – You’re Free
Wise Guys – Start the Commotion
20 Fingers – You Gotta Lick It
Amber – Sexual
Bad Boy Bill – JS16 – Stomp To My Beat
Blackstreet – No Diggity
Bellini – Samba de Janeiro (Club Mix)
Gwen Stefani and Eve – Blow Ya Mind
Genuine – Ride My Pony
Sisqo – Thong Song
Juicy – Horny
Maddison Avenue – Don’t Call Me Baby
Destiny’s Child – Independent Women (Part 1)
Vengaboys – We like to party
Dr. Dre – California Love
Dance/Techno
Mike Macaluso – Final Chapter
Daft Punk – One More Time
Daft Punk – Da Funk
Darude – Sandstorm
Dirty Vegas – Days go by
D-Devils – 6Th gate
Derb – Derbiss
DJ Jean – The Launch
[ Paul Oakenfold ]
Delirium ft. Sarah McLachlan – Silence – paul oakenfold mix
Kernkraft 400 – Zombie Nation
New Order – Confusion (Blade Soundtrack version)
Chemical brothers – Hey Girl Hey Boy
The 80s
Anything by Madonna
Anything by Culture Club
Anything by Duran Duran
Anything by Depeche Mode
Anything by U2
Anything by The Cure
Anything by The Smiths
New Order – Bizarre Love Triangle
New Order – Blue Monday
Soft Cell – Tainted Love
MC Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock – It Takes 2
Dead or Alive – You Spin Me Round
Ball of Confusion – Love and Rockets
Eddy Grant – Electric Avenue
Bananarama – Venus
Mr. Mister – Kyrie
A-Ha – Take On Me
The Bangles – Walk Like An Egyptian
Timex Social Club – Rumors
Cameo – Word Up
The B-52’s – Roam
Run-D.M.C. and Aerosmith – Walk This Way
Big Country – In A Big Country
Rick Astley – Never Gonna Give You Up
Los Lobos – La Bamba
The Escape Club – Wild, Wild West
INXS – What You Need
Shannon – Let The Music Play
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (OMD) – If You Leave
The 70s
Wild Cherry – Play That Funky Music
Blondie – Heart of Glass
Chic – Good Times
Patrice Rushen – Forget Me Nots
Village People – YMCA
Bee Gees – Stayin’ Alive
KC & The Sunshine Band That’s the Way (I like it)
Village People – Macho Man
Gloria Gaynor – I Will Survive
Alicia Bridges – I Love The Nightlife
Cheryl Lynn – Got To Be Real
Anita Ward – Ring My Bell
Earth Wind & Fire – Boogie Wonderland
The Trammps – Disco Inferno
Lipps Inc – Funkytown
Amii Stewart – Knock On Wood
Sister Sledge – We Are Family
Hot Chocolate – You Sexy Thing
Walter Murphy – A Fifth Of Beethoven
RSS