My dabbling with podcasts has happened in fits and starts, I readily admit that. A lack of time was the biggest problem followed by my biggest gripe with music CDs…their audio levels are not always consistent, especially if they were manufactured before the mid Nineties. When I made the tapes, the several decks I owned could compensate for this through those little dials which controlled the recording levels. One great lesson I learned in college radio, you barely want to hit the last red level otherwise you get distorted sound. How do you fix this on a computer though? Garage band allows you the means to adjust the volume per track, effective yet tedious. I also tried my functional copy of Amadeus. It proved to be a more difficult task.
Flustered, I decided to test my Google Fu. For once I succeeded. Someone published a free application called MP3 Gain. All I have to do is gather the tunes in the playlist and MP3 Gain examines them, then sets their levels as a unit. No more fussing with the volume buttons, just like what I used to achieve through my tape decks!
So for the anniversary of what was the initial mix tape to give me emotional comfort, I finally remastered WMAG 1. I chose to make two files, one representing each side of the original cassette. The contents and order remain the same. Garage Band did enable me to do the one thing I missed about being on the radio…segues between tracks! Besides the enhancements to the levels, there are chapters for those who remember tunes they want to skip. Hopefully there are fewer than I recall receiving complaints about.
I already blathered on about the origins of the WMAG (eventually KMAG) mix tapes over four years ago with this post. As I read it, I think I said all I really wanted to say. I just need to fix the typos and grammar issues.
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