Cut Up Or Shut Up: An Edited History Of Cut’n’Paste writes Neil McMillan in Big Daddy Magazine. Starting with Nazi propaganda, to Freddy Fresh to Italo disco megamixes. Wanna learn how to do it? Take DJ BigBLueFox's lessons. The story begins with magnetic tape, the means by which all the early edit masters constructed their cut-ups. The first working reel-to-reel machines were brought over to America from Germany by Jack Mullin in late 1944. Used by the Nazis for propaganda radio broadcasts, the tape’s audio signal was of a quality far superior to that produced by wire recording. Soon Mullin found himself employed on the Bing Crosby show, where he pre-recorded performances then edited them into a broadcastable format using a razor blade and adhesive tape. The producers and engineers worried that the sound might substantially deteriorate during this process, or even worse, the spliced tape might split. Miraculously, it did neither. Read full article -------------------- Patrick, a long-time devotee of disco mixers, has compiled a list of them dating from the late ‘70s to the early ‘90s (http://home.wanadoo.nl/discopatrick/). Cataloguing both legitimate DJ-only labels such as Disconet (the American precursor of DMC on which the ‘Lessons’ series first appeared), the Sunshine Sounds acetates and shady bootleg merchants like Bits & Pieces and J&T (of which more later), Patrick’s is the most comprehensive archive available -------------------- You think you could be the new DJ megamix master? You want to show us how it really works? Allright! Here you can learn the basics! Take DJ BigBlueFox's lessons. Table of contents: Chapter 1: Equipment / Software Chapter 2: Pitching the tracks Chapter 3: Creating a simple mix Chapter 4: Crashes and hats Chapter 5: Building bridges Chapter 6: Megamixes Chapter 7: Stuttering and effects -------------------- For some disco inspiration check out the recent Cybernetic Broadcasting System's Megamix contest. The CBS is Viewlexx (dutch disco label) owner I-F's online radio station.