Post Description

Ben Liebrand - Classics mix (1999)




















Initially made as the last episode of the non-stop-mix-show
"In The Mix" on Radio Veronica.
CLASSICS MIX

1. House of the Rising sun - Hot R.S. (sound effects)
2. Close Encounters of the third kind - Gene Page (voice over)
3. Popmuzik - "M"
4. Groove me - Fern Kinney
5. Rapper's Delight - Sugarhill Gang
6. Good times - Chic
7. The breaks - Curtis Blow
8. Got my mind made up - Instant Funk
9. Love injection - Trussel
10. Ladies night - Kool & the Gang
11. Ain't no stopping us now - McFadden & Whitehead
12. Rhythm talk - Jocko
13. At midnight - T Connection
14. Second time around - Shalamar
15. You gave me love - Crown Heights Affair
16. You can do it - Al Hudson
17. And the beat goes on - The Whispers
18. I don't wanna be a freak - Dynasty
19. Get down - Gene Chandler
20. Are you ready - Billy Ocean
21. Shake your body down - The Jacksons
22. Don't stop till you can get enough - Michael Jackson
23. He's the greatest dancer - Sister Sledge
24. We are family - Sister Sledge
25. Le Freak - Chic
26. Hot shot - Karen Young
27. Don't let me be misunderstood - Santa Esmeralda
28. Strut your funky stuff - Frantique
29. Let's all chant - Michael Zager Band
30. First Choice - Let no man put asunder  
31. Rocker's Revenge - Walking on Sunshine  
32. Earth, Wind & Fire - Let's Groove  
33. Come on and do it - Poussez
34. La Bamba - Antonia Rodriquez
35. Disco nights - C.Q.
36. Tell everybody - Herbie Hancock
37. Bad girls - Donna Summer
38. Dancer - Gino Soccio
39. Funky town - Lipps Inc.
40. Relight my fire - Dan Hartman
41. Found a cure - Ashford & Simpson
42. I will tell you - Sergio Mendez
43. Tonight I'm alright - Narada Michael Walden
44. Showtime - Gary's Gang
45. In the forest - Baby O
46. Can you feel it - The Jacksons
47. Ring my bell - Anita Ward
48. Beat the clock - Sparks
49. Keep on dancing - Gary's Gang
50. Twilight zone - Manhattan Transfer
51. Happiness - Cuba Gooding (acappella)  
52. Chase - Giorgio Moroder
53. I feel love - Donna Summer
54. Moskow Discow - Telex
55. Underwater - Harry Thumann
56. Boogie wonder land - Earth, Wind & Fire
57. Love is in you - Night Life Unlimited (rhythm only)
58. Never gonna say goodbye - Poussez
59. Walk right now - The Jacksons
60. The Break - Katmandu
61. The party is over - Destination
Time 59:34

Arriving at the studio past midnight ,I discovered, the mix
was 7 minutes too long, so the tape splicing set had to come
back in action.
Broadcast was at 2 PM, so with less than 2 hours to go, there was
no time too lose. Using the mechanical tape length indicator on the
tape deck, and a piece of paper to jot down the number of deleted
seconds the mix gradually came closer to the length required.
A couple of minutes before we had to go on-air the edit was ready.
Due to the mechanical nature of measuring, the mix was still a couple
of seconds to long. Apparently impressed by this last minute edit,
of a close to one hour mix, the Radio Technician muted the otherwise
holy and absolute standard 5-second-countdown-beeps before the
whole hour normally indicating the exact time.
In doing so he gave me the last couple of seconds the mix needed.
What can I say............It was one of those moments.....
About the "Directors Cut"
As you read above, 7 minutes where edited out of the original mix.
Putting all those bits back in, would take the flow and speed out of the mix.
The Classics Mix "Directors Cut" however ends with the original full length version
of Destination's "The party is over". The helicopter sound effect plus "The party
is over" were the actual end I used in the Disco 'Kwien' (pronounced Queen) back in
those years and was taken from the original chrome cassette tape I used back then.
To make up for the other minutes lost, 4 tracks where added indicated by this dot  
The last dance record of the evening in those years would either be:
Antonia Rodriguez : La Bamba,
Kat Mandu : The Break or
Gary's Gang : Showtime
All of which can be found in this mix.
Technical Details
The mix was transferred into the Akai DD1500 where minor level adjustments have
been made, as well as improving a couple of cuts. (remember, 83 84 85 86 87 and
the classics mix were originally edited on tape, and tape splicing is limited to changing
the splice angle for a somewhat smoother cut.)
In the DD1500 the additional tracks  were added, and the ending was restored to it's original length.
Have a look at the studio back then, and how editing was done.

Equipment
2 x SL1200mkII turntables with Stanton Triple E cartridges
1 x Teac Tascam mixer 3A (8 channels)
1 x Teac Tascam 4 channel tapedeck for tapeloops
1 x Master Recorder: Revox PR99 with Studer "Butterfly" recording heads.
Speed: 38 cm/s 2-track
Tape: 1/4 inch BASF 911 at 510 nanoweber level
Sennheiser vocoder for robot voices
The Akai DD1500 was used for digital editing and mastering of the "Directors Cut".
The Direct ors Cut was then mastered onto the Tascam DA-30 DAT recorder

Reel to reel tape
The complete original mix didn't fit on one reel, and had to be transported in 2 sections.
The last 5 minutes of tape 1 were identical to the first 5 minutes of tape 2, and
whilst broadcasting I had to sync up the machines at the NOB (NOS at the time)
to make a very fast (and unnoticeable) live crossfade from tape 1 to tape 2.
Later these tapes were transferred to Sony F1 Digital, solving the live crossfade problem.
The 'Directors Cut' broadcasted on Radio 538 in november of 1999 was played from DAT.