Ben Liebrand "In The Mix"

Grandmix Classicsmix

Initially made as the last episode of the non-stop-mix-show
"In The Mix" on Radio Veronica in 1985 covering the ea before 1983.

House of the Rising sun - Hot R.S. (sound effects)
Close Encounters of the third kind - Gene Page (voice over)
Popmuzik - "M"
Groove me - Fern Kinney
Rapper's Delight - Sugarhill Gang
Good times - Chic
The breaks - Curtis Blow
Got my mind made up - Instant Funk
Love injection - Trussel
Ladies night - Kool & the Gang
Ain't no stopping us now - McFadden & Whitehead
Rhythm talk - Jocko
At midnight - T Connection
Second time around - Shalamar
You gave me love - Crown Heights Affair
You can do it - Al Hudson
And the beat goes on - The Whispers
I don't wanna be a freak - Dynasty
Get down - Gene Chandler
Are you ready - Billy Ocean
Shake your body down - The Jacksons
Don't stop till you can get enough - Michael Jackson
He's the greatest dancer - Sister Sledge
We are family - Sister Sledge
Le Freak - Chic
Hot shot - Karen Young
Don't let me be misunderstood - Santa Esmeralda
Strut your funky stuff - Frantique
Let's all chant - Michael Zager Band
First Choice - Let no man put asunder
Rocker's Revenge - Walking on Sunshine
Earth, Wind & Fire - Let's Groove
Come on and do it - Poussez
La Bamba - Antonia Rodriquez
Disco nights - C.Q.
Tell everybody - Herbie Hancock
Bad girls - Donna Summer
Dancer - Gino Soccio
Funky town - Lipps Inc.
Relight my fire - Dan Hartman
Found a cure - Ashford & Simpson
I will tell you - Sergio Mendez
Tonight I'm alright - Narada Michael Walden
Showtime - Gary's Gang
In the forest - Baby O
Can you feel it - The Jacksons
Ring my bell - Anita Ward
Beat the clock - Sparks
Keep on dancing - Gary's Gang
Twilight zone - Manhattan Transfer
Happiness - Cuba Gooding (acappella)
Chase - Giorgio Moroder
I feel love - Donna Summer
Moskow Discow - Telex
Underwater - Harry Thumann
Boogie wonder land - Earth, Wind & Fire
Love is in you - Night Life Unlimited (rhythm only)
Never gonna say goodbye - Poussez
Walk right now - The Jacksons
The Break - Katmandu
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.