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i got into making mixtapes VERY recently and the process is pretty straightforward but it confused me a lot. i'm young so the idea of making tapes was fun and all, but i never really understood the logistics of recording music onto a tape, and the guides i found online seemed to assume you knew on some level how tapes work. i still don't really know how tapes work but here's how i stumbled my way into having five mixtapes at the time of writing that i made in like a couple days.

• blank tape: you can get deadstock blank tapes pretty easily online, especially if you go secondhand like on facebook marketplace or mercari and find people offloading blank tapes in bulk for real cheap because no one cares about tapes. or you can get them off amazon like i did but it'll cost more and i regret it since seeing the secondhand prices lol. the kind of tape matters only with regards to how much music you're putting on i guess, i mean there's probably more to it but for most purposes you just have to think about how much you're putting on a tape and swing for 60 minutes or 90 minutes. my tapes are all on the short side but i went with 90 minute tapes because it wasn't much more and it's just nicer to have the option.
• some device to play your music from: you can use like a computer or your phone or something for this but personally i had a lot of issues trying to get it to record from my computer, so i just throw my playlists on my music player/dap (a fiio x1 ii) and then play from there. more details on how to get the music and what to use to connect the details is coming up just keep reading!
• 3.5mm to 3.5mm cord: i somehow had one already laying around that's like several feet long but you can probably get a decent sized one for cheap off amazon or something. you need this to connect your two devices, the source of the music and the tape recorder.
• cassette recorder: my player doubles as a recorder so i don't have to worry about getting a separate device. it's a jensen MCR-75 that i got for $30 off amazon. most cassette nerds would scoff at this and say to get a better quality player but i don't have $150 to throw at a refurbished walkman, and even if i did, it's not like i use tapes often enough to have a reason to throw that kind of money at an old player/recorder. you CAN get a recorder that doesn't also work as a player but like if you wanna save money then something like the jensen i have will do the job.

so before we get into the actual recording, even after you have all the supplies, there's some shit we gotta get out of the way. first is explaining how the recording shit works. this is a little convoluted so i'll try to summarize in bullet points and keep it short:

1. that cord from before? connect it to the “mic” or “line in” port of your cassette recorder. it's either mic or line in. my player has it as mic. this is how it records onto the tape: the mic port essentially functions as the “listening” part of the recorder, and without a cord, it'll either record nothing, or if the recorder has a built in mic, it'll pick up on sounds around it.
2. next, connect the other side of the cord to the headphone jack of your computer, phone, music player, whatever device you're using. if you have a PC, you can connect it directly to the back where the sound card ports are, just make sure you connect it to the proper headphones port - if not labeled, it's traditionally colored green.

i don't really know how this all works tech-wise, nor do i fully understand it - all i know is that this shit works the way i do it so that's how i'm writing about it. it gets a lot more confusing and stupid if you look it up and i don't even know the difference between line in and headphones or whatever the fuck but does it matter? kind of yeah but i got this to work without fully understanding so whatever

next: your music! your playlist/mixtape/whatever! you gotta predetermine the songs you want and how to organize them to fit on the tape. there's a couple things to worry about here: the length of the tape, and the two different sides. the sides will split the duration of the tape: in other words, on a 60 minute tape, side A and B are 30 minutes each. on a 90 minute tape, side A and B are about 45 minutes each. you have to organize your playlist into two sides, and make sure that the songs for each side do not exceed the duration limits of the tape. this is generally not something i worry about because my mixes are usually small (the way of 8tracks dot com baby, 8-10 tracks total is how i do it!), but if you're putting long playlists to tape, you definitely have to do some math to make sure the tracks will fit.

when it comes to the music itself, since essentially all you're doing is recording from the sound output of your device, you can get it from anywhere. you can record from a streaming service, youtube, whatever, if you want. i personally collect digital music (piracy and buying but mostly piracy) and am deeply, abnormally committed to keeping my library organized, so typically, i will write down and organize my planned playlist, take the music files and copy them from their albums into a new folder, order the tracks, then split them into two folders for both sides. after that, i'll transfer the playlist folder to my music player, and begin recording.

ok we're done with prep we can finally get to the fun part. once you have your music device whatever thing connected with your cassette recorder, take your blank tape and insert it into the recorder, making sure side A faces you so you record onto that side. next, BEFORE YOU HIT PLAY ON YOUR MUSIC DEVICE, on the recorder, press the “play” and “record” buttons at the same time - or maybe you can just hit record but on most models you hit them both at the same time. then, wait at least 10-25 seconds, maybe count it in your head, and THEN you hit play on your music player. it might record some dead noise at the start this way but if you do it too fast and without waiting it won't record.

ALSO, make sure your music device is at a low to medium volume, or else the tape will record at a high volume! this one took a while to click in my head. you can do a couple test recordings to figure out the volume - just make sure you rewind to the beginning at the tape after each test, and do the wait thing before trying again, and probably don't do it too much you might fuck up the tape (2-3 times should be ok??).

then you just wait for a while as it records. you gotta let it play through the music and everything. if you have a long playlist this might take forever.

make sure you periodically check in on your music player to see what song it's on, so you know when to stop playback and flip to side B. i recommend splitting your playlist into two different sides so that, when it's time to flip, it doesn't keep recording or anything on side A into the side B section of songs, if that makes sense. this is why i mentioned i split my playlist into two folders to put on my player, so that it'll automatically stop at the end of the side A folder. just make sure you keep checking your player throughout this so you know when songs are over and when it's time to flip or stop recording.

also, when you're done recording on side A, hit fast forward and wait till it's at the end, because the end of side A is the start of side B. i don't know if this is exactly required but i heard it's a neat thing to do and makes things cleaner or whatever.

you don't HAVE to do this but it's another fun creative part of making your own tapes: making the little insert cover thing that goes in the case! if your tapes didn't come with a case for some reason, you can probably buy them online, but i'm pretty sure most blanks will come with one so it's probably not something to worry about.

there's two ways to make these covers: one is following a template and just fucking around in photoshop, and the other is using this handy j-card template website made by a kind person on gitlab, that makes a stylish, clean cover with a square image file and text that you type in.

for the former, i know there's templates over at duplication.ca that are very handy - i've dabbled in using their CD insert templates, but usually i end up fucking around in photoshop and gnu-imp without a template (fuck around and find out, essentially). but templates make this very easy so if you have a design in mind you can definitely use these as guidelines and just go wild in photoshop or the editor of your choice.

the latter site is over here, formerly at github i believe but that doesn't really matter. it's very straightforward so i don't think i have to explain it much, but basically, just fill out the provided fields, and when you're done, print the browser page, save it as a PDF, and then print that PDF to your personal printer, or if you don't have access to one, print at your local library or at a printing/shipping store or whatever.

also, you can use standard printer/computer paper to print on, but if you wanna get a little fancier, you can use glossy or matte photo paper. i've been using computer paper because i'm lazy but i do have some glossy photo paper on hand that i should get around to trying.

either way, once you have your j-card printed out, just cut it out! i use a paper cutter kinda like this, but you can just freehand it with scissors if you're careful. next, some people say to score the lines with an x-acto knife or some shit, but i don't really get that, so i just fold the paper very carefully. sometimes it comes out uneven but eh as long as it isn't too egregious i don't really care. make sure you're folding so that it kind of creates a sort of spine that'll go in the spine part of the case, that's the kind of shape you should be going for.

and you're done! i don't have much else to add but have fun playing your mixtapes :D here's pics of some of my created mixtapes because why not:

(written 2024-02-04)