Downloading | Extracting | Burning

The Mixtape section of this website is designed to allow my supporters to download & burn full mixtapes. Up until now, I have only offered one full music file for download. This drawback has made it difficult to burn cd's with seperate tracks. It is also very frustrating to play a mixtape that does not have the tracks separate. I now have my mixtapes available with an mp3 of the full mixtape and a Cue file which is used to seperate that mp3 into individual tracks when burning to disc. The new system is great because the cd's can be burned in full with seperate tracks and no spaces between each track. I've also removed the passwords from the mixtapes... now you can just extract & burn.

DOWNLOADING
Downloading the ZIP files is as easy as downloading any of the other music files on this site. Simply click the mixtape picture that you would like to download and save. Just remember, these files cannot be sampled because they are compressed. However, you can sample any of the mixtapes via the flash player under the album art. Most of the mixtape downloads are over 100mb, so they will take a fair amount of time to download fully.

EXTRACTING THE MUSIC
Extracting the tracks from the ZIP file is a simple process. I use WINRAR to unpack all of my ZIP or RAR files. If I'm not mistaken, most PC's come with the ability to extract ZIP files, which is why I used ZIP as opposed to RAR. You can usually google a free download link for WINRAR, too. To extract the music files, you must first right-click the ZIP file and choose the option EXTRACT HERE. I have taken tha passwords out of my mixtapes, so there's no need to worry about passwords anymore. The software will unpack the complete mixtape... complete with cover art, track listing, a HELP file, a link for FREE burning software (if anyone needs it) and a cue file (which is used to seperate the tracks when burning to cd). Everything will be unpacked and placed in a folder with the mixtape name. All the files included are not necessary for burning (except the CUE file & the MP3 file)... the rest are there for your convenience. The HELP file will explain everything you need to do to burn the disc. The tracklist file contains the song & artist info for each track. The download page will supply a link to a free piece of software to burn the cd if necessary and the cd cover art is available for those who want the disc in a cd case with a cover.

BURNING THE MUSIC TO CD
Burning the cd's has become even easier than before. By using the CUE file (which is included with each mixtape download), everyone can burn copies of my cd's with one or 2 clicks. For those of you who are unfamiliar with burning mix cd's with CUE files, I'll give you a quick description.

Most media burning software will support CUE files. However, I have experienced problems with Nero. So, if you have other software and can't get it to work correctly, here's a rundown of how to use "Image Burn", the software package I've included...

  1. Open the SOFTWARE DOWNLOAD LINKS file (included with the mixtape). This will have a link to the Image Burn Home Page and a direct download link.
  2. Once downloaded, run the setup just like you would with any other piece of new software.
  3. Once installed, Image Burn should be the default for opening cue files. If it isn't, you can make it the default by right-clicking the .cue file, choose OPEN WITH... then CHOOSE DEFAULT PROGRAM. The software is located in the following directory.... C:\Program Files\ImgBurn\. Once in that directory, choose ImgBurn and it will make Image Burn the default for .cue files.
  4. The rest is easy!! Now that you have Image Burn as your .cue default software, just double click the .cue file included in the mixtape download. This will run Image Burn & load the mix tracks into it. IMPORTANT: leave the .cue file & the .mp3 of the mix in the SAME folder or you will not be able to burn the mix.
  5. Once Image Burn loads, (make sure you have a blank disc present in the drive) just click the icon on the lower left (hover & it will say WRITE) and you will be all set. Once completed, you will have a mixtape with seperate tracks and no spaces in between.

Like I said before, Nero is supposed to work with .cue files, but I've had problems doing this with Nero, which is why I made my instructions for Image Burn. I'm not sure about Windows 7, but I use Image Burn on Vista Home edition and (so far) I've had no problems.

Also, for those of you who may want to put a few of the tracks from my mixtapes on your computer or ipod, you can use
CUE SPLITTER 1.2 . This works the same way as IMAGE BURN, but it splits the mp3 file into seperate tracks & saves them to your computer, where you can pick and choose which ones you'd like to delete and/or add to your ipod or other cd or mp3 player. You can also download CUE SPLITTER 1.2 directly, or visit the CUE SPLITTER Home Page to get more information on the software.

If you don't wanna go to all this trouble & would like to have a mix cd shipped via snail mail, just shoot me an e-mail & I will set it up for you. However, since I gotta pay the bills, shipped cd's will cost $5.00 plus S&H. Just shoot me an e-mail at hitmeup@djdiamonddog.com