12+ Free Non-Stop Old School House & Rave Mix MP3s & FLACs…
Hi, I’m James (DJ Kippax). I make scratch-heavy oldskool house & rave mixes
About this page: These are original DJ mixes recorded by me — not ripped radio shows or auto-playlists
You can stream the mixes using the player below
Scroll down for free MP3/FLAC downloads and full tracklists
So far my mixes have been downloaded 275774 times. So people must like them. Why not download one now and make your own mind up?
Media Player (Stream my mP3 Mixes)
Why These Mixes Are Worth Your Time
If you’re into ’80s, ’90s and early-2000s house, techno and trance — with proper scratching — you’ll feel at home here.
A few reasons people download these mixes:
- They’re all free (no signup required)
- Real turntablism and scratching — not just beatmatching
- High sound quality that actually holds up when played loud
- MP3 and FLAC versions available
- Full tracklists included for every mix
These are full-length DJ mixes built around classic records from proper club and rave eras — not algorithm playlists.
Tracklists, streaming players and individual download links are further down the page.
Enjoyed the Mixes?
If you’ve enjoyed anything on this page, feel free to share it with anyone you think might appreciate the music.
This site costs money to run, but I keep it going because I genuinely love this music and the culture around it.
So far, these mixes have been downloaded 275774 times — which tells me I’m doing something right.
Have a listen, grab a mix, and make your own mind up.
Tracklists & Downloads
Jump Links/Mix Links
Tracklisting for Oldschool Mix 11
- The Orb- Little Fluffy Clouds (Dance Mix)
- Curve – Ten Little Girls
- New Order – Touched by the Hand of God
- Stereo MCs’s – Elevate Your Mind
- Iribe Kossa – You Got Me (M.C. D.J. Version)
- J.F. Lee – Don’t Make Me Wait (Club Mix)
- KLF – 3 A.M. Eternal (Live at the S.S.L.)
- Simple Minds – Theme For Great Cities
- The Prodigy – Mindfields
- KLF – What Time Is Love (Pure Trance Mix)
- FPI Project – Rich In Paradise
- Finger Light – Heaven (Bass Mix)
- Ralphi Rosario Feat Xaviera Gold – You Used To Hold Me (Kenny’s Mix)
- Mombassa – Cry Freedom (Malawi Mix)
- Ian Brown – F.E.A.R (UNKLE Mix)
- Hybrid – Finished Symphony (Original Mix)
Bit of a different mix this time around. Starts off slow and ends up fast. I also added some weird tracks to this mix. Who says old-school mixes have to be nothing but house or techno music.
I really wanted to try and get Orb’s classic Little Fluffy Clouds onto this mix. It’s a track that you really don’t hear that often on any DJ mixes. I really think the track has aged well.
Because the mix starts with the Orb, this mix starts off slow. So I had a challenge trying to get the mix to speed up so I could start adding more house music later. It meant I had to mix and add some of my stranger tracks from the 90’s.
Added to the mix is the shoegazing classic Curve – Ten Little Girls. I’d forgotten all about this track till recently I heard it on Steve La Mac show on BBC 6 music. It really has that wall of sound feel to it, and again it’s a track that you never really hear much.
Later in the mix you’ll hear Simple Minds – Theme for Great Cities. One of my favourite Simple Minds track. I’ve always thought track was really dancey sounding. It was remixed quite a few years ago and I remember the remix not being half bad.
There’s lots more house music and techno tracks on this mix to boot. Feel free to share your thoughts and comments below. I’m always up for a chat and I always respond to comments too.
Enjoy the mix
Oldschool Mashup Mix 3
This mix is a combination of oldskool hip hop, trance, techno, and trance. Tunes range from 80’s to early 2000s. It’s one of my favorite mixes and contains some of my fav tunes.
- The Avalanches – Frontier Psychiatrist
- Eric B And Rakim – Paid in Full (Coldcuts 7 minutes of Madness mix)
- JVC Force – Strong Island
- Public Enemy – Public Enemy No1
- NWA – Straight Out Of Compton
- LL Cool J – Mama Said Knock You Out
- Jurassic 5 – The Game
- Word Of Mouth – King Kut
- Digital Underground – Humpty Dance
- De La Soul – Eye Know
- West Street Mob – Break Dance
- Hijack – Badman Is Robbin
- Chemical Brothers – Chemical Beats
- Incredible Bongo Band – Bongolia
- Ultraviolet – Kites
- Art Of Mix – Art Of Mix
- Bizarre Inc – I’m Gonna Get You ( Tees Freeze Dub)
- Mr. Lee – Get Busy
- A Homeboy Hippy and a Funky Dread – Total Confusion
- Trackois – Motherfucker
- Fat Boy Slim – Everybody Needs A 303
- DJ Seduction – Hardcore Heaven
- Gus Gus – Purple (Sasha vs The Light Mix)
- Rhythm Invention – Cronoclasm
- Moonchild – Variations On a Theme (VOAT mix)
- Mombasa – Cry Freedom (Malawi Mix)
About Mashup mix 3
Starting this mix is crazy hip hop and turntablist tune – Frontier Psychiatrist by the Australian group ‘The Avalanches’. This tune is remembered for its crazy use of random spoken word samples which are scratched and sampled throughout the track.
Most notable of these is the sample, ‘That boy needs therapy’, which is used as the main hook and chorus.
This mix then goes through some of my favourite old skool hop tunes before slowly picking up tempo and breaking into breakdance classic like ‘West Streets Mobs – Breakdance’ which was a massive hit on the Sugar Hill label.
The next tune following this is a UK Hip Hop classic by Hijack which has been sampled by god knows how many oldskool hardcore and classic house tunes, probably one of the most famous of these is ‘Rhythm For Reasons – Grand National’. This mix then progresses through some classic old skool anthems such as DJ Seductions – Hardcore Heaven.
The mix then switches moods and genres and flows into some of my favourite classic progressive tunes caned by likes of Sasha, John Digweed, Dave Seaman, etc.
The last tunes on this mix are two of my favourite progressive trance and house tracks – ‘Moonchild – Variations On a Theme’ which was one of the highlight tracks from the first Sasha And Digweed Renaissance album.
The other great classic progressive trance tune being ‘Mombasa’s – Cry Freedom’ with its clever use of an African singing sample and its beautiful piano melody. Added to this mix are various spoken word records that I’ve scratched over the mix.
Mix 10
- Tnt – Piano Please
- Kariya – Let Me Love You For Tonight (Dmc Mix)
- Bomb The Bass – Don’t Make Me Wait
- Sugar Bear – Don’t Scandalize Mine
- Massimo Alberti – Say It Again (F.P.I. Project Mix)
- Laura Palmer Featuring Twin Peaks’ Killer – In The Mix (Twin Peaks) (Leo Piano Version)
- Funky Worm – Hustle (To The Music Prestdora Mix)
- D:Ream – U R The Best Thing (Sasha Full Mix)
- Asha – Jj Tribute (Space Mix)
- Orbital – Chime
- Electronic – Getting Away With It
- Meat Beat Manifesto – Radio Babylon
- Part-E – Give Me Your Love
- Leftfield, Lydon – Open Up (Full Vocal Mix)
- Love Revolution – Give It To Me baby
- Art Of Trance – Madagascar
- Atlantis- Fiji (Lange Alt remix)
Mix 9
- Crescendo – Are You Out There
- Moseph Cat – My Children
- Utah Saints – Something Good (DMC Mix)
- Decadance – Jump to it
- Dreamscape – I am the creator
- Dina Carol – Aint know man (BIR mix)
- Hyper Go Go – Never let go
- Shades Of Rhythm – Extacy
- Clivillés & Cole – Keep It Coming (Brothers In Rhythm)
- Chic -Chic Mystique (The Taramasalata & Jam Dub, Brothers In Rhythm)
- Luvdub – Goodtime
- Hanna Jones – Young Hearts Run Free (Loveland Dub)
- Bedrock Feat Kyo – For What You Dream Of
About mix 9
There are some absolute classic songs in this mix including the deleted classic ‘Crescendo – Are You Out There’ which has one of the best old skool house music drops there is.
Other great tracks include ‘Hyper-Go-Go – Never let Go’ which is one of my favorite tracks and arguably one of their best tracks.
Finishing the mix is the absolute old skool anthem ‘Bedrock – For What You Dream Off’.
Mix 8
- King Bee – Back by Dope Demand
- Young Mc – Know How
- Corina – Temptation
- M&M – I Feel This Way
- PP orange – My Feelings
- Asha – JJ Tribute (Primitive Mix)
- Utah Saints – Something Good
- FPI – Risky
- Expose – Tell Me Why
- Perrei Foldi – Moving Now
- Thirst – Enemy Within (Instrumental)
- High Society – High Society
- Opus 3 – Hand in Hand (Perfecto Mix)
- Grace – Not Over Yet
- Flipped Out – Everybody Is Somebody
- Moby – Move (Kid Paul Mix)
About mix 8
Sixteen more classic house tracks crafted together in a 75 minute DJ Mix.
All the scratching and cuts have been performed by DJ Kippax.
The mp3 download links for this mix can be found just above.
Alternative you can stream this DJ mix using the media player as well.
Old Skool hip hop classic ‘King Bee – Back by Dope Demand‘ is the starter track for this mix.
Following this track is ‘Young MC’s – Know How‘, another hip hop anthem which graced the dancefloors of the early 90’s clubs and raves.
Did you know that King Bee’s primary sample is lifted from ‘Herbie Hancocks – Wiggle Wiggle’.
Young MC’s tune lifts its main sample from another funk tune namely the theme from ShaftFantastic
Italian piano house tunes like ‘Asha – JJ Tribute’ and ‘Perrei Foldi – Moving Now’ are also featured in this mix.
Other tunes worth mentioning are tracks like the extremely rare ‘High Society’s – High Society’.
Even the bootleg of this tune is very hard to come by and still fetches good money today.
Mix 7
- PKA – Temperature Rising
- PKA – Let me hear you say yeah
- High Givers – Love and Money
- DJ H feat Steffy – Think About It (12″ Mix)
- TC 1992 – Funky Guitar (FPI Funky Dub)
- Mother – All Funked Up
- Vision Masters Feat Kylie – Keep On Pumping
- Neon Light Feat Fonda Ray – Keep On Dancing (Pumping Mix)
- Love Decade – Feel You (Naked Mix)
- Ultraviolet – I wish that (Radical Mix)
- Malcolm McLaren – Magic’s Back (Theme From the ghost of Oxford St) (House Mix)
- The Brothers Luv Dubs – The Mighty Ming
- Joy for Joyce – Baby Baby (Club Version)
- Staxx – Joy
- River Ocean – Love And Happiness (The Delorme Club For Life Mix)
About mix 7
There are some big old school tracks on this mix as well as some rarities.
The Italian house classic ‘Joy for Joyce – Babe Babe’ features on this mix as well other big tunes like ‘Staxx – Joy’.
Rarer dance tune includes tracks like ‘Vision Masters – Keeping On Pumping’ which was made by a dance group which originated from my home town, Burnley, In Lancashire.
One of my favorite tracks on this mix has to be ‘TC 1992 – Funky Guitar (FPI Funky Dub)’ which has one of the best bass drops ever and sound fanatic on a loud sound system.
Another track worth a mention is the remix of ‘River Ocean – Love And Happiness (The Delorme Club For Life Mix)’, this version of the track is very rare and can only be found on the DMC record label. Its still a sought after track even today and can still fetch a high price.
This DJ mix is approx 140 megabytes in size recorded in 320k/bits mp3 using latest Lame 3.98 mp3 codec.
Mix 6
- White Lines – Grandmaster Flash
- Right Before My Eyes – Patti Day
- In Spirt – Dilemma
- Risky – FPI Project
- Nasty Rhythm – Creative Thieves
- House From Around The World – Meeting Place
- Same Sun Same Sky – Tony Moran
- Better Days (Sasha’s DMC Mix) – Jimi Polo;
- Moving On – Techno Age
- Peace & Harmony – Brothers In Rhythm
- Viva House – Me & Jack
- Wildstyle – Paninaro
- Motherfucker – Trackos
- Closer To All Your Dreams – Rhythm Quest
- As If By Magic – Strobe
- DJ’s Unite – DJ’s Unite
- Faith Passion – Adam & Eve
- Extreme Theme – 2 Extreme
Comments about mix 6
18 lovely old school and classic house track blended together to create on mighty fine DJ Mix.
This mix starts with infamous old skool hip hop classic ‘White Lines by Grandmaster Flash’.
Other big tunes in this mix are ‘FPI Project – Risky’ which needs no introductions and ‘Brothers In Rhythm -Peace & Harmony’.
Lesser known but quality dance tunes include ‘Same Sun Same Sky by Tony Moran’ which is a tune you don’t really hear much these days. Personally I think the tune has a cracking vocal and is very underrated.
The tune did quite well when it come out and made an appearance on the second Renaissance album mixed by DJ John Digweed.
Other belting tune include the early progressive classic ‘Dilemma – In Spirit’ which is easily recognizable through its vocal hook. This is one of my all time favorite tracks.
Ending this DJ Mix is the rare ‘2 Extreme – Extreme Theme’ which was made by two sixteen-year-old in their fathers home studio. This is a belting breakbeat piano track with some really good piano melody’s.
This was a big tune back in the day and was another track I never managed to get my hands on till a few years ago.
Mix 5
- Bug Khan & The Plastic Jam – Made in Two Minutes
- Marradonna – Out Of My Head
- 49’ers – Touch Me
- Denise Lopez – Don’t you want to be mine
- SLD – Getting Out
- Paradise – Can you hear me
- Photon Inc – Generate Power (wild pitch mix)
- DeLacy – Hideaway
- Alcatraz – Give me Love
- More Kante – Yeke Yeke
- Outlander – Vamp
- Altern8 – Infiltrate 202
- E-Lustrious – Giving you no rest
- Q bass – Dancing People (E type Rmx)
- Quench – Dreams
- Urban Shakedown – Some Justice
- Johnny L – Hurt you So (the L Mix)
Mix 4
- Pump Up The Volume – M.A.R.R.S
- Intoxication – React To Rhythm
- What Can You Do For Me – Utah Saints
- Rhythm Is A Mystery – K-Klass
- Not Forgotton – Leftfield
- The Tape – B Sides
- Sweet and Bitter – 6 Bells and All
- Me The Mail Man – 6 Bells and All
- Energy Flash – Beltram
- Is There Anybody Out There – Bassheads
- I Know – New Atlantic
- Such A Feeling – Bizzare Inc
- Liberation 2 – Liberation
- Anthem – N-Joi
- 2 Bad Mice – 2 Bad Mice
- Express Yourself – Franschene
- Papa New Guinea – Future Sound Of London
- Ajare – Way Out West
- Playing With Knives (Quadrent Mix) – Bizzare Inc
- Activ8 (Holocaust Mix) – Altern 8
Leave a comment & share a thought
Enjoyed my mixes. Have you got a fond memory of a certain record you just heard. Why not share your thoughts below
I always respond to comments. So if you fancy a chat share your thoughts below.
I really like it
U are doing fantastic work over there,it’s really hard sometimes to get all this song’s even when ready to download it.well done 😊 bro
Thanks my friend, glad you like my work. And thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. There will be more being uploaded real soon so keep an eye out.
Best,
James
Hola bro
Thanks mate
Nice one bro, nothing like the classic with these new guys making shit and what not
Cheers. I agree you can’t beat the classics. I’m firmly stuck in the 90’s when it comes to my taste in music. Don’t get me wrong there’s some good stuff coming out now but you really have to sift through a lot of crap before finding anything decent.
An absolute joy to listen to
Why thank you Ian. Glad you enjoy them. Take care;)
Great site you have set up here mate. And great choice in tunes. Nothing better than hearing a forgotten gem. keep up the good work
Excellent mixes, very very good, ive put all these on chrome tapes!
Thanks for the comment.
Did I hear you right? You’ve put these on chrome tapes? That’s media type I havn’t heard (or used) in a few decades. I think i still have my old Yamaha tape deck somewhere. That thing used to rock with chrome tapes. And don’t forget dolby-s too.
Take care
James
Hello again, yea, i use chrome tapes on my Technics deck using DBX, dolbyS and dbx are amazing, you just cant beat a good tape deck! i use minidisc as well such good sound. such crispy highs and deep bass.
I like minidisc because you can title the songs etc
Anyway fella, brilliant mixes just listening to mix no.5 excellent stuff.
Paul.
Hi Paul,
You can’t beat a pure analogue signal path for sound. I’ve always been into my hifi gear. Last year it was my 40th so upgraded my amp and speakers. I’ve now got two high grade Croft valve amps now. I also have an upgraded Technniques 1210 mk 3 with a hifi cartridge which plays through the valves amps. The sound is lush. As you say, you get such a nice warm bass and top end. Something which isn’t replicated with digital. However, I still use digital for DJ’ing.
Loved minidisks back in the day. Their default compression settings were really nice.
Glad you like mix 5 and thankyou for leaving a comment.
Im back again, as im getting pretty addicted to listening to these mixes in dolby surround, mate seriously im only running 2 wharfedale diamond 9.1 speakers but ive had to look over my shoulder at least 3 times just to make sure there were no speakers behind me. the parts that you scratch especially the “two bad mice scratch” sounds unreal even on my old Sennheiser hd 4.20s headphones!
You are right about digital, while its the only way to put music on the internet a lot of the time it just sounds sterile and shrill, nothing will ever beat analog. Digital is just software its not even music as such, just binary, just 1s and 0s, what happens to the sounds in between these 1s and 0s? yup it gets lost/discarded.
In japan they make full analog turntables that are read by a laser, how cool is that, zero wear to the record as theres no needle, they aint cheap though, a good second hand one is about £7,000
https://www.elpj.com/ is where they are sold
As for recording to analog a good jvc 3head deck from 1988 will run rings around any nakamichi i can vouch for this, lowest noise floor and best freq response. their belt drive decks even beat direct drive units and by a mile, TEAC are a close second in quality but only their stuff from the late 80s, modern teac stuff is chinese junk.
Anyhooo thanks for the music, the addiction continues…
I’ve seen those lazer record players before. I’d read about them in SoundOnSound when i still dabbled in music production. They’re a bit out of my league.
One thing i did buy last year but forgot to mention is that i bought a top class DAC. Bought a used Hugo 2 to use with my valve amps. What a piece of kit that it. As you mention a lot of stuff gets lost when transferring from digital to analogue. A good DAC preserves this. Often people disregard how important the conversion process actual is. I’d upgrade from an Arkam DAC which id had for a few years and was (and still is) a very nice bit of kit. But the Hugo is something else – as long as you have a clear system to put with it.
We went to Retro in the Park this weekend, and had a few mates round to mine afterwards and we were listening to tunes. They were amazed at how it sounded.
I think a good DAC with valve amps is a great way to try and claw back that analogue sound.
If you’re ever after a set of amps have a look at the Croft ones. They’re not cheap but they punch well above their weight. They’ll also run weird and demanding speakers as well. Here’s more details: http://www.croftacoustics.co.uk/products.html
I recorded all my vinyl rips through my Crofts, and my fancy Technics deck. I think it helped the recordings to sound much more analogue, and they don’t have that cold digital feel to them.
Thanks for the comments. I love talking audio gear:)
Eyup again m8t,
Thought i’d leave you another message lol,
I’m decorating my hallway in this heat, god i pick some stupid times to decorate, im melting here! blimey its so hot down south its not even funny, being a northerner im not used to this at all haha.
My mother was russian so i have russian blood hehe, anyway hows everything going fella? im trying to keep myself busy around the flat.
Well BBC sacked steve wright, now theyve got rid of vanessa feltz, jesus whats wrong with them, as i mentioned previously these experienced djs are being replaced with total idiots, that play music with nothing but swearing in all the way through, crap like “Stormzy – Big For Your Boots,” complete shite i tell you! i think decent music ended in the year 2000, i really cannot stand this horrible stuff today, its not music its just noise to me. I remember a time when a single swear word in a song instantly got it banned from the radio.
Still i suppose there are plenty of online radio stations playing decent old school stuff, trouble is finding one that streams in decent quality, most of them seem to be 128k mp3, damn i know the music from the 90s was the best but not the 90s streaming quality lol, theres no reason not to stream in FLAC now with current internet speeds.
Just gave my brother an old Technics SU-X502 amp and a pair of speakers (hes only 25) he couldnt believe how good it sounds, but i did tell him as far as hifi goes, old is gold.
I know what you mean when you said it a graveyard around here, people today are all take take take and dont offer anything in return, its just the way people are today me thinks, very selfish and theyre mostly narcissist’s. even just saying a simple “thank you” for the work you put in doing these mixes would be nice, but im afraid as i say people today are only out for what they can get.
When i did my radio station at one point i got over 250 listeners per night, and not one of them even said hello, terrible people are today.
Just been listening to one of my old CD’s from 1993 called “Hit The Decks” bloody hell its such a good CD, theres literally not a single tune on it i dont like, today its the other way around, you buy a CD and theres 1 song on it you DO like! i cringed a bit though when the Rolf harris 2 little boys samples came into a tune haha, the dirty old pervert he is.
So i hear gary glitters in hospital again, ahh what a shame, must be nappy rash, christ we had some epic music in the 90s as i say but damn television was full of perverts, Johnathan king, glitter, savile, stuart hall and that idiot that did the weather on “this morning” thing his name was Fred, just to name a few, jesus…
So you up to much them mate? how you liking this heat? haha, i bloody hate it, think of me wont you when im sweating buckets and wallpapering haha,
Take care fella speak soon!
Paul
Sorry about the very late reply mate. Had a lot on this month and not done much with this website for a bit.
Aye, those heatwaves were fierce. Me and the other halve slept downstairs during that time as it was cooler.
BBC radio is slowly being f*cked. They’ve been doing all that crap for years – namely replacing actual DJ’s with ‘celebs’ in order to appeal to the yoof. What they don’t realise is most of the young ones don’t even watch TV or listen to radio, they’re all on Tik Tok or Youtube. So it’s ruin for nothing.
As long as they leave my beloved BBC 6 music alone, I’m happy. If you’ve not tuned into that station, yet give it whirl. It’s the best by far. Last week I found 2 old hip hop groups from the 90s’ thanks to Steve La Mac show. That man plays some very fine music. His friday shows are good as he plays some really good lesser-known rave tunes. He was playing some Racheal Wallace ones the other week.
Good to hear you’ve been impressing the young-uns with proper sound. My 25-year-old cousin is coming round for a few in a week or twos time, I’ve told him about my valve stereo but it’s lost on him – i might as well been talking French. My plan is to rattle his teeth with my setup and play him some classic heavy jungle tunes (he like new D&B. He sent me some new D&B the other week. It all seemed to have a crap cheesy trance sound to it. No raw and dirty sound like early jungle or 97-04 D&B).
It is a bit of graveyard for websites like mine these days. Google doesn’t help at all. If you look at their awful search results they’re too busy shoving adverts in everything and YouTube videos in the top 10 positions. Sites like mine now linger on the 2nd page whereas 10 years ago I was on the 1st page and in the top results for many music related searches. It’s another sign of things turning to shit as they attempt to extract more pennies from us all. I’m not too fussed though, this site has always been a bit of a hobby for me.
My opinion of Garry Glitter, Rolf, J King, et al, is that they all die a slow lingering death. Anyway, back to the music…
I’ve not been up to much. It’s been busy on the Farm. Been getting the last bit of siloing done and then got some shit spreading to do. Don’t mind those jobs though as i can get my walkman on (oops wrong era, erm I mean tunes/podcast on) and just plod away at the jobs.
Got some nights coming up these next few months. Nothing I’m playing at. Me and the GF are off to a rough part of town for the Carols reunion. That’s in Nelson near us. Bit of a rough and dire place. Last time I went out in Nelson i nearly got glassed and guy tried to headbutt me but then proceeded to bite my nipple. That was nearly 20 years ago. Maybe it’s improved a little now. No doubt I’ll find out. What’s life without a little danger.
After that I got tickets for a Hue Morgan gig and the Hacienda 40th in Nov. They should be good nights. The line up for the Hac 40th f’ckin superb.
Take care bud. Hope you are well and all that. And keep in touch
That croft looks like a quality bit of kit, Crown made some real nice stuff too, when it comes to stereo music im a strange type, i don’t like subwoofers, i believe a decent pair of stereo speakers will give results that wont require one, everytime ive tried a sub i just cannot get decent positioning results, making the sound a bit muddy.
I collect micro systems from the late 90s / early 2000,s especially those with minidisc recorders on board, the panasonic bi-amped (technics) systems sound really nice when setup properly on decent speakers, one of my favourites is the Panasonic SA-PM37MD its tiny but has amazing sound quality! i love playing around with older stereo equipment, i was actually surprised how good they can sound for their size! i repair them and get them cheap from ebay in non working condition then fix them up ready for duty.
As far as separates are concerned a good valve pre-amp twinned with a transistor power amp is the way to go definitely, unfortunately most modern gear is absolutely horrendous in both build and sound quality.
As for good sounding and cheaper modern mixers etc, i find Behringer very hard to beat, they get a lot of flack but i have had zero problems with anything from them, very strong build quality and excellent pre-amps in their mixers, especially for XLR microphones, i used a Behringer mixer for my online radio program a couple of years ago, you can take a listen here when you get 5 mins spare: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AlkJgHc-2Rf8iwLXpOZtVnX4w1CF?e=BBOSHe
Here i was using a 48v phantom power mic at only 19volts, yet the Behringer still sounded pretty decent i think.
Thanks for the reply James, all the best mate, and keep those mixes coming! ill leave you alone now lol.
Sorry about the late reply. Had a heavy weekend and forgot about your comment.
I agree with you about subwoofers. I don’t have any in my stereo systems. They muddy the sound in my experience. I use my croft setup with some big floor standing speakers for home cinema too. It sounds bigger, better and more booming than any home cinema setup that I’ve heard.
A mate of mine who has a pretty decent home cinema setup was shocked when i played him my system, he couldn’t believe the sound you could achieve just with two good speakers, a well matched amp and a DAC. I’ve heard his system and it’s good for film/TV/games/etc but it’s terrible for music. But a lot of people fall into the trap of ‘more speakers = better sound’. Less is more i always think.
I agree with you about the state of modern consumer music gear. You’d think things would have improved over the decades but it seems things have just regressed. These days everyone seems to consuming music via crap in-ear headphone, bloody awful blue tooth sound bar type things or fucking Amazon Echo style devices – which all seem have that horrible faux bassy sound quality. No one seems bothered about accurate sound quality these days, just whatever’s convenient. I do remember the micro systems of yesteryear having much better sound that today’s crap. Anyway that’s my old man rant over – hahaha.
The Crofts are wicked. I don’t think Grahame Croft (the guy that builds them) has changed the design much since his early inceptions in the 70’s and 80’s. I did a lot of research before buying them and the amps punch well above their weight. This forum was invaluable when i was looking to get the amps: https://theartofsound.net/forum/ . If you like your audio have a read of that forum. You want to see some of the modded techniques decks on there, some guys have spent serious £££ improving them. Again, this highlights how good old audio equipment is/was. You’ll like that forum there’s a lot of vintage gear hunters on there. And they all love the croft amps. Some even have speacially modded Crofts which Graham has performed to specific requirements. Very audio nerdy stuff – but i love stuff like that.
I also agree with you about the Behringer gear (damn there’s a lot we agree on!). I’ve had quite a bit of their stuff over the years and it’s never missed a beat and it’s always been good value for money. Just last week i bought a Pro-XL MDX2600 Limiter for my DJ setup. I want to have my new DJ mixer playing through my Croft HIFI when i have friends round, but there’s NO WAY i’ll have an unlimited audio signal going into from the decks to my Hifi amps and speakers. I know i’d probably end up blowing them when I play pissed up one night. So i got a MDX2600 to control the volume going into the amps. Only cost £65, and the sound is pretty transparent even on a high detail system like mine.
Shame you don’t live local mate, I’d love to have a few pints with you and talk audio stuff.
Anyway, you take care and feel free to drop a comment again in the future. They’re always welcome:)
Thanks matey, yea i live in somerset now but im from stoke-on-trent originally, been here 10 years now, Yea the japanese micro hifi systems have great sound especially the panasonic and jvc systems of the late 90s
I bought a pair of Indiana Line DJ-310 speakers to go with my vintage SONY TA-636 amplifier, seriously they sound amazing with it, so much punch and top end, and the mids are amazing too.
I make music on my pc (MSI Stealth Gs66 Laptop) with a pair of wharfedale diamond 9.1 speakers and micro system amp, those little speakers sound awesome and translate the sound well into my headphones.
yes youre right it seems people are not interested in sound quality today, all they care about is noise, but lets be honest here, modern music is just that, noise, wobble wobble crap with auto-tuned voices thrown in it.
Late 80s to mid 90s is where the quality is with music, 1988 is my favourite year for house/dance and techno stuff, kraftwerk are a favourite band of mine, “planet of visions” is a masterpiece, also Yello have made some amazing tunes like “Out Of Dawn” and “Bostich” if you own an ipad grab yourself a copy of a software called “Yellofier” its a pad based music app thats amazing to use and developed by Yello themselves! its only a fiver on the app store.
Going back to hifi’s, not only did the old 90s micro systems sound better (by a mile) they also looked better (by a mile) i mean who the hell wants to look at a memory card/usb stick when listening to music, i love physical media not data, something that moves, either it be reels of tape, a spinning cd/vinyl or a top loading minidisc recorder.
Yep its true, Behringer make some really nice stuff, theyve now made a remake (thats fully analog) of the original Roland TB-303 and its only 99 quid, to be perfectly honest here, it sounds better than the original roland.
I just love recording music on my laptop, i have various portable minidisc recorders, and these things are beautiful pieces of technology, just think they have a laser, a record head, a headphone amp (very decent too) and optical recording capabilities/lcd screens and its all powered by a single AA battery that lasts 30 hours! my favourite one that i own is the SONY MZ-N1 that little recorder is the best ive ever heard, its a little beast i tell ya.
Have a look at my youtube channel James you might find some bits n bobs there that will interest you, like my own songs/repairs etc its called SYNTHEMATIX
https://www.youtube.com/c/Synthematix/videos
Thanks again for the reply, its nice to hear from someone who appreciates decent gear.
take care,
Paul.
You’ve just got yourself another subscriber;)
Hahahaha. I agree with you about today’s dance music, it’s rare I come across something I like. There is some good stuff out there but most is just wobbly bass style stuff. I’m similar to yourself that I mainly listen/play/DJ music from the 70s,80s and 90s.
There is some decent dance stuff out there but you’ve got to hunt for it. Personally me and the GF love BBC 6 Music, especially Steve La Mac and Radcliffe & Macone. Those lot of radio DJs are great as they play loads of quality old and lesser known stuff from the 90s and plenty of good new music. You can listen to their old shows on the Iplayer. If you like your 90s stuff definitely check out Steve La Mac. He still consistently good even after all these years on the radio. I’ve found loads of old tracks from 90s bands which I’d forgotten about. Radcliffe & Macone are just really funny presenters who play great music. If you like old hip hop and funk also check out Hue Morgan (aka Fun Loving Criminals).
If you want some good newish Techno/Electronic stuff check out Jon Hopkins, Avalon Emerson, Floating Points and Public Service Broadcasting (off the top of head). That’s some of the better dance music i’ve found last few years, and all were found via 6 music.
Regarding the SONY MZ-N1, I used to have one of those back in the day. It got ruined on my job when i use to hand grind dies as an engineer. It ended up getting full of grit which killed it. I do remember it being a damn fine sounding machine. The girl who recommended it me used to own a lot of great JVC micro systems. She really knew her Micro Systems.
If you want a really good cheap DAC soundcard check out the the BEHRINGER UCA202. I’ve got a couple of them. Prior to by buying a Hugo 2 DAC i had an Arkam DAC which was worth around £220. The £25 BEHRINGER UCA202 honestly gave my Arkam a run for its money. They are superb value. Whenever any of my friends ask about getting into HIFI audio I tell them to go out and buy one of those and decent pair of headphones.
Kraftwerk are great, but i’ve not heard much Yello (i’ll add them to my playlists). I do know a bit about them. Off the top of my head they were pioneering early synth producers from Japan if i remember correctly (i haven’t Googled that).
Since i got my valve amps last year I’ve been revisiting a lot of IDM producers (Aphex Twin, Autechre, Squarepusher, etc) and their old 90s albums. And i’ve also been caning all Future Sound Of London’s stuff (old and new – they’re still producing). I forgot how good FSOL really was and there new stuff is just as good.
Funnily enough I’ve just this last month decided to get back into music production. I was never that good at it in the first place but I’ve decided i wanted to use my spare time more constructively rather than just gaming. So I bought a Launchkey 61 and finally upgraded my old copy of Ableton Live. It’s early doors at the minute, i’m just going through various tutorials and trying to learn the ins/outs of all Abletons new synths/plugins.
Likewise it’s great to hear from someone with similar taste. If you’re ever ‘oop north again or passing near Burnley feel free to drop in. I live on a farm in the middle of nowhere which is great because i can turn my stereo up really loud and it doesn’t annoy anyone.
Take care,
James
I’m here again,
I bet youre getting sick of me spamming now lol,
Yea Yello are from Switzerland, their most famous track was “the race” in 1988, that was on the now thats what i call music 13 (vinyl) album, if you like you electronica you will love these 2 tunes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDiS83qE8E4&ab_channel=Destrunator
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIr_DQ-_thY&ab_channel=rgmu101
I was up in blackpool last month, damn that place has changed a lot! the last time i visited was in 1989 lol, i was 16 at the time and was with my girlfriend who was 17, unfortunately she died of cancer at just aged 17, dont think ive ever got over it to be honest, she was beautiful inside and out, an amazing girl, she had a brain cancer nicknamed “the terminator” because there are no comebacks from it when you get it, in the end she was like a vegetable, her speech went and everything and she ended up in a wheelchair, she lived 5 months after being diagnosed, she kept complaining of dizzy spells and headaches etc. and died a couple of days short of her 18th birthday, its amazing how visiting a place after all these years brings back so many memories init.
Again going on to Behringer, even my cheap little Q502USB mixer sounds amazing, even for such a cheap mixer it does ASIO and everything, its brill.
Ill have a look at those artists you pointed out, im searching for some decent new material but as you rightly say its bloody hard work, you find probably 1 good tune out of 20 haha, yes the SONY MZ-N1 and the Panasonic SJ-MR220 were the 2 best portable recorders ever made to my ears, the panasonic even records at 20bit in analog mode which sounds so nice, i must admit i think minidiscs in general are “athough a digital recording format” sound extremely analog to the ear, theres no harshness or artifacting like you find in MP3, the panasonic sounds so bloody good, has brilliant stereo separation and overall sound quality.
So james youve subscribed to my channel eh? lol yea whenever i put a track together i put it on there, i try and make tunes that are a bit different yet still have an oldskool flavour too them, I use FL Studio20 as my DAW, i always start with the melody from my head then proceed to add basslines etc, i find it easier to work that way, making music on a PC can get very distracting, the trick is to discipline yourself and say to yourself as youre making the track “NO I WONT START PREVIEWING OTHER PLUGINS” or start playing around with the daws options!
I was fully hardware based up until 2 years ago when i realised that a computer is the most powerful music making tool on the planet, there are even free plugins out there that will cream any piece of hardware!
So what do you think about Radio2 sacking Steve Wright? i personally think its ******* disgusting, the man has devoted most his life to radio1/2 and then they go and do a stunt like that on him. Yet they let jimmy savile continue until he died! Leaving us with limp wristed dj’s like rylan and paul ogrady ffs. dont know whats happening today tbh, we live in a messed up world!
Im a massive fan of Hip House (like the stuff in your mixes) Annette – Dream17 is my all time favourite house track, with DJ Professor – rock me steady being a very close 2nd, and that track was done by stock aitken and waterman!
Speaking of waterman, blimey i was extremely shocked to find that dennis had died, man i grew up with minder, it was bloody brilliant what a shame, a truly excellent actor dennis was. what a sad world we live in, dennis waterman and roger moore die, yet justin bieber is still alive!
Im going to look into that Behringer dac you recommended, they really do make some excellent stuff both in build and sound quality, ive done radio shows on a £40 behringer usb mixer that sound better than some people i know that have spent at least £350 on a mixer, mad init, they seem to have very high quality burr brown dacs and rock solid build quality.
Must admit mind, the sound quality on my laptop is outstanding, should bloody be though for £1,400! but adding an external dac would be the obvious choice for me so i can record via the analog ins of my minidisc recorders whilst keeping the signal path fully digital to stop degradation of the sound, also if you copy digitally on minidisc you cannot then make a copy of that disc, to be honest analog sounds much better as its 20bit, whilst digital is 16bit, you really can hear the difference the separation and mids are way better.
Right im off now to get some coffee so i can stay awake long enough to finish the track im working on, if you send me an email james then ill give you my mobile number fella, i think youve got my email address as i put it into the box when sending this post.
All the best young man and will speak to you soon.
Paul.
Yeah no worries mate.
Thanks for the long comments and chat. It’s nice to have someone leave something round here as my site’s comments section has turned into a bit of a grave yard these days. People just don’t seem to comment on blogs these days.
I’ve not been Blackpool in years, maybe 12 years ago. It was a bit run down when I went TBH. Sorry to hear it still brings back those memories of your old girlfriend. Considering what you described it’s something you’ll (or no one else) would ever forget.
As for new music, get yourself on BBC6 music. It’s the last decent BBC radio station. I just hope they don’t start to lobotomize it like they have with the other stations.
I had heard about Steve Wright. It doesn’t surprise me. In my previous job I listened to Radio 2 for around 11 years (since Terry Wogan) and saw/heard them slowly replacing dedicated lifetime radio DJ with celeb style ones. I’m just hoping this dosen’t happen with my beloved 6 Music. If they ever cancel the licence fee I’d happily pay for that station.
Back to the music production. I’ll take a gander at your tunes when i get a chance. My plan with Ableton is to stick with the stock plugins for the next 12 months and learn them thoroughly. I’ve been using Live since version 5, and it’s stock plugins have come on leaps and bounds over the years. I’ve dabbled in production many years ago and ran into the problem of just ‘adding another new shiny vst synth’ to solve stale sounding tracks. This time i plan to avoid being a preset warrior and try and concentrate on learning synth and sampling fundamentals. Limitation isn’t always a bad idea.
Right i’ll leave you be. If you ever want to chat feel free to email me at james [at] djkippax.com. Or leave a comment (honestly they’re appreciated in these crazy times)
Brill mate, glad youre keeping busy
Going on to walkmans, Im a MASSIVE fan of the Creative Nomad Jukebox from around 2002, i have the 20GB version, ive yet to find any other portable player that beats it for sound quality, a proper hifi player for sure sounds awesome!
Back when i was a kid (around 1870) haha, i used to have the knock off sony walkmans, from the chinese market, saisho etc, they werent too bad but you really needed a proper sony walkman to get the best out of your tapes! I remember vividly always having the screwdriver in it to either sort out the tape azimuth or the motor speed lolage!
Well after all the testing theyve found out that 24bit 192k high-res files actually sound worse than 16bit 44.1 haha, due to them introducing audible harmonic distortion past 10khz, yet these sites charge mega-bucks for them, i knew all along it was a great big gimmick, the ony way to listen to proper high res audio is by going analog where nothings restricted by bit rates/depths etc.
Yea it was so hot down in somerset it hit 105F bloody hell man, no joke!
As for recording my fetish for minidisc is continuing haha, such a bloody good “on the fly” format, i mastered CDs of my own music years ago and the CDs have turned to shit (disc rot) ive never seen this happen with any blank MD ever! not in 25 years. At one point i went down the road of using my TASCAM DR-40 for analog recording, it had great sound quality but was a little high on the hiss so i went back to minidisc as my archiving format as i really dont trust SSD’s or Hard Disks, come to think of it i dont trust CD’s either! The beauty of PC to Minidisc recording is it totally bypasses the SMCS copy protection of the minidisc, meaning you can continually make digital copies of digital recordings! pretty epic stuff i must say. In fact ive got copies here of MD’s i recorded in 2002 and theyre still 100% perfect so this proves to me this format is rock solid.
I was getting a bit worried tbh, i kept coming back here every couple of days to check for replies, i said to the mrs “hope hes alright”
Well lol, were pretty much over this Covid BS and now theres a new disease, MONKEY POX wtf? is there no end to this madness? i mean whats next? the plague? its getting ridiculous.
The only DJ i can stomach on the radio is the old Tony Blackburn, i love that guy, and it was a damn shame when Terry wogan died, he could make or break a band just by playing it! both extremely talented and witty! Im an old fart when it comes to radio, love the 60s 70s 80s etc, back when artists could actually sing and play an instrument haha, however the 90s was definately the best decade for the dance/techno scene, and if i remember right 1988 was and still is the king for house music, “Annette – Dream17” is my favourite oldskool house tune of all time, brilliant easy listening track.
Right im off again, this time im picking up the Gloss brush, uurg, such a tedious job especially doing doorframes!
Nice to hear back from you and glad alls well,
Take care fella.
Paul.
Hi Paul,
Again sorry about the late reply. I’m all good. Not been doing much with this website as of late, so keep forgetting to answer your comments.
As for portable MP3 player jukeboxes, i was a fan of flashing the old ipods with some custom firmware. Think it was called Rockbox if my memory served me right. It turned the lock down Apple Ipods into a flexible player which didn’t need Itunes for music org’ and you could even play FLACS and other music formats on it. I hated Itunes but did like the early Ipods. Rockbox made them way more usable.
Didn’t know that about the 192kbit high res. TBH i can’t hear a massive diff’ between a well mastered mp3 and a FLAC. Even when played on my good hifi. There’s a difference but it’s not massive. I think you notice it more as the system gets louder. That’s why i tend to stick to flacs and wavs when DJ’ing on a big rig, but for home use is hard to tell even with a good system. Decent mastering seems the biggest diff’ for home use, and trying to find tracks which haven’t had the life squashed out of them.
Aye the heat was fierce. Now we face the cold, high energy costs and possible blackouts. What a world we live in. Makes me still glad i have a coal fire in this draughty farm house.
I never backed up my digital vinyl rips to cd. They’re all on a few HDs and NASs around the house. I run a file integrity checker in Foobar once a year to keep an eye on corruption. So far my collection is doing okay and it’s been digitised over 10 years. If you have an old PC and want to turn it into a storage system I can recommend Open Media Vault. Been using it last 12 months it’s free and superb: https://www.openmediavault.org/
Terry Wogan was ace. Listened to him for years when i was still working in factories. Funny guy with a good taste in music.
Dream 17 is one of my fav tracks. There’s an atmosphere and sound to that tune which has never been replicated. It’s aged very well.
You take care fella, I’ll see you around.
J
Just Ace ! love the mixes
Downloaded one of your mixes last night, and have been listening to it constantly since then. I really like how you have veered away from incorporating the usual old skool anthems
Every mix is brilliant. top scratching, ace tunes and I’m now waiting anxiously for a new mix to be delivered. Keep up the mint work
Nice to see someone with passion about all styles of old skool & is will to share (even track listings) & for free.
There isnt much these days musically that makes me as happy as this 75 minutes made me
I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I subscribed…but, when your mixes arrived and I heard the first one, my jaw hit the floor! Every single mix is absolutely fan-fricken-tastic! Thank you SO much for sharing your work and giving me some top quality music mixes to listen to, reminisce on and go running with.
Keep up the awesome job.
Take care
Wow! I think that’s the nicest comment I’ve had about my site and mixes. Thanks. I mean really – thanks a lot. You’ve made my day. Hope you come back for some more, when I finally get another couple done. All the best. James
Brought back some cracking memories…. Top bangin choonz… From all genres… Thanks for that… It brought them mad rushes back from days gone by… And it’s like 8am…headphones on full blast… Nice one Kippax…. Made iday…. Thanks & much respect to ya