We gotta talk about "Girls Talk"
This one is a cut above y'all: excellent tunes, nice sequence, great sound, beautiful j-card/tape design,
and the awesome little catalog with photos of all their other mixtapes. I want every single one of them. If you get the chance to trade with u/twoprimehydroxyl take it.
Bonus points for the way the artwork lines up when you slip the A-Side in correctly. Well done
I received three awesome tapes this week.
First up, these two from u/Easy_Contract_757
I got lost in space with Asimov's Radio then siphoned through the vortex to a primitive age Where Ancients Tread. There I crushed my enemies, saw them driven before me, and heard the lamentations of their women (I am absolutely loving this one).
Once back on Earth and returned once more to my normal timeline, I hardly had a chance to unpack before u/MutantsoftheEast had me pulling out the map and hitting the highway for a road-trip to the Pine Tree State. Special thanks for all the cool stickers and stuff sent to accompany me on the journey. I've never been to Maine but they say it's the Way Life Should Be and who am I to argue?
I don't know about y'all but I am loving this so far. I've been making mixtapes and giving them away at local record stores and the like for a couple of years now but I'd not received any until I found this place. I love seeing the creative and different approaches folks take with their tapes. The care and attention to detail everyone puts in is both impressive and inspiring.
Thanks y'all! Let's trade some more tapes!
At long last I have moved house and unpacked all the gear. Finally, I am ready to swap. I made a lot of tapes last week including a brand new mix for summer 2026.
Take you pick(s):
Note/Update
45's Fun is spoken for. Psychedellic Guitars is still available.
UPDATE 2: Psychedellic Guitars is spoken for.
All other mixes remain available.
get the higgs boson blues: My first mass produced mix made in the winter of 2024 and still my personal favourite. u/Easy_Contract_757 & u/se7en8n9ne y'all still want one of these?
summer/oblivion: This mix blends the warmth of summer with fresh breeze of of an incessant sense of doom. Songs connect in strange and silly ways. It took me forever to get this mix to sound good and after tweaking it again I am pleased to say I reckon it sounds excellent now. Apologies to early adopters u/MrAtomSteam and u/MrLCGriso but these new copies sound better.
phase I - it can not burn: End of winter '25/'26 mix. This tape is left over from last year and as such does not necessarily adhere to the current marking and grading system*. Killer mix. Every track comes from an LP in my collection.
end less/this summer: Which is it? Endless Summer or End this Summer? I know where I stand (kill it with ice) but I'm trying to be more appreciative. Sure Summer sucks but there's gotta be some good, right? This mix is an attempt at balance. All tracks from LPs from my collection.
Psychedellic Guitars & Fun on 45/ 45's Fun: These are rare things indeed. Every once in a Sunday morning, I'll play DJ and entertain the household by spinning random 45's from our collection. Sometimes when I do this I will think to record them and make a tape.
That's what these are. Lot's of scratchy old 45's. Mostly oldies and classic rock with the occasional more modern surprise. They are 1 of 1. No two are alike. The j-cards are entirely handmade usually from index cards and/or whatever random stuff I have laying around. I do play-test them, at least in part to make sure they work but I do not grade them as the sound quality is all over the place. Nor do I keep any sort of record as to what songs are on what tapes. Far more time goes into the j-card than into the tape itself on these.
"Psychedellic Guitars & Fun on 45" contains both the fun 60's instrumental album, "Psychedellic Guitars" and whatever random 45's I felt like tacking on. The full album will either appear at the beginning of side I or at the end of side II. I have done it both ways.
edit: to add https://www.discogs.com/release/2954428-Jerry-Cole-Psychedellic-Guitars
"45's Fun" is the same sort of thing but without the album "Psychedellic Guitars" in favour of more 45's.
Only "Psychedellic Guitars" & "Fun on 45" are in limited quantities.
Update: "Psychedellic Guitars" is spoken for. Update (2): 45's Fun is spoken for. TRIPLE UPDATE: Psychedellic Guitars is available!!! Who wants to trade?
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*NOTES/MARKINGS AND INDICATORS:
Typically I make mixes quarterly.
Unless it’s a special run of some sort the tapes I use are 60 minute, likely bootleg TDKs I get cheap off Amazon. I use them because they are the only blank cassette I’ve found that I can reliably buy in bulk and they are cheap. Since I ain’t rich and I give ‘em away for free when I buy tapes I have to keep cost in mind.
All tapes have been numbered. My numbering system changed a couple of times early on but has been standardized. The number is the order in which the tapes were packaged. If the number appears as fraction (1/2), the first number (1) is the tape’s number and the second number (2) is the series. For example if your tape has the marking 1/2 that is the first tape of the second time I’ve issued that mix. For one that looks like this 1/o, the first number is the tape’s number and the second (the small “o”) indicates a reissued mix that has been altered or improved from previous series. The “o” indicates that the mix has been permanently finalized and is there to differentiate from all other versions and series.
The tapes I get vary in quality so no matter how much tweaking and prep I do, I never really know how it’s gonna sound until the play-test.
If your tape has a small square sticker with the letter “P” on it, it has been partially play-tested. Sometimes when I make a large batch of tapes, I only get to play-test the first, middle, and last tapes of the run. The other tapes get a partial play-test in which I listen to a bit of the first, last, and middle of each side (maybe half a song or so). “P” tapes do not get graded.
Tapes with a full play-test also have been graded and have different stickers. The square sticker on side I is the grade, the sticker on side II is the number.
I assign a grade to every tape that gets a full play-test. The scale is based entirely on my ears and what they’re hearing when I test that tape on that day. So it’s fairly arbitrary. The scale is as follows: A1 (Best), A2 (Middle), A3 (Least).
A = acceptable. These are the three levels of acceptable quality I allow. Most tapes are A2s. I very rarely bother releasing A3's but I hate wasting tapes so A3's usually end up getting handed out to random people at record shows or the like.
If your tape has a piece of masking tape on the back of the case it was made in a batch on a day when I made a lot of tapes and the masking tape was used as a temporary label. I don't know why I don't just throw them away.
You can ignore the social media element of the insert card. I no longer use instagram so there is no need for you to follow that page. The cards still look cool so I still include them. When I run out of those the new ones will no longer include the QR code link.
Finished setting this room up a few days ago. I'm diggin it. There is much tidying and work left to be done and we're still living out of boxes but we've got music room up and running.
New mix tape in my mailbox from MrAtomSteam. Sci-fi sounds from the Elder God radio network. Killer tunes, excellent insert. A true thing of beauty.
Last summer I made a batch of mixtapes to give out for free from a counter display at local bookstore. I was very pleased with the sequence but where as I typically source the tracks for my tapes from my record collection, this mix required a few different audio sources. Most of the songs in this mix were taken from LPs and 45s but there are three (I think) digitally sourced tracks (an old Mp3 here, a YouTube video there) which made it difficult for me to get the sound quality up to my standards*. It nagged me enough that I decided to return to the bookstore and recall all of those tapes (thankfully, none had been taken).
I kept returning to the mix in an attempt to improve the sound with little luck. In a few weeks I'm moving house so I thought I'd give it another shot before everything got packed up. For the first time, I am happy with the audio so I thought I'd make a couple to swap here. For what are likely fake TDK normal bias "B" tapes I get for cheap off amazon, these play strong, loud, and fairly clean (no Dolby as I typically do not use it).
I've made two tapes. If you want one please let me know and I'll send one your way. I'll send them to anywhere. Gotta say, I'd really like one of those "Strange Folk" tapes if MrLCGriso wants to swap.
*I play test in part or full all of my tapes and grade them as such:
A1 (sounds as good as I can make it)
A2 (very good sounding tape, not the best & not without minor issues - the most common grade)
A3 (poor to my ears but not so bad that I won't release it)
Both of these tapes have been play tested in full and are graded A2. They'll sound pretty good in headphones or on a decent home or car system.
NOTE: Both tapes are now spoken for, but if you want one, I'll make another batch after I get moved and settled. I may even get the sound better dialed in by then. . .
Howdy from Canada.
I've been making mix tapes for the last year or so and giving them away for free at local record stores and the like, here & there, in hopes that it would somehow catch on and inspire other folks to do the same. This approach has yet to prove fruitful.
I'm not, or rather, I was not a reddit user until found this sub by random chance. I'm excited to finally find some people who wanna trade tapes with. Unfortunately, I'm a few days away from boxing everything up to move house and it's probably gonna be mid-July before I am ready to make, ship, and receive tapes again. If anyone wants to trade with me, let me know which title you want and I'll let you know when I'm set up again and ready to swap.
Current titles:
mix #1: get the higgs boson blues
mix #2: summer/oblivion
mix #3: phase I: it can not burn
I'm in Canada and will ship to anywhere in a swap. If you're in Toronto, you can pick up my tapes at Baxters Vinyl. They are free and you do not have to drop off a tape to swap with me or anything, but you will have to ask about them, as they're kept behind the counter. The staff is very friendly, so feel free to ask. Best prices on used records in town and a decent amount of cassettes for sale at good prices too.
As to my process:
Usually, the tapes I use are (supposedly) 60 min, normal bias TDKs that I buy from Amazon. I play test each tape, sometimes in full, sometimes by only checking the middle of the tape and first and last songs of each side. The quality of these tapes has proven to vary a fair amount with some sounding better than others, but I do my best to make them all sound as good as I possibly can. The majority of tracks come from my collection of LPs and 45's, but I'll occasionally use a taped or digital source. I compile everything in LogicPro and tweak it to sound as good as I can get it to sound.
Note:
I only list song titles on my inserts, not artists. Some titles can be misleading ("Under Pressure" here is NOT Queen/Bowie), best not rely on them too much.
* I probably should have waited until after I moved before I posted here but I'm impatient. If you wanna trade make sure to shoot me a message so I can keep track of requests. Let me know what title you want and I'll message you back when I'm up and running again. I'll also repost when I'm settled and ready to swap. Hopefully by then I will also have my new summer mix ready to go and maybe a couple of my older mixes as well, giving you several titles to chose from.