Well, yes, we did, but that really was different:

[M]any of those analog mix tapes were covered by the safe harbor established in the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 (“AHRA”), which barred infringement actions for private, noncommercial musical recordings. When it comes to digital mix tapes however, your computer isn’t an audio recording device covered by AHRA. [See RIAA v. Diamond, 180 F.3d 1072, 1078 (9th Cir. 1999).] More importantly, when a mix tape is posted on a blog for any and all to access and download, it isn’t a private use anymore, but a distribution to the public.

(Seen at Planet Kaua’i.)

And if I wanted the highest possible hi-fi, I’d have to do it again the same way, albeit with some pricey sound tools. But I can come rather a lot closer than I thought with a $34.95 package called Spin It Again from Acoustica. It’s intended as a full-fledged recording package for people who want to convert vinyl and cassettes to digital form, but so far I’ve used it solely as a cleanup tool for existing digital files that weren’t quite clean enough.

That cleanup, you’ll want to know, is absurdly simple: the software comes with several preset filters tuned specifically for the sorts of noises you’ll get from analog sources. They range in severity from fairly light to industrial strength; inevitably, filters like this introduce some artifacts or distortion, but the lighter ones pass almost completely unnoticed. The heaviest is labeled “Clean Everything.” One I was happy to see compensates for what happens when you play a record using a magnetic cartridge but don’t have a preamp to correct for the usual RIAA curve. You can also create custom filters if you know what you’re doing.

The trial version is not crippled, but it permits you to do only three cleanup jobs. I was ready to buy after two, one of which was an obscure Buchanan and Goodman cut-in record that sounded utterly horrid beforehand and downright acceptable afterward. I can recommend Spin It Again to anyone who wants a relatively-painless way to clean up those oldies but goodies — and who has a recent version of Windows, since there’s no Mac or Unix version to be had.

It occurs to me that no one (well, hardly anyone) puts out a song that short anymore. In contrast, there were three 2:42 tracks on the Beatles’ White Album.

I wrote about this phenomenon at greater length last year on another site, but I figured it was, um, time to bring it up again.

At the very least, I’d like to get 100 compilations done at some point. (I’m currently at 90.) I’ve learned over the years, though, that it’s impossible to force inspiration.

Remember: this is here to show you what you can do by showing you what I, among the rankest of amateurs, have done. But it’s like a cookbook: you have to bring your own flour and eggs and such.

Addendum: And by “2.6.1″ we mean “2.6.2.”

Addendum: And by “2.5″ we mean “2.5.1.”

Mixaloo is a company which allows you to create mix tapes or playlists from music tracks on the web. You can share these mix tapes in your blogs or social networking profiles, when someone buys these tracks you will get paid from the sale. The current share is 50/50 between you and mixaloo. Creating playlists is free and you can create any number of playlists, but if your visitors or friends wants to hear them they have to buy these tracks.

You can search for artists, albums or tracks and select the tracks you want to add to the mix. Mixaloo has around 3 million songs in their catalog so you have better chance of finding your favorite music tracks.

It took about an hour to assemble 15 tracks from the Mixaloo library, and about thirty seconds to hack together a piece of artwork. I really don’t expect anyone to shell out $14.85 (which is, by coincidence, 99 cents per track) for this mishmash, but what the heck. The results are on the sidebar. You’ll need Windows Media Player 9 or higher.