Show HN: I love Essential Mixes. So I made this.

For people who are new to the genre, Essential Mixes are one of the best ways to get to really know EDM artists. While artists typically get popular through hit singles, in full sets artists make a lot of experimental tweaks and changes to make it a unique experience. In the same way that CD's killed the full-album experience, live sets are bringing that "full" artist experience back.<p>I've compiled a short list of well respected DJs in case you want to use this site to explore other big names in this type of music beyond the usual suspects (Deadmau5.) There are many, many more and this is just a sampling of different sounds from the most recent mixes only.<p>Above &#38; Beyond, Kaskade, Nero, Cosmic Gate, Flux Pavilion (dubstep), Jamie XX

This looks and functions really well and you have a good selection of mixes.<p>For those like me who want to listen to a particular Essential Mix from 1993 till mid 2011, someone has uploaded 910 Essential Mix episodes into a Soundcloud Folder which can be found at <a href="http://soundcloud.com/das-boy/sets/essential-mix/" rel="nofollow">http://soundcloud.com/das-boy/sets/essential-mix/</a>. There are some real gems in here and it's pretty much a permanent tab for me.<p>Enjoy!

This is awesome! You should add track lists and scrubbing without having to download the entire set.<p>Remind me of the days when I used to work on Mugasha. My main problem was that it was a pain for me to find good stuff to listen to while listening.<p>Check out bunch of old essential mixes on there. <a href="http://mugasha.com/essential-mix" rel="nofollow">http://mugasha.com/essential-mix</a><p>So I built Mugasha and solved that problem. You can listen to a ton of essential mixes on there and other sets. Including track lists and scrubbing ahead.<p>What's really sad is that I don't work on Mugasha anymore and I have the exact same problem again.<p>- I cant easily listen to new DJ sets like I used to.<p>- I have to resort to listening to Itunes podcasts again and have NO idea what I am listening (track list problem)<p>- Maybe I can find a new owner for Mugasha so I don't have these problems anymore.

For those who aren't aware, getting offered to play an essential mix is a huge honor in the electronic music world. Most of the mixes on this site are from artists giving it their very best.<p>Cracking good work! This looks incredibly polished for a side project; are you planning on building it up?

Love it. Netsky's Essential Mix is amazing to listen to while programming: <a href="http://mixture.fm/search/netsky" rel="nofollow">http://mixture.fm/search/netsky</a> :)

Hey Eric, your site is awesome. I love how easy it is to play music. I had some thoughts from a UX perspective of things I didn't like about it.<p>Dislike: There’s no sign up, only a Login with Facebook button (which is annoying personally because I don’t like logging in with Facebook <a href="http://screencast.com/t/hsKqMkyuR." rel="nofollow">http://screencast.com/t/hsKqMkyuR.</a>)<p>There’s a bunch of white space to the right hand side of the page (<a href="http://screencast.com/t/2swhK5EPb2i" rel="nofollow">http://screencast.com/t/2swhK5EPb2i</a>), which makes the page unsymmetrical and doesn’t feel right.<p>I don’t like how most of the things on the page don’t have any description beyond an icon. I know most frequent internet users can probably figure it out, but it still requires me to think for a second to make the associations (<a href="http://screencast.com/t/6E2ydk3kh" rel="nofollow">http://screencast.com/t/6E2ydk3kh</a>) and some older users and perhaps not as savvy internet users may not understand it at all (albeit the site might not be aimed towards them.)<p>I know this site is for people who like Essential Mixes, but I have no idea what a collection, Essential Mix collection or FACT collection is. Adding a description could add an unnecessary element while removing a confusing aspect, so its up to you to make the choice. I think a description can be made (without hurting user experience) by adding a disposable box next to the collections briefly explaining what they are.<p>Some specific aspects of the design I don't like (misalignment, pixels off center, etc.): <a href="http://screencast.com/t/1Tg9Fo75xo3" rel="nofollow">http://screencast.com/t/1Tg9Fo75xo3</a><p>Hope you don't take my thoughts negatively, just trying to help. Overall I like the site, its is simple and has no truly unnecessary elements, that’s good. Also, I like this touch <a href="http://screencast.com/t/oWFv5kkU2" rel="nofollow">http://screencast.com/t/oWFv5kkU2</a>), adds to the user experience. And I like how easy it is to play songs (just click and it starts playing <a href="http://screencast.com/t/MwkkU8musZ" rel="nofollow">http://screencast.com/t/MwkkU8musZ</a>).

You sir, are my new hero. Fantastic work. One added bonus here would be to include the track-list for each one. A simple contribution feature here I think would be a big hit so others can do the work to find them.<p>For example, a few results down on: <a href="http://track-list.com/page/2/?s=deadmau5" rel="nofollow">http://track-list.com/page/2/?s=deadmau5</a> will give the track-list for item #3 in your list.

Looks like I'll be spending a lot of time on here...<p>First impression feedback: while quickly looking at a bunch of the Essential Mixes, many of them don't have the location where it took place. Personally, I've mentally sorted a lot of these by location &#38;&#38; artist, so might find it hard to find something specific I'm looking for.

Thanks for putting this together... Looks good:) reminds me of console.fm.<p>Is there any way to skip through the selected mix?

Very nice work! Essential Mixes are what really got me into trance music way back around Y2K (particularly Paul Oakenfold's... don't much care for his work nowadays though). So thanks for the trip down memory lane, and thanks to the BBC for creating the program.

There was a Soundcloud account with a like every essential mix ever on it the other week, but shortly after it disappeared - I think due to licensing issues with BBC content outside of the UK. Did you look into that for your player?

edit: this site is awesome here are some my favorite essential mixes you may have missed<p>mr scruff <a href="http://mxtr.fm/KBmUTW" rel="nofollow">http://mxtr.fm/KBmUTW</a><p>Essential Mix with Audio Bullys <a href="http://mxtr.fm/IDmIIU" rel="nofollow">http://mxtr.fm/IDmIIU</a><p>the goa mix ( <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goa_Mix" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goa_Mix</a> ) <a href="http://mxtr.fm/K4Yian" rel="nofollow">http://mxtr.fm/K4Yian</a><p>some other good sites to download dj mixes are <a href="http://www.livesets.us/" rel="nofollow">http://www.livesets.us/</a> and <a href="http://themixingbowl.org/" rel="nofollow">http://themixingbowl.org/</a> both great.

This is fantastic. I love the EM's but I hate the BBC player so I am always trying to find the mixes on SoundCloud or the other shady download sites. Now they are all neatly packaged in one place.<p>Well done, dude!

Maybe I'm missing something obvious - is there a volume control?

Really like the UI and am already a big fan. Well done.<p>Any chance you could integrate track listings (perhaps with the start/end times within the mix so you can identify the active song?)

Wow. Was about to go find the Nero Essential Mix and write a new feature, but this site takes care of the first part for me :). Great work!

A huge thumbs up for this! May I suggest the Resident Advisor and XLR8R podcasts to be added too? Again: Thanks for creating this site.

Blow me down - you have the best EM ever, props<p><a href="http://mixture.fm/search/psychonauts" rel="nofollow">http://mixture.fm/search/psychonauts</a>

Great work! Good use of soundmanager2 (<a href="http://www.schillmania.com/projects/soundmanager2/" rel="nofollow">http://www.schillmania.com/projects/soundmanager2/</a>) would love to see if it works on an iPad/iPhone and takes advantage of HTML5 audio capabilities. Please post of you've tried it with either.

I absolutely love this.<p>Couple of things:<p>- It would be nice to be able to skip to an arbitrary part of the mix.<p>- Sound didn't work for me until I reloaded the page.

Love it, and loving your selection I'm seeing in there.<p>You might like the "mix youtube music videos" website I made. You can load any youtube user's video playlists as "crates" and then mix from track to track:<p><a href="http://burnsmod.com/fun/mixtube/mixtube.html" rel="nofollow">http://burnsmod.com/fun/mixtube/mixtube.html</a>

Does this use Flash? I don't have it and clicking play does not play, but it also does not show any error.

Knife Party (formed by two Pendulum guys) released an amazing mix two weeks ago: <a href="http://knifeparty.com/news/ukf-live-stream" rel="nofollow">http://knifeparty.com/news/ukf-live-stream</a><p>You'll like if you're into Skrillex, Kill the Noise, Nero, Zedd, Swedish House Mafia, etc...

This is the greatest revolution in music listening for me in my entire life. I love electronic music and when I'm coding I want my music to flow non-stop. You can't get that with individual tracks.<p>I can't thank you enough! Props to helping people discover Essential Mixes.

Can't believe I'm seeing this here. Well done!<p>I highly recommend <a href="http://core.thomaslaupstad.com/" rel="nofollow">http://core.thomaslaupstad.com/</a><p>The owner has been diligently putting out downloads of Essential Mixes and other top UK radio shows of the genre as soon as they come out.<p>Cheers!

Wow, looks (and sounds) great, listening to the Four Tet one as we speak :) It looks like all the sounds are hosted on SoundCloud, is this in your own pro+ account? I'm guessing this was the most economical way to host the files?

<i>sigh</i> Essential mix sites pop up every year or so and get shut down pretty quickly.<p>The best one (~2010) used really simple code to store the files and my bud managed to auto-download the whole library, even after the site was "shut down".

Right around the turn of the millenium, I downloaded a couple dozen Essential Mixes while I was on the GT campus. This just made my day--I really hope any legal issues can be avoided and this can stay online. :)

This is awesome.<p>One thing I'd like to request would be the ability to skip around the mixes. I was 45 minutes into the Above and Beyond Mix and I accidentally clicked on another mix, losing my place.<p>Otherwise, everything seems to work great!

I just got home from seeing Steve Lawler and I saw this. Lawler's got mixes in the mixture.fm results: <a href="http://mixture.fm/search/lawler" rel="nofollow">http://mixture.fm/search/lawler</a>

Doesn't seem to work for me. I just get the following error in the console:<p><pre><code> soundManager.createSound(): Audio support is not available. </code></pre> ;_;<p>Edit: Reloaded and it seems to be working now. YES.

Not bad. I wish someone would create the same, but instead use Fabric mixes. A more well rounded mix series. Nothing against Essential. I just prefer Fabric and Fabriclive stuff.

Wow I've been looking for some of the older sets for a while. Thanks!<p>p.s. shameless self promotion of my music site: <a href="http://trance-mixes.com" rel="nofollow">http://trance-mixes.com</a>

For those wanting a torrent download instead, checkout <a href="http://themixingbowl.org/" rel="nofollow">http://themixingbowl.org/</a>

So you made... a splash screen?<p>I've been listening to EMs since 1999 - Oakey's world tour. Looking forward to whatever you're building.

This is great! Immensely useful for browsing essential mixes.<p>Would be awesome to see more BBC radio shows added in the future.

Pretty awesome. I love essential mixes too, so I suspect that I will be using this while I work.

Bookmarked, about to start furiously tweeting, this is excellent and kudos to you for doing it!

From someone that runs a music streaming app, I love this, good job keeping it simple man.

What hover effect is going on here? Might someone point to the pertinent CSS?<p>Is it just a glow effect?

Ah, I wish you could scroll through them. I really want to hear the end of Nero's.

Brilliant site. One suggestion - can you add a 'Random' or 'Shuffle' button?

Any chance of adding some Solid Steel mixes to the collections?

love the site design, can I ask what you are using to build the front/backend? Love the colours and the gradient used in the background, how is this generated? Thanks

dude, this is effing awesome, there's some classic mixes here that I thought I'd never hear again... thank you!

Is the login with facebook button broken?

I'd like to see an About page on this.

How can I upload my own mixes?

I love the design and layout!

Rad! This is great.

it's 2012.. can we get some seek controls?

I. Love. You.

Love this!!