I think im developing some bad habits. Help me retrain!

[ssjaken]

So I think I'm getting some bad habits. I haven't been mixing for very long but our DJ community is small and I have had some great opportunities.

My blends just aren't sounding as smooth as they could be. I usually play electro house and some hard dance. I was reading somewhere about dropping the first beat of the next song on the 1 of the currently playing one. What is the best method for determining the current bar of a song being played?

Say 128 bpm Skrillex going into 128 bpm Le Castle Vania.

Also I don't want to end up mixing at breaks like DJ BL3ND. Im feeling a tad scatter brained, i just played a little house party last night and i felt my stuff of garbage. The drunks ate it up but i wasnt happy with my performance. Does anyone have any tips for retraining? I was going to watch some ellaskins and start over essentially.

Also, does anyone have any scratch tips for the S4?

[PeteWoods]

When you're mixing dance music you'll mostly be able to hear 1,2,3,4 over and over for 8 different bars, then it might slightly change so maybe a new hihat or something comes in etc, and on a breakdown it tends to be a multiple of 32, and occasionally 16, that is used. try waiting for the drop and, starting on the one, count
1, 2, 3, 4,
2, 2, 3, 4,
3, 2, 3, 4
etc up until 8, 2, 3, 4 and then you should notice it change. do this with all of your tunes while mixing and try to drop the new song etc on the 1 of 1, 2, 3, 4 after a while it just becomes natural and you wont even need to think anymore!

[bigheadmikelove]

I know that most preach the 8 bars for each phrase in edm, but I tend to see more major changes every 16 bars. I may be nuts (or doing things differently) but I tend to sound like total garbage when I try to mix using the 8 bars method if that makes any sense

[jprime]

Really probably doesn't even need saying, but cutting the bassline of one tune and swapping the basslines in the mix is a quality standard move.

In short: more often than not - don't play 2 basslines at once unless you have some epic double drop.

Also, try switching up short fast mixes and long progressive kinda mixes. Nothing worse than a DJ who does the same mix over and over all night (yawn).

[ssjaken]

Really probably doesn't even need saying, but cutting the bassline of one tune and swapping the basslines in the mix is a quality standard move.

In short: more often than not - don't play 2 basslines at once unless you have some epic double drop.

Also, try switching up short fast mixes and long progressive kinda mixes. Nothing worse than a DJ who does the same mix over and over all night (yawn).

yeah i do the bass swap. standard. maybe im swapping them too slowly. i tend to have 1 track -25 and one at 0. i then blend them bringing them both to about -15 then keep swapping. Perhaps i should try it a little faster?

got any other eq tricks?

[jprime]

Generally if a track has mad hi percussion I'll even consider bringing the hi's in and out in a similar fashion, just not so dramatically
Cutting is a fun way to mix, and deploy some furious drops. If I mix hiphop, of course, scratching in and out is dope.
Using chained FX and delays and stuff to take a mix out is nice too.

[MaxOne]

Basic but I like filter swap mixes. Ie have deck youre about to bring set filter allthe way to bottom. Bring the filter down on deck playing then bring up filter of new track. Simple but effective imo

[smashah]

Sometime to mix it up a bit when the track is playing i turn the reverse gain on then gradually (within like 4 counts) i turn it from 100% to 0% then i hit the switch on the gater play around with that and then adjust the key to match the next song, cue the next song on a big bass+drum beat, something everybody is just gonna start jumping to that has some. pause the first track and play the second at the same instant. has anyone else tried the reverse gain - gater switch?

[Accidental-DJ]

A tip, grab a song and put a marker every 8 counts and then you will slowly learn when the 32 count is..

I tend to do my progressive mixes every 32 count..

so on the 32 beat, I bring my fader of the new song up half way,

then within the next 32 bring the fader all the way up and either bass change or wait another 32 depending on when the bass is going to come into the song..

[Ryan Leo]

If you count 16 bar phrases like I do, well amount really, then try this:


kick on A

1 2 3 4

1 2 3 4

1 2 3 4

cut out bass A for 4 counts before the phrase starts and then on the 1 turn up the bass on track B.

I find it very smooth.

As long as you get the start on the beginning of the phrase you can adjust the length of the phrase of the new song based on how its going to play out.

Or...

If you have one song playing that has 32 beat phrase and the new one you wanna play only has 8 in the break. Drop the new song at 16 +8 and then they flow properly.