Moving into the next steps; mixing technique; trouble with some loops; help. thanks.

[jlv2k5]

I've got the Numark Mixtrack Pro, Virtual DJ, 30k songs, and a lot of passion about my side hobby. I put together my first like mix, it's 6 songs for 9min where I let one song build into the next. No effects were added, just some looping. It's pretty crap work, but again my first production. I plan on putting a couple 30min sets together in this fashion. I want to figure out how to make this stuff better because I'm DJing by buddies holiday party in 3 weeks.



Right now I'm focusing on one specific technique that I try in the above mix, leading into the 6:39 switch from Original Don to Wildfire. I want the Wildfire 8 beat loop to do a couple things, and I'm having trouble making it all work. I want:

1. The specific 8 bar lyrics with "I could bet all of the riches that I ever had", i want that to be heard at least 5 times before the transition
2. I want it beat-matched perfectly, obviously, but that's a little hard if you are using manual loop. if the loop is just slightly off the beat at either the in or out, the 8 bar is then too long or short and wont remain beat-matched for long (ive been mixing to 140bpm).
3. And then, I want the exit of the loop (where I have to at a break), to fall right at the same exit break of the programmed song. Again I'm going for mixes where I play cued and programmed song breaks together for the most part, and switch out the programmed one before it breaks (all the while transitioning into the cued).

This is my loop technique for mixing. I haven't even begun to try and teach myself about much scratching, effect use, or anything other mixing techniques that I may not even know about. I'm also really exiting to soon pick a midi fighter pad of some kind, and start to remix songs and incorporate my own beats. I could use the midi pad for an effects tool as well i guess, serving as a beat pad and effects device? lol i dunno. Thanks guys. here is an imgur to attempt at a visual for Ex1: my standard way of setting up to mix songs and Ex:2 the loop technique that I dont have perfected.

[drenkel]

It wasn't terrible, give yourself a little credit.

Two things you gotta learn though...

1) You gotta learn to "hear" the song structure... your bringing in the tracks in at the right time, but on some of the mixes your crossing over without a natural break in the song.... Most songs have a 16 or 32 beat structure... introduce the mix on the first beat, and exit on the last.

2) Mixes kinda fell flat when song A is building up, and when switched to B it's completely mellow... just kinda loses the energy... that's when the people leave the dance floor (Good trick when you need to rotate them to the bar though!) but generally you don't want to lose your energy.

Loved the song selection though, keep working at it!

[Fressure]

This is why I love Traktor and it's Loop Cue >_>

[Fressure]

Actually I'm going to try and recreate your mix and use the same songs, just for like experimenting purposes if that is cool with you jlv.

[rdale]

try cue point juggling instead of looping? you can put it on the spot you want and not worry about the loop coming out sync.

[jlv2k5]

try cue point juggling instead of looping? you can put it on the spot you want and not worry about the loop coming out sync.

maybe expand a little about cue point juggling? so you're talking about dropping in a cue point change rather than pre-syncing the loop to have it's beat with the programmed song. Another thing i realized that if i want a perfect 8 or 16 beat loop, i just be using a 8 or 16 auto loop so it's a perfect 8/16 beat loop. that's my best solution right now, but i should get comfortable with adding, dropping, and moving cue points around on the fly.

Thanks!

[Patch]

Wait - 30,000 tunes???

That's gonna hinder you more than help you, mate.