Transition Techniques

[Nicky_Laws]

Anyone like to share their techniques, going from one song to another?

example

song1 --> song2

-as song one plays
-cut bass on song2
-fade in
-cutbass on song 1
-bring in bass in song2
-fade out to song 2

probably not the most technical way of blending, but I'd love to hear what your techniques are ...espcially the ones that use the effects..etc..

[tekki]

I'm more of a no nonsense mixer. I try to handle the transitions by means of crossfading.

This can be either smooth and soft or raw and filled with quick cuts from one channel to another. Last one being ideal for D&B.

I am trying to ace this before I am even looking at effect transitioning.

[Fatlimey]

-as song one plays
-cut bass on song2
-fade in
-cutbass on song 1
-bring in bass in song2
-fade out to song 2

In most DJ tutorials, that would be considered an "advanced technique".
Seriously, there's not much to it.

It's true that pretty much anyone can learn to DJ in a weekend, the basics are that simple. The tough bit is how to be musical, exciting and innovative using just those simple techniques. In the same way, cooking is just "cutting up stuff and applying heat". Ultimately you're not playing records or MP3s, you're playing with people's emotions and expectations, the same way that great chefs do with basic ingredients.

Back when people people just handling two sound sources things were simpler, but modern digital DJing is turning into a two-handed, computer and controller-assisted juggling act (and that's just the way I like it). For me, and advanced crossfade would involve four soundsources - Two tracks (A & B), a breakbeat and some spot effect like a white noise swoosh. Each of the sound sources has a filter on it, plus you have a global Reverb effect. The mix goes something like this:

1. Track A is playing.
2. I'd layer on a breakbeat to toughen up Track A.
3. Set track A looping over a 16-beat phrase.
4. Drop the low on Track A leaving just the highs and the breakbeat.
5. Start the spot effect running through a reverb.
6. Crank the reverb and fade or filter back the beats until the mix turns into mush.
7. Drop out Track A and the breakbeat, then quickly start Track B in the middle of the mush
8. Let the reverb dissapate until it reveals Track B's intro section.
9. Drop the breakbeat back to regain momentum and show continuity as Track B picks up.

Voila, a crossfade and a breakdown in one. At that point, you're not so much moving between tracks as you are producing a remix.

Practice practice practice!

[tekki]

True that!

[Foreverhex]

One thing that I enjoy doing is the following:

1. Have Deck A playing
2. As the song is starting to an end I throw on Beatmasher set at 1/1.
3. Let the track go a little, as if looping.
3. Cut Deck B lows and bring it in at the beginning of a bar on A
4. Cut A's lows and let that go for a bar and then hit in B's lows
5. Take the the gate knob on beatmasher and cut it to 25% at the beginning of a bar.
6. Let that go until you are happy and then cut to B.

I think that makes since. It's easier to show than explain.

[Wuz]

Anyone like to share their techniques, going from one song to another?

example

song1 --> song2

-as song one plays
-cut bass on song2
-fade in
-cutbass on song 1
-bring in bass in song2
-fade out to song 2

probably not the most technical way of blending, but I'd love to hear what your techniques are ...espcially the ones that use the effects..etc..

That's what i did for starters, now i increase the length of my transitions and do a lot of EQing for longer smoother transitions.

do you use the kill button on the low? that's what i used to do a lot of.
This can be nice, clean and effective for a lot of stuff.
Try turning the low right down and not using low kill. Put the mid/high to about 10 o'clock on your incoming track and then over a couple of measures bring mid/high up to 12 and take them down a bit on your outgoing track - then at the end of a measure completely cut the outgoing track and put the low on the incoming track back up to 12 o'clock on the opening beat.
Hopefully that makes sense, it's incredibly inefficient to explain this in text

If you want to throw effects into the mix i find the best way is to just apply the effect over the last 2 - 4 beats of a measure before you do the cut and bass return. Remember with effects, generally less is more

depending on the genre you're mixing try 2 - 4 beats of quick reverb/flanger sweeps so the strength and intensity of the effect quickly rises up just before the old track gets cut and the new ones bass kicks in.

needless to say, timing is important as hell

[Damien1138]

I do this alot when switching genres mid set. I maybe missing a few steps but you'll get the jist of it.

1 Deck A- Playing House > Mains
2 Deck B- Hip Hop/Breaks > in cue
3 Kill bass on B
4 Fade in B
5 During B's Build, Beat mash A with a tight length and rotation doing this on upbeats
6 During beatmash, start fading in bass on B
7 Match bass beat on B with Beatmashing A
8 Fade A's bass
9 Tighten length on A's beatmash
10 Start Beatmashing B
11 At end of build, rinse out mids and lows off A
12 During last measure of build, rinse highs out
13 At drop, kick B's bass up a notch
14 Feather A out

[BentoSan]

Anyone like to share their techniques, going from one song to another?

example

song1 --> song2

-as song one plays
-cut bass on song2
-fade in
-cutbass on song 1
-bring in bass in song2
-fade out to song 2

probably not the most technical way of blending, but I'd love to hear what your techniques are ...espcially the ones that use the effects..etc..

Ill give you guys a little idea on how to Nicky_Law's basic transition on a smartmixer setup.

1- Turn up the bass suppression channel of the track your mixing on(Track A) - this will use side chain compression to remove the bass from the track B, and make Track A dominate the bass frequencies.

2- Start your Crossfade over to deck B, As you slowly crossfade over Deck B's bass will at first be more or less non existent, but as you start to reach the deck B side of the crossfader deck B's bass will start kicking back in all by itself. When your crossfader has made it all the way over the Deck B side, Deck B's bass will be back at normal volume level without touching anything to bring it back up.

3- Use that time that your not making so many EQ adjustments to take things to the next level

4- Praise Moldover for such an awesome idea.

[Sunshine]

This Los Angeles insomniac names this, "The Best Thread Ever!"

[tekki]

Just starting to wake up, but this would be made sticky if I were a mod.