Making a mixtape with changing bpm
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  1. #1
    Tech Wizard Drix's Avatar
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    Default Making a mixtape with changing bpm

    Hi!

    I've started making a christmas mixtape just for fun, but the selection I have ranges almost too much in style and bpm to make things fit, so I was wondering if any of you could recomment a good app to make mixtapes in. This is just for fun and for my family, so anything is cool.

    I tried a few times in Traktor with my VCI-100SE and parts work fine, some not..

    I've been looking at MixMesiter and been wondering about trying Ableton, but I'm not particularely good in any of these so was wondering what you think. Maybe even Acid would suit my needs for this task? How is it making mixes that change tempo in any of these apps?

    Thanks for any tips and tricks!

  2. #2
    Tech Mentor Mr.Nicklebe's Avatar
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    MixMeister is alright. Back before i even knew about traktor i had a copy of it and made some really terrible mixes on it. Looking back on it now i realised that it's probably very good at making mixtapes.

    Changing tempo on MixMeister is pretty straight forward. You can just type in the tempo values you want on which ever part of the timeline you want. Then the tempo just changes to these values as the mix plays through. If you get what i mean?

    I don't really have much experience with ableton or acid so don't really know about them.

    There are probably demos for all these programs available though, so I'd say just give them all a try.
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  3. #3
    Tech Guru belchman's Avatar
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    do you mean that you're gna make a mixtape that isnt live? poor show.. lol

    Just go for it in Traktor - and just try to make it as perfect as possible i guess. If you have a lot of changing bpm and you make it in a DAW, it might sound a bit too contrived... Just give it a go live! It's good practice, and it'll make you a better DJ for it..

    EDIT: Acid and Ableton (in DAW mode) are pretty rigid in terms of changing BPM. Ableton would work in session mode, but it'd be pretty much the same as if you used Traktor...

  4. #4
    DJTT Moderator bloke Karlos Santos's Avatar
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    Mixmiester FTW.

    Its a piece of cake.

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  5. #5
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    couple different ways you can skin that old cat in traktor

    if your mixing into deck B from deck A,
    - make deck B MASTER and deck A SLAVE after you've already tempo synced deck B to deck A's tempo. then just raise the tempo of deck B to it's original tempo.

    or you can do a quick abrupt cut/drop like many hiphop djs do. either by stauling deck A on it's 1st beat of a new bar, then starting deck B on that same beat so it's seamless... or you can do a quick cut/drop using delay or reverb, just drop the next track on the first beat of the measure of the last track.

    but if its just for shits and giggles, you can probably get away with not being so crafty. just experiment, have fun with it

  6. #6
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    try Eans tempo trick too (delay freeze I believe)

  7. #7
    Tech Wizard Drix's Avatar
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    Thanks! Tried out Mixmeister, but as I'm not beatmatching at all, it's abit of a pain as it wants to change main tempo all the time.. best ting would be a timeline without a master tempo actually.. see what I'm at? I'll try Ableton Live now in timeline view.

  8. #8
    Retired DJTT Moderator DvlsAdvct's Avatar
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    Just mix.

    If you do it live, just do your blends at the needed points, put in fade in/fade out points to remind you.

    Or just put something together in an arrangement view. Approach it like a radio DJ instead of a club DJ and you'll be golden.
    It's the FAQ. Read it.

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  9. #9
    Tech Wizard Drix's Avatar
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    I made it in MixMeister and it worked out ok. I'll try to do it again now live in Traktor Pro with my VCI and see which one's best.

    For next time, I'm still wondering though.. How could I arrange it in arrangement view but not have it synch to the master tempo. Can it be overrided? Probably a stupid newbie question, but when making a mix like this I just want them arranged like you said DvlsAdvct. Like a radio DJ.

  10. #10
    Retired DJTT Moderator DvlsAdvct's Avatar
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    I'd just line up the tracks and test out the transitions, moving things bit by bit. Really, it wouldn't be much different than making a gapless CD and cutting out the excess noise at the ends of songs. You could do it with audio editing software and CD burning suite.
    It's the FAQ. Read it.

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