32nd note/bar/beat?

HEy, so i went to my friends hosue last night whose an amazing dj and he was working on making a huge ass mix. and he was using songs that he doesn't know well enough to do the mixing i do (which is in vdj watch wave forms) he says that he just starts the track b song when ever he knows a transition spot is coming in 32 beats ahead.
He also pointed out that everysong changes the way the beat is or changes something every 32 beats. Is this true? if so how can i practice this 32 beat way? Cause I want to move away from vdj and i think this can help me break it

Most tracks have phrases. Those phrases occur during every 32 beats. When a phrase changes, usually a change occurs, either the song picks up or slows down. When playing house, trance, whatever if you can cue in a new track that you hav cued into the beginning of a phrase and start it at the new phrase for your ending track the songs should for the most part mix a lot smoother. This helps especially at the beginning and end of most tracks as they follow this method. Its great when you know your track enough that you can cue in a track right when the last track is winding down, it almost mixes itself provided you are beatmatched.

awesome thanks man!!

It depends on the track really, so don't take the 32 beat (8 bar) measure as a hard rule or you will find quite some unpleasant surprises.

PS: start listening to your tracks and looking less at the screen, you will learn a lot that way.

Learn to count beats. 1,2,3,4/2,2,3,4/3,2,3,4/4,2,3,4... So on and so forth. Just listen to your music and listen for the changes. Eventually you'll be able to feel phrase changes or at the very least know when they occur. Hope this helps. SearcH the forums for posts on counting beats there's dozens I'm sure. Hope this helps.

thanks guys! I played bass guitar for 6 years so i know all about counting just didnt see it happening in electronic music

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Originally Posted by padi_04

It depends on the track really, so don't take the 32 beat (8 bar) measure as a hard rule or you will find quite some unpleasant surprises.

PS: start listening to your tracks and looking less at the screen, you will learn a lot that way.

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32 is a rule of thumb. Like i said most tracks will follow it, but some won't you still have to mix in smoothly and follow your ear and the track, but following versus not, is not recommended imo. I would still cue a track in like that and use mixing skills to finish off the mix.

Mix without software for a while. Or cover youre laptop screen.

Practice like this for a while and youre garunteed to understand the structure of EDM better.

Each phrase in the track will become more obvious over time and you'll know when its right to start the next track and bring it in.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by guiltyblade

32 is a rule of thumb. Like i said most tracks will follow it, but some won't you still have to mix in smoothly and follow your ear and the track, but following versus not, is not recommended imo. I would still cue a track in like that and use mixing skills to finish off the mix.

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All I'm saying is that he shouldn't trust blindly the 32 beat rule.

pay attention to the phrase changes versus actually counting bars.

once you start djing for a few years and listen to tons of music, you will eventually get a feel for music you are not familiar playing.