Eqing- tips/tricks

[paw_20]

if you find your mix clipping (staying in the red) try doing your beatmatching somewhere in the middle of the track (the loudest bits) and setting your gain at the same time. Music tends to pull you in with a quiet(er, relative) beginning as it builds to a climax, like a story, where the author has to introduce all of the characters before he takes you on the journey.
You can apply this kind of logic to musical phrases too. Follow the lead instrument or vocal (or synth) and you will find it tends to repeat, either sonically or rhythmically. As it does so, extra bits are added in; instruments, melodies, harmonies, turns. knowing (or learning) an instrument really helps you identify these extra bits, and in turn phrases, because you pretty much have to learn to read sheet music and then you can see as well as hear what makes a phrase and where it begins and ends.
Without learning an instrument, just try sitting there and listening to one song; make it one you like, because you're going to listen to it a lot. again, follow the lead instrument, and pretend like you're playing along with your fingers, or sing along to a vocal piece. It doesn't matter what it sounds like or what you do with your fingers, as long as you sing a note or "press" (and maybe hold) a key IN TIME. tap your foot as you do it, or count the beats in your head (1-2-3-4 2-2-3-4 3-2-3-4 etc.). actually just count the beats in your head. You will find that almost all phrases you come across will be multiples of 4. I find a lot of house music has 8 bar phrases, and 16 to 32 bar elements (eg. intros, breakdowns, choruses etc.)
if any of that confuses you just find a friend who plays (or played) an instrument.

[guiltyblade]

So I mix on my djm and cdj so for me phrasing in very important and it keeps me in time and my mixes very clean. Not that its not important without cdjs and on laptops, but sometimes with a laptop you can get away with more, like looping and such to get into a phrase if you missed it or something, or cue juggle to it. Not that you can't on cdjs, but its much harder to imo.

So that being said I always cue in at the beginning of a new phrase. After I beat match and make sure its ok, I listen to it all in my headphones i.e mix in my headphones, and I keep it all at 12. I check if all sounds well. This is early on in the track once I selected a new track, I make sure the bpm and be a match is ok, I then make sure the key sounds fine, and finally I check the levels semi in my headphones and maybe bring up the gain if a track sounds quiet or something, it also gives me a sense of how hard the bass, miss, or highs are.

So now I've checked the track it sounds dope. I'm getting in on about under 2 mins left. I start feeling out the beat and waiting for the next phrase. Usually in a lot of tracks there is about a 1 min or so time where its is extended to mix out, however I try to stay away from mixing then cause its usually a pretty boring beat and if you mix too late its just a long bass and snare line and can be boring. So I mix in somewhere at about 2-1:30 left, this is for a general mix mind you, nothing crazy going on here for me. So phrase ends, I cue in, beat match. All sounds on point. I think cut bass of incoming track pretty low, maybe 9 o'clock, so I can possibly still hear it incase it comes off. I turn the mids about 10:30-11. Then I bring up the volume of the deck. If all is well I let it ride until the next phrase. Once the phrase changes I switch lows on the decks, and I switch mids. I turn the mid down a little more on the track I'm mixing out and the track I'm mixing in I go a little past 12, maybe to 1. Just to make sure I'm overpowering the track going out, but it still being heard. Then I just slowly turn all the eqs out of the track coming out until the next phrase or break and cut.

Hopefully thats not too confusing, but thats my, standard mixing style. I obviously change it up a lot more then this. But if i'm going track to track without juggling around too much or getting fancy thats the way I mix.

[MrPopinjay]

I disagree- no matter what you medium matching phrases is very very important. Any mix without aligned phrases feels uncomfortable and doesn't make any sense musically.

[bheinz63]

I play a lot of house and techno, which i love to blend for long periods of time. Ill always set my gain before bringing a track in, maybe making minor gain adjustments as necessary when in the mix. When im beatmatched and ready to start my next song, ill start it at the appropriate time, turn all my eqs off and my volume fader up. Then ALL my mixing is done with the eq knobs. Slowly bringing up the incoming track, and cutting the main track when necesaary. At the end of the mix, usually the incoming track will have all eq knobs at 12 oclock, and the outgoing track will have most of the bass gone(keep a little bit for punch) and the mids/highs somewhere below 12 oclock to whatever sounds clean. Then rinse and repeat.

[MrPopinjay]

That's almost exactly how I mix my old school mellow dubstep

[guiltyblade]

I disagree- no matter what you medium matching phrases is very very important. Any mix without aligned phrases feels uncomfortable and doesn't make any sense musically.

I wasn't saying it not necessary, I'm saying its not as necessary to cue in exactly timed correctly with software helping you. You can cue over to something easier, or loop something to make yourself into a phrase. Im saying cuing into isn't as crucial, but still necessary to be aware of it and use it correctly. With software you can save your own ass to get back into the phrase you want possibly. With straight cdjs you only got one chance to cue it in where you want unless you pre-set cues in record box.

[manchild]

When you learned to blend really w/ the finest of touches in your dj/studio headphones or on your studio quality monitors at home, once you get to your gig you'll realize you can throw everything you've learned and practiced away haha. Not really, but the sound is a whole lot different though, considering you'll be dealing with different room dynamics and different speakers then you're used to mixing on. If you're not used to it, then you'll def be surprised at first but as long as you know what you are doing wou will adapt.

[MrPopinjay]

Ah I see guiltyblade, sorry for the misunderstanding.