Pre-Mixed Tracks?

[ranboggy]

so an example....?? they made 3-4 10track basic beatmatch mixes, lets say friday night, upload it to soundcloud and on saturday during the party played mix 1 straight through and tossed one or two random tracks in at the end, then brought in mix 2 from soundcloud and played straight through again til the end and once again blended another 2-3 random tracks, then dropped in mix 3 from soundcloud.. is that kinda what you meant?

[jdownesbaird]

No. He's saying that you would just make a basic beat match mix of 2 songs that you would blend into your set. You would still need to blend into and out of the 2 song mix, but that's it. If you have a bunch of 2 song mixes, you would only be blending live every other song.

[keithace]

Sometimes tracks blended in a DAW sound better than mixed live. Especially with a lot of the modern electro that has no space in it and 3 band eq's/filters/sweeps aren't quite enough. I have "mashup" tracks, I do play them in mixes. Granted, not every track - usually I like the original better. Sometimes there is some extra flavor in a mashup track you wouldn't get from the original, and sometimes it doesn't make sense to blend say a drop twice, and blending the break from another song twice.

Also, layering an acapella over may not be feasible (or possible if you don't have the acapella - sometimes producers get special promotional kits and such). This is especially true given the way I mix, with (relatively) quick transitions and filter sweeps. I will do my own blends for the most part, but every now and then I hear a mashup track and go "well that is bang on," so why recreate the wheel? Also, what if I don't have three decks available? I don't own an F1 or any controller that would work the remix decks very well, and only have two turntables. Many (pop)club DJ's using serato and two decks don't even have the option of a third deck and the SP-6 sampler is meh at best.

We all have different capabilities and talents. Not everyone can be both a great producer and great DJ (or even a mediocre Produce and mediocre DJ for that matter). Sometimes a DJ's talents really lie in the studio (see: Hardwell). Hardwell isn't a good DJ at all, and his sets are so-so when you compare him to other DJ's in his peer group. Most of his tracks are premixed. However, for the genre of music he produces, he makes some great tracks that have become fairly popular.

Obviously there are those who can be great producers and DJ's (see: Laidback Luke, or Diplo - although I am not sure if I've ever seen Diplo ACTUALLY DJ - but I know he started out as one and it was how we built his brand) and then there are those that are both poor DJ's and producers (see: Steve Aoki). I mean I guess if you like seeing a guy throw cake...more power to you. Not trying to be a hater either, Aoki has some decent tracks, and his shows are high energy. He's a good showman.

Then those who are God-like at DJing but don't produce, relatively, a whole lot of original content or remixes (See:Carl Cox - he does produce but I'd say compared to the modern producer/dj, popping out singles every month, it doesn't compare, but I'd have carl cox lay down the soundtrack to my life any day of the week).

Then you have great live performance acts (the thread in here recently of a members summer project was amazing) who combine the structure and workflow of production with the dynamism of technical skills of DJing. But again, the member was playing straight tech-house and minimal (I think...I get confused with all the subgenres), which was groovy as hell, but a different style of mixing than mainstream electro and prog which feature a lot of breakdowns, buildups, and drops.

Laidback Luke is, imo, one of the best technical DJ's in the prog-house/electro scene and I like a lot of his production work (although not lately tbh). He does layering live with 3-4 CDJ's, quick transitions, smooth, and on point. Still, some of his stuff is pre-fabbed in the studio. Just gotta go with what sounds good sometimes.

Anyway - bottom line is - don't hate, just do you, and I'll do me. If It sounds good and the crowd loves it, that's all that matters. If in my day job I worried about people telling me how lazy I am because I write VBA code to complete repetitive tasks or hard to complete tasks, I'd tell them to shove it.

a "mash up" is not a "remix"...you have no idea what you are talking about...before being a sarcastic asshole please know what you are talking about...

[Chaser720]

so an example....?? they made 3-4 10track basic beatmatch mixes, lets say friday night, upload it to soundcloud and on saturday during the party played mix 1 straight through and tossed one or two random tracks in at the end, then brought in mix 2 from soundcloud and played straight through again til the end and once again blended another 2-3 random tracks, then dropped in mix 3 from soundcloud.. is that kinda what you meant?

I've seen a bunch of DJs doing that and I can't stand it. I've also seen DJ's mix together "tracks" where they just cut a long mix up and made sections out of it to appear to be mixing. Basically just doing a hard crossfader throw when one "track" ends. Shit kills me. Why even try?

And I personally I avoid mashups mainly because I don't like to take credit for someone else's work (and playing a mashup appears like your mixing them live), but I do have a few in my library and use them sparingly.

[tropikel]

Yeah I personally would only ever play a mashup that I had made myself, or if I was playing someone else's I'd try and recreate it live rather than playing it outright

[Chaser720]

Yeah I personally would only ever play a mashup that I had made myself, or if I was playing someone else's I'd try and recreate it live rather than playing it outright

I'd still like to do it again live if I recorded it off Traktor but if you needed a DAW to do mix them then yeah I agree with that. And I don't mind taking someone else's mashup and recreating it live because there is a still a difficulty there.

[city_boy07]

Me and my mate who dj together use tracks like this...

Mainly when we jump tempo from say 80 to 120 bmp, we need those daw edited tracks to make the transition smooth

[Patch]

I think we're all missing the important message in this thread...

Whoa Patch! That track is awesome, I really dig that tempo change.

Someone likes one of my tracks!!!

[likeberty]

Playing my mashup track can make my set and performance become more unique. In my area at this period, everyone need to drop Animals or the crowd will be disappointed. So instead of being the same as the other DJ, I drop this



And to be honest, I can't perfectly do this live. T__T

[Ozei]

Playing my mashup track can make my set and performance become more unique. In my area at this period, everyone need to drop Animals or the crowd will be disappointed. So instead of being the same as the other DJ, I drop this

SOUNDCLOUD PLAYER HERE

And to be honest, I can't perfectly do this live. T__T

That's just awesome. Loving the Lion King part