Playing within a certain BPM range, or not?

[narrah]

Im interested to know howpeople here vary there BPM range within a set, And methods of changing BPM.

Having read some threads I am under the impression that there are some who will vary BPM within a set and there are those that will play a straight BPM for a set.

Within my collection tracks BPM vary from around 110 to 135. Most of my tracks are around 128 mark. Since TP has a Key lock function and for the timebeing im looking to use that rather than changing keys. Is there a general rule that people tend to follow. i.e They only sync tracks within 4 bp, of each other. Say 126 to 130, If so, is it more a case of bringing a song up, rather than bringing a song down, or is it all the same?

As for the methods of BPM change, I have practiced Eans tut using the Delay and freeze, are there many other methods worth mentioning. Such as maybe creeping the Bpm up over a few tracks? I know for most people here these would be obvious, but im new to this.

I know different methods will lend themselves to differnt situations and genre's, im just looking for a general overview Of how one might consrtuct a set around bpm and methods of doing so?

[Jester]

I usually just use a set BPM for the set, using the average of the tracks i'm going to use. Give or take 6% is my general rule, which gives me about 10 bpm either way. Energy wise its a good idea to maybe creep the tempo up later on, but thats up to you. The best places to covertly bring the tempo up is in a break with no vocals or anything in it. that way its not so obvious to the listener. Or you can set the master clock to a higher tempo, and at the oportune time, hit sync on the deck to boost it up straight away
Just make sure you go UP, not down dude.

[DvlsAdvct]

There are no rules. I speed some tracks up almost 30% if they sound good.

That out of the way, my sets usually follow a progression. I want to start mellow/slow and build to a peak and either keep getting harder and faster or mellow out from there. Usually my technique goes around some sort of story or progression as I get bored of the same thing for too long.

[narrah]

All good advice, Sorry As I only noticed that there is a similar thread running about methods of changing BPM. However Im interested in how people build a set, are there set (general) formula's ? progressions follow, as mentioned by Devils advte, will these formulas vary dependant on how long your set is? Ive been reading some on the MIK forum and there is some good reads on energy boosting and whatnot.

[Jester]

Yeah if you use MiK you can put a energy boost in every so often, i would recommend changing up after every second track, do a +2 for track 5 then a +7 on the 6th track. Just start off soft and finish hard As DA mentioned there are no hard and fast rules, these things all come natural in time mate. peace

[DvlsAdvct]

I think that there is something getting lost in all of these discussions of the "best" way to do things. Yes, we have MiK and there are rules for how to do energy boosts, and yes we have sync and there are rules to how to use it in a scientific way, removing the actual feeling.

There are no rules anymore, guys. Learn all the stuff you can and just throw it away. Don't fall into the rut of "every mix must be <x>".

I don't want to come off like an arrogant bastard talking down to the newbies or anything. Just remember, kids, that DJing existed before a LOT of the stuff we have now and it'll exist long after what we use is considered trite and useless. Just hope that isn't getting lost here.

[manus]

I think that there is something getting lost in all of these discussions of the "best" way to do things. Yes, we have MiK and there are rules for how to do energy boosts, and yes we have sync and there are rules to how to use it in a scientific way, removing the actual feeling.

There are no rules anymore, guys. Learn all the stuff you can and just throw it away. Don't fall into the rut of "every mix must be <x>".

I don't want to come off like an arrogant bastard talking down to the newbies or anything. Just remember, kids, that DJing existed before a LOT of the stuff we have now and it'll exist long after what we use is considered trite and useless. Just hope that isn't getting lost here.

good read and advice and i know ur not being arrogant. your right there shuoldnt be rules etc but im trying to find techniques to mix and make them sound good. not so much following any rules but getting ideas so i can work on them.

[DvlsAdvct]

That's fair, it just always feels like these conversations come down to what the "best" way to do things is.

There are tons of different organic ways (see: not with effects) to gradually increase, or dramatically increase, tempo. Hell, just raising the pitch fader during a breakdown can help increase the energy of a song and the crowd will slowly feel it on the dance floor, making it more natural.

Cutting to higher tempo's works too, though can be jarring and needs to be handled with care. Just let a track ride out and once it breaks do a quick cut to the ramp beforethe drop on the incoming track. It's hard to explain with just words, of course.

Slowing down, though, for me is always the hardest part to handle. You want to slow it down but you don't want to lose the energy. While I do enjoy the delay trick that Ean brought us, I am much more of a fan of gradual tempo changes, and that's more for drastic ones. Gradual ones can be more complicated to do well, though.

[n2hf1st]

I think it's less about the bpm and more about the track itself... energy, popularity, and the way you mix it in from the previous track are all important. An hour of 128 bpm electro house is boring.

For big tempo changes, I use the delay/freeze trick a lot, but you can also experiment with the turntable stop in tpro, spinbacks, baby scratches, and cue point juggles

[ponyboy]

I have only played out using CDJs in the past and would normal increase the BPM across a set a little at a time, generally going from 130, say to 135/137 as the set progressed, nothing major, although I would normally ask the following DJ where they would like me to finish and take that into account, if I had started at 130 and they were playing 140 (say I was playing an early trance set and they were next on playing a more driving trance set) then I would ramp it up a bit quicker, normally using the pitch once a tune is brought in and changing it incrementally.

I am yet to use Traktor to play out but I imagine I'd use the master clock to add BPM along the way and keep my decks sync'd to it as usual.