Beginner Dj,Lookin for tips. DnB/Dubstep/Electro

[sagedro09]

Minus my monitors and flight case, my set up is almost complete.

MacBook Pro 15" 4 GB ram i7 processor 750 gb HD
Traktor Kontrol S4
Xone:XD-53 Headphones


I am mixing up some Dubstep, DnB, Drumstep, and soem electro, but for now just a strong focus on Dub/Drumstep.

I have been using traktor for a few weeks using keyboard mappings and using touchOSC on my iphone, but any tips or tricks on mixing would be awesome!!!

i hope to have a mix to post here in a few weeks .

-SAGE

[josh@firestorm]

Minus my monitors and flight case, my set up is almost complete.

MacBook Pro 15" 4 GB ram i7 processor 750 gb HD
Traktor Kontrol S4
Xone:XD-53 Headphones


I am mixing up some Dubstep, DnB, Drumstep, and soem electro, but for now just a strong focus on Dub/Drumstep.

I have been using traktor for a few weeks using keyboard mappings and using touchOSC on my iphone, but any tips or tricks on mixing would be awesome!!!

i hope to have a mix to post here in a few weeks .

-SAGE

hi mate,
welcome to the boards and to the wonderful world of djing!

well the 2 main tips that anyone will give you are

1. Learn your tracks - listen to them over and over (inside and out, upside down, round and round). This is probably the most important thing you should do, which many people dont. The people that dont are usually the torrent/blog whores that download thousands at a time.

By learning your tracks you are teaching yourself basic song structure. This helps you find where the intro's finish, where the breakdowns come in, where the best spot to mix in and out of a particular track is etc - All fundamental in our art!

2. Practice, practice, practice... and when you think you're done practicing - go practice some more!

When i was first learning to mix i would record as many 'practice sessions' as i could and give them a listen back. This would help guide me in the areas i needed to fix and show me where i was going wrong, and helped me to understand the importance of EQ'ing! When you are learning to mix as a beginner, you can easily get caught up in the moment and think you have nailed it with nice blends and everything - but then you listen back to your recording and realise it needs some work.

[theory28]

hope this helps

theres a lot of flux pavilion in this thread, sorry.
the following is how I go about this. i dont expect you to copy, nor do i necessarily advise you to. be original, add your own flair, do it your way.

Mixing dubstep

ok, so were assuming that the bpm is at 140, not 70 and that a bar is 16 beats

so, say youre playing track A and its breakdown is 4 bars long
you want to bring in track B and its intro it 6 bars long

well your going to introduce B into A 6 bars before the end of the breakdown (in other words 2 bars of the intro will be playing over the 'meat' of A)

alternatively, you can bring B into A 6 bars before the break down starts and then B drops when the intro to A starts

in both of these scenarios you would cut A out when B drops. (unless its better to do it otherwise I.E. a 2 or 4 beat fade)

also, if the breakdown and intro lenght of the 2 tracks is swapped so that A's breakdown is 6 bars long and B's intro is 4 long, then you can time it so B drops when A's breakdown starts.
or you can play B right as A's breakdown starts, and cut out A when B drops.
or, you can play B 2 bars into A's breakdown

what method you decide to use depends on the track, whether or not vocals will over lap and most importantly energy level

Energy Level

energy level is another way of looking at mixing in key, and to me is more appropriate to dubstep's various sounds.

there is low energy chilled sounds like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHMbhteW9CY

mid range like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDmWJbN8bDo

and high energy stuff (AKA Brostep) like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3cE9iXIx9c

ok, that want too energetic, but it will make a room go NUTS.
heres something more energetic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EgPIfKXolc

from this point on, these energy levels will be on a 1- 10 scale as follows:
low - 1
mid - 5
high - 10

now, you never want to go from 10 to 1 with nothing in between. (the exception of there being a long 6 bar or more spaced out, relaxed breakdown like in Freestylers - Cracks (Flux Pavilion Remix) . Cracks is kind of a wild card as its intro and break are more of a 2 or 3, but the meat is a 7 or 8)

you also dont want to go from 1 to 10.

instead, you can do 1 then 5 then 10. this is for shorter mixes (see structure section)
if you have the time you could do 1 then 3 then 5 then 7 then 10

Mix Structure

Recorded Mixes:

please note that this is the way i do it, not the way you have to. also note that i used the numbers not to literally represent the # of times to play that level, but instead how many times relative to the rest. i hope that the font size helps with the visual.

the way i go for shorter mixes is

intro 3, 5, 5, 7, 10, 10, 10, 7, 5, 5, 3, 3, 3, 5, 7, end track

for short mixes its more acceptable to do it the short way and just use 3, 5, and 10

intro 3, 3, 5, 10, 10, 10, 3


Live Mixing

the same rules should apply as with everything else, but as opposed to a sharp cut, feel free to use a 4 or 2 beat long fade.

Double Drops

the goal is to let A reach its break down, then let B drop at the same time as A

heres the fun part: dont mix A out. let both tracks drop and play at the same time.

then you want to find a good time to cut, fade or other way to mix A out.

generally you want to have a bass line and spaced out track for one (5 or lower) and an energetic track (7 and up) that has more melody stuff going on.

Tip: test out these double drops ahead of time because it might end really badly otherwise.

Theory's Pro Tips

• control the attack based on how loud or soft the first beat you play is (i refer to this as 'offensive' for future reference). Attack as explained by Ean. go to:1:55- 2:15
  
• Dont be afraid to be an Echo/ Reverb whore (to an extent). it helps when youre live and dont know how exactly the 2 songs are going to sound together. start with a volume at around 70-85%, and use the reverb when you hit play. turn it off when appropriate or on the drop. also, make sure you do this mainly with intros/ breaks that have little to no snare in them. sometimes it can sound bad depending on the effect.
  
• while on the topic of echo: as opposed to the 2 or 4 beat fade out, or the cut, you can use the echo freeze. i use it 2 or 4 beats before the drop, or even ON the drop/ a moment before. WARNING: on occasion it can make hard drops sound soft if done on/ a moment before the drop
  
• go and download this podcast episode. listen to it. learn it. memorize it. it sums up just about all of this in audio form, as performed by flux pavilion. *if the episode is removed when future readers see this: look for UKF podcst episode #4 circus records (mixed by flux pavilion)
  
• most importantly: YOU are the DJ. YOU have full control these rules and bend them as you wish. this was simply a guide to how i do it.

i just spent about 20+ minutes typing this, so im going to also start it as a new thread (if i get an OK from a mod)

if theres a new thread, the link will be tacked to the end of this post.
also, the game. you just lost it.

[sagedro09]

all of this is very helpful, i snagged quite a bit of dub from my friend and have been taking notes in my note book, writing down good tracks, good break times, drop times, possible blends.

THANKS!

[theory28]

all of this is very helpful, i snagged quite a bit of dub from my friend and have been taking notes in my note book, writing down good tracks, good break times, drop times, possible blends.

THANKS!

2 things

dub =/= dubstep. their 2 different kinds of music

and notes are a good idea, but you can mark mix in/out points with cue markers. as far as dubstep goes, like i said in my guide, your mix in point depends on the length of the in coming tracks intro