Help breaking into a new technique for mixing?

[usamablackbelt]

Hey everyone! I hate my first post to be asking for help, but I'm getting desperate and I know this is the best place to ask.

Basically, I'm getting bored of straight A --> B mixing. I use TSP2 with my CDJs. I want to begin REALLY doing some cool things, such as adding in loops and such, REAL on the fly remixing and such, and so much more. Basically, I want to make my DJ sets so they can't be reproduced.

I know TSP2 has a bunch of stuff like sample decks and loop recording and all that, but I have yet to see some really great examples in a live DJ set. I've seen the potential in the DubFX video, and I see all the cool stuff James Zabiela is doing, but I don't even know where to begin. I know I want a Kontrol X1, but even then, I'm just at a loss. :-\

I'd consider switching to Ableton, but I've spent the money on TSP2, and I'd like to stick that out as much as I can.

Does anyone have any ideas, input, inspiration, anything? Gear-wise or technique-wise would be helpful.

[wrong chris]

yeah you're in the right place, check out the blog. Ean Golden (the boss of this joint) has done a bajillion tutorial videos about next level dj techniques.

[3heads]

Don't forget it's about the music, not about all that fancy stuff you could do, though

[dj stifffy]

Don't forget it's about the music, not about all that fancy stuff you could do, though

+1000 most amazing things you see if usually down to track selection, although a small amount of effects on top can add a bit of variation

[MrPopinjay]

3rd CDJ, go!

[usamablackbelt]

It'll always be about the music for me, guys.

I just want to learn something that'll put me above and beyond the rest. Part of being musical is creativity too, and I'm at that point where I need to learn more things so I can apply some more creativity. I've been looking at actual hardware now (Kaoss Pad, EFX1000, etc). I'm more of a musician than DJ, and being able to do things live more than just playing tracks is my goal.

I hope that makes more sense.

[sobi]

Hey everyone! I hate my first post to be asking for help, but I'm getting desperate and I know this is the best place to ask.

Basically, I'm getting bored of straight A --> B mixing. I use TSP2 with my CDJs. I want to begin REALLY doing some cool things, such as adding in loops and such, REAL on the fly remixing and such, and so much more. Basically, I want to make my DJ sets so they can't be reproduced.

I know TSP2 has a bunch of stuff like sample decks and loop recording and all that, but I have yet to see some really great examples in a live DJ set. I've seen the potential in the DubFX video, and I see all the cool stuff James Zabiela is doing, but I don't even know where to begin. I know I want a Kontrol X1, but even then, I'm just at a loss. :-\

I'd consider switching to Ableton, but I've spent the money on TSP2, and I'd like to stick that out as much as I can.

Does anyone have any ideas, input, inspiration, anything? Gear-wise or technique-wise would be helpful.

I understand completely where you are coming from. I've been in a similar boat for a few years now. A little more than 5 years ago, (before I had any DVS) I started playing a lot of 3 track sets with two techs and some CDJ's. When I got Traktor, it sort of started me from scratch. I was just too occupied with the fact that I no longer needed physical media, and had to get used to sorting and finding my music with the new system. It's still a ongoing process quite frankly. More to the point of what you are asking about though, now that I'm a little more accustomed to the crossover, I've been wanting to do more 3-4 track stuff too. It's what attracted me to TSP in the first place. My advice is to start building up your loops library. Then, you can start really building your own tracks on the fly. A great place to go for this is the new(er) beatport side site, http://www.soundstosample.com. Keep in mind what others said too... it really is more about the music than what you do to it, though that used to not be the case. It was a lot more impressive when a lot of the tricks done now were done manually with just 2 turntables and a mixer.


On a side note, you might want to explore plain old production. Personally, I've been starting to think it's a waste of my efforts in many aspects of DJing, as far as doing all this multi track mixing and one time blends. This site in particular has made me feel like that too. I give props to everything Ean does, but I personally find it a little too processed (IE, it's too effect heavy on the songs). Also, if I have to do all that work programming midi mapping, I personally feel that time is better spent working on your own track. Keep that in mind too.

[Ando]

+1000 most amazing things you see if usually down to track selection, although a small amount of effects on top can add a bit of variation

i feel that way too.
effects and loops are like the topping of a cake, never forget that. ean shows what to add to that topic or to be creative and add a tiny bit of lemon flavor into the iceing.

more practical stuff
switching to abelton would mean you loose the dvs function, it devots your cdj's for tunes on cd/usb. and your remixes need to be setup before, it is less spontaneous than tsp2.

in tsp2:
for beginners start to find loops you like(intro/outro of tracks for e.g.), and try merging them on 2-4 decks, loop markers are your friends . play with the eqs and effects until you found your style in that type of mixing.

in a perfect scenario you get 4 tracks: baseline+beat, percs, keys/pads, vocals/misc. try to use filters and eq's to keep the output from getting muddy

[Retrow]

I'm also looking for more creativity to add to my sets.

Even though i've only been doing this for a month, im looking for more challenge since i think i've got the A>B mixing now, using loops and most of the effects.

How do you guys use the loops, by using the C and D deck as sample decks in TSP2? Which means you'd have to use other software to cut the samples...

Or do you use the loop function in a song and just play it on 4 different mixdecks?

EDIT: I'm also wondering how effective a midi fighter would be for triggering loops/hotcues

[MrPopinjay]

I've not used traktor 2 so I could be wrong, but can't you drag a loop from a main deck into a sample deck?