HEy, so i went to my friends hosue last night whose an amazing dj and he was working on making a huge ass mix. and he was using songs that he doesn’t know well enough to do the mixing i do (which is in vdj watch wave forms) he says that he just starts the track b song when ever he knows a transition spot is coming in 32 beats ahead.
He also pointed out that everysong changes the way the beat is or changes something every 32 beats. Is this true? if so how can i practice this 32 beat way? Cause I want to move away from vdj and i think this can help me break it
Most tracks have phrases. Those phrases occur during every 32 beats. When a phrase changes, usually a change occurs, either the song picks up or slows down. When playing house, trance, whatever if you can cue in a new track that you hav cued into the beginning of a phrase and start it at the new phrase for your ending track the songs should for the most part mix a lot smoother. This helps especially at the beginning and end of most tracks as they follow this method. Its great when you know your track enough that you can cue in a track right when the last track is winding down, it almost mixes itself provided you are beatmatched.
Learn to count beats. 1,2,3,4/2,2,3,4/3,2,3,4/4,2,3,4… So on and so forth. Just listen to your music and listen for the changes. Eventually you’ll be able to feel phrase changes or at the very least know when they occur. Hope this helps. SearcH the forums for posts on counting beats there’s dozens I’m sure. Hope this helps.
32 is a rule of thumb. Like i said most tracks will follow it, but some won’t you still have to mix in smoothly and follow your ear and the track, but following versus not, is not recommended imo. I would still cue a track in like that and use mixing skills to finish off the mix.