disco and funk music mixing and syncing

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

disco and funk music mixing and syncing

Hi there…i have a very simple question…
are there any chances to mix and sync old 70 and disco music with traktor pro 2.6 ?
And if so how can i do it? do i need to do a particular setting in Traktor ?
Thanks in advance
Ciao from Italy
Giorgio Giordano

2

Yes of course, i don’t see how this would be any different from any other genre?

3

I assume the confusion for you is the fact that the beatgrids are not accurate due to the tempo drifting. Unfortunately, Traktor does not allow flexible beatgrids and as such you have either two options

A) the old school way; You manual adjust the bpm using a jogwheel or whatever chosen method you have of pitch bending, like you would if you mix anything by ear.

B) The new school way; You use a program like Ableton to warp and stretch the song into perfect alignment, allowing Traktor to accurately beatgrid it.

4

Yes, beatmatch manually.

5

Ride the pitch…

6

^this is correct

here’s a tip loop a section where the drums don’t drift and mix into that :slight_smile:

7

Warping FTW.

Yes you can manually beatmatch some tracks however some tracks have tempo’s that drift so much that it’s very difficult to do a clean mix. Ableton’s autowarp has come a long way so it’s pretty easy.

8

This is where you will be able to really make it shine… I have done some quick country rock mixes where I mixed it like electronic music by doing this

9

Or use beat tap to tap in the beat when you need it.
Don’t use a wireless mouse or keyboard to tap in the beat tho as they generally have quite high latency.

10

or just use SDJ and stretch the elastic beat grid

11

Heavy filter usage can help too.

Here’s a vid which may give inspiration. Done with vinyl though

12

just bang it in, don’t drag out mixes for too long

13

This is one of my favorite genres to mix. I used to use Ableton Live to make the tracks perfectly gridable. But it’s so time consuming, so instead I just learned to beatmatch manually. It’s just easier, but you won’t be able to do elaborate mixes by looping sections of the song.

I usually do relatively short mixes of 8 to 16 beats. Works well.

14

Riding the pitch, mixing into a steady loop, and not dragging it on too long = all great suggestions. Yes, you can mix them… they will just sound a little more “live” on account of the tracks being a little more… er… live. :slight_smile: