I am not a top 40 fan, but realize I will sooner or later have to play it.
As it stands, I am doing my own thing where I layer some Top 40 over an EDM track, trance, progressive house, whatever, and do so by mixing them in key. This makes for an interesting sound, and something no one else has heard, and also give me the ability to bring in the new dance track by using the previous trance or house tracks normal 4-4 beat and mixes in very nicely.
With Top 40 ranging in BPM from 90 to 120 or whatever, and a varied melodic beat, how are you transitioning between two T40 songs? A quick switch of the crossfader? That would just sound to abrupt to me…
Find some top 40 remixes if your like me and like to jump between house and top 40 often. Also, just keep the transitions short and pay attention to the phrasing of the lyrics while mixing out a top 40 song. You could also do a backspin to jump from varied BPM’s or use the echo freeze trick in traktor.
Top 40 and Hip Hop is not “mixed” like house song with long transitions. I usually tranistion between hip hop songs on 8 beats, sometimes four and it’s all about the phrasing of lyrics to keep the vibe going. Count the beats man.
Check out youtube for some vids of Craze and others.
Agree with all above. Go for short transitions and don’t worry too much. If your crowd wants to hear top 40 they probably won’t care how it’s mixed as long as they get the songs they heard in the car on the way to the club. Many top 40 tracks have intros with no beat, I use those tracks to jump between bpms.
you can also get the hook or chorus of a top 40 ~90bpm, loop, increase in bpm ~125+, bring in your EDM of whatever flavor, then slowly filter / drop vol on top 40, and slowly work your way out of the top 40 corner you were previously backed into.
find phrases without any definable beat, like a pad sweep or something and then loop it and bring in the new track over that (this usually only works if you’re going from top 40 to EDM) otherwise an echo freeze (as mentioned), a smash cut (just wham the crossfader across at the right moment, if the two tracks have the same key this can often work), wait for one song to end and then start the next one straight away (defeats the purpose of djing but is a handy last resort)
intro/outro loops are really useful with t40. echo freeze is a last resort for me, I usually only use it like once an hour and only when I’m either making a huge stylistic transition or I know I’m about to drop a dancefloor bomb.
if a tune has really inconvenient mix points, I either find a remix or make an intro edit in ableton live.
mixing songs within +/- 10 bpm isn’t too unnatural if you’re adjusting the tempo during your transition. so, bring in the looped intro of the new tune, drop an outro loop for the outgoing tune if necessary, then simultaneously adjust the tempo and tweak the eqs/filter or bring in fx for the transition. it’s not so hard once you get used to it, and it’s also impossible to do without the sync button
another useful trick for huge bpm jumps is to temporarily double the tempo of your incoming song (say you’re doing “how low can you go,” it’s usually 70 bpm so double it to 140) so you can mix it in. works nice with 128/130 bpm electro house.
I’ve got a small collection of 16-bar drum loops I’ve cut from the edm portion of my library for mixing outros of pop music.
I’ll pick one that fits the blend reasonably well, pop it in a third deck, and blend in my next song with it. Works a charm. If you have S4, the samplers will make this a piece of cake.
A lot of working club guys make personal intro/outro edits of top 40 tracks to make blending them easier and more fun. It’s pretty simple and usually just takes you a few minutes… pick up 4 bars of beat from inside the song, loop it to 8 or 16 bars, and paste it at the top and bottom of the track in Audacity or any DAW you may have.
Top 40 is even easier to play/mix when you subscribe to one of the many services that send out CDs every month (although I have to pick them up at a local authorized music store)
There is Promo Only which has an Urban Club subscription (which has all the popular hip hop rnb)… the mixes are generally “DJ friendly”…
even better are the old standby services such as Ultimix or their other name “Funkymix”…both of these subscriptions offer current top40 with 8 bars of drums at the beginning, middle, and at the end.
I’ve only maintained one subscription since it does tend to get expensive if you’re only doing top40 gigs from time to time.
All tracks are licensed and the only problem I’ve had is with certain labels not allowing certain artists to appear on “record pool” type services.. Every thing is licensed, and the CD’s have correct text so you can rip them with tags.
Top40 gigs payed the bills for a long time, and since it isn’t my first choice in music, I went with the above subscriptions to ease the burden of having to mix stuff that otherwise would have required more effort than I was willing to put in (for Top40 that is)
here you go dude not top 40 but you can hear a lot of what has been already said sometimes easier to hear than read - or read and hear?
… first transition gives you the 8 bar in as the old track is building to a vocal high point and smoothly across on the crossfader and cut it from middle quick as the vocal ends that way you won’t lose the vocal ending (like you would if you take it over too quick) .. second one is a slowed intro timed to old track and then faded across then quickly ramp up the tempo on fine pitch to bring it to where it should be for the track before it drops properly .. 3rd one all that live drumming stuff is tough to work, cuts ok in end … 4th transition another version is to loop (that drum is looping on 4 bars) and then bring a vocal part of the new track rather than always start tracks from beginning / end instead try find natural drops you can use / loop … 5th transition does the same as first remember just try not to be to quick with crossfader initially but fast out from middle to keep vocal i nearly lost this one … 6th transition same again … 7th is just a nice easy smooth crossfade on a mellow start of track …
finding a place or phrase to drop one track out and the next in - listening to what’s being sung on the track highs and lows to exit on etc / bits you can loop - and smooth crossfader so you get just a glimpse of what’s coming in and then suddenly it’s there and playing … i agree with n2hf1st only use the echo freeze or turntable effect once or it’ll end up sounding pretty disjointed ..
I like going with remixes, myself. They’re usually pretty easy to find, and people still love recognizing the song. Also, I sometimes mix a capellas in, then drop the original track in behind and transition over. Sounds pretty good usually.
That’s what I’m thinking too. But like said, there is not much room in these tracks before vocals come in, so there’s not much loop time to play with. I can only pick out a couple songs in my T40 selection that has at least 4 beats worth of looping material.
Many top 40 tracks have intros with no beat, I use those tracks to jump between bpms.
all that live drumming stuff is tough to work, cuts ok in end … 4th transition another version is to loop (that drum is looping on 4 bars) and then bring a vocal part of the new track rather than always start tracks from beginning / end instead try find natural drops you can use / loop … 5th transition does the same as first remember just try not to be to quick with crossfader initially but fast out from middle to keep vocal i nearly lost this one … 6th transition same again … 7th is just a nice easy smooth crossfade on a mellow start of track …