how does one mix dubstep?
hi all i can mix prog and house music well but dont know where to start on mixing dub step?
anyone have tips or steps?
is it mixed quickly, mixed in buildups, in intro and outro, just general questions im new to the genre and would love to be able to mix it
keep the thread alive, ill post my explanation ASAP
its not difficult. just timing, measuring, energy level, and mixing intros and breaks. or bringing in the intro to the next track so that it drops right when the current track starts its break down
actually, thats about my whole explanation. ill elaborate more later
You can also quickly switch songs at the short 4 to 8 beat breaks that some dubstep songs have, especially if they match key/vibe.
yup yup.
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[/CENTER][/u]
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
[u]Energy Level[/b][/CENTER][/u]
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**[/u]
mid range like:
[u]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDmWJbN8bDo**[/u]
and high energy stuff (AKA Brostep) like:
**http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3cE9iXIx9c**[/u]
ok, that want too energetic, but it will make a room go NUTS.
heres something more energetic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EgPIfKXolc**[/u]
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
[u]__**Mix Structure[/CENTER]__
Recorded Mixes:
[u]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.
[u]the way i go for shorter mixes is[/u]
[u]intro 3, 5, 5, 7, 10, 10, 10, 7, 5, 5, 3, 3, 3, 5, 7, end track[/u]
[u]for short mixes its more acceptable to do it the short way and just use 3, 5, and 10[/u]
[u]intro 3, 3, 5, 10, 10, 10, 3[/u]
Live Mixing
[u]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.[/u]
[u]__[u]Double Drops[/b][/u][/u][/u]
[u][u]the goal is to let A reach its break down, then let B drop at the same time as A[/u][/u]
[u][u]heres the fun part: dont mix A out. let both tracks drop and play at the same time.[/u][/u]
[u][u]then you want to find a good time to cut, fade or other way to mix A out.[/u][/u]
[u][u]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.[/u][/u]
[u][u]Tip: test out these double drops ahead of time because it might end really badly otherwise.[/u][/u]
[u][u][u]Theory’s Pro Tips[/u]__[/u][/u]
[u][u]- 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[/u][/u]
[u]__[u]- 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.[/u][/u]
[u][u]- 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[/u][/u]
[u][u]- 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)[/u][/u]
[u][u]- 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.[/u][/u]
[u][u]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)[/u][/u]
[u][u]if theres a new thread, the link will be tacked to the end of this post.[/u][/u]
[u][u]also, the game. you just lost it.**[/u]__[/u]
Awesome job theory!
Nice work Theory
Hey…thoughts on this? GOTH-TRAD MIX @ BTC TOKYO June 2010
Bar is 14 beats…?
An intro with 6 bars…?
What the hell dude…?
Mix however you feel comfortable. Just keep trying new things. Listen to some of the more technical mix DJs.
worst. hype. ever.
truth be told i didnt expect my post to go that in depth.
14 was a typo.
i explained what i meant by bars. the numbers make more sence to me the way i used them, and i couldnt be ared to do it right. i just call it a bar because i have buttons mapped to go +/- 16 and i dont know what else to call it.
i use my own terminology.
Well, I was going to do a good in depth description, but theory28 raped any mixing strategy I could have gone deep into. So, I will give you a short but sweet description of my thought processes when I mix dubstep; keep the crowd moving, keep the crowd consistent. What this means for me is that you want to keep your crowd dancing, and you want to keep the surprises out of the mix. The best way to keep the crowd dancing is to keep the music’s energy very similar, slowly bumping it up (like making a set from ascending BPM’s) when the maximum energy level that you want to reach is hit, don’t bring it down too much too fast. Otherwise, it’s all basic stuff, keep the volume of the new track low during the breakdown if it has a long intro (gold dust (flux remix)) . If it’s short, it probably has a really quick and abrupt drop (Woo Boost) if it’s average length (pro nails (rusko remix)) try to keep the frequency lower in the beginning of the intro and slowly increase up both the volume and frequency until the drop or pre drop breakdown. That’s pretty much my strategy. Consistency with volume, frequency and energy.
here (this is legit as far as i can tell, since it says HE gave them away):youdunknow.co.uk
right click download then click save as. otherwise it might not work. and it might take a while to start
im surprised i found that link since i got these in October or early November lol
WOW, didn’t expect this much help 
will buy 5 tracks off beatport and try tomorrow..
how come some dubstep songs are either 70bpm or 140bpm?
if someone could list 5 that are the same bpm ill be sure to grab them
They are 140. People just think they are 70 for some reason.
What kind of dubstep are you after? It’s a fairly diverse genre. To be honest you should be discovering and building your own collection dude.
Almost every dubstep track that I know is between 67.5 and 72.5 minimum bpm which is Halved, The only exception that I can think of is the Subfocus Remix of Hold on by Rusko which is either 180 or 170 BPM. After a little while you can tell what the bpm is, and you can also calculate it when you listen to the preview by counting the beats for 15 seconds and then multiplying the BP15seconds by 4 to get a minute. Otherwise, a 2.5 BPM difference isn’t going to kill you as long as you sync up the BPM. Mixing dubstep is probably one of my favorite things to do to waste time and practice. I hope your future mixing goes well, have fun!
tbh, you’ll have quite a hard time finding a dubstep track that’s more than about 2bpm away from 140, so no problems there!
It’s because the main drumbeat (ie the pattern of kicks and snares) is usually quite sparse and at half time (70bpm) while the bassline tends to drive a lot of dubstep songs at 140. Technically all are 140 (or thereabouts) although listening to the drums alone you might think otherwise.
This is just me, but personally I wouldn’t call anything at 170 odd bpm dubstep. It may have a wobble bassline, but in my eyes it’s still Drum & Bass.
everytime someone mentions dubstep, somewhere in the world 10 puppies always die…
What’s dubstep?
This might be the first time I ever took theory seriously in a thread. Lol.
Same here xD
Random:
