My friend came over to help me out with my PA system and we started messing around DJ. He hops on my Mixtrack Pro and starts playing. He’s scratching and using effects and stuff. He sounded totally different from how I played when I hopped on. I was beatmatching and just blending into drops, no effects no nothing I was basically standing around. Granted he said he doesn’t like to beatmatch and will just throw down like a 2 beat loop and go into the next song.
Granted, I’ve only started DJing like 4 months ago
Don’t stress. Your still in your early days. it’ll come. Everyone develops their own style. Evan when your happy you will still get the odd off day. i tried to lay down a mix on sat and was just not feeling it, whatever i tried.
I’m not sure what you want us to say to this mate - people mix differently and it’s not a ‘contest’ to how crazy or wild people can mix - if that was the case only DMC Champions would matter.
It is about enjoying yourself, playing around with audio, putting your own spin on things - and most importantly; forever learning new things and pushing yourself forward.
Good luck, and don’t worry about what others are doing; focus on yours.
For me, mixing was never about effects or scratching, I am at it for 4 months aswell, and apart from the odd echo I don’t really use much. For me I like letting the track speak for itself, and what really matters is which tracks you choose to mix AND how you combine them.
Probably not the answer you want to hear, but like the rest have said, it takes time. I’m by no means a professional, I’ve been playing around with this stuff since the mid-90s rave scene. Over the years I’ve gone from rave trance/techno to house, to club, back to trance, back to club etc. About a year ago i was in the same spot, my mixing felt that it was boring, i was focusing more on long 2 minute transitions with trance stuff, track selection was really important to keep the transition between tracks subtle and that they blend well together. For me my mixes were boring because I didn’t really know my tools very well and I couldn’t get very creative. Once I picked up Traktor Kontrol S4 and scratch pro all of a sudden I had a lot more tools at my disposal. It wasn’t until I really read the manual, watched videos etc before I started having some more fun with the setup. I really like dropping acapellas, or playing around with samples and some of the standard effects (repeats, flanger etc) while beat matching (no cuts) and I couldn’t do that without the right gear.
So my point is, learn your equipment, learn how to loop on the fly, figure out your sample deck, pick 20 of your favorite tracks and develop your own style. Hope that helps.
dude don’t worry about your mixing! like everyone’s already said, it takes time to perfect your style, and the most important thing putting mixing, scratching, software etc aside is your track selection.
i’ve been djing outside my bedroom now for 3-4 years, and back when i started i used to get really anxious about using loads of effects and making really complex mappings.. but recently i’ve gone back to djing vinyl and getting a real buzz out of going record shopping and thinking a lot more about the music i’m playing.
your skills will become second nature at some point in the not so distant future; you’ll probably get bored of the music you’re listening to and playing right now, your tastes will develop and you’ll discover new stuff to do.. that’s what it’s all about! give it time to find your style and before you know it (if you’ve approached the whole thing in the right way) you’ll be rinsing it
You know, I hear what you’re saying and feel the same way to a degree. But I’ve noticed leaps and bounds differences from where I first started, as I’m sure you have too. Just the sheer speed I’m able to correct a track when it’s off time for example.
Figure out what you want to be pushing the envelope with. Maybe a little speed mixing, working on scratching, starting to play around with FX a bit more. Change it up a bit too and trying moving through multiple genre’s. These are all things that are on my table.
ya instead of just listening to music just run traktor and play through that even if your just transitioning between songs its all practice and makes you more comfortable. keeping your music collection up is huge too. if your not motivated by the music than it will show in your mixing.
I feel right now that my mixing is boring too. I do these 2.5-3 min blends on trance and hard house tracks and they are incredibly boring to do once I think reflect about it seriously.
However I have been told numerous times by crowds and people listening to my promo cds and guest radio mixes that they really dig that. And so despite the boredom I continue to do it as long as I receive positive feedback.
I tried to diverge a bit and test some various tricks on the usual music I play and I really didn’t get anywhere.
As mentioned before in this thread, I came to realise that I didn’t have the right tools. I was doing everything in the X1 and while it is a great controller for DVS in transport controls and FX controls the buttons are crap for samples and hotcues.
I got a twitch, mainly for the portability but also for the chance to have some proper controllerist tools at my disposal, namely the performance modes and the fader fx.
I then still didn’t find my mixing to be more creative and expressive. I went and got some tracks from a different genre (I downloaded dubstep of all things). I then watched a few youtube vids and started messing around with the tools. With the new genre I was try to do some new things and make it sound good.
So not only did I need new tools, I needed to explore new music, because I realised that the music I am used to playing I already had a winning formula and changing it at the moment was not the thing to do.
Start simple, work channel faders to manually gater effect in new clips, or manually gater effect out different beat patterns right before or after drops. Start listening to the music you play over and over and over until you start to pinpoint the most exciting or awesome parts. Utilize those notes into crafting preconceived moments. DJing is about many things, it’s up to you to figure out what you want out of it. Go check out other DJs live too.
When topics like this pop up (which happens quite frequently on here) I always wonder: what’s this obsession with being “special” about? Is it a question of self esteem or maybe an age thing? Just try to do well what you do. And do things for a reason, not just because they are different or “special”. Your very own style will develop over time anyways
Not true - style will not just develop because time passes, that’s just naive. These topics pop up for a multitude of reasons, I’m sure many are vain but I’m sure many are not.
try mixing a new genre than you normally do that always helps me. also you might wanna try using your effects in ways/places that you havent before or even try DJing with your friend at the same time, great things can come out of a 2 man group
Your mixing doesn’t need to be special, your songs do. If you find yourself getting bored so easily maybe you need to spend some more time finding better songs.
It comes up time and time again here but the best answer is always; play what you enjoy in a way you enjoy.
Sometimes i’ll pull off a really technical long mix, layering one shots loops and accapellas etc. that sounds awesome to me, when i play the mix back to my gf or mates they can be like “eh…” about it, then the very next transition could just be a quick slam or completely shit and they’ll be like “Wow that was wicked!”
No sense in bothering how other people view your skills, people don’t know shit. As long as you don’t kill the vibe with horses galloping everywhere or nasty keyclashes etx.
