mixing and different genres
I’m interested in mobile djing and playing a mix of different genres: ska, punk, hip hop, rock etc
how would i tackle order of play and transitions. i will be using mp3 format.
This is an open-ended question. Best is to listen to various open-format DJ mixes to learn how they to all kinds of transitions, from quick A/B switches to all kinds of others.
yup. checkout eclectic djs like Z-Trip and Nu:Mark. Coldcut… guys like that.
don’t get hung up on what genre is what, just try to match the bpms and keys. your bpms are going to be all over the place so organize your setlist to have some kind of progression like low to high tempo or visaversa.
hip hop and rock are almost as easy to mix as dance music because there’ll be bits where the vocals are cut out and you’re left with just the beat. also their bpms are usually reasonable to work with.
looping is your best friend here. some subtle use of effects like delay or filter. trial and error here.
i don’t know about ska, but punk is a bit tougher. i find a lot of the punk songs the recordings aren’t of very high quality and the drums are all over the place with the tempo - so your options are limited to simple quick cut and switch style mixes, or you can do custom edits in ableton to make the track more blendable.
just try shit, be creative.
Depending on the recording, some might not be recorded with a click track so a blended mix is tough to do. If you still want to do it, use Ableton Live to make the track BPM accurate, that’s what mashup remixers usually use as well.
over time and by searching for music in all the genres, you’ll find some “transition tracks” which fit quite nicely two genres.
if i spin at a house party, i regularly go from electro swing to balkan → drum’n’bass → dubstep or e-swing → uk bass → dubstep and used to do e-swing → electro.
Oooooooooooor - don’t utterly gut the character of the song by warping it, and learn to ride the pitch
It’s fine, you will learn to live with it 
. Plus you could mix in all kinds of other samples at the same time instead of sitting and pitch riding…
where’s the ride the pitch button?
blending is only one way of transitioning, a lot of people, all they do is basically blend two tracks together for transitions. Think outside the blending box, there are many different ways of transitioning besides matching BPM’s and doing a subtle blend. Listen to other mixes and get some ideas of what fits your style
There’s always the ‘crank up a crazy effect, filter it out and start the new track’ one! Like beatmapper, reverb, dub-style delay and so on. Some say this is the cheating way to do transitions. Some say it’s artsy.
COLDCUT! love those guys and the crazy eclectic sets they manage to pull off. it blows my mind!
DJ Yoda is the master of this. Erol Alkan is pretty good as well some of his 6 mix’s are amazing.
Also this…
