Mixing Hip Hop songs.

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

Mixing Hip Hop songs.

so i have a gig on sunday and they want mostly hiphop/top 40 stuff and i feel like im either doing the hip hop slam, the endzone or roll out/brake echo effects to transitions. is this normal???

im not the best at beatmatching at the moment but im ok still learning with it but it feels like im repeating a lot lol

2

If you are already accepting gigs, you should have a fundamental understanding of mixing by now, no?

3

Different genre and hip hop is weird if you don’t normally play it

4

What’s a different genre?

5

this is true never thought about it like this!

6

well i like all kinds of music but i really never mixed hip hop and it seems to me all repetitive. but its really effective though i can see how other djs does it on the radio. quick and they cut to the chase! but the thing is that they sometimes only spend a min or so on a song unless its really hype which means i need a lot more music then what i got now.

7

Hip hop and R&B is all about beatmatching, or at the very basic level scratch and cut to the next track.

The real key to mixing hip-hop is knowledge in the genre, knowing the samples that were lifted, which then you go do a split off into the original song, or build loops out of the original and mesh together a new beat to cut over too.

Also not every transition between songs needs an effect. Smooth transitions with a quick drop off at the end can make the mix seamless.

8

im at the basic scratch and cut to the next track level lol. i dont do effects every song. i mix or do a set transtion for each song

9

So you accepted a gig where you know what kind of music they are expecting, and you don’t even have the music?

10

best thing is for you to start collecting 32 beat hip hop extensions. basically with hip hop your going to be mixing at the beginning of the chorus and killing the other track at the end of the chorus.

if your looking for extensions. try the remix services like ultimix.com xmix.com.

I usually extend my own music.

There is also alot of hip hop djs who are better at just cutting.

11

I’ve found that abrupt cuts to a significant “1” or downbeat of the next song work great. Watch your levels though … I find it best to pull the next song’s channel fader down a little below the current song and smoothly raise the channel’s level after the transition. Better to increase the volume then to scare the living crap out of everyone when the next song drops in LOUD AS HELL.

Also, you can get a nice “blend-type” echo transition effect by cue’ing up your song next to a “one” … crossfader in the center … Echo out of your current song on a “one” while simultaneously hitting play on your cue’ed up “next” song … The echo carries out for a while, as the next track takes off. Again, WATCH YOUR LEVELS! Sounds great, though … especially if you plan things out a abit and regard your harmonic content and phrasing of the songs while planning.

Best of luck.

Basic stuff … But those techniques allow me to jump around my entire library when people in the club start requesting songs that are all over the place.

12

i do but i just want more just in case lol

13

Learning to mix, building up a track collection, and learning your track collection aren’t really things you can take shortcuts on tbh. Sure, you can always download a metric sh!t-ton of music, but you probably haven’t exercised any degree of quality control on it. Also, you won’t know it, so you’ll have no idea when to deploy your limited arsenal of mixing techniques. So, I reckon you might be slightly farked. Stick with what you know or can comfortably learn between now and Sunday, and good luck.

14

I really hate DJ’s who play gig’s before they are really able to do it, BUT…

It’s even worse when a DJ practiced a lot but is still afraid to fail, eventually the unskilled person will learn a lot from his gigs and the other DJ wil keep practicing but isn’t playing gigs. So what’s worse?

15

Well it’s all about managing risk isn’t it? You can go too far either way of course. But generally, being prepared for stuff is a good thing. For DJing and beyond.

16

How many more gigs will the unskilled DJ actually get once people realize he’s a joke? Might be cool to play a gig now, but in the long run it will hurt him more.