Following on from this recent post about Mixing techniques, I thought it might be a good idea to get some members input. Here’s my two cents, please add your own here also:
With most house and techno, advanced mixing means blending the two tracks together over a period of time to make one track naturally progress between each other while sounding good. The music needs a natural progression – I try to make my mixes last 30 seconds at the very least, but usually 1 minute, and maybe 2 if they blend well. “Layering” your tracks is what is important.
For example, I often like to bring the new track in so its like a new part of the song, keeping the bass low but letting the treble and mid slowly come in to eventually dominate the mix. Ideally you want the two tracks to be able to play at the same time and still sound great. Fine tuning of EQ’s can help this. Then you can gently play with the mid and treble to have the new track dominating the mix. I also like to cut the base from the first track and then bring in the base from the new track in succession which changes the rhythm. I usually take the fader from the first track down a bit at this stage and then gently fade it out.
Usually bringing in a new track is the easy part, its getting the old track out while still sounding good, without it sounding like its ‘hanging around’ is the hard part
hrm… well, depending on the style I’m mixing, I usually lay out my tracks with 32-48 bars of breathing room. Most if not all of my mixing now a days seems to be done with the eq knobs, filters, and up faders. Xfader chills in the middle usually…
On non harmonic mixes, the bass is usually the only thing I make a quick change with (flip kicks over), and then I usually eq out/in mids and highs.
hahaha. oh yeah man, I hear ya. I usually just wait till that blinky light in traktor comes on. Then my brain yells at me “If the dj has not queued the next track, he or she is fucked”
Yeah, I was being sarcastic. Usually I’m pretty quick to load up the next track. As soon as the song stops, I’m loading the next one up and listening to it in the monitor.
yeah. I usually get a pretty good Idea of what I’m gonna do before hand, then I’ll lay down 2 cues for entry points. One for like a traditional mix, and another for a layering mix. Then when I’m playing, I decide which one I want to go with on the fly, based on the crowd/how I’m feeling about the song.
Why the hostility? I don’t see anything wrong with it. Mixing is very important and there are a million ways to do it, some better than others. It’s also something that most DJ’s welcome the chance to learn more and get better at it. So discussing it is a good idea. Yes its kinda hard to articulate it on a forum but its doable. I’ve seen several threads like this in the past and picked up a few tips from them.
The Tease-
Bring in a key part of the main harmony of an upcoming song; isolate it, then go back to the previous track as if to telegraph the upcoming madness. Usually works real well with anthems. This creates tention and reinforces the energy switch when the teased track comes in.
Bassline Switches-
Probably one of my favorite things to do. As you have two tracks layered and running together, play around with switching the basslines. The track with the dominant bassline will become the song in the foreground and this is a great way to remix the incoming track.
Tempo Switch
As the major phrase of the dominant track is getting ready to hit a breakdown, start cueing up the next track. Say the first track is dnb @ 176 and the next track is dubstep @ 140 (@ half resolution ~70), the two tracks will obviously not beatmatch, so you essentially just need to do it. Drop it in on the major phrase of the 2nd song at the begining of the 1st songs breakdown, switch over to the 2nd song balls out either by fader, cross fader, or by breakstop and the dubstep song will act as a “breakdown” to the major phrase that was just played. Take into consideration tonal quality of both tracks as they should be similar. Ideally, the 2nd track can act as a key change to reinforce the “breakdown”
Customary, WTF is that… Unless im missing something i thought it was Metric and Imperial. Or have you guys changed the terminology from imperial to customary the same as French frize became fredom frize.
And as far as any argument is concerned, well there is none to be had…
Bang to stones together to make a fire or use a liter, its your choice..
However, the piece of string i would guess is 22 leagues long.
I like this one. I do it all the time. A lot of time i dont actually play the teaser track next. People are expecting the teaser track as the next track.
I then chuck in a curve ball next. If the tune is a big un the crowd love it but are still hungry for that teaser track.
Then after the second track you drop the teaser track and peeps just know you have messed with them but they love it (if all the tracks are winners).
Have a bit of fun. Your crowd will have fun with it.
Just dont take the piss. I did it for too long once, teasing with a track a few times and some girl shouted “JUST FUCKING PLAY IT” hahaha women eh !
