I’m sure someone has thought of this before, but has it ever occurred to anyone else that it might be helpful, before you actually record a mix, to put your potential tunes into a playlist in the order they will be mixed and give it a listening to? That way you can hear how the songs flow, rather than concentrating on how the tracks will transition (as I tend to do).
This way, you can easily reorganize tracks into a different order, and hear how it changes the overall flow and mood of the mix.
(Plus then you can just open up your playlist in whatever software you use and all your songs are already there, pre-sorted, in order, and ready to go).
Anyway, maybe this is an obvious suggestion that never occurred to me before, but I just thought of this about 20 minutes ago and I thought I would share…
I agree, it`s a good idea - I tend to leave tracks that I consider for mixing in a winamp playlist for a couple of days and just passively listen to them whenever I work at home, do dishes, whatever, it also helps to memorize possible transition points in the tracks
hmm… I’ll have to try that. I remember doing that when I used vinyl (having the order of tracks ready), but when I switched to digital, I think I got carried away with how quickly I could load, cue, sample, then discard if I didn’t like it.
However, something I’m noticing now (which is becoming a bad habit) is that I’ll start recordign a mix when I take a song I like and mix it well into another. I’ll think, “BOOM! I’m on a roll lets get that recorded.” And the recording will continue after that and as long as the mood suits me. This usually leads me to having a great first 5 or 6 songs and then things sort of plummet from there.
I will have to try this though. It sounds so easy, so organized. I’m sure it would make things work more smoothly. Of course, if I was adept at keymatching WITH an already organized crate, there would be magic going on.
Def dude. Thats what i did for my last gig. It was also the first time using the VCI and Traktor out. Mixed in key…proper flow. Left me with loads of time to dance…do fx…tricks. That was Psy tho. Something i know real well. I do as you do when i mix electro and stuff. Haha
If I felt like I was on a roll the night before, I just grab my played history -in archive- and fix the tracks that didn’t really flow, making sure the keys are compatible, etc. But I find that the first take somehow always has more energy, tension, whatever, than the thought out ones. Sometimes a f**kup is a good thing, too clean is just booooring…
Anyway I always record my sets, practices. It’s so easy, just hit record, if ya don’t like it, delete it. But usually there’s something I want to repeat…
Ummm didn’t realise about the “archive” folder! Massive discovery. feel like a bit of a noob suddenly??? :eek: what else don’t i know about traktor… a hell of a lot i wager!
I was being a proper noob so had a search on NI forum on how to do this.
The answer was… “the real history folder (now called archive) is now easily found below the explorer node. there are all your history playlist.”
MASSIVE!
Just been playing through my NYE set and there was drunken gold!
using this is a really helpful tool. ive been doing a very similar thing for about 4 years. it came from sorting vinyl. i always do this. remember, when recording a mix you must think of the mix as a hold. sometimes that means that the first few tracks cant be bangers, but they must spark interest. you have 1 track really to get the listener to listen to the entire thing… so keep an eye on that for your first track choice.
