School me on making a studio mix…
Ok guys, so my background has been producing and engineering up until I picked up Traktor Pro and my VCI-100 a while back. Here’s the question:
How are DJ’s making these polished mixes with DAW’s? I’ve done mixes in Traktor, but they rarely end up perfect. For promotion, I’d like a polished mix that’s more or less flawless.
I have mad DAW skills, I’m just not sure how it’s done. Any insight?
If you’re going to do a promo mix to send out to clubs or promoters, i’d make sure it’s a live mix if i were you… Because if you use a studio mix, it’s not a true representation of your skills as a live DJ.
+1
This is the reason I don’t have a demo yet 
^^^Good advice. I’ll definitely hand out live mixes to promoters etc, but what about for people to listen to on their iPods and dj mix forums?
Not sure if you guys have checked out Beezo.net, but most of the mixes there sound like studio mixes. I could be wrong… these guys could just have mad skill- but I doubt it. They sound too perfect.
Here’s another DJTT thead on Studio Mixes vs Live Mixes:
In my opinion there is absolutely no advantage in making studio mixes. Ok maybe they are nice to listen to, but as mentioned it doesn’t give anything away about your skills as a DJ. Live mixes, especially in sick breaks where you can actually hear how the DJ is playing with the tracks give me much more satisfaction than listening to a studio mix. And at home when you can concentrate just on your set you’re not as likely to make little timing mistakes as when you are in the club with people all over the place and other things distracting you. When I’m fully focussed I think I can achieve the same results as a studio mix, at least as enjoyable for the listener. Have a look at transitions in my sets here: http://www.play.fm/artist/sanderbongertman they are all live recordings.
I make two types of cds, LIVE and MixCDs, the live ones, i give to club owners and promoters and the mixcds i give to my peeps
Studio mixes are a lie. If you feel you really need to do it though just do 15 minutes mixes and then cut and paste them together in audacity. Can’t offer much help in doing it in a DAW though.
The only time I use a daw with a mix of mine is for “mastering”. Also if it was a recording from a live set where another DJ mixes into my set or I mix out of theirs, I will cut on the last portion of my last track prior to the next DJ mixing in or vice versa if I mixed into their set. Make sense?
Just use right tool for the right job
Dont know if your using abelton but this process of making daw mixes is streamlined by recording all audio and automation from the mixer(midi controller) and later can all be edited after the mix to tighten things up.
Before that i would use 2tracks in Acid to record a song from the turntable, then set the bpm of the Acid project to the speed of the song.Then play back the recording in acid and set up my next song on the turntable and match the bpm to the recorded song in Acid. Once I got the bpm record the next song into the daw and drag it to the mix point I want . Repeat for all songs in mix. This is a very simplistic explanation but works quite well. Acid also had warping and stuff too but this was a quick way to get a mix going in a daw. All in all it seems like cheating but I think in the end its more work.
Sounds a bit long winded… Could just wait for The Bridge to be released?
Believe you me Im beta testing the Bridge as we speak, but with all that it promises, it still pretty buggy at the moment. In the end making a Dj mix in a daw is a bit of work and its not as easy as you may think. Perfection takes
time, on Tables or DAWS you have to “put in work”
I feel it’s much more rewarding perfecting a mix on decks/tables though.
http://www.inthemix.com.au/videos/40612/Goodwill_Tips_Tricks_for_The_Annual_2009
check out that link for one of the Aussie Ministry Of Sound DJ’s talking about the process
What does DAW mean?
Digital Audio Workstation
Another word for controllers? =)
No a DAW is an audio software package like Ableton, Logic, Reason, Cubase, Pro Tools etc.
Just do it in Ableton Live!
Its DEAD easy!
Just drag your playlist trax into Ableton and warp them to the Master BPM.
Then…starting at the top…start dragging them so they overlap like you would mix normally. Then zoom in like a mofo and get the alligned at the beats. I can get it VERY tight like this.
Then put an EQ 3 or whatever on each track. Then automate the bass cut and bass boost of the old and new track.
Repeat until done.
Ableton also gives the mix a KILLLLER sound. It always sounds awesome for me.
If i want to make a really good demo…i used to do this.
I don’t know what your setup is but I started doing it with Ableton-as-a-multitrack-recoding device recently.
I basically do a normal set with traktor but record in Ableton through my mixer out and sends. I send the xone record out on one track, The send 1 has deck A and C, the send 2 has deck B and D. Each gets an individual track, that way if there’s transition screwups or whatever I can fix or overwrite them.
Of course this doesn’t give you total control, it just lets you fix those small screwups that ruin an otherwise great set…
Also I output the final result through a mastering plugin (ozone) to give it that final polish, add some fade ins and out and voila!