Someone please help with transitioning
I’m new to this and feel like I still don’t get how to transition properly into songs. If anyone is willing to explain basic ways to transition in EDM songs I’d appreciate it, or post a link to a helpful video/ article that could easily explain to a newbie.
Might I recommend subscribing to the DJTechTools YouTube channel? There is lots of good stuff to be learned there.
tl;dr, Most forms of dance music has phrases 16 or 32 bars long. There will usually be a lead in that is just the beat to help you sync up with the outgoing track, then there will be an intro phrase before the main body of the track starts. to begin with, time the lead out from the preceding track to end right when the intro of the next track finishes and the next phrase, with the main melody, begins. After that you can try more advanced transitions.
Just be careful not to transition into an extended silent break before the melody drops. I did that once by accident with “don’t you worry child” which has a hard, driving intro that cuts to silence for 4 bars without warning. I misread that looking at the waveform and had stopped the other track by then so had no beat to overlay to hand. Killed the crowd, I carried on and built the mood back up again, and rage-deleted the track from my set afterwards…
Steps.
In step 3 and 4, use volume fader (obviously) and EQ.
EQ, because you don’t want too much bass, mid, or highs playing at the same time. It’ll sound distorted if there is.
Record your set, listen to it, and improve/practice/change what you need to.
Also, it helps to listen to your favorite artists live sets, to see what’s happening during their transitions. When do he bring the songs in, and when does he fade out the other track.
Then move to more complex transitions.
Like everyone says, learn the phrasing of the song, if you can see the wave form in traktor or like program it’s super easy to see where something is added or taken away and then play with the EQs and find out what you need to take away so the 2 songs don’t fight for the same space then swap them as you like.
Yep, Check the DJTT blog/youtube for some great beginner tutorials. Don’t worry mate, we all sucked when we started, just keep at it and eventually you will get to my level i.e be fall over drunk and still manage to kinda mix 
“transition” that’s that short time between mixes where one record is playing rite?
Not sure if this is sarcasm 
It’s “that short time” while you’re going from one song to another. So 2 songs are playing at the same time.
Drop them like bombs
I actually spend more time in the mix than out of it
After a fair few years of being a member of this forum. i’ve seen So many questions raised regarding this enquiry. Wouldnt it be beneficial to have a separate section in the forum’s specifically for beginners? With a sticky with links to the predominant Youtube channels/video’s e.g Ellaskins (http://www.youtube.com/user/ellaskins) which a heck of a lot of beginners have found beneficial, what to buy and how much to spend, best ways to spend time practicing etc?
Just a thought.
im a bit confused ( and i know this will sound extremely noobish so try not to make fun) about the 16 or 32 bars. So do you guys set cuepoints for each song you have downloaded? Basically what I am understanding is to set up cue points 16 or 32 bars before the actual beat comes in on the song i want to transition to and I press play on that once the song i have playing is ending?
What I always thought would be a really cool idea would be to have people mix 2 songs in their style and upload it so beginners could see various ways people approach it.
track selection is very important. you obviously can’t mix things that have too much going on or that clash musically without annoying people. some tracks work as “dj tools” that tend to me more mixable, it’s always good to have some of these on hand.
the style of music you play will also have a big role in this. simple stripped down tracks with long loopy intros that don’t do much make for better mixing fodder then other types of music.
you can pull a lot out of the incoming track with the EQ. I’ve been in this game for a long time and I don’t think there is any given formula that needs to be stuck to, it’s more of a matter of knowing the tracks and getting things that fit together.
make it your own!
if your digital you can also edit the tracks to make more mix friendly sections.
Yes
Don’t over think it to much. Listen to a song and when it changes, that’s a point you can’t set as a cue. You start mixing your new song into that point before or after and if you manage to finish doing that within a phrase that would be considered fine. As the video show in the first example, you can even just drop the new song at that cue and stop the old one with no transition.
EDM tracks normally have 1 minute long intros, I usually put 3 cue points.
I normally use the 2nd cue. I beatmatch, make sure it sounds good, and after 20 seconds I start bringing it in slowly.
But at clubs I mostly use the 3rd cue point for faster transitions.
It really depends on the songs that are playing.
(Disclaimer: I’m a newb, so my comment should be taken with a grain of salt.)
I do harmonic mixing of Ghetto Funk. I set 6 markers for transitions, 3 in front and 3 at the back. I call them “Early, Mid and Late” in and out transitions.
The Late transition markers are usually during the first and last 8 bars where the songs tend to be the most relaxed and will almost always mix together (usually just a beat with maybe a little bit of light musical content). These are good for songs that don’t mix well together, or if I’m trying not to drive too much energy into the mix at the moment. When I hit the late out marker on the outgoing song, I start the next song at it’s late in marker.
The Mid out marker starts 8 bars before the end of the grime, and the mid in marker starts 8 bars before the start of the grime in the next song. If the two songs are harmonically compatible then I can use these when I’m trying to keep the energy high.
The early out and in markers are 8 bars before the mid markers, they are for songs that mix really nicely together. With these, I can keep the energy driving and also have a long mix of the two songs so that it’s hard to tell the exact point where I transition.
I tend to prefer to use a fast EQ transition when I reach the end of the section my 8 bar markers indicate, either the end of the beat outro if I’m going for late, or when the grime stops on the previous song and starts on the new one if using mid or early.
I still have a lot left to learn, but I tend to be very happy with these transitions most of the time. From there, I pay attention to the shape of the two songs and also practice a lot so that I have a good feeling for where there are exceptions in the songs I play. I’ve gotten to where I can usually tell when the energy is about to spike or drop out by ear, which is good, but I still prefer to have the markers because when I’m playing live, I find I am more distracted than I am when I practice in my bedroom and they help me to not lose my place as easily.