Maybe you guys should read Shiftee’s blog post on how he creates a mix tape.
Interesting, a hybrid method of making the mix tape from a DMC champion. Still not sure how I feel about that, it is the best of both worlds, real live transitions but then polishing it at the end.
Still very interesting.
if you’ve taken two months to do a mix don’t you feel as though you’ve lost the freshness to the tracks?
with the speed at which music is moving it would be hard to make a mix that is a couple of months old that is relevant…unless you are playing edits and promos of course…
Wait, wait. Does everyone use a studio and DAWs to make their demos/mixtapes ?
I think doing a studio mix is something that can be great. Hell, I grew up listening to Dieselboy’s CD’s. Which were/are studio mixes.
It’s something that has a time and place.
I think most of us focus more on live performance rather than just listening, and that’s the key difference. I can chill back driving or at home listening to a studio mix. But I can do that with a live mix, and I can enjoy seeing a live mix LIVE as well. So it’s different focuses.
I personally don’t have the patience it requires to do a truly grand studio mix. I like to switch things up too much, and I’m a bit of a perfectionist in the studio as far as production goes. I’ve started a few things, but I always get side-tracked by different projects.
Having just two turntables and a mixer helps keep me focused.
^^What he said.
I don’t want to hear a studio mix that sounds like it could be a live mix done by a really skilled DJ. I don’t think there’s any such thing as cheating in DJing unless you’re trying to pass off X as Y, so if you’re honest about your methods then fine, but studio mixes that sound like they could be done live aren’t really my thing. Unless you’re going to really push things with a studio mix and go beyond what could be done live, I would rather hear a warts and all live mix with a few mistakes or dodgy blends in it than one where all the mistakes have been edited out.
I like studio mixes that do things that aren’t possible to do live, so it’s like a mix of production and DJing. I love making multitracked mixtapes so that I can use multiple layers. In fact, I wrote a guide for this site about it: -
But ultimately, if you are DJing at home just for fun and as a hobby (as I am these days), then I think you should just do whatever makes you happy. Don’t get caught up in what other people think is “real DJing” or “the right way to do it”. If your goal is to get back out there and start gigging again one day, I would focus more on your live mixing skills.
If you’re limiting yourself to tracks that are new, you are, as a DJ, once again, failing. It’s not all about fresh/new tracks.
^^^And this.
I wasn’t trying to piss on anyone else’s ways of working, I’m just saying that I completely don’t get the concept of creating a mix that’s not live and doing it in a DAW. But thats just me.
I’ve got plenty of released mix albums that you can tell haven’t been done live and, for me, it kind of kills the listening experience and makes me think, oh they’ve just done it that way because it’s the only way they can create a ‘perfect’ mix for commercial release. I’ve always preferred listening to a live mix by someone like Andy C or Hype, than a studio mix by Dieselboy. But, again, that’s just me.
No it’s not just you.
But once again, I’m questioning you guys who are making studio mixes cause i’m curious. Not saying it’s better/worse than a standard DJ “live” mix.
But now that clarifies some things for me. I once heard a mix from TAI (from Dim Mak Records) and it was just mindblowing, and too perfect. I was like, omg, this guy is a god at DJing.
Now that i know more things about studio mixes (and i bet it was one), i know why it was that good.
What are you curious about? Why people do it?
I’m a hip-hop DJ, so I do “studio mixes” sometimes cos it lets me do things that are just impossible for one person to do live. Here’s an example: -
http://www.djsigma.co.uk/mp3/sample.mp3
After the bit where it says “well check this out”, the instrumental of Nas/Lauren Hill’s “If I Ruled The World” is playing.
Over the top of that there is transforming on Lauren Hill singing with some echo applied to it and fading baby scratches at a couple of points.
Over the top of that there is crab scratching on Lauren Hill singing “baby” that pans left to right the first time it happens, then right to left the second time.
There is also a sample of Nas saying “if I ruled the world and everything in it” with fading baby scratches at the end.
Then at the end of that section, there is some scratching which brings in an acapella of a track by Coolio and so it goes on.
It can’t be done live by one person as there’s 2-3 lots of scratching happening at the same time. You could argue that it’s a lot of effort for what amounts to 25 seconds of audio, but to me that’s partly what studio mixes are about - going that extra mile.
I think it’s weird, i can understand people doing studio mixes, but to me it’s more production than DJing.
But when you guys apply for a residency or something, do you send a live mix or a studio mix ?
Anyway, don’t think i’ll ever do some studio mixes, i prefer to spend my time on “real” djing, and trying to make my mix sound as good as it sounds when it’s a studio mix, even if this will never happen 
Man, finally able to go online. Sup, Sigma!
It’s using elements of both.
A live mix. If you’re giving someone a promo mix to try and get a job DJing live, you want to give them something that’s representative of how you’d actually sound if they gave you the residency.
How’s it going man? Another DJF refugee, haha.
Sigma, was that a live set + Ableton post-editing? That was a great transition.
All this talk makes me take a look at the history of the mix tape. Hell I used to do old school splicing oh so long ago, but is technology making this almost too easy in some cases. I could, for example, do 5-6 takes of some of my mixes and do some post-processing to make me sound better than I am right now (For the record here the mixes I have posted so far, all one-shot, nothing pre-staged, hell no sync: Mixcloud).
I’ve certainly started an interesting topic. 
considering my last mixtrain included a track from 1996…then point that finger at someone else…
don’t suck your own d!ck…
Thanks man. It was done with all vinyl, but with 1 turntable and a mixer and built up in layers in Adobe Audition.
I’m gonna check out some of your mixes later, cos looking at the track listings they should be right up my street.
This is what it all boils down to for me. That 25 second portion is a stand out point of the mix. Because of the effort that has been put into it. When the stand out parts of a mix are MADE by the DJ, it says a lot more about the DJ’s mentality and work ethic.
It’s not unusual to spend a minimum of 1hr work time for 1 minute of a studio mix. For me - that is an absolute minimum. (I’ve fiddled with 20 second transitions for hours on end! It’s frustrating - but has to be done!)
A 25 second transition in a live mix takes just 25 seconds. The way I look at it is (and this is specifically my own point of view!) - live mixes are like rough drawings/sketches. A studio mix takes these “draft” ideas and develops them into something amazing. I’ll “live mix” for hrs on end - I love it. It’s how I get a lot of the idea’s that are to be developing into elements of a studio mix.
In a live mix, the high points of the mix are USUALLY (and not always) specific breakdowns/build-ups in an existing track.
Yup. I’ll be checking those too…
See here for a GREAT studio mix:
That is an insane mix.