Top DJs beat matching or slamming phrases together during sets?
I’m not sure if I am explaining myself correctly. I’ve only been DJing for about a year using two CDJ 2000 nexus and DJM 850 mixer. I’m am doing your traditional beat matching between two songs taking about 2-3 phrases in the process. However, when I listen to recent sets from some of the top DJs like Calvin Harris & Tiesto I notice the song transitions are different. Most of the time you don’t even hear the incoming track until the last minute. It’s almost like they are beat matching the two songs but not brining in the incoming song until the ending/start of the phrase they want and then they are slamming it in there. Its like they are slamming the two songs together but they are still beat matched so it works out…
How exactly are they doing this? What is the best way to transition from one song to another in the shortest amount of time but still blend well?..
You can listen to Calvin Harris’s most recent set at EDM Las Vegas and hear his song transitions at this link… A Farewell From inthemix: Thanks For All The Memories
The key is finding songs that work well together and are preferably in the same key.
They just use a shorter overlap, that’s all. The transition between track 1 and 2 in the Harris set was about 16 bars and he simply looped the vocal of under control to create a layer to fade out from. Kind of like the echo-freeze trick. Most of them use sync anyway because of the visuals of the video walls behind them. An exception is Armin van Buuren who still beatmatches and has no pre-planned sets that scene. The visuals are done using timecode cd’s that sync up the visuals. He is an increasingly rare exception though. EDM is all about show these days, which is fine in its own way, don’t get me wrong. But it sounds boring if you’re mor of a sound purist.
Wait, mix longer and more not less.
You think that’s long? Grab a random tech house set and you’ll see them a lot longer 
It all comes down to knowing the tracks and making them work together if possible. First they have to work together both in key and in rhythm. They don’t need to be the same, just workable together. If you know you have an intro of 16 bars you have to either use a track that has a 16 bar outro or make a 16 bar outro, like Calvin did. It depends on the style too. Hiphop for instance is not really mixable that well because there’s a lot going on in general and the rhythms are rarely simmilar.
Check out some of ellaskins’ videos on youtube, he talks a lot about this.
Z-Trip would like a word with you 
There is more than way to transition of course. Certain styles of music lend themselves more to one or the other, fast or slow. Dub Techno there is oodles of time and space to mix in the next track whilst Jungle petty much demands quick transitions. Overall, it’s a personal preference from track to track. I lean more towards long transitions, also EQ mix, every once in awhile I’ll drop a song within 4-8 bars though. I think in commercial EDM which is all about build-ups and drops there is a tendancy to do quick transitions, usually one song build up and another songs drop.
I never said it’s impossible, it’s simply a lot less common, a lot more difficult to sound proper and therefore mixes in general wil be pretty short.
All of that said mixing well (and long) is a sign of skill.
unfortunately in todays world a lot of djs rise to the top without amassing the technical ability you’d expect from someone making millions to “perform”.
The best performance DJs out there perform. DJ Bone always puts a smile on my face.
Couldn’t agree more. Except for the DJ Bone part, I have no idea who that is xD
check it out, seriously amazing dj shredding techno on three decks with incredible fader work:
Mixing well and mixing long aren’t always the same thing, though.
my guess is some of those tracks are clever edits
others are typical breakdown to build up, really how long do you need to mix to get that on time. 8 bars is plenty and you can slam it right after the break.
Try check out some videos of the guys you mentioned as you know what you are looking for.
Defo checkout DJ Bone, he is a DJ’s DJ no matter what style you play and a bloody decent bloke too. He has (or used to at least) a video of him playing in his home studio online. No sync, no Traktor/serato just 3 decks and a mixer.
haven’t you heard top DJ’s push play and fist punp for 6 hours trololol
You guys are all the same. What is the real way they are doing it.
