Ever since upgrading my speakers from regular “shit” speakers to monitor speakers, when having 2 tracks going on at once it sounds very busy like bass colliding and other nasty stuff. I started to play with the faders but dammit there are like 20 things happening at once and dunno where to start (what to kill, what to keep, what to turn up or down). Really getting the message about: “Those are sliders for a reason”. Obviously this is n00b stuff but after so long practicing on shit speakers and now hearing very clearly whats going on I feel like Im starting again in this DJ thing which is a good thing because if I get to play a larger venue than a house or bar the difference will be astronomical (or so I think).
So, questions is, how to keep volumes from sounding like that? Takes a lot of my head thinking about that new thing and takes away from messing with FX and whatnot. What to do, where to start, what do you recomend. Even a link to “EQ for Dummies” would help a lot.
A word to up and comming beginner DJ’s: Buy proper speakers. Like they are equally important to what sound card and what controller you use becasue it doesnt matter if your mixing is sounding spotless on those shit PC speakers, when playing in a larger venue it will sound shitty and getting on top of your game in that situation will be pretty hard.
Oh! And I added an Electribe to my setup since a mate lend it to me and it’s connected to the S4 converting the sampling to deck D to line in and also is giving me volume speakers.
Step 1…turn the tube gain of the electribe down. It doesn’t do anything but overdrive digital inputs.
Step 2…read up on leveling.
Step 3…practice.
(were you expecting profit?)
Oh yeah, and do yourself a favor and learn to mix without EQs or filters. They’re awesome when you have them…and I’m not going to be like one of those “your laptop might die” douche nozzles and say that you won’t always have them…because you will unless you choose not to. But they’re an effect like any other…they accomplish a very useful purpose…and they can be used to do awesome things…but if you don’t learn to mix without them, all you’re going to be doing is covering up bad mixing with effects.
+1 on the electribe tube gain. Ya the mixing is 80% there but in order for them to sound good I have to kill a few eq’s putting the faders 50% etc… all in all more stuff to do just to get the volume right and not making it sound like a jet plane with diarrhea. I’ll give it a go definetly.
Are you sure you’re mixing properly? What you describe sounds like sub-par mixing, not a volume level issue. Track transitions should be subtle, only unless you do something big and flashy on purpose. Describe your mixing process, how do you go from one track to another? Care to throw up a track so we can be more helpful?
ill be happy to help also, and i agree i first learned to mix with cdj’s and just doing clean mix’s with a bass change.. now even through i have a s4 when mixing prog i still love to do the simple mix’s
questions..
you do have the bass down on the track your trying to mix in?
Checked some recording of meself spinning and look like I might be mixing “doin it wrong”. Didnt thought about hearing an old prerecorded mix thru the monitors.
Nada: I’ll be definetly posting a simple mix here to pinpoint issues.
Accidental: I might have the bass down if the track has a very distinctive bass but, yeah, I kind of never mess with the bass…
photojojo: I’ll definetly take a good read at it, Thanks for the link!!
when would you ever be mixing but not have access to your eq’s?
if you’re actually planning on sounding proficient, eqing is a must.
in my opinion, what the op is describing sounds like what happens when you drop a new track but don’t make room for the new track. (as someone else here has mentioned) when two basslines are being played at the same time, like they’re battling each other. ya gotta drop the bass in the incoming track, and when you want track two to take over, you bring in the lows and cut the lows of the first track. that’s what the problem sounds like to me.
You’re used to mixing on a 3 band eq. When you get to a night you’ve never played before, they have a vestax mixer that has a 2 band eq. Or they give you a battle mixer with no eq. At that point, it’s all in your gains and levels.
I’m with mostapha on this. A mix should sound ok even without touching the EQs (i.e., with all EQs in neutral position). Sure, EQing can improve a mix. So can filters and other effects. But if you can’t mix without EQs, you can’t mix.
Alright, just spent like 7 hours mixing and can say that I kinda freaked out and I wasnt mixing well and blamed the speakers. Had a mate to come over and is not eother track selection or speakers or volume levels or whatever… It’s me not beign in groove, it’s the piece behind the deck that’s been out of shape. Which is a good thing since it’s fixable
That said, when me mate was mixing (nothing breakthrough but at least transitions were good and clean) the only knob he touched was Filter. To the left for “fake” beat drops and to the right for beatmatching. Sounded good but after a while you could kinda expect what was coming which sucks. Gains were used to accentuate fx for aforementioned drops but nothing mayor. Then we drinked a little and argued if Michelle Rodriguez was a butch in disguise.
Yeah I got the techpros which sound good but Im waiting to review since I dont know who might have comparable speakers (KRK’s, Studiophile, M1 Active’s. etc) to properly write a review. So far what I can tell is that while they do sound better (ie crisper) than similarly sized speakers (better than any PC speakers big or small), even bigger consumer grade speakers (home theather speakers), they are not that loud but again I rather have a more detailed sound than louder sound. I guess that for the price getting both speakers and the subwoofer you cant go wrong plus they look very good taking into consideration they are not a “brand” item. Compared to the speakers I used before (Creative PC speakers) the change was astronomically noticeable, from a Yugo to a Maserati.
