Ways to spice up House mixes?
Hey guys,
I feel like I’ve hit a bit of a wall. I’m having trouble thinking of creative ways of spicing up my electro mixes. Of course there’s always FX, but what are you guys doing to make your mixes more original?
Happy Saturday! 
Throw a few samples in here and there? Learn how to scratch?
^^I have been using samples which is dope, as far as scratching, I’m using a VCI-100 currently so no scratching capabilities really lol
Samples, gently cue juggling. Not sure about scratching in house music.
That’s what I was thinking too
Layers of older house classic accapellas over newer tribally tracks. I’m currently staying away from electrohouse though, it’s feelin kinda played out to me.
change up your transitions. I think to make some good mixes, it’s not so much about your ability to blend tracks, and its def. not being able to use 1000 effects. I think it’s about proper track selection. Carefully pick your tracks that you do different transitions with. Maybe start a track from a breakdown when the play track also starts it’s breakdown and loop it so that original track keeps “sounding” in the background. Drop an accapella during a transition and time it so that it ends right at the drop of the incoming track. A little planning with the right tracks I think makes a world of difference.
I’ve been mixing in hip hop acapellas lately, not full verses though. Mostly just 4-8 count loops of something catchy.
amen to that. Now i gotta build up the other genres of house cause if have nothing left to mix. lol
Could also try mixing in some more off-the-wall songs and acapellas for accents. “I like big butts,” songs with sexual lyrics, some Rick Astley… If nothing else, listen to some other electro mixes, particularly from DJs you know and like and you may get inspiration from there. You could also experiment with letting things fall in and out of phase, drifting, to add some syncopation - Richie Hawtin does some of this, though he works more with minimal and this would be harder with electro. You could also mess around with cue points to vary the song and do live remix type of stuff.
If nothing else, just try messing around doing random things while you practice. You never know when you’ll stumble onto something that’ll work for you.
I generally try to do the following:
-3rd deck to mix in a beat or something other than the next track coming in
-Mix over breaks
-Loop the ends to make really long mixes
Would like to get better at effects but my current schedule allows me to make sweet love to my mixer like 2 times a week, so I usually just play my latest tracks (and sometimes never touch them again. 
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The best thing you can do IMO would be studio edits/mashups/etc, as fancy Hawtin-eqsue layering is typically a trainwreck with electro.
For me, it’s on occasion, loops of the playing/incoming tracks in decks 3/4 (in addition to loops and beatjumps to re-edit what’s playing). Maybe a small bit of vocal, a snare/clap/cymbal or just a 4/8/16 loop of the basic groove (usually implies serious EQing/filtering).
Tends to happen as the groove gets more functional/tooly/technoid so I’m not doing that layering on the deep house mixtrains 
Great ideas guys, I’ll likely try all the above in my next mix session. I’ve got TPro 2 so I’ll be using the sample decks. I think i’ll just try and get more creative and take more risks in my practice sessions. Never hurts to F up if nobody’s listening right? lol
Is this serious, or are you trolling?
well i scratch when playing house music! i look for a party that is not that dominant, turn on delay on 100% and scratch it from time to time. sometimes i add a bit of mullholland drive fx…et voila house music and scratching
I whore the shit out of high/low pass filters to bring tracks in, and take tracks out.
Looprolls are fun, especially through a longer buildup that needs some spice.
Mainly, I’d focus on the tracks you play. Ideally, you should “feel” all of the tracks in your mix, and have a sense of where they fit in the full context of your mix. This typically means more preparation, but at the very least it will make your mixes a little more personally fulfilling.
I don’t really hear that many guys adding effects, but scratching is awesome over house. Bad Boy Bill anyone? Not the best DJ, but one of the best at what he does.
Yes I’m serious, just not my thing.
Yeah I don’t really scratch with house either, I would say that an easy majority of house DJs don’t.