What happened?

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

What happened?

Let me start by saying I very rarely freestyle (mix without any planning), I spend most of my time ‘planning’ sets (which is stupid, I know).
I decided yesterday to just try and freestyle from a playlist I’ve made (electro house, house, trance) and I mixed for around 30 minutes with NO hiccups at all, and the mix was amazing, all the songs went together well, unfortunately I didn’t record it…
Anyway, today I’ve added more songs to the playlist, gridded everything and set cue points, I’ve been on traktor for 2/3 hours now and no matter what I do I can’t get 2 tracks sounding good together, what happened?!?!
One thing that really p*sses me off is when you have songs that don’t have the conventional ‘blocks’ which makes it impossible to mix with them unless you know how long the ‘blocks’ are compared to the ‘blocks’ in the other song beforehand, this isn’t my main problem but it just adds to it if I choose a song that’s like this.

I was really happy with myself yesterday as I was able to freestyle very well, with 3 decks, vocals layered etcetc now today I can’t put 2 + 2 together, and this is why I have only been ‘planning’ my sets before now, it takes me so long to find songs that fit well together.

Any advice would be appreciated, I’m just extremely frustrated at the moment.

Thanks

2

You were in the zone. Keep practicing and you stay in the zone longer each time.

3

Hmm… it was weird because the tracks I picked yesterday seemed like they were made for eachother and now today I start off with 2 tracks and mess it up in the first few minutes :rage:
I’m too frustrated to carry on trying now, I’ll get back to it tomorrow.

4

Pretty much this. Plus everyone has off days where everything we do we think sounds awful. Just hit record and keep trying, maybe listen to the results tomorrow and you might find that they do actually work? Getting input from some friends who aren’t afraid to be (brutally) honest would be a good idea too.

5

Maybe they really didn’t go together as well as you thought, but since you were having so much fun it didn’t matter. Plus you may have not been as critical of yourself if you were free styling.

6

Do you know what I mean when I said about some songs not having ‘normal blocks’?

7

i find this happends all the time its to do with emotions… when I play bass that happends if im in a bad mood im convinced guitar is out of tune, song is bad quality to play along to etc… but its to do with emotions going on in our head… because we might be trying to hard are brain doesnt register what its hearing properly, can almost garuntee that your mix would probly sound perfect to other people, songs not going together proper is down to song knowledge though, drop some cue point in songs that dont fit perfect and youll see it merge nicer :slight_smile: hope this helps

8

Mixing at the club at mixing at home are two totally different things. There is a time and place for every type of song. Basically it sounded great at the club because of things like the right energy level and such.

9

It wasn’t in the club, it was at home. I didn’t feel particularly energetic or anything, I just opened traktor and tried to mix without planning and it worked

10

Nothing wrong with planning the odd set, but yeah - keep winging it more…it`s good for ya.

11

Yes, they are called phrases.

Make sure you always drop your incoming tunes at a phrase change in the out going tune.

For me it works almost all of the time.

You can remedy that by looping where necessary

12

I never* try to mix the same tunes over in the same sequence with the same drops. It’s like that drunk fling you met the other night…reproduction is something you may wish to avoid.

*uses term way too loosely.

13

It just sounds like you are trying too hard…

Just relax, have a beer, get some friends round, hit record but then forget you are recording and just jam..

Whenever I get my serious head on and concentrate too much, I fuck it up.

Regarding the ‘blocks’ as you call them, on some tracks I put a cue-marker where the vocal or whatever starts..

14

I think I try to hard trying to have 2/3 tracks playing all the time, this is why I take ages to plan mixes, but the freestyle I did the other day was 3 deck and everything was perfect. I guess I just need to practice more and more.

15

I could be that you chose tracks that were in key…by accident…

and thats why they sounded so sweet. then the next day…they not in key (due to playing em in another order) and they clash…

16

i did that a while ago and the result was blinding, but tried again the other day and obviously didnt get it going very well, its all down to being in the zone like photojojo said and really knowing your tunes. I think planning sets makes things more organised maybe but it makes you nitpick and hurts your creativity if you do it too often. I’d recommend getting with some mates and mixing on two-3 laptops thru a mixer its the best thing in the world :wink: especially for the whole freestyle thing

17

You can’t read a crowd with a pre planned set… I only pre plan a set if I know that the energy will be up when I am playing and I know what to expect. Or if I am trying to make a good impression as an opener for a big name or at a new club.

I Usually have 2-3 songs that mesh together well and then just mix and match between others reading the crowd as I go along.

18

Does everyone here ‘play it easy’ and just use 2 decks and ‘fade’ one into another? I think I’m struggling because I’m setting my standards really high by trying to do so many things at once. I hardly ever have any time to use FX.

19

ahh no mix it up but dont over do it… practise make perfect and subtle effects are better then like a mashup of loads of effects…

20

Rub one out, have a beer, and chill…