Where does a beginner go to learn mixing?

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
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1

Where does a beginner go to learn mixing?

I am really interested in learning to mix music live. I bought a used Vestax VCI 100 with 1.3 firmware on it (it came with the chip to upgrade to 1.4 which i plan to try soon, but my one concern is that the DJTT video for upgrading firmware says to use serial to serial instead of usb to serial and i cant find a serial to serial cable…). I grabbed a copy of traktor 2.5 and picked up an NI audio 2 DJ soundcard.

I can set everything up fine (with my monitors seperate from my speakers) but i COMPLETELY SUCK at mixing tracks together. I know its a skill that takes time to learn but i didn’t realize I would be this terrible. In my head i hear all these great transitions and drops between songs, but when i attempt them i just cant get the songs to sound good together. I feel like there is a limited range of songs that can transition to/from and i am attempting to transition with “incompatible” songs.

For example, i really like the two songs “Make Some Noise” by Chukie and “Shave It Up” by Zedd. Or “Zipper” By Sound of Stereo and “Space Junk” by Wolfang Gartner. But anything i do to try and mix those songs together just sounds terrible…

So basically i am just wondering how did you guys learn to do mixing live? I am a complete noob.\

P.S. what mapping should i use with my vci-100? Is the latest (4.1) the best to use with traktor 2.5?

2

try clicking here if not go to youtube. ask a dj to teach you. read, practice. practice before a small crowd or in small parties. im sure you will be able to mix well if you give it time and dedication.

3

For vestax and traktor you need to goto there site and download the latest drivers and firmware upgrades.

Then hop online and take a look at the youtube channel “ellaskins” Hes probably got the best assortment of beginner mixing techniques from just talking about beatmatching and basic mixing, to showing you in depth howto’s.

4

i’m just gonna repeat the old ‘practice, practice, practice’ cliche

5

Theres a guy on youtube called ellaskins he pretty much covers all aspects of DJing,

Look him up i would highly recomend him

6

This is quite true, I learned a lot from him when I was starting.

7

YouTube “ellaskins” if you do not know any other DJ’s in your town.

Practice makes perfect. Don’t take gigs outside of your genre. You’ll regret it.

Cheers and welcome! :slight_smile:

8

+2 for ellaskins. His videos make great tutorials. Practice, practice, practice. I find that 15-20 minutes, twice a day is the easiest way for me to get the time in. With GOOD practice time, you’ll be amazed how far you can come in 20 hours of actual practice time.

9

im also pretty much looking for the same thing.

just purchased a Traktor s4 and want to crack on learning.

with the videos an stuff on youtube though im abit confused on what i want to be watching trying to learn first ect… as there are hundreds of video’s on all kind of things.

any help in pointing me in the right direction would be loverly

10

^^^

all pointed out if you just read the above posts. :stuck_out_tongue:!

11

This is more of a conceptual guide than a practical one, but it’s very in-depth and you may find it useful.

How To Become a DJ (The Ultimate Guide)

And yes, ellaskins is fantastic!

12

Double-double-double up on Ella. That guys words will stick into your mind as well.