Mixing advice for Beginner DJ's

Zascar

Quite a few newbie DJ's around so I thought it might be a good idea to have a thread where the more experienced members can share their expertise with beginner DJ's

Here is some of the advice I would like to offer - please guys share yours too. Even if you are only recently mixing let us know what you have learnt or good advice that you have been given.

--

Beatmatching: Some may argue but I think its is critically important. It's such a shame for a DJ to be playing great tunes only to have it sound like a heard of stampeding elephants every 5 minutes. Practice! Practice! Practice! Seriously practise beatmatching for no other reason that beatmatching. Be fanatical. Start with some basic tunes - tech house, minimal etc - you do not want too much melody to confuse you at the start.

DO NOT bring a new track into the mix until you are sure they are correctly beatmatched - you need to concentrate on the mix itself and not have to worry about keeping the beats aligned. Be Patient. The two tracks should be able to play for at least 20 seconds without going out of sync - that way you know it will only need a little nudge at the most during the mix.

If it is going out and you are not sure which one, hit cue, bring it back to the beginning and start again. Only change the pitch of the new song, not the one already playing (unless a big change of pitch is needed - but try to avoid this generally). After practice you'll know how much of a nudge to give it depending on how long it takes for the beats to go out. If using CDJ's do not 'spin' the platter. Very gently and slowly slide it around.

Mixing: Start off by trying to do really slow blend mixes. Picking tunes that will mix well is half of it. The best DJ in the world cannot mix two totally different tracks. Look into "Harmonic Mixing" - just to get an idea of why some mixes sound great and natural, and others sound horrible. Don't rush it. You can have two tracks overlapping for 2-3 minutes sometimes. Try to be smooth and start by just getting the tracks to fade together nicely. Ideally it should not be obvious to the listener when one track ends and the other begins etc. When you get better you can work towards 'layering' your tracks. When you get more experienced you can then 'bang them in' - however don't fcuk about too much until you know what you are doing - crap dj's always seem to play with effects, chopping, looping etc and it just sounds sh!t unless you are competent. Stick to mastering the basics until you go any further.

Music: Obviously track selection is the most important thing overall for DJ's. You really need to know your music well. Know when the breakdowns are coming and how long into a track the beat kicks in. Ideally you want the beat kicking in when the current track starts to fade down. But do not leave it too late otherwise you kind of loose the energy. Spend as much time as possible listening to other DJ's - real live sets not CD's which are studio made. Study their mixing and even try to replicate it as practice.

Spend time categorising your music. When mixing or practising, don't just play any track - a DJ set is like a musical journey - so think about where the next track you want to play is going to take that listener on that journey. Plan ahead. You might want to start off relaxed and funky, get get a bit deeper and darker, slowly getting more chunky and thumping. But don't jump around too much. Think about what type of tracks suit the start, middle and end of the mix. Try not to vary your music style too much tune to tune.

Watch video's on youtube and watch people's different styles. There is no one right way, everyone is different and every mix is different. Pay attention to how much treble the two tracks have. If the one playing has loads of 'high hats' going on, but the new track has none, you'll need to bring them down so it sounds natural, and not hanging around when it's down to 20% volume. Try 'swaping basslines' - cut one out and bring the new one in at the same time.

Don't be afraid to stand by the DJ booth for half the night and just watch - you can learn a lot. If you know anyone who's been mixing a while ask them to watch you mix and give you tips. Don't be afraid to ask for help.

I'm nackered so I'll stop there but I'll try to write some more later. IN the meantime please post yours too and make this a good thread we can refer newbies to form now on.

jonny68

Good call mate...

One thing i will say is..and not nearly enough people do this but i always have and always will, mix and blend,sticking to the one style of music all the time is repititive and boring,mix up different genres, doesn't have to be loads but instead of just playing the one style drop 1 or 2 tunes every now and them that are different from what you are playing,if you want to be more adventerous drop the occasional breakbeat tune in a Techno set to break it up and then build it up to a crescendo again, i remmeber doing that at a party in 1997 in Wicklow and it went down a storm.;)

VinylJunkie

Zascar wrote: »

DO NOT bring a new track into the mix until you are sure they are correctly beatmatched - you need to concentrate on the mix itself and not have to worry about keeping the beats aligned. Be Patient. The two tracks should be able to play for at least 20 seconds without going out of sync - that way you know it will only need a little nudge at the most during the mix.

Cant stress that enough when im teaching people! It takes serious practice before you become comfortable with beatmatching.

For the extreme beginners id advise them to get two identical tracks and repeatly beatmatch them. The two tracks will be the same BPM so it will be very easy after a few goes then pick a different track and try that. Learn what BPM means and learn how to count bars and phrases,
1234 2234 3234 4234

Keep off effects and eq's untill you can beatmatch properly.

Sean

Scubadevils

I'm too tired now to throw much into this but I remember back when I was first learning in I think 1993 or so given a good tip - you know the beats are matched when they become 'central' in your head... so you can hear the beat of the track you are cueing in the the headset and the track playing from the speaker or monitor, if you train your ears over a short period you should be able to separate both tracks beats and when they hit together in time it will become central - when they are out of time you will hear that the kick drum is not hitting at the same time, i.e. one kick drum is off in one ear versus the other. A basic rule but served me well when learning! Start out by monitoring kick drums as they are easiest and once that's mastered you can move on to timing etc which will allow for much more creative beat matching when there are no beats!

Just to add to this also, it is key to train your ears to hear sounds separately - our ears our not conditioned to do this so it takes a bit of work to concentrate and separate tunes to each ear but becomes natural after a while.

Daroxtar

Its all about the number 4. Dance music is pretty predictable in that it nearly always has 4/4 beats and every track is made up of multiples of 4 bars. Just keep counting to 4 in your head and tweek your eqs in time with the 4th beat or 4th bar or the 8th or 16th or 32nd whatever.

Cue your track up on the first beat and wait till a break before releasing the new track in time with the old one. You'd be surprised how many beginners just try dropping the needle on the record and try to line up the beats. Obviously this doesn't really apply to digital djs and once you get better you'll start bringin in tunes from different points to get different structure to your mixes.

Get to know your tracks and know when they're about to break or peak. Listen to them a good few times without mixing them. When you know what a tracks structure is like then you can start bringing it in to the mix so that it kicks off at just the right time.

Try to keep your levels out of the red too. You don't want to blow your amp or speakers or end up with too much distortion on the track.

Record yourself mixing. When you hear it back you can hear all the mixy bits better and figure out what you've done right or wrong. And its great craic listening to old recordings and seeing how bad you were:D

Above all else, just enjoy it and dont stress out if you're not mixing like carl cox straight away. Its the same as playing any instrument. You wouldn't expect to be able to play the guitar as soon as you pick it up. The more you just go with it and get into the zone the better you get.


P.s , i hate telling people how to mix. I'm prone to makin howlers when i'm at it , gettin excited and whackin up the bass or overusing fx or mixing tunes that dont go well together so I feel a bit patronising here. Everyone does things differently so if you're doing something and it sounds right to you then thats the most important thing. And as i said, Enjoy it.

Zascar

Yes definitely recording yourself is great. I used to hate doing it in the beginning but try to force yourself to record at all times.

For some reason I can be mixing away at home all day and night not a bother with barely any mistakes, throwing inall sorts of weird stuff and pullit it off no problem, but then once I hit record the pressure is on and I fcuk up - and once I **** up I often just quit cause I hate recording anything with a mistake in it... But you need to press on, everyone makes mistakes now and then.

Try to play live every chance you get - volunteer to play any party for free. However, the trap I used to fall into was playing what I thought people wanted to hear. Fcuk that - pla what you love cause you will put your heart and soul into it. If you are being asked to play cheesey sh!te you hate, its just wrong imo.

jimi_t

Felixdhc wrote: »

Just to add to this also, it is key to train your ears to hear sounds separately - our ears our not conditioned to do this so it takes a bit of work to concentrate and separate tunes to each ear but becomes natural after a while.

Single best thing to do to improve this would be to download some DAW (I.e. ableton/cubase/fruityloops etc...) - a trial will do fine. Load up one of the demo songs - you'll see different rows of coloured bars representing different parts of the track - a marker moves from left to right along the track as its playing and once you're able to visually identify how certain bits come in when the marker hits them you can start muting certain tracks to help you learn to break down tracks in the future when you can't see the component parts laid out on a timeline in front of you.

It may sound trivial, but even an hour or two once-off at this well help you to develop a mental framework by which to break stuff down by ear in the future. I've been fiddling around for about 2-3 years doing production and I've about 14 years classical training behind me; I can usually do a track count from ear at this stage, sometimes even down to what parts of the percussion are on different tracks with reverb strapped to them or whatever. If you get into digital DJ'ing, this sort of stuff is your bread and butter.

Also, if you're a working off mp3s, get yourself a program that will analyse your mp3s and give you their dominant key. If you have two tracks with similar BPMS that are in the same key, even if they're completely different genres, they'll tend to mesh together quite easily. This is the cornerstone of the 'Harmonic' mixing which Zascar was alluding to earlier.

Zascar

www.mixedinkey.com is software that will help you with the harmonics. I tested it when it first came out but have never bothered with it since really. Not sure if this is appropriate for beginners though - possibly as an example to show them exactly how and why keys mix or clash - but I know some people who purely choose their next track by key - not sure I agree with that.

franklyshocked

VinylJunkie wrote: »

Cant stress that enough when im teaching people! It takes serious practice before you become comfortable with beatmatching.

For the extreme beginners id advise them to get two identical tracks and repeatly beatmatch them. The two tracks will be the same BPM so it will be very easy after a few goes then pick a different track and try that. Learn what BPM means and learn how to count bars and phrases,
1234 2234 3234 4234

Keep off effects and eq's untill you can beatmatch properly.

Sean

I second that - COUNT YOUR BARS!!!!
If you still don't know what a bar in a song is then don't agree to DJ at your mates party.
Learn about how tracks are put together. Upbeats and downbeats and simple things like couting your beats and bars from the end of the break / breakdown.
Don't rely on the BPM counter. Use your ears.
Everything stated before is correct as far as I know it and everyone else agree's so in the words of Zascar,
Practice!!!

RaverRo808

Zascar wrote: »

Quite a few newbie DJ's around so I thought it might be a good idea to have a thread where the more experienced members can share their expertise with beginner DJ's

Here is some of the advice I would like to offer - please guys share yours too. Even if you are only recently mixing let us know what you have learnt or good advice that you have been given.

--

Beatmatching: Some may argue but I think its is critically important. It's such a shame for a DJ to be playing great tunes only to have it sound like a heard of stampeding elephants every 5 minutes. Practice! Practice! Practice! Seriously practise beatmatching for no other reason that beatmatching. Be fanatical. Start with some basic tunes - tech house, minimal etc - you do not want too much melody to confuse you at the start.

DO NOT bring a new track into the mix until you are sure they are correctly beatmatched - you need to concentrate on the mix itself and not have to worry about keeping the beats aligned. Be Patient. The two tracks should be able to play for at least 20 seconds without going out of sync - that way you know it will only need a little nudge at the most during the mix.

If it is going out and you are not sure which one, hit cue, bring it back to the beginning and start again. Only change the pitch of the new song, not the one already playing (unless a big change of pitch is needed - but try to avoid this generally). After practice you'll know how much of a nudge to give it depending on how long it takes for the beats to go out. If using CDJ's do not 'spin' the platter. Very gently and slowly slide it around.

Mixing: Start off by trying to do really slow blend mixes. Picking tunes that will mix well is half of it. The best DJ in the world cannot mix two totally different tracks. Look into "Harmonic Mixing" - just to get an idea of why some mixes sound great and natural, and others sound horrible. Don't rush it. You can have two tracks overlapping for 2-3 minutes sometimes. Try to be smooth and start by just getting the tracks to fade together nicely. Ideally it should not be obvious to the listener when one track ends and the other begins etc. When you get better you can work towards 'layering' your tracks. When you get more experienced you can then 'bang them in' - however don't fcuk about too much until you know what you are doing - crap dj's always seem to play with effects, chopping, looping etc and it just sounds sh!t unless you are competent. Stick to mastering the basics until you go any further.

Music: Obviously track selection is the most important thing overall for DJ's. You really need to know your music well. Know when the breakdowns are coming and how long into a track the beat kicks in. Ideally you want the beat kicking in when the current track starts to fade down. But do not leave it too late otherwise you kind of loose the energy. Spend as much time as possible listening to other DJ's - real live sets not CD's which are studio made. Study their mixing and even try to replicate it as practice.

Spend time categorising your music. When mixing or practising, don't just play any track - a DJ set is like a musical journey - so think about where the next track you want to play is going to take that listener on that journey. Plan ahead. You might want to start off relaxed and funky, get get a bit deeper and darker, slowly getting more chunky and thumping. But don't jump around too much. Think about what type of tracks suit the start, middle and end of the mix. Try not to vary your music style too much tune to tune.

Watch video's on youtube and watch people's different styles. There is no one right way, everyone is different and every mix is different. Pay attention to how much treble the two tracks have. If the one playing has loads of 'high hats' going on, but the new track has none, you'll need to bring them down so it sounds natural, and not hanging around when it's down to 20% volume. Try 'swaping basslines' - cut one out and bring the new one in at the same time.

Don't be afraid to stand by the DJ booth for half the night and just watch - you can learn a lot. If you know anyone who's been mixing a while ask them to watch you mix and give you tips. Don't be afraid to ask for help.

I'm nackered so I'll stop there but I'll try to write some more later. IN the meantime please post yours too and make this a good thread we can refer newbies to form now on.

Much appreciated for that man,some crucial advise there,Im getting back into mixing after a long time of trying and giving up due to personel sh*t,money and work and all that crap,any other advised would be very welcome

Zascar

My pleasure, glad its useful.

Can't think of much more - hope others can add their 2 cents.

Focus on your music and the quality - plan your sets. Try as often as possible to plan a set that you are going to record - or as if you are playing a live set in a club etc. Select only a small amount of your music and out of that make your set - don't confuse yourself with too much - that can be disastrous.

Try designing smooth, one-genre sets, and then after than try totally mixing it up and do more that span many genre's - without sounding like its all over the place. Drop in a club classic and see if you can make a 20 year old tune sound right at home with your newest releases.

Surround yourself with other DJ's - practice together, exchange ideas, music tastes, techniques - coach eachother - and just keep learning.

Executive Steve

never buy a record because you reckon it will be "easy to mix"

play the right records in the right order

watch your levels

if you're playing in front of people - watch the people; are they dancing? if no, why not?

RaverRo808

Zascar wrote: »

My pleasure, glad its useful.

Can't think of much more - hope others can add their 2 cents.

Focus on your music and the quality - plan your sets. Try as often as possible to plan a set that you are going to record - or as if you are playing a live set in a club etc. Select only a small amount of your music and out of that make your set - don't confuse yourself with too much - that can be disastrous.

Try designing smooth, one-genre sets, and then after than try totally mixing it up and do more that span many genre's - without sounding like its all over the place. Drop in a club classic and see if you can make a 20 year old tune sound right at home with your newest releases.

Surround yourself with other DJ's - practice together, exchange ideas, music tastes, techniques - coach eachother - and just keep learning.

What I do is,I get different genres,and I only mix tunes associated with that genre,like I love mixing hard-trance its so easy because all the tunes have a similar bassline,especially the older ones,so I find it decent for getting the beatmatching to a tee,Im pretty adpat to that now,Im starting on getting use to the faders now,which is a new challenge lol

zainabc

thanks 4 such usefula dvice especially bout counting iv been tryin to get in 4 ages countin iv been told few times
hard trance might defo look into it
was gonna start wit house

Zascar

zainabc wrote: »

was gonna start wit house

Start with house... definitely

zainabc

em wat kind of house there is difrent types i like classics and hard house bit funky and trancy house

DarkJager

zainabc wrote: »

thanks 4 such usefula dvice especially bout counting iv been tryin to get in 4 ages countin iv been told few times
hard trance might defo look into it
was gonna start wit house

I think Hard House is quite easy to mix, not a huge fan of trying to mix House though. Most HH tracks follow the same kind of driving beat and contain parts where there is a vocal sample of some sort, which is often an easy point to get the next track ready to come in.

Zascar

Best thing to do is go to wwww.beatport.com, www.juno.co.uk etc - listen to charts etc...

Some of the vocal melodic house can be hard to mix. Take a look at tech house, minimal and techno they are great fun to mix and generally not that difficult.

zainabc

wel im able to count the beats so maybe il just start wit tech house and see how i get on if nt il go into hard house

im only startin out i want to buy a cd deck ixer wat wud u recomend that is good and cheap x

Zascar

zainabc wrote: »

im only startin out i want to buy a cd deck ixer wat wud u recomend that is good and cheap x

Start a new thread for that mate, lets keep this about learning to mix

zainabc

wel il be postin and lettin u no how i get on mixin
thanks 4 ur help

nonsense42

I never really got the whole "learning to dj" thing.It literally took me about 2 hours of putting records on to get them to match and I never looked back.

Listen for one bass drum and speed it up or slow it down to match the speed of the other basss drum and hey presto you're a dj!!!

What tracks you play and when are more important than beatmatching in the long run.
Look at Tiesto or someone,yeah the beats match but they play complete crap so it serves no purpose mixing properly you get me?

Zascar

Djing is not just the ability to beatmatch. It's about 1% of it overall.

DarkJager

nonsense42 wrote: »

I never really got the whole "learning to dj" thing.It literally took me about 2 hours of putting records on to get them to match and I never looked back.

Listen for one bass drum and speed it up or slow it down to match the speed of the other basss drum and hey presto you're a dj!!!

If it were that easy everybody and their dog would be a world class DJ. I don't buy either that it just takes 2 hours to learn to beatmatch - might take you that long to start understanding what you're trying to do, but real beatmatching takes loads of practice to get spot on. Do you think you'd be able to drop the beat of a new tune straight into the playing track without any errors?

What tracks you play and when are more important than beatmatching in the long run.
Look at Tiesto or someone,yeah the beats match but they play complete crap so it serves no purpose mixing properly you get me?

In my opinion Richie Hawtin drops some awfully pretentious **** tunes in his sets, but I only say that because I don't have any love for that genre, while somebody else may think they are the greatest tunes ever. Do you see what I'm getting at? Unless you appereciate the genre the DJ is playing, you can't really call anything they spin crap bar it being personal opinion (unless its some cult cheesy tune )

As for track selection, I'd agree with you on that point. There's no use in some uber-technical DJ flanging and reverbing the **** out of tunes if they are **** to begin with. The crowd are always going to be paying more attention to the tunes you are playing than how you are fiddling with the bass, mid, treble etc

Starfox

Dont be afraid to beat clash and cause a train wreck over and over again, i was when i first started mixing, it holds you back from getting really good! You really do learn from your mistakes

ED E

I love this forum, and boards in general, there are so many gems on here:D

I'm going to be playing gaffs and parties for late teens, so the crowd will be very forgiving:D Most wont even be able to walk an hour in, nevermind judge my proficiency....


I dunno what systems you all use, but I'm a virtual lad myself. I can usually get very close just by aligning bpms + peaks. I'm just wondering is this a really bad thing to train myself into? Should I do it all by ear? I'm mainly doing it as a hobby, much more fun than learning guitar or piano etc

Might record a few clips later and post em in the opinions thread.

Edit:
Just like to add an opinion, from my novice point of view.

In most cases I think the majority of the crowd will be out for a good time. They arent examining you. People with an interest will be judging how well you do, but they are a minority imo. I think the real thing to pay attention to is the crowd and match your set to them. I'd prefer to be half a bar out and play a track that gets everyone on their feet than perfectly match the track but have everyone like the terrocotta army.

Mau5

great info there lads cheers
ive a problem though the beat keeps going off when i think i have it matched.. it only stays matched for a few seconds and then goes off. quite confusing! any advice?

franklyshocked

Mau5 wrote: »

great info there lads cheers
ive a problem though the beat keeps going off when i think i have it matched.. it only stays matched for a few seconds and then goes off. quite confusing! any advice?

Have you ever heard the quote, even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day?
Basically, your tracks are not beat matched close enough. listen to whether the cue track is faster or slower than the main track and adjust it again.
If your mixer has eq's on each channel, drop the bass on the cue and push up the high end a little, this will help you use the bass of the main track as your guide for the high end of the cue'd track.
Its something that will come with time and practice.
I've been Djing so long I can only cue with my left ear anymore, I have to listen to the main track with my right ear.
I suppose its something that non DJ's don't get. The reason a DJ has only one headphone on isn't to look cool, its to Cue the track. I haven't seen this mentioned much so I'd hate to think younger DJ's think its just a fashion statement.
I see so many young DJ's dropping the headphones once they start to mix.
If your tracks are even slightly out you'll have a train wreck in no time.
Mixing doesn't end till one track is silent.
Some Vinyl has a slight wobble so you might have to keep making minute adjustments until the track you're mixing out of ends.

Hope this helps.
Practice, practice, practice and then practice some more.

seannash

franklyshocked wrote: »

Have you ever heard the quote, even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day?
Basically, your tracks are not beat matched close enough. listen to whether the cue track is faster or slower than the main track and adjust it again.
If your mixer has eq's on each channel, drop the bass on the cue and push up the high end a little, this will help you use the bass of the main track as your guide for the high end of the cue'd track.
Its something that will come with time and practice.
I've been Djing so long I can only cue with my left ear anymore, I have to listen to the main track with my right ear.
I suppose its something that non DJ's don't get. The reason a DJ has only one headphone on isn't to look cool, its to Cue the track. I haven't seen this mentioned much so I'd hate to think younger DJ's think its just a fashion statement.
I see so many young DJ's dropping the headphones once they start to mix.
If your tracks are even slightly out you'll have a train wreck in no time.
Mixing doesn't end till one track is silent.
Some Vinyl has a slight wobble so you might have to keep making minute adjustments until the track you're mixing out of ends.

Hope this helps.
Practice, practice, practice and then practice some more.

yep agree also once youve brought in the other track and its the dominent track in the mix,flick the cue to the outgoing track and make adjustments to it if its drifting.dont still push along the new track because peoples attention is on it and any slowing down r speeding up of a track might be noticeable but not as noticeable on the outgoing track

Zascar

Good advice FS. One thing I remember someone telling me year ago which helped, was start the queued track faster than the one playing and slow it down until it is more or less beatmatched. Instead of getting it exactly on, keep it a minute amount faster, but be ready to make tiny adjustments to slow it down in time with the main track.

When mixing on vinyl I do this, I hover om finger over the bit with the dots and gently drag it if I hear it coming out at all. Works well.

I also mix with one earphone, but its cause I like to hear both what is in my headphones, and what is coming out of the speakers too. Depending on the setup there can be varied results - mixing on a big system can be different to mixing at home.

Mau5

thanks for the advice think im starting to get my head around it somewhat!
although one more quite stupid question...
do i leave the pitch control where it is when speeding up/slowing down the songs to match them or do i speed up/slow down and then bring it back to the centre or the 0?
sorry for the probably very obvious questions im completely new!

franklyshocked

Zascar wrote: »

Good advice FS. One thing I remember someone telling me year ago which helped, was start the queued track faster than the one playing and slow it down until it is more or less beatmatched. Instead of getting it exactly on, keep it a minute amount faster, but be ready to make tiny adjustments to slow it down in time with the main track.

When mixing on vinyl I do this, I hover om finger over the bit with the dots and gently drag it if I hear it coming out at all. Works well.

I also mix with one earphone, but its cause I like to hear both what is in my headphones, and what is coming out of the speakers too. Depending on the setup there can be varied results - mixing on a big system can be different to mixing at home.

Yup, I'll agree with the faster cue when working with Vinyl.
And for a few good reasons. As a record coils in it can sometimes slightly speed up, not always, but it happens so if you're doing an epic long mix you can need to adjust the incomming track to catch up as the mix gets near the end of the master track.
Also, new Dj's don't always get their release/throw spot on and a slightly faster cue track can sometimes catch up on its own without too much adjusting.
Although conversly a faster throw on a faster track can completely miss the master tempo and you've got a train wreck again, Oh hell, there's just no winning sometimes,

franklyshocked

I meant to say,
some people don't know when to end a mix.
Epic mixes can happen and can work, but if you've mixed in the new track and its dominating the sound on the master channel, just cut the old track for the love of god.
Some choppy 4 bar mixes can sound way better than a 40 bar long mix where the Dj locked the 2 tracks and just plain forgot to kill the channel once the mix was complete.
I know a live mashup can be clever but sometimes it just sounds like noise on an open channel.
Rant complete. Normal service resuming

djscubasteve

Zascar wrote: »

Djing is not just the ability to beatmatch. It's about 1% of it overall.

Some of the best advice in the whole thread Zascar.

Sometimes a dj can be gifted technically, but lack the ability to put a decent set together. Don't be afraid to blend & be different, try make the crowd work for you & not the other way around.

Ease them in & build up your set track by track. Get a feel for the crowd & gain their trust. If you go in to a set all guns blazing & drop the 'bombs' they all know & love straight off the bat, sure, you get a huge response & your ego gets a boost but, they've heard what they wanted to hear & you're only 15mins in! What are you going to WOW them with an hour later?

Get yourself into a rhythm, inside your comfort zone. Once everyone is tapping, clapping & nodding along, then you can 'reward' them;) with the gems you've been itching to drop & finish on a high they won't forget.

The first time you hear a crowd screaming "ONE MORE TUNE, ONE MORE TUNE..." :eek:gives you the kind of tingly feeling that makes you want it more & more...:D

electrogrimey

Thought I'd bump this with some advice, because it's a great thread.

Amen't usually a CD user, but when I do I find a nice way of beatmatching is to start the new track with the pitch fader way faster (on 10% most of the way up), and then bring it down until it sounds right, that way you don't waste time messing round figuring out if it's faster or slower.

Don't just go out and play the Beatport top 20, or the tracks you know/think the crowd will love. Play the tracks you know and love. If you've spent the time hunting down and listening to great music, the crowd will respond to that more than an hour of the most overplayed bangers. One of my favourite parts of seeing DJs is spending the next week hunting down the tracks I didn't know from the vague traces in my head, so you should be making the crowd do the same!

When you start playing out, don't piss off other DJs. Don't hang around the DJ box pressuring them to let you start, don't litter every DJ and promoter with mixes every few weeks, and always try to chat with the other DJs, if you liked their set, tell them.

Scubadevils

Due to popular demand this thread will be stickied, well... seannash and ianuss, but I'm sure they are both popular blokes :pac:

seannash

Scubadevils wrote: »

Due to popular demand this thread will be stickied, well... seannash and ianuss, but I'm sure they are both popular blokes :pac:

wouldnt be too sure about the popularity but yeah it deserves a sticky so we can redirect people easily

Piriz

ok for the beginners:

don't be afraid to put your hands on the record your bringing into the mix...however be controlled with what you do...i.e. push it forward or slow it down... you need to be controlled as you will need to adjust the pitch up or down each time you 'touch' the record...when you have a controlled touch on the record you can learn how much you need to adjust the pitch...

try to keep your records playing at the normal/center speed +/-0, as a beginner if you are playing your records at +6 the next one you bring in might be slightly slower and will have to be played at +7...before you know it you will pick the wrong record next and have to slow the pitch of the record playing...(you want to avoid this).

an easy way to begin your mix is to find the first beat on your next record...hold it...and let it in when the playing record changes i.e. 1234 1234 1234 1234, NOW! 1234 1234 1234 1234 NOW! 1234 1234 etc... (the NOW must be on the 1st beat on the next bar...) adjust the speed accordingly and repeat the process...when you are confident the beats are matched then bring the crossfader across and get your mix on!

if you make a balls of a mix, just bring the needles back and try again...remember you are trying to learn not play a set...this way you will understand what went wrong...

if your mixer has those beat counter lights for each channel...dont use them..cover them up with blue tack...they are crap and will only confuse you...its your ear you need to train to hear beats not your eyes for flashing lights...

in the early days for learning purposes dont be too ambitious with mixing certain tunes...keep to tunes that sound similar...same genre etc.. if you mix it up too much you will **** it up if your learning...if you keep ****ing it up you'll get frustrated and give up..

if you only have a limited stock of records...start playing all the other tracks on the record...this can help increase your playlist and diversify your tunes..

dont get too carried away with the volume...as the louder you play the louder you need to have your cue/headphones.. this will damage your hearing overtime so just be careful, i tend to switch which ear i listen to the head phones through according to the deck the record im bring in is on.. (slightly damage both ears rather than totally damage one, not saying this is better, its just what i do).

hans aus dtschl

Some nice ones once you're nice and confident with beat-matching:

Don't touch the track that's "loudest" in the mix. If your track has a slow-moving, drawn out mid or high-frequency line avoid touching it at all, because you'll hear that sucker speeding up or slowing down. It's not as easy to hear basic drum patterns speeding up or slowing down slightly.

When you're mixing, "swop" the tracks cleanly: more than one bassline sounds "muddy" so don't have many on fully at once (if they're not complementing, don't have any on together at all).
Same goes for hi-hats: two hi-hat lines together will be brittle. Great if that's the sound you want, but if you're doing something subtle or dubby it'll sound too sharp.

Hi-hats and claps are really obvious when a track's coming in or out, so bring down the relevant frequency band for them if you really want the tracks to melt into each other.

Vary the style of mix you're doing: Avoid doing all slow mixes, or all fast mixes, or all bass-swop mixes or all chop-mixes.

Excess use of generic effects is very tiring, so either keep the effects really quiet in the mix, or know exactly what you're doing with them and do it sparingly. People should only know it's an effect if they know the track: it shouldn't be obvious that it's an effect unless you're tinkering with one element or doing big spacey dancehall echoes between tracks.

Any more, dudes?

hans aus dtschl

Turn down the club monitors between mixes, cos your ears will get tired if they're always up high.

A nice one if you're finding it difficult to be enthusiastic about doing a mix, or if you HAVE to do one for a promo or whatever, try picking two tracks you love: you're favourite one at the downbeat/mellow end of what you play and one at the upbeat/hectic end, and try to go from one to the other without any huge obvious changes from track to track. Have no time limit on it, just say "whenever I get there is fine" and don't have any "must play" tracks in between. Hey presto, you've got a set that keeps building seamlessly and still feels gratifying. If it's 30 mins its a good promo, if it's 3 hours, cut out a segment that works best.

Zascar

Very good advice there lads. Hans you are right about varying your mixing styles. I had to give myself a slap on the wrist there a while back as I was being very lazy doing the same kind of mix.

Actually a random question. Where do you have the Eq's for an average track when you are playing it. Do you have them all at zero, or do you boost them up a little? I prefer to have them up 1 or 2 notches, depending on the tracks give a certain part a bit extra

Also, I know this is hard to describe, but how do you guys generally alternate between what you do with the eq's on each deck and the upfaders - like for a normal mix? What do you find is the best tactic to get it as smooth as possible? I love really smooth blendy mixing coupled with nice bassline swapping

seannash

Zascar wrote: »

Very good advice there lads. Hans you are right about varying your mixing styles. I had to give myself a slap on the wrist there a while back as I was being very lazy doing the same kind of mix.

Actually a random question. Where do you have the Eq's for an average track when you are playing it. Do you have them all at zero, or do you boost them up a little? I prefer to boost them a bit.

Also, I know this is hard to describe, but how do you guys generally alternate between what you do with the eq's on each deck and the upfaders - like for a normal mix? What do you find is the best tactic to get it as smooth as possible? I love really smooth blendy mixing coupled with nice bassline swapping

id normally leave them all at zero to be honest but if a track is lacking something i might try and give it something.

as for the smooth blends i generally do it all from eq.i whack up the fader full(once ive checked the level by flicking in the track to compare it to the other one)and have all the eqs reduced a bit.then i just work them in with the eq.

hans aus dtschl

Very similar to sean:

All at zero unless it's a dull track where I'll brighten it (boost high or mid and dip the bass), or a weak track where I'll strengthen it (usually bring in the low bass a little more) both only a TINY amount though usually.

Smooth blends, I usually have the bass fully off, and any brash hi-hats down a lot, use the up-fader to bring it in, leave the fader a tiny bit from the top bring in or gently swop the hi-hats, bring the fader up to the top then bring in or gently swop the bass, before bringing out the other track the exact opposite way.

If you have filters per side, you could do a high-pass sweep, with no boost on the Q-point from the bottom freuqncy to the top, which gives a nice smooth mix with relatively little effort too?

EuskalHerria

Would really appreciate some input from people on this. I'm only a few months into learning but I seem to have hit a brick wall. I can beatmatch and phrase quite well (I think). My problem right now seems to be transitioning between two songs. I seem to keep leaving the song I'm mixing out on too long and never really know when the best time to mix it out is or the best method to ease the song out.

I realise that it all depends on the two tracks i'm attempting to mix but would appreciate any techniques that people generally use so I can try a few out and attempt to tone my efforts up.

electrogrimey

EuskalHerria wrote: »

Would really appreciate some input from people on this. I'm only a few months into learning but I seem to have hit a brick wall. I can beatmatch and phrase quite well (I think). My problem right now seems to be transitioning between two songs. I seem to keep leaving the song I'm mixing out on too long and never really know when the best time to mix it out is or the best method to ease the song out.

I realise that it all depends on the two tracks i'm attempting to mix but would appreciate any techniques that people generally use so I can try a few out and attempt to tone my efforts up.

Harder with CDs but not impossible, for me where I bring in and take out tracks is always to do with what's happening in the track. I'll start bringing in a track maybe 32 bars or more before a break or some change in the track, and have it fully brought it right on the break or whatever, so it takes over much smoother. Basically you have to know your tracks really well.

EuskalHerria

electrogrimey wrote: »

Harder with CDs but not impossible, for me where I bring in and take out tracks is always to do with what's happening in the track. I'll start bringing in a track maybe 32 bars or more before a break or some change in the track, and have it fully brought it right on the break or whatever, so it takes over much smoother. Basically you have to know your tracks really well.

Well ive just moved house at the minute and dont have my CDJs. Using hercules mp3 with virt dj. Really cant get into it tbh, much prefer to use my CDJs.

I generally know my music very well. Even when the new phrase of the song I'm bringing in begins I'm still unsure when or how to bring out the originally playing track. Ease it out gradually up until the next phrase is usually what I do but when that next phrase of the incoming song starts, I cant seem to smoothly transition the song out. I'll either leave it playing in the background for too long not knowing the best time to fade it out or else il try and completely fade it out as the new phrase on the incoming track plays but it doesn't sound well. Think im going to record a short mix today, regardless of what it sounds like and upload it for tips.

yoshytoshy

I don't post in the forum here ,but I know a lot of dj's from clubs over the years. I've had thousands of records ,but not anymore.

Going to buy an mp3 mixer for mixing laid back stuff like afterlife and other electronic stuff. I'll be needing advice along the way I'm sure ,it's ten years since I used my pc for music stuff:o

ThirdMan

I'm basically looking for tips on how to effectively use the EQ when mixing two tracks together.

Hi's and mid's aren't so much of a problem (although any advice is welcome). I'm more so struggling with the bass. I'm not too keen on cutting the bass on one track while I drop in the other. I much prefer smooth mixes, but I'm having trouble with the, ehh, smoothness.

Thanks.

DaveyDave

ThirdMan wrote: »

I'm basically looking for tips on how to effectively use the EQ when mixing two tracks together.

Hi's and mid's aren't so much of a problem (although any advice is welcome). I'm more so struggling with the bass. I'm not too keen on cutting the bass on one track while I drop in the other. I much prefer smooth mixes, but I'm having trouble with the, ehh, smoothness.

Thanks.

Slowly adjust the bass of the track that's going out while at the same time do the same to the track that's coming in? Just do it at the same time on both EQs, track A lows down, and track B lows up. Don't just rip the EQ, do it over the length of 8 bars or something, that should be a smooth enough transition shouldn't it?

ThirdMan

DaveyDave wrote: »

Slowly adjust the bass of the track that's going out while at the same time do the same to the track that's coming in? Just do it at the same time on both EQs, track A lows down, and track B lows up. Don't just rip the EQ, do it over the length of 8 bars or something, that should be a smooth enough transition shouldn't it?

Cool, I had been doing it in a lot less than 8 bars. I'm not very confident so suppose I've been doing it too quickly. I need to grow a pair. :P

DaveyDave

ThirdMan wrote: »

Cool, I had been doing it in a lot less than 8 bars. I'm not very confident so suppose I've been doing it too quickly. I need to grow a pair. :P

Well 8 bars is just an example as it's longer and will be a smoother transition. Think of it like a slow crossfade, everything is smooth but with the EQ it's just the bass. Don't be afraid to mix it up a little and try new things, see what works for you.