DJing ***FAQ*** methods and techniques, bump often

ahem... i got a delivery for this thread... it's a big fat bizump bump. sign here.
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one for all, all for one, and two and a half for me please...
 
hmm.. i only read this thread today, and it seems i have a looong way to go before i can truly spin well.... i know it takes time but i seem to not be able to beatmatch no matter what i try... i have some people tellin me to forget about counting and go with what sounds good and some saying to count 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4... and fuuuuck its confusing... so i have a few questions. to everyone talking about throwing in the next record on 8, 16, 24 or 32... how do i know which this is? i spin hardcore (mostly happy but some gabber). how do i know which beat it is i wanna throw it in on. also, someone above posted somethin about taking the headphones off to do the actaul mix... ill find that i will try to match the beat to the best of my ability (usually using up the whole record and hastily throwing it down quick as possible...) either with both on my ears or one on one off as i start to mix... ill adjust the EQs to however i want them but as i start to cue one record into the other, i find myself completely removing the headphones and listening solely to the moniter as i mix and adjust EQ and switch from one to another- is this a bad habit i should quite while im first learning- do other people do this? and something else- how do i know which recods "go well" together. i spin happy mostly, and i kinda like to switch up and throw a hardcore track in sometimes or whatever, but how do i know which records will work with this and which wont and goodness spinnin is complicated stuff!
 
Well, I have to say if beatmatching is your problem, work on that first. Don't waste your energy trying to count measures or anything yet. All that comes later.
Once you're at the point that beatmatching comes easily you should start focusing on phrasing. So what exactly is phrasing? Electonic music is written in loops, which is what the measures in groups of 8 is. Usually you can pick out the end of a loop by a cymbal crash, or a change in samples or something like that. In hardcore it's very often looped in groups of 8 bars. The goal is to line the loops up so that the new samples start and the old ones end at the same time.
 
This post is inspired by Anthony Pappas technique. Honestly, he plays records in "thirds." He starts playing the cue record when the first record is about 2/3 done, if not 1/2. This means LOOONNNNNGGGGGG mixes. It occured to me that this might help the beginner and intermediate. If youre using the pitch bend, throwing the record really early and fading it in will force you to notice problems (discrepencies) early. It'll also force you to use your eq, gain, and master levels to avoid boosing the volume too much when both tracks are playing and force you to work on avoiding volume drops. When fading out he prolly moved the fader down one notch (ie from 10 to 9 to 8 etc) for every 32 beat stanza (he even waited 64 beats sometimes). The moral of the story: when youre rockin your bedroom or living room, super long mixes will only force you to get better... if its not perfect, no harm done, just try to make it more perfect.
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If you go with me, can I come too?
 
Man where to bring the song in?
If you don't know. Look somewhere in the middle of the record. You'll see a "break" which will exactly *shock gasp* match up with the break in the song. If you bring the first beat of the song you wanna mix in, straight after the break, chances are, your mix will come in at exactly the right time.
Another tip is. Try mixing with the crossfader ALWAYS in the middle, and use the levels and gain to bring your songs in. Ever bought a song in too loud and it sounds shocking over the top when you bring the levels upto 10?
This way, you can kinda avoid that.
On the pitchbending argument. I try and just get the pitch as accurate as possible, I find there's only so accurate you can get the pitch control. For minor adjustments, to slow it down, I kinda squeeze the middle bit of the techincs and put a little bit of pressure on the record. This doesn't completely put the record outta pitch but you can hear it slowly easy back into beat. To speed it up, I'll just slighlt push the label in.
I notice the biggest mistake people make with beatmatching is the fact that they try and get the beats in STRAIGHT away, if they do out, don't try and put it back in the next beat, ease it in, it may take longer to get back straight on beat but you won't send it off whack which will sound REALLY bad if done.
 
One thing I noticed Scott Bender (boulder local) doing the other night, with regard to levels: as he started to fade the cue track in (using the channel faders, the cross fader was off) he would nudge the master fader down a bit... so as the cue track added to the overall amplitude, he lowered the master a bit to compensate. Then as he faded out the first track, he boosted the master back up a bit. I never really tried it, but is sounded great when he did it.
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If you go with me, can I come too?
 
->|dwnq|<-
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"A loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter."
 
has any one ever felt like they're getting worse? i listened to a tape i made three months ago, and it sounded better than the one i made a week ago. the mixes were a little quicker but that doesn't always matter as long as its done right. maybe i just need to take a break. so has anyone else noticed their skill level depleting?
 
My observations:
- I prefer using levels vs. the fader almost all of the time. I only like the fader when i'm switching back and forth between records.
- Pitch bending and finessing the spindle are both useful. Learn both.
- I get off on playing 140 bpm trance records at minus 4, it makes it more 'sexy'. It will also diversify the 'genre' of a record. Some tracks sound way different played at different speeds.
- I really get off on playing trance records that are made for 45 at 33 rpm, esp. psy-trance. It gives it a really wicked feel.
- Definitely make your first track on a mix CD strong. In addition, made it a sick track that no one has heard before.
- If making a promotional disc, use more than 12 or 14 tracks to give a taste of your material and mixing.
- If making a disc for personal listening, do whatever you like.
- Good dj's get better because they play a lot. Because they play a lot, they get feedback on which records work and which ones don't. And they constantly rearrange their tracks to new reconfiguations, realizing that some tracks 'fit' well together. Those are the ones that match in beat and in key, which makes for an organic transition that you'd think was a conspiracy between the two artists. It's actually a coincidence that the dj is more likely statistically to stumble upon than you. For example, Music Sounds Better With You / EBTG Wrong / Madonna Holiday. Same key, same beat.
- It's good to even keep the levels the same, turn the fader off, and mix using the EQ.
- 32 is the magic number for trance. My technique is to take the cue record, drop the needle in the meat of the track, match the beats with the slider, then find the break, find where the bass fills in, go 32 beats back, and stop the player. When the record playing hits a point i want to mix, then i start the cue record. If i time it well, i mix it in quickly, i have no bass for 32 beats anyways. If not, i readjust and then bring it in normally, which for me, is smooth and long.
- It's fun to turn off the play record to get it to slow down like it's melting, then to start the cue record at a beat just as the play record completely falls out. It gives a crowd a little breather and a mental break. Plus it's a great way to transition from one dj to another.
- When practising alone, don't play timidly like you were in a club with people dancing. Cut the shit up and experiment. Rewind, pick up the needle, try a mix 8 times. Cut back and forth. You find something new every time.
- For good practice, play other people's records and have them play your own sometime.
- Don't just stick to the a-side mixes.
- try to always record yourself. best is recording straight to .wav file.
- buying muli-disc unmixed vinyl packs is a great way for beginner's to learn.
- give yourself time to try a mix before the record starts running out. some records just won't fit together, period. it's best to have time to bail on a record and pick another one.
 
Good post this one, like to add a couple of things.
Early on (page 1 or 2) someone said what do they do now they can mix trance, I say mix either jungle and learn how to scratch a bit too or learn how to mix techno and mix about once every 2 to 3 minutes with other tricks.
Above there is a post about double-beating, I think the best way of doing this is:
1. Beat-match
2. Cue
3. Instead of forward cuing backwards cue (so playing the beat backwards) on every beat, then release on a forward push and it will be on an off beat.
I don't do this but I'm sure one of the most creative ways to mix would be to get a pen and paper and work out a routine for about 64 beats than can sound really good, i think Dave Clarke must do something like this probably in his head though.
You do need to be able to cue perfectly 99% of the time (reply to something much earlier) so it is on the audible, at least in faster mixes.
Backcuing as described above is cool in itself as a scratch and often used by Carl Cox.
If have good decks press stop before last beat in bar is really cool sound.
DJ's of any genre should listen to Dave Clarke for the skills he puts in his sets if not the coherence, seriously seek out a mix of his.
May interest people to know that Tony De Vit would get Fergie to make him a tape for every weekend and if he heard him not using 'pitch-bend' method he would throw the tape out of the car.
Peace out, nuff said
 
A friend showed me this technique the other day, where as you have a record playing. We'll call it record 1.
You've got record 2 cued up, ready to release on the break for record 1. When the break hits on record, you count 4-8 beats then release record 2.
This will give record 1 a 4-8 beat start on record 2, so that the breaks will be one after the other.
Or you can do it the oposite way, where as you cue record 2 4-8 beats BEFORE the break on record 1, but this requires more skill and better timing then originally doing it.
 
^^^
Phrasing has been discussed in-detail in earlier posts. The number of measures is always a multiple of 8. Meaning that loops are always written in stanzas that are a mulitple of 8. If you're talking about trance, it's typically 32 measures. The key is to learn to judge how many phrases are in a section of a record(sometimes called reading your vinyl) to that you can time your incoming and outgoing tracks correctly.
Or an I misunderstanding you, and you're saying to just mix the breaks?
[ 29 January 2002: Message edited by: RavinRabbi ]
 
I'm sorry, let me clarify this a little more.
I was refearing to the breaks as a new measure. Usually at the end of a measure, on the start of a new measure there will be a new sound, a cymbal, bass line, etc.
So, you can mix 8 beats prior to a new measure, or 8 beats after it.
But, the method I described above is best used if you line up the actual break in the track, meaning the peak moment in the song. Just to give that up and down feeling to the music... bring them up, crash em hard, and do it once again.
Though it all depends on the tracks your mixing...
 
I'd just like to add a little technique I like to do.
Sometimes it's fun to mix different parts of songs together while the other one plays.
I spin Hard/Epic Trance, and some of the tracks get really repetative with not much going on in the song, as it usually does with hard trance (or maybe I just need better records)..
Well anyway, I like to mix vocals and other rythmical pieces of the songs.. I'll follow the format of Record A vs. Record B...
After you've beatmatched the two records, look for a little lead in to Record B, like a sound or vocal or drum beat... It works well if there is a break beat in record B and you can mix it with record A...
When you come to an end of a chorus or stanza or whatever, kill the bass on Record A and Bring up record B.... Make sure the bass on record B is already dead, and just bring the treble in with a little bit of mid.
Do you get it??? I'm kinda having a hard time explaining it...
you'll hear 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4 on record A, and on the last set of 4, kill the bass and mix record B...
Do you get it?
For vocals it's easier...
just mix them where you want to, given that the beats are matched... with the EQ's, make sure that the bass is down, the mid is up and the treble is a little less than halfway.... You don't need to kill the bass unless you have a conflict with basslines..
It's pretty cool spinning house parties where people aren't into the music as much as you'd like them to be... If they know what you're doing with the two records, they get into a little more.. I have a big problem living here in VT where people don't like Trance and House music... A lot of the time people want to hear top 40 and stupid shit like that... I don't spin britney spears you fucks!!!
Any questions?? I hope I wasn't too confusing..
just thought I'd add my own little two cents..
 
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