On Thu, 8 Jan 2004 23:12:54 +1030, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > ok so i am curious to know how you all mix, im not into > tricks and things i > just want a nice smooth mix without endless > beatmatching (get on with the > tunes i say!) > > generally when i mix house i tend to bring the next > tune in with the bass > turned 3/4 of the way down and gradually bring it up as > i bring the outgoing > tune's bass down then i wind down the volume until it > is faded out. or ill > bring a tune in with the bass almost off then at the > appropriate time ill > swap the bassline into the new tune (if that makes > sense) > > anyway its getting a bit 'samey' and im looking for > some tips
hi, alex; from my experience i've found what is best regardless is to know your tunes inside out structure wise and use this to your advantage. know which songs have beatless or acapella intros, which have these sorts of breaks, which have these sorts of extros. which songs fade in, which songs fade out; which sounds kick right in with a beat, which soungs end with a beat. which songs end cold (ie no fade out) and which fade. then, when you're mixing, instead of thinking in terms of tempo and beatmaching, just think in terms of "stitching together" a fabric of songs into a whole. example; song 1: starts right off with a beat and has no breakdowns that are beatless or acapella and it ends cold. song 2: has an acapella intro and then the beat kicks in. it fades. mixing this way you have a variety of options. you could let song 1 play and the second it ends (because it ends cold), you could start song 2. you could lay the acapella from song 2 over song 1 in bits (ie not all at once; "tease" it in) and then switch over completely to song 2 (on beat, of course :)) at a time that feels right. when you've got songs with beatless intros and/or breaks and/or extros, it becomes even easier because you can lay the beatless intro from song 2 over the beat of song 1, or start the beat from song 2 during the beatless break or extro of song 1, etc. as you get more confident with this style and know your songs even better, your stiching will be even tighter and you'll have times when even you don't know which bit is playing from which song (when they're playing at once) and you'll be creating new pieces of music (the "third song"). when i started mixing, (this is extremely funny in hindsight, but i was extremely serious about it at the time) i was playing everything from public enemy and new order and inner city to r.e.m. and u2 and led zeppelin. and i was anal beyond belief (flashback to a young andrew: mom: "andrew, how come you never have your friends over anymore?" andrew; "because they don't put things back in the right place!") whenever i got a new record, i would take out my watch and find the bpm of *every single track on the record* (yes, *even* the ones that i would never play out!) and write them down on a piece of paper in order from slowest tempo to highest tempo on that record. i would then file all my records (12"s were easier, of course, cos they would have less songs to bpm than an album) in terms of the lowest starting bpm on that record. here's the punchline: then when i djed (i was doing like a 6 hour set on weekends at the university plus gigs here and there (back then they were called "mobiles")) i would start the night around 8pm with songs at the lowest bpm (say 60) and play all the 60bpm songs, then move to 62 for a while, then 65, etc. later in the night i would be up to 120 or so. (gosh, that must have been horribly painful and annoying and repetitive for repeat attendees!) if i would get a request for a song that was downtempo and i was playing in the 120 range, i would say "i've already played songs in that tempo". (yes, i hope you're laughing as you read this. thankfully i'm not that anal person anymore, but you've got to picture lil' ol' me back then, so damn serious about bpms that--get this--if i got a new record, i would not play it out--no matter what--until i had figured out the bpms for it! crazy, i realize now.) anyway, i cured myself of this bpming-every-single-song-no-matter-what and playing-songs-according-to-bpm-from slowest to fastest-all-night a couple of years after i got into that phase. at first i just didn't bother bpming every single song, than i stopped filing them by bpm (changed to alphabetical), than i got looser and looser with my filing system until now, many many years later, i just have pre-90s stuff roughly in one area and stuff since then in another and the pre-90s is divided loosely up into disco/funk, dance, and hip hop and the 90s on stuff is loosely divided up into house, techno/electro, and everything else rows. now when i mix i just go by feel, if it is close and the mood warrants it, i'll beatmatch, but otherwise i'll just stitch the songs together in a fashion that makes best sense. speaking of sense, hope this long ramble/blather makes sense and is possibly of some use to you. take care, alex and all the best with the mixing. andrew duke Jason Trenholm was born 31 August 1969 and died 1 January 2004. We met when we were 5 years old; he was my best friend for the next 29 years.***** Andrew Duke releases out now: Take Nothing For Granted http://cognitionaudioworks.com Environmental Politics http://and-oar.org Sprung http://bip-hop.com http://warprecords.com/mart/music/release.php? cat=BLEEP12&fc_type=CD *Canadian electronica album of the year nominee* More Destructive Than Organized http://staalplaat.com Highest Common Denominator http://pieheadrecords.com Physical and Mental Health http://dialrecords.com 74'02 (split with Hypo) http://tsunami-addiction.com http://cognitionaudioworks.com
