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Posted by Ken_Allen on Nov-07-2004 02:49:

Mixing Pop Tunes

Theres a guy here on our radio...Fly92 FM and theres a saturday night remix with all kinds of rap, hiphop, and pop tunes. How do you mix those songs? I've tried in traktor but they're all like 130 bpm, then another song is like 89, then like 96 and if you change the bpm they sound awful

Posted by djkoolaide on Nov-07-2004 05:04:

www.ultimix.com

They basically take popular songs, put 32 bars of drums at the beginning, and press CDs and Vinyls each month of them. The 32 bars of straight drums means that any non-experienced guy can stand up there with some CD decks and push play. All they need to do is beatmatch. No worries about harmonics, because they are designed for DJs who can't DJ

BTW, there's tons of Top40 stations that do it. There is a promo disc that goes out to the radios each week called "Hot Mix Mainstream Show" and all the stuff is pre-mixed, using the stuff from Ultimix (including Funkymix). Also included on the CD are the background music for the "DJs" to talk over and commercials are on the CD too.

http://www.premieredemos.com/premiere_programming/hot_mix.htm

It really pisses me off when I go to school and hear "OMG! That stuff they do on the radio is like soooooooooo cool when they mix the songs together!!"

Posted by Ken_Allen on Nov-07-2004 05:07:

AHaha ...thanks!

Posted by djkoolaide on Nov-07-2004 05:17:

No problem

Just realized they're playing it here now also

Posted by DannyO on Nov-09-2004 04:06:

quote:
Originally posted by djkoolaide
www.ultimix.com

They basically take popular songs, put 32 bars of drums at the beginning, and press CDs and Vinyls each month of them. The 32 bars of straight drums means that any non-experienced guy can stand up there with some CD decks and push play. All they need to do is beatmatch. No worries about harmonics, because they are designed for DJs who can't DJ

BTW, there's tons of Top40 stations that do it. There is a promo disc that goes out to the radios each week called "Hot Mix Mainstream Show" and all the stuff is pre-mixed, using the stuff from Ultimix (including Funkymix). Also included on the CD are the background music for the "DJs" to talk over and commercials are on the CD too.

http://www.premieredemos.com/premie...ing/hot_mix.htm

It really pisses me off when I go to school and hear "OMG! That stuff they do on the radio is like soooooooooo cool when they mix the songs together!!"

Am I the only one that feels sick to my stomack afer reading that?

Posted by djkoolaide on Nov-09-2004 04:09:

quote:
Originally posted by DannyO
Am I the only one that feels sick to my stomack afer reading that?

Nope.

Posted by Cheetah86 on Nov-09-2004 05:13:

quote:
Originally posted by DannyO
Am I the only one that feels sick to my stomack afer reading that?

It's really only the last line that bothers me, if a mobile/radio dj chooses to do that, they might get slightly more respect from me as a "plain" mobile dj because they're putting some effort into it rather than just a 3 second fade. It's just that people admiring them for things like that, when theres real DJ's out there that are capable of much more, can get annoying.

Posted by starlabs on Nov-09-2004 08:57:

OK, assuming some people don't or can't use that ultimix stuff, any other tips? I'm looking to do an 80s mix. I guess relatively quick cuts are going to be the majority of transitions. One can also loop the first bar and mix it in that way, I suppose.

Posted by Ken_Allen on Nov-09-2004 21:59:

THere was that DVJ Movie with 2nd Nature and he beatmatched and mixed rap songs and 80's songs together in their orginal mixes.

Posted by failsafe on Nov-09-2004 22:38:

that was VERY heavily groomed though. Have you seen his battle mixes from competitions? He does about 20 mixes in 10min never using his headphones. just a little scratched between already beat matched songs on his cdj's. every track is on the 2 cds, he never even switches the cds. Some may like it but it's not my thing. It's more production than djing.

Posted by starlabs on Nov-09-2004 23:42:

Yah battle mixes, battles in general are pretty much pre-thought-out, practiced performances. Not to take anything away from that (some of those battle performances are amazing), but it's not really "DJing" as most of us know it.

Posted by bent on Nov-10-2004 10:51:

yeah i've seen all the 2nd nature vids (the guy actually makes those extended intro remixes for ultimix/funkymix), and in one of them he said he's gonna practice his routine .. its shit boring to watch i reckon .. when i got it i was like allrighttt this is gonna be wicked, but it was such a disappointment..

if knows of any good hip hop dj vids like 2nd natures (but not pre-programmed stuff) if ya'd let us know that would be awsum!

Posted by montie on Nov-10-2004 12:00:

i used to mix that shit in highschool
its not fun
i beatmatched when i could, but most of the time it was just slamming the crossfader back and forth

most people who want to hear that stuff don't even know what beatmatching is, and won't appreciate it either way. beatmatching that stuff is just more of a way to pass the time...

Posted by montie on Nov-10-2004 12:04:

quote:
Originally posted by starlabs
OK, assuming some people don't or can't use that ultimix stuff, any other tips? I'm looking to do an 80s mix. I guess relatively quick cuts are going to be the majority of transitions. One can also loop the first bar and mix it in that way, I suppose.

your right. many eighties songs have a house beat (120-130BPM) which you can beatmatch, just be sure to loop before hand.