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-- Anyone here mix drum & bass?

Anyone here mix drum & bass?

If you do, is it harder/completley different from mixing trance?

Ive decided that im gonna start mixing some d'n'b for a couple of reasons: One is that i've only bought about 3 trance records in the last 3/4 months - a lot of the new trance which has been coming out recently has been pretty crap imo. Another thing is that mixing trance has been getting a bit boring for me - it just seems too repetitive: play record, beatmatch, mix, next record, beatmatch, mix, etc, etc so i wanted to try something different. I had a listen to a shitload of d'n'b samples on juno and some of them are damn good so i was thinking of buying a batch to start mixing & scratching with. Btw, i didn't just randomly choose d'n'b as a new genre to mix, i used to listen to it a few years ago but never really got into it.

Yeah, I mix d'n'b too. It's pretty much the same, except since the beats are much more complex, it matters a lot more exactly what you're mixing together, if that makes sense. This is both in terms of the individual tracks you choose and where in those tracks you're mixing, and for how long. You also can't keep the mixing going as long for most tracks or it'll sound weird (picture a room full of crazed people hyped up on speed all wacking away at drums), mixes are typically pretty quick. d'n'b djs also incorporate a lot more hip-hop type mixing in their sets.

I find it to be easier than trance, but someone I mix with a lot thinks it's harder because he can't hear the beat as well.....so it depends on the person I guess. I was a drummer for 10-15 years so it's really easy for me to find beats among complex drumming. I also find that with d'n'b you can fuck up more and the crowd doesn't really notice.

Anyways, yeah...expand your musical horizons....confining yourself to one genre is just boring.

It takes a bit to get used to the speed difference, but it's no big deal. I mixed it the same way as breaks, match the snares on the 2 and on the 4 if they're there. You can't do the super-long fading mixes like with house/prog/trance, but you can still do a clean fade over a phase or two. My suggestion is to learn how to cut. Drum and Bass often sounds really nice with some well placed cuts. You can also mix in hip-hop at half-tempo.

Cheers.

^^^ whats 'cutting'?

also, thx for the info. guys.

I used to mix D n B a long time ago. To be honest I found it incredibly easy. It's very forgiving due to a lack of melody and doesn't really take that much to get into it.
It does have some creative possibilities that you don't have with trance but on the whole I find it mind numbingly dull (personal opinion not statement of fact).

There are some quality D&B productions around but it does get a bit samey after a while... at least in my humble opinion.
Not saying that trance isn't samey atm... we seem to be having a dry spell of quality tuneage.

Cheers
Nem

quote:

Originally posted by Trancedewd ^^^ whats 'cutting'? also, thx for the info. guys.

Cutting = cut track A to briefly play track B and the go back to A.

Think short cut mixes but repeatedly.

Yeah, I'm actually mixing d 'n b more than trance right now. I'm a big fan of the layering possibilities with that genre.

(Pisses me off that DJ Fresh did the X Ray/Living Daylights layer on his CD. Now I can't use it anymore.)

Yea Ive been mixing dnb for a few years now, mostly liquid style tunes. But Ive pretty much converted to mixing techno in the last 6 months because I dont find the dnb scene as exciting as it was when I was first getting into it. The whole dubplate culture is a joke, its hard to be original in that scene because pretty much every dj is sporting the same new tunes. Its hard to make it anywhere due to the fact the whole scene is controlled by the same big names who were in it 10 years ago. Dnb producers headline events as djs and most of them cannot mix for absoloute jack. Irritating

Anyway, the advice I'll give you as far as it comes to mixing is obviously using the hi's and snares to beatmatch, otherwise it'll sound pretty crazy going by the basslines ..Try to match tunes with similar sounding drums as I find its pretty easy to make two unsuited tunes sound horrible in the transition. You wont really be in the mix transition for very long due to the stucture of most dnb tunes but this gives you the ability to mix tune after tune swiftly stepping from one tune to the next. Once you get to this stage you can experiment with double dropping tunes which can be quite interesting aslong as the two tunes are suited.

Also make sure you dont over-do it when listening or mixing dnb as it gave me tinnitus in no less than a year after I first got into it!

started mixing dnb a few months ago and all i can say is that its so much fun compared to trance. all the advice everybody has said is dead on...and all it really is, is getting used to it. its not your typical trance beat so its a bit confusing at first. just stick with it and it'll work. you'll soon come to realize its a bit easier than trance, but at the same time has a complexitiy of not being able to play whatever tracks you want.

have fun with it...i know ive been.

quote:

Originally posted by Fresh Yea Ive been mixing dnb for a few years now, mostly liquid style tunes. But Ive pretty much converted to mixing techno in the last 6 months because I dont find the dnb scene as exciting as it was when I was first getting into it. The whole dubplate culture is a joke, its hard to be original in that scene because pretty much every dj is sporting the same new tunes. Its hard to make it anywhere due to the fact the whole scene is controlled by the same big names who were in it 10 years ago. Dnb producers headline events as djs and most of them cannot mix for absoloute jack. Irritating

yeh i think i've noticed this - ive been checking out some d'n'b sites and downloading sets and the same names keep popping up.

quote:

Anyway, the advice I'll give you as far as it comes to mixing is obviously using the hi's and snares to beatmatch, otherwise it'll sound pretty crazy going by the basslines ..Try to match tunes with similar sounding drums as I find its pretty easy to make two unsuited tunes sound horrible in the transition. You wont really be in the mix transition for very long due to the stucture of most dnb tunes but this gives you the ability to mix tune after tune swiftly stepping from one tune to the next. Once you get to this stage you can experiment with double dropping tunes which can be quite interesting aslong as the two tunes are suited.

I can point out the snares in nearly every d'n'b track i've heard so ill probably use that to mix. I see what u mean with the short transition thing - the sets i've d/led have really fast ones. Also, i sometimes find it hard to even notice the tracks changed because they are so similar.

quote:

Also make sure you dont over-do it when listening or mixing dnb as it gave me tinnitus in no less than a year after I first got into it!

Hmmm, ive already got pretty bad tinnitus, bye bye hearing

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