TranceAddict Forums (www.tranceaddict.com/forums)
- DJ Booth
-- Using old(er) tracks & mixing genres in your set ???
Using old(er) tracks & mixing genres in your set ???
Hey, I'm putting together a little mix to try my hand at Ableton and just get some spring choons together. What are your thoughts on using old choons alongside with new ones?
Also, what about mixing styles at the beginning and then transitioning to something else? Like I wanted to start off with something around 120-128bpm housey tracks and transition to prog and then to trance.
Something like Frost - Wait for me, moving to smth like Prydz - Proper Education, moving to smth like A&B - No one on earth rmx, to First State - Falling, etc.
I also wanted to incorporate Faithless "God is a DJ" or "Long way home" and Black 8 - The Silence.
I know it's kinda all over the place now but I want to put together a "journey" sort of mix, that starts off on one side of the spectrum, moving into something slightly different by the end and also put some well-forgotten oldies in (since they're collecting dust in their bins anyway)...
Please provide some productive advise - not just "Wow, that track sucks! why would u use that?" I just want to get some opinions about mixture of styles and some older tracks with newer ones.
I have been using ableton since November 05. I can tell you know if you can successfully mix old tunes with new tunes then good luck to you. for some reason they come accross like the beats are spaced in slightly larger incriments. I tried remixing rendezvous and had to sit there and splice it all to hell just to get it to beatmatch. once you use a record or track once in ableton it immediately becomes obsolete. i would seriously recommend that you stay current.
listen to the mixes in my signature they were made with ableton. the solid globe one is nothing but loops though.
now as far as creating a journey of a dj mix. it can be done.
like start off with some leama and moor and then work your way into some ronski speed and then into rusch and murray and have at it.
thanks for suggestions lads. I am actually not as much concerned with the technicality of ableton as I am with the content of the mix. In other words is it really uncustomary to mix old and new and venture from 125 to 145bpm territory?
You shouldn't really think if it's "uncustomary" or not - just do what you feel like you should. I mix new and old all the time as well as genres - in fact, I think it's what any half-decent DJ should do. Staying in your comfort zone is really boring.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by emc^2 thanks for suggestions lads. I am actually not as much concerned with the technicality of ableton as I am with the content of the mix. In other words is it really uncustomary to mix old and new and venture from 125 to 145bpm territory? |
i tell a cool trick with ableton get that song by ciara where fat man scoop says throw your hands in the air and make a loop of it and have it play over one of your transitions people will trip. I think beatfreaks or someone remixed that. the more cutting edge you are the more people are going to get really pissed off and I know you dont wanna hear the rules or technicallities of ableton but it is the truth. but when mixing with digital files it is almost like there is an on and off switch to using ableton. and for some reason it makes it really tough to mix older tunes. and I swear to god you use a song one time in one mix and try and mix it in another it almost never works.
I wil always play some older songs in my sets.
I agree with the "no rules" bit; then again I know there are many persons out there that will disagree; just as they will when you put forth the notion that there are no "rules" when it comes to producing either. The "there are rules" notion imo does in a way lead to more technically sound (perhaps polished is a better word) music and mixing, but the "no rules" notion (equally imo) leads to more interesting music, and pushes the boundaries of the genre, and music in general.
I've done mixes that blend Coldharbourish "prog" with Nitin Sawhney, Prodigy, prog-breaks, and more trancey yet deeply grooved stuff, to mixes that blend Chicane with pre-00 PvD, hardhouse, tech-house, electro, and contemporary uplifting tech-edged melodic trance. People who abide by rules and strive to do art, imo tend to fail miserably time and again.
Do whatever works for you, and then see if others like it... if they don't, keep exploring the stuff you like doing, until you come across something that both you and others like - then go with that. If you don't have a passion for what you're doing, it doesn't matter if others like it, because while it may make you money, it'll leave you bored out of your skull doing it, and ultimately leave you feeling empty, and that your "art" in fact isn't art at all to you.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Ugly Duckling THERE ARE NO RULEZ TO DJING you can do whatever you want with ableton. you can do tricks maybe when it gets to the break have it spead down to 60BPMS and then back up to the normal speed you can do anything. heck you can take you favorite tracks and have them on one channel and then have loops from the same song playing through a diffrent channel. you can do so much with it it makes normal djs look rather foolish. there are no rules to mixing once again no there is something very very important that you must understand that has not sunk in with the trance dj bracket. they have this theory that everything should be played one way and it is really boring I remember back in the day people would really mix it up and do tricks and stuff now it is just the same old same old. the only time i have ever djed though with ableton someone put a pipebomb on the side of the club I was playing at and was forced off the mixer. I dont know how powerful those things are but it could have had nails in it. |
Just remember, YOU are the DJ, you do what YOU want. Have some fun! I liek to mix it up all the time, I hate sticking to one genre and I refuse to only play current music. And if "beatmatching gets fucked up " is an issue then don't use Ableton... I use Torq and have no trouble matching new and old music. So yeah, just do what you like. Don't be held by some unwritten DJ cookie cutter law.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Ugly Duckling i tell a cool trick with ableton get that song by ciara where fat man scoop says throw your hands in the air and make a loop of it and have it play over one of your transitions people will trip. |
Re: Using old(er) tracks & mixing genres in your set ???
| quote: |
| Originally posted by emc^2 Hey, I'm putting together a little mix to try my hand at Ableton and just get some spring choons together. What are your thoughts on using old choons alongside with new ones? |
Sometimes you can even have a blast integrating old tracks into a set, figuring out where in the set to drop them and how to mix them in and out, etc.| quote: |
| Originally posted by emc^2 I also wanted to incorporate Faithless "God is a DJ" or "Long way home" and Black 8 - The Silence. |
I agree with everyone else. There's no rules. Just have fun Djing, don't stress about it too much. You will see that at the end it will pay off.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Ugly Duckling THERE ARE NO RULEZ TO DJING you can do whatever you want with ableton. you can do tricks maybe when it gets to the break have it spead down to 60BPMS and then back up to the normal speed you can do anything. heck you can take you favorite tracks and have them on one channel and then have loops from the same song playing through a diffrent channel. you can do so much with it it makes normal djs look rather foolish. there are no rules to mixing once again |
throw in some rick asltey when worst comes to worst 
Only thing to watch out for is that sometimes older tracks were mastered at a lower volume so be prepared to up the gain and maybe a little bass.
Im actually working on a mix right now. Out of all the tracks I have it took me 3 days to find tracks that worked with a good flow. Wanted to put a lot more new tracks in then I did, but had no choice, older ones were they only ones that seemed to fit with what I wanted. Plus, I always try to mix up older tracks a lot of people may have missed out on with the newest stuff.
I did a mix a while ago where I was all over the place like this, I went from stuff like Lamb into Imogen Heap and Frou Frou and Jeff Beck, then back into an old Sia remix then Headstrong before going off into Trentemoller and then on and into Lange, Mike Shiver and Above and Beyond stuff. It sounded good (to me at least), but it wasn't really trance and it wasn't all danceable. Heaps of the transitions were quite short, alot of them didn't involve overlapping the beats at all, but they were all in key.
Thats the thing, I find that when working in a more chillout type groove, where I'm not relying on keeping the vibe at maximum intensity all the way through, then its fine to warm up with some really chilled stuff and not do long transitions. But if I'm spinning all trance you have to watch the BPMs to make sure that at least some of the transitions are reasonably long, because its sort of part of the appeal of the genre (to me at least).
Either way, if your splicing in all sorts of crazy genres, your looking at keeping your hand on the BPM the whole time and you'll have to pick points where you can jump in increments of 5 bpm without it being jarring, and also have set planned where you have songs which are in logical progression but also have the right BPM to transition into a song which might be 3 or 4 songs ahead.
I know very little about DJing by the way, I don't do it that often, but I had to mix this set for a friends party the other week and got a lot of practise with this sort of idea. That said, take everything I say with a grain of salt
mana mana... tu tu tu-tu-tu
mana mana... tu tuuuuu-tu-tu
mana mana... tu tu tu-tu-tu
mana mana... tu tuuuuu-tu-tu
Powered by: vBulletin
Copyright © 2000-2021, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.