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Practicing Methods

What do you guys generally do to practice your mixing?

Do you just play random stuff or have any method you have found to be efficient?

Constantly mix back and forth, regardless if the timing is right, just to practice beatmatching, eqing, etc... plus that can give you a quick idea of which tracks go well together and which don't. I just hate waiting 6 minutes for a track to play, especially when I've been hammering the same tracks for a while.

half and half between trying hard and trying to make a set flow nice, like i would for a gig, and half the time i just dick around playing whatever i wanna. both are important, making a set flow just right takes practice, but sometimes when your messing around you find something really creative or a new technique or whatever. im curious what others do.

i just jam, and tend to mix in and out more often than usual. If you always are doing something you stay on your toes and this is also great to make some nice discoveries in terms of track combos.

quote:

Originally posted by elFreak i just jam, and tend to mix in and out more often than usual. If you always are doing something you stay on your toes and this is also great to make some nice discoveries in terms of track combos.

This is much the same for me. I generally like to let my fave new tracks at the moment play right through and layer parts of other tunes over the top to see what can sound good together. But yes with older tracks I've had for a while I tend to play around with them a bit more chopping them up/scratching and using effects a bit more and really mixing the tracks trying not to have a dominant tune for a lot of the time. I also try different placement ideas more with some of my older tracks, but I guess I should try that more with new stuff too.

yeah if you know your tracks well enough you can screw around with placement ideas as well as effects/loops more. i think it's a lot harder to be creative with newer tracks unless you spend a good amount of time learning it before you play it.

PalTalk.

Yeah the best is when you're randomly mixing and you're cueing up the next track and discover it would make a great blend for a mashup or something that like.

Thanks for the tips guys, I had slacked for quite a while in between my first mix and the one I'm making now and I just know that if I had kept practicing like I should have I'd be much further ahead than what I am at the moment.

But quite frankly I have no idea what the best approach would be, so I'm pretty much open to all ideas

basically the more you put into it the more you will get out of it. I spin soooo much everyday just to stay on top of my game and know what effects i can use where and which tracks go well together and at which points to do everything. It's a war zone out there with the amount of djs out there you have to stand out

Play something else.

I've practiced mixing with a lot of different styles of music just to improve my ears. Real often, you'll find that different rythms are a lot harder to mix. Try mixing hip-hop, drum 'n bass or dance-classics (or just take your sisters Britney Spears cd's and use those), for example. It will really help you to get a better ear for what works and what doesn't.

Also, try 'on-the-fly' mixing, starting with the pitch on zero (or any random value) and just adjusting it once you have started the track. You can do this without headphones, to make it a little harder.

quote:

Originally posted by djxtension Play something else. I've practiced mixing with a lot of different styles of music just to improve my ears. Real often, you'll find that different rythms are a lot harder to mix. Try mixing hip-hop, drum 'n bass or dance-classics (or just take your sisters Britney Spears cd's and use those), for example. It will really help you to get a better ear for what works and what doesn't. Also, try 'on-the-fly' mixing, starting with the pitch on zero (or any random value) and just adjusting it once you have started the track. You can do this without headphones, to make it a little harder.

This is some very interesting advice

quote:

Originally posted by woscar99 This is some very interesting advice

I've heard that Josh Wink used to practice beat matching without headphones by listening to the sound the needle makes on the record.

Fool around with your gear and get comfortable, have a cocktail

AND TAKE NOTES.

writing shit down helps

Write shit down? It's mixing FFS, not rocket science.

Just play.

quote:

Originally posted by woscar99 This is some very interesting advice

Well, if you don't try, you'll certainly won't get any better.

Playing around with different (or just plain weird) techniques definately improves your skills. If not, you can atleast say you had fun trying.

Play around, go crazy. Even if it doesn't get better, it won't get any worse...

record yourself

i try to record at least a 2 hour mix every week

best way to learn flow and programming imo

this is after you get beatmatching down though... not before!

quote:

Originally posted by Marcus007 record yourself i try to record at least a 2 hour mix every week best way to learn flow and programming imo this is after you get beatmatching down though... not before!

you use ableton lulz.

quote:

Originally posted by djxtension Well, if you don't try, you'll certainly won't get any better. Playing around with different (or just plain weird) techniques definately improves your skills. If not, you can atleast say you had fun trying. Play around, go crazy. Even if it doesn't get better, it won't get any worse...

Actually I meant what I said...it IS interesting advice and I do plan to try it out.

quote:

Originally posted by elFreak you use ableton lulz.

i had cdj for 2 years fool

i wanna hear a recording, with your fame you could be the next samantha robson

quote:

Originally posted by elFreak i wanna hear a recording, with your fame you could be the next samantha robson

Fuck! That made me ROFL!

record yourself and "fly blind" (play other peoples records at random)

quote:

Originally posted by woscar99 Fuck! That made me ROFL!

he is kinda famous to a certain demographic lol.

quote:

Originally posted by Max Thomson record yourself and "fly blind" (play other peoples records at random)

You mean like from someone else's record bag?

i don't ever wait for the 6 minutes to end if im practicing...i just megamix...i.e. mix in songs after 1 or 2 mins and try doing live mash-ups. a great way to practice though is while doing something else.

example:

if ur reading (which i do coz i'm in college)...i mix a song after reading a page lol...sounds lame but it helps u get practice...and speeds up ur beatmatching...i got my beatmatching up from about 30 secs to under 10.

although i still maintain that the best practice u get is from an actual gig. and yeah i find house and trance pretty easy to mix with the 4 on 4 beat...try doing hip hop mash-ups with house...it works ur ear a lot more because they're different beats.

also recording ur mixes helps, because there's a high chance ur going to fuck around if no one's listening but u

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