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The ABC of DJing

I can mix with Ableton but have never mixed with any hardware, thus have absolutely no ideas how to do this. My questions are: 1) how do you beatmatch track on air and 2) how can you play a track with some sound from the next track and at the same time absolutely not affecting the drums of a 1st track?

Are you talking about CD players or Turntables

I think both of them. I know that there are cue cards which can be inserted into players (like Armin showed in his tutorial video) but I cant understand how tracks can be beatmatched on air and why in PvD's sets for example when he mixes 2 tracks, you can hear one track is playing and the other one is fading in while absolutely not affecting the drum line of a first track. As another example, if you've heard Universal Religion 2004 for example, I am referring to transition from Ridgewalkers track to Audioholics - External Key.

with a dj mixer. dont we have a sticky for these kind of things?

quote:

Originally posted by Kenny Rogers with a dj mixer. dont we have a sticky for these kind of things?

We do the top of the forum..

CLICK ME TO LEARN HOW TO DJ

To the OP, you're talking about beatmatching. Look for the vids on that and take it from there, there are hours of dj tutorials in the link above.

When you've got more specific questions pop back on and ask away Not that you can't ask more questions now just saying you'll be wiser after going through the above tutorials.

HTH

maybe he sampled a bit of the track or maybe it was part of the intro. you can beatmatch a track going to the part with the beats, hi hats, snares, etc. and then skip back to the part where you want to mix it in.

Re: The ABC of DJing

quote:

Originally posted by Microlab I can mix with Ableton but have never mixed with any hardware, thus have absolutely no ideas how to do this. My questions are: 1) how do you beatmatch track on air and 2) how can you play a track with some sound from the next track and at the same time absolutely not affecting the drums of a 1st track?

its called riding the pitch

Re: The ABC of DJing

quote:

Originally posted by Microlab I can mix with Ableton but have never mixed with any hardware, thus have absolutely no ideas how to do this. My questions are: 1) how do you beatmatch track on air and 2) how can you play a track with some sound from the next track and at the same time absolutely not affecting the drums of a 1st track?

Oh man...sometimes I forget that I had to learn these things, because I've been mixing so long that it's automatic for me now.

I've never used Ableton, so I'm not sure what you are calling "mixing", which could have several different meanings...for instance, you could be "mixing" different loops together to create songs, but whenever you're talking about fading from 1 song to the other without any clashes in rhythm, that's called beatmatching.

Also, what do you mean by "on air"? Do you mean LIVE? In that case, I'll assume you have a DJ mixer, which controls volumes, eq's, and various other parts of songs.

Typically, you start playing song A. Then, you "preview" the next song (song B) with your headphones. (The audience cannot hear what you're previewing.) The goal here is to find a good starting point for song B...so if song B does not immediately begin with beats, you need to fast forward through song B until you find that first beat...TYPICALLY. NOT ALWAYS. This is known as the "downbeat". After you find that first downbeat, pause your cd player, or if you are using vinyl, hold the record steady. Get ready to release the record/unpause the cd player after you hear a phrase finish on song A (Fux so much jargon here, sorry.)

If you time it right, the beats should hit together at first (kick drums and snares hitting in sync), and it will sound pretty good, but, if the songs are not playing at the same speed, the beats with soon drift apart. This is where your pitch control comes in handy. Listen carefully to song B and determine if it's playing slower or faster than song A, and adjust the pitch of song B to match that of song A.
This is what I consider the be the hardest part of DJ'ing to learn, but if you practice, it will soon become very easy. (Took me less than a week to learn.)

The pitch control is what you might consider to be used for "large adjustments", while the jog wheel of the cd player/spindle of the turntable are more for "fine-tuning". If you know the pitch control is in the right place, you might consider only using the jogwheel/spindle to keep the beats matched, rather than adjusting the pitch control needlessly and making yourself "trainwreck" accidentally from overcompensating.

1 last piece of advice...any changes to volume levels and EQ levels of songs should USUALLY be very subtle, enough so the audience won't know the difference. But, if you need to make dramatic changes to songs, (for instance, cutting the bass completely out of a track), make sure you wait for a phrase change, that way your drastic changes feel like they're "part of the song".

Hope this helps!!! Feel free to PM me if you're having trouble understanding any terms I might have used...I know there was a lot of jargon in there...and I'm positive that I'm leaving out bits and pieces...

Re: Re: The ABC of DJing

quote:

Originally posted by brucelee6783 Oh man...sometimes I forget that I had to learn these things, because I've been mixing so long that it's automatic for me now. I've never used Ableton, so I'm not sure what you are calling "mixing", which could have several different meanings...for instance, you could be "mixing" different loops together to create songs, but whenever you're talking about fading from 1 song to the other without any clashes in rhythm, that's called beatmatching.

In ableton you can time warp, which means you can have 2 tracks in sync perfectly

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