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Creative mixing...?
I've been bedroom DJ-ing for about 7-8 months now, but I'm not creative! Any ideas of how I could improve my creativeness in my mixing? A lot of people praise me for my mixes - I dunno...I think they are dull...I've got a pretty good grip on the beatmatching, (most of the time I tend to get it really tight) but I seem to do the same thing over and over again...
When the outro (the last minute, or so) begins of a track, or the first break, I bring in the next track, and successively increasing and decreasing bass, and sometimes middle, and trebble, and when the second tune hits it's peak I cut the other tune...fast cuts works nice with clubtrance/hardtrance since that's what I mostly mix...But that's about all I do, sometimes I make fast cuts, sometimes smoother mixing...Boring, as I said...
Any other tips and hints on what else I could do to spice up my mixes?
thanks a lot
//L
Play around with your mixes, dont go for the usual style of just
bringing one track i at the end of one.
Play two (or three if you have that possibility) tracks at once,
mix one tracks buildup in at the buildup at the first, scratch your
way into one track and so on.
Just play around and dont bother to making it 100% perfect, then
you wont have the "guts" to try.
Mix genres, play a instrumental version of a song with a acapella,
mix a track in backwards (if your tables/players supports that),
get two copies of the same track but mix the second version in a
bit off so you get a kind of echo effect (works best on vocals) and
so forth.
Just.. play around. 
I think the first thing you need to do, is get it out of your head that you need to get things perfect when you are practicing. You learn from your mistakes, not repeating what you are already comfortable with.
Try teasers, for one. Bring in the track that you have just beatmatched before you are ready to mix out into that track, then let the two play for a little while and then cut back to the first track. Give the listener a taste of what is to come. (Matt Darey's Pure euphoria cd1 is an excellent example of this technique--very very good cd).
Other than that, do you have an effects sampler on your mixer? If so, that play with some effects. If not, then try using your eqs to produce effects. You can generate at least a wah-like sound and you can do bass cuts or enhances. To get a wah-like effect, turn your mid and high in opposite directions and then back to zero. You can do this in either direction to get a different wah effect.
You can also cut or enhance the bass for the first two or last two beats of the measure. I personally think that it sounds best when you enhance on the first two or cut on the last two.
You'll have to "relearn" what it means to be a dj because it is going to take a lot of learning to figure out which tracks you can tease with, when to do it, what beats to kill or enhance, when to start and finish wah effects etc. You'll learn that you can't just add in effects randomly, you have to listen to pros do them and think to yourself, why did that effect sound good at that point, or why did that dj do that effect when he did? Think about how it adds or subtracts from the energy of the set and if that was the goal of the dj. You'll find out that only certain tracks can be used to tease into eachother, and what part of teasing track you should overlap on the live track--and what part of the live track to do this with too!
There are no set rules, but my suggestion is that you record everything that you do, and don't worry about if it is a perfect cd mix or not. It doesn't matter because it is for practice. But recording is vital so that you can listen to your mistakes and learn the most from them. It will help you learn your tracks better and your mistakes even better.
what you can do is try to maintain the energy for the whole set it's kinda hard to do if you know what im talking about.
Basically what i mean is to don't wait for the track a to get into the outro, before it does mix in tracks B's intro to maintain the energy.
you said you mix hard trance, hard trance you can play with both records all the time, for example while your mixing track B (crossfader in the mid) switch track's a Bass with track b's bass for every 4th beat or 3rd and 4th beat, basically you have to experience, it works really good when you do that and then just switch the bass to record B.
Before you switch from track a to track B, this is at the last bar before the 32nd beat or the 64th beat, bring the volume down on track a and then increase track B's volume and fade out track A.
hard to explain ;d, like flesch and webbie said experience your own stuff you might come up with something quite nice and unique, which is what you should be doing.
Listen to PvD at Okyo (08-11-2002) for example. You'll notice he uses a lot of 'tricks' which you might try for yourself. (good luck on that one 
) You won't even notice certain things untill you listen to it a few times.
I listen to ohter djs that I like and check out the way they mix...for example I think tiesto - summerbreeze had some of the best mixing I've ever head as far as the way it was done...Cosmic Gate - Live @ Orgasmatron 04-28-2002 & Dj Tiesto - Live @ Club Space - 08-18-02 also have some of the best mixing I've heard..The transitions in these sets imo are some of the best I've heard....
you said you mix hard trance...
i have one word for you
backspin
this might sound stupid...
but how do u properly do a back spin that sounds great?
| quote: |
| but how do u properly do a back spin that sounds great? |
... or you could go Westbam on your records just tearing
everything up with scratches and spins.
I suggest listening to some DJ dawn sets. He does a great job of making his mixes not so plain. I would explain it but it is much easier to go D/L his stuff.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by dj_inferno Cosmic Gate - Live @ Orgasmatron 04-28-2002 |
yes, backspins should be kept to a 2 or 4 beat count
they sound the best at the end of a buildup or when mixing in
when mixing in, i would backspin when the main bassline kicks in
so you have record A playing out and record B mixing in, 2 or 4 beats before the bassline in record B kicks in backspin record A
a good song to backspin mixing in to would be barthez - on the move (dumonde remix)
Fuck with your cross fader on the bass on your EQ. Try laying the second and 4th beats of every bar from the incoming track on top of the track you are playing, or mix in with 3 of the 4 beats and cut the last beat. That way people know something new is coming in, but it's layered all throughout the mix.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by DJ_Laszlo I WANT THIS SET...where can I find it? Have tried Kazaa, Mediaseek, SoulSeek, without results... |
did i miss something in this post? 
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Scorpio Rising Listen to PvD at Okyo (08-11-2002) for example. You'll notice he uses a lot of 'tricks' which you might try for yourself. (good luck on that one ) You won't even notice certain things untill you listen to it a few times. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by DJ_Laszlo Well, maybe this is a stupid question, but what's the point with those "tricks" if you hardly can notice 'em? |
Hey cool thread so far. I guess what i often do is simply just start mixing in a little earlier. Dont wait for the break to completely finish before u start moving that crossfader across or volume faders up. Start bringing in the intro asap. As soon as u get a chance cut it. Even try with a spinback if ur feeling daring. Listen to PvD Mayday 2000 where pvd mixes Beta Blocker into DJ Remy - Pumped Up. This is a perfect example and one of my favourite transitions ever. Paul starts mixing in Beta Blocker very early, and keeps on edging it in and in. Then finally a spin back on DJ Remy - Pupmed Up works such a treat.
But yea those kind of transitions keeps the energy flowing, and imo makes u a better DJ. Just takes a little practice and good knowledge of the tunes u hav
just play round and scratch, but seriously if u aint mixing pretty much perfectly and already getting bored, maybe djing aint for u, try producing or summat for a bit then go back.
i do a lot of scratching now, and scratching with derb tunes is really good fun heheh 
Here is my arsenal of effects Eletrics Filter facotory / filter queen
and tomorrow im going to buy a korg kaoss pad 2....should kick ass if it does what i want i may sell the elctrix stuff, but prolly not ill just toss in a rack with my synths. Check out the site to hear demos of what you can do with some effects reverb/delay is nice too, thats why im getting the pad www.electrixpro.com i think thats the site.
im glad i landed on this forum nice things were said here
Oh i forgot to mention, listen to some Hard House DJ's, they play with their tracks all the time.
Listen to some of lisa lashes essential mixes or something you'll see what i mean. for example they cut the 4th beat before a climax untill it reaches, try out your own stuff.
Re: Creative mixing...?
| quote: |
| Originally posted by DJ_Laszlo I've been bedroom DJ-ing for about 7-8 months now, but I'm not creative! Any ideas of how I could improve my creativeness in my mixing? A lot of people praise me for my mixes - I dunno...I think they are dull...I've got a pretty good grip on the beatmatching, (most of the time I tend to get it really tight) but I seem to do the same thing over and over again... When the outro (the last minute, or so) begins of a track, or the first break, I bring in the next track, and successively increasing and decreasing bass, and sometimes middle, and trebble, and when the second tune hits it's peak I cut the other tune...fast cuts works nice with clubtrance/hardtrance since that's what I mostly mix...But that's about all I do, sometimes I make fast cuts, sometimes smoother mixing...Boring, as I said... Any other tips and hints on what else I could do to spice up my mixes? thanks a lot //L |
Re: Re: Creative mixing...?
| quote: |
| Originally posted by The Don Ive been Djing for near on 12 years now and one thing Ive learned is that Mixing is not really all that important. Its all about Tune selection and set structure. Put the right tunes together and you'll be forgiven for not being the great technical DJ. |
some tricks that i use on occasion
have record A playing live, and beatmatch record B
then throw record B off by exactly a half beat...
so record B's kick drum should be playing on the +'s of record A
i.e.
record A
1+2+3+4+
Record B
+1+2+3+4
then just take samples from record B and it will sound like a kick drum, drum roll if you do it right
you just have to make sure the kickdrum in record b sounds the same as record A's
another trick i sometimes do during a buildup or a mix is...
okay for a buildup...
have record b beatmatched and use samples from it and stuff during record A's buildup...then on the last 2 beats of the buildup...cut to record B and press the stop button
if timed right it can sound amazing
sounds just as good during a transition also (instead of backspinning)
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