mixing tracks that dont start with the beat

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-- mixing tracks that dont start with the beat

Posted by teknasia on Dec-28-2002 12:04:

mixing tracks that dont start with the beat

how do you guys mix tracks like Marco V - I feel you that doesn't directly start with the beat? do you start mixing from the beat?

Posted by Acid John on Dec-28-2002 12:22:

i havent heard that song, but as far as mixing w/ out a beat, that can get tricky...

even without a beat, sometimes you can still pickup where the beat should be. (hard to put into words)...in that case, you can get tha tune beatmatched, and you can start to fade it in, and just try to line up the beat of the live track, to where the beat of the incoming song should be.

be very careful if u do this, because this has "trainwreck" written all over it if you fuck it up.

now, if you can barely, or not at all tell where the beat should be during the intro, then you HAVE to start it where the beat begins, unless you are god or something

Posted by teknasia on Dec-28-2002 12:29:

idd i've experimenting with that...
i thought that it matched but then when the beat of track B appears it sounds chopping and its fucked up

Posted by bigjimslade002 on Dec-28-2002 19:06:

depends on the sound of the begining track.
take banginglobe(ferry corsten remix) for example.the beginning of this song has way to much funky treble to try to mix into a song for me so i just wait till the bassline kicks in.(ferry himself doesent even use the beginning part)on the other hand i'll take a song like Legoland(vocal mix)wich has about 20 seconds of no bassline at the beginning where the person screams something which i cant make out really loud.so when theres about 30 seconds left of a track,i'll throw legoland on and as she starts to scream i'll slowly turn legoland up as i slowly turn the volume(and bass) of the other track down.this usually always has good results for me.i call songs like Legoland transition songs.it's always good to have a few songs that you would consider transition songs on hand for when you want to pick up or slow down the pace......

GIVE TRANCE A CHANCE....

Posted by jdat on Dec-28-2002 19:11:

this is where knowing your records real well comes in handy

oh and most importantly ..... let the "beat" grow on you ...... imagine the beat when there is none, laid over the intro of a track that has no beat ..... that can help A LOT
But the reality of it is, this will come with time ..... awareness and prediction of what's about to come is only available to those who percevere

my 2 pennies

Posted by Tony Morello on Dec-29-2002 04:47:

yes, after a while of doing this
you'll just be able to feel a "groove"
i can't explain it
but you're able to feel where the beat should be
i've beatmatched songs during the breakdown
and come time to mix it, it's perfect

Posted by xXxAzNrAvErxXx on Dec-29-2002 05:27:

Where did you get Marco V - I feel You on vinyl?

Posted by djxtension on Dec-29-2002 14:57:

quote:
Originally posted by xXxAzNrAvErxXx
Where did you get Marco V - I feel You on vinyl?

It's on the con:fusion album sampler.

You'll probably find it at one of the online record-stores like only-dj's.

Posted by Flash Bastard on Dec-30-2002 10:29:

I have tried it's hard ... mainly cue up a point with a beat

Posted by j@y on Dec-30-2002 20:13:

if you have turn tables just cue it to the first beat,its very easy

if you have a cd mixer you have too cue it depends on the machine you have
you must have a cue button
just figure out how it is working

Posted by VaNFeCto on Dec-31-2002 02:13:

Just want to say starting off im no master dj but im ok. Know youre record really well first off, that way youll know when its coming in and the way it comes in as far as what it sounds like when there is a beat. You can kinda beat match that way. If all else fails turn down the bass all the way hahahah.

Posted by J_men on Jan-03-2003 17:31:

The easy way to do it is to beat match using the first proper beats, then when you've got it match the only problemn is cueing it in.

If there is an actual tempo to the intro, you can just cue up the first sound and adjust the timing slightly as the beat comes in, if it sounds wrong.

If there's no kind of beat at all, then you can't really mix with that part.

It all comes down to how good you are at mixing to the groove of the track, ie. the beat you dance to, as in what you feel, not just a bass beat.

ps. if you can mix breaks all this becomes a lot easier

Posted by MERiDiAN5i2 on Jan-03-2003 19:14:

it's very possible to match on melodys, highhats, ANYTHING repetitive in the music... you just have to get an ear for it.

my suggestion: start the marco record after its got beats, match those beats into the other record, then put the needle back at the start of the macro record. treat the first sound of the marco record as it's first beat, and drop that into the first beat of a phrase of the outgoing record. match (hand nudge) on the melody, and do a flip of the BASS EQ's when the marco record starts dropping bass.

line the phrases up right, and you could make it a sweet transition... if the other track is cooperative to this record, atleast.

don't be afraid to pay less attetion to the bass beats and more attention to the entire spectrum. as you match on the bass, notice how the other elements sound in tandem, and start trying to work on the highhats instead of the basslines to get your ears thinking differently.

i found that once i started to pay attention to the highs AND lows, i also started to listen to the mids (in a "for beatmatching" sense)
- and now it's more of a full spectrum thing when it comes to beatmatching for me.

lesson here: spinning other genre's than 4/4 (house/trance/techno, etc) will teach you skills.

Posted by Dj Flesch on Jan-03-2003 19:47:

I plan on mixing a track that doesn't start with a bass beat because I'm spinning at a rave with my own eq--so I have to mix over to a different setup (or have to be prepared to do so if we can't find another way to hook up my eq) I've thought a lot about this, and what I plan on doing is this: First I'll see what BPM the live track is, then I'll use my bpm to adjust to the approx bpm on my cue track. I'll cue my track up, then kill the bass about 4 beats before I plan on mixing in my cue track. Then after about another 16 beats (which won't be actually played since I killed the bass), I'll probably finish fading out the last track.

My main goal is to keep it pretty short just because of the possibility of a trainwreck. I am also assuming that the dj before me is going to be playing in my BPM range. If not, then I'll probably just power down his table 32 beats before my tracks starts kicking in with its bass, then let it ride out on a slow, bassless, set transition. This will help transition between any other genre and trance

You can plan much better than I can because you will have a clue what you want to play before that track. You can pick out two tracks that go well together, where as I don't have that option. My main thoughts are that you keep it short if you don't have it beatmatched well. You can beatmatch it well though, if you simple fast forward to a part of the track that does have a bass beat. Match it, and then use Meridian512's suggestions to maintain the beatmatch during your actual transition.

Some people like matt darey can do this increable (like on Pure Euphoria transitioning into William orbit's adagio for strings) and others like Nu-NRG just kind of slam it home into the next track and kill the first track really quickly (like on live at orgasmatron)