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when im bringing tracks in ill have the bass completely cut. why? bass has the most presence in a song at high amplitudes. its nearly always the loudest element in any song and you can amp up bass frequency to insane levels and it wont destroy your ears. will make you feel a bit sick though. its always monophonic. its always centred. so it sounds like its everywhere. really i do not want that to come in suddenly at all. if i got kills ill use them. if not bass EQ rotary goes all the way down to 0. broadly most songs have a distinctive bass (kicks and bassline), mid range (vocals, leads) and treble (hihats) presence. i find its also easier to beatmatch with the bass rotary down since you only get the 'click' part of the kick drum in your phones and its very prominant and hard sounding. shit cans? shit mixer? send the bass all the way down and up the mid. beatmatch on the kick drum click. failing that do it on the snares/claps every 2nd and 4th beat.
when im bring a record in ill mix using the EQs. i dont fuck with the crossfader much. and i dont fuck with the channel faders unless its the tune coming in. i set the channel faders so that the loudest part of the track peaks at just under 0 dB then leave it there. sudden volume changes sound shit in club. also, bass frequency that is rapidly cut or introduced rapidly sounds shit. the cross fader stays in the centre with the channel fader of the track coming in, waaaay down at around -30 dB ish. bass is fully cut. mid range has a large cut on it too. treble is on! bring up the channel fader so the hihats are audible and you get a sense that something is coming in. just a skittering of hihats stacked on top of each other. you know somethings coming in. but you cant tell what it is (unless you are really good with your tunes  keep em guessing on the floor). at the end of 2 phrases start bring the mid on the new tune in, so the most distinctive characteristic of the new track slowly becomes evident (at this point, people may be able to ID the tune and grins will start emerging all over the place if its good). whilst bringing the treble in the treble on the old tune out. you should complete 1 movement (4 phrases consisting of 4 bars each) at least before i bring the bass in. either slowly or i can drop it in faster over the course of 2 phrases or instantly with kills. if im gonna drop it in instantly id like to kill the other bassline or very quickly drop the bass on the outgoing track a notch or two then slowly tail it off.. keeps the anticipation there. its not fully in until that weight of bass slams home and you know you have to bop for another minute at 2 minutes before a break. bass is the last thing i bring in because leaving 2 records in the mix, both with substantial bass presence causes phasing errors which are audible. notice how sometimes a tune is pretty much beatmatched but the kicks change sound and appear to drift when they arent? destructive phasing sounds shit. and from production the idea of doubling up huge amounts of bass is just...wrong.
i tend to like seamless mixes aswell - ones where you cant tell where the old one finishes and the new one begins. a constant hypnotic stream of music. course im not good enough for it to be seamless. but i like to always bring something out as something else is going in. i think if mixing as giving yourself a minute or a minute and a half in a transition between songs where you can swap things about, have several elements from both tracks working together. then when the movement ends. whack the fader across. work on the next seamless transition.
i think its a fitting way of mixing psy and it really kind of keeps that trance ethos alive and well in your sets. not so big on the build. drop. build. drop kind of way of mixing.
Last edited by Derivative on Mar-10-2005 at 14:33
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