right i have just aquired myself a third deck, only a crappy numark tt1600 belt drive but still, and was wondering if any of you guys have any tips??

Ive been playing around with a bit but alot of the stuff i try just doesnt sound quite right if you know what i mean, is it just a case of practice and finding the right tunes to mess around with, or is there a real knack to getting things to sound good?

cheers guys

get tunes that don't have alot going on in them... if there's to much sound coming out of all three records, no amount of tweaking the eqs is gonna help it...

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SINsation Sound

hmm you should start by getting some records with acapellas on the b-side to start throwing some acapellas during other tracks. The tune selection really is important, as well as the style you spin. With trance, 3 deck mixing will be tough since tracks have so much melody and personality, they will clash. But with techno is easier. I spin all of EDM, what I usually do is throw a techno track on top of other 2 as a layer, or for backspins, 1 beat cuts, etc, and what I also do is, when I like the long intros of some tracks, do a transition to that track but quickly put the track on the 3rd deck playing so that when the first one is dying, the second one is building, I get the 3rd one in and take the other 2 off. Hope that makes sense lol. That way I just use the intros and then turn into a track that I find more interesting than the others.
mess around with it, it's the best advice you'll get.

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get some techno records, watch a video of carl cox live, and go to work.

3 deck mixing is really more common for techno. and even then, selecting just any tunes can cause trouble. for trance you could do 3 deck damage by using some acapellas, possibly another remix of the same tune to make a live edit, maybe a 3rd deck that is not a technics and has a built in reverse play function, to experiment, or to do some really tight mixing, or megamixing perhaps...

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the hardest thing about 3 deck mixing, is learning how to beatmatch 2 tracks at once. technically you dont have to if you are quick at beatmatching, but even so, time is of the essence so if i were you i would get it learned

another bit of advice i would give to you, is get another third deck. the way things work with 3 tunes on the go is different to having just 2 tunes. each time you make an adjustment on one deck, you also need to adjust the other deck. however, always keep one track at a constant pace, making no adjustment. for this reason, i think you will find it will all go wrong very easily using a tt1600. i've tried it with tt1650's (direct drive version) and its very hard!

regarding track selection. paint it like a picture, everything needs to be balanced. pick out tunes that will balance well. for example, have one thats all percussive chunks, one with a nice mid hook, and then to get it all going like the clappers dig out a track with massive pumpin high hats. NEVER have all the eq's flat & NEVER have all the highs flat either.. always tone down the highs unless its the big hats you want from that track, in which case tone down the other eq's.

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MUGGETS

another thing i forgot to add as i was running out of time...

if you are intent on playing trance like this, take a leaf out of john askew's book.. it will be hard to find trance tracks that go together as well, so he often lays the hats and beats from some techno over trancey tunes to give em some extra umph!

its much more doable with techno though.. that is what its made for after all.

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MUGGETS

Get the Jeff Mill's Exhibitionist DVD-Nuff said.

Even if you don't like his style of techno, it's amazing to see him use 3 decks. His hands are so quick and precise.

quote:

Originally posted by tu_face the hardest thing about 3 deck mixing, is learning how to beatmatch 2 tracks at once. technically you dont have to if you are quick at beatmatching, but even so, time is of the essence so if i were you i would get it learned

If you're not good at beatmatching 1 track with another you shouldn't even be trying to mix with three decks.

My advice:
You should try and get some Techno records to learn to do quick beatmatching (maybe you know someone who can borrow you some records). Even if you do not like the style, it's about learning the technique.
Try to beatmatch records 'on-the-fly', i.e. pre-listen only a few seconds, adjusting the pitch trying to get it roughly good. Then try to beatmatch while fading the record in. Learn to adjust by hand ("touching the wheel"). You have to do this gently yet sturdy.
Also, do not be afraid to be abrupt with Techno records. They're made to be wild with them (listen to Dave Clarke to know what wild means).

And yeah, get Jeff Mills' DVD - nothing better than seeing the Wizard at work!

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Blah, too lazy to keep updating this... How about a real signature? Meh, too lazy for that as well...

watch jeff mills - exhibitionist dvd

I am envious of the three table masters. I really want to start learning how to use three and get into the more technical side of DJing now that I am very comfortable on the two table setup.

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