Well as you can see from what those DJs are doing, there all doing something alittle different, there is no rule on how to EQ properly, it all depends on your sound and style, honestly, the best thing you can do it just mess around trying new things and different methods, each track is different so the EQin will be different, also depends on the style of the set, where your taking it, and if your going harder or softer, so really just mess around, and if you stick with it, I promise you one day it will click and you will know what you want to do.

would you be able to give me an example to 2 mainstream tracks that would mix well... and what your equing method would be?

i think that would be an impossible request. maybe i am wrong though.

you have to listen to the elements of individual tracks. what stands out and what do you want to ride through the mix.

if you are mixing out of a vocal track, you may want to leave the mids up and reduce the highs and lows as you are mixing out of it.

or if a track has an element in the high that you want to ride then leave that up and reduce the mids and lows through the mix.

never leave the lows up though because your mix will become very bass heavy and wont sound like you are mixing.

then again, if you have a track that is light on the lows that you are mixing in, you may want to ride the lows a LITTLE on the track you are mixing out of for just a bit.

like someone already said, you need to experiment.

pick one element of the track you are mixing out of and ride that a bit.

sometimes i even raise the highs or mids of the outgoing track if i really want to emphasize it. just make sure your levels are okay.

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Im also reasonably new (4 months) and I may not be gonig crazy on the EQs but I am adjusting all the time. If its the outgoing track that Im concentrating on then the things Im doing on the EQs are- (and this is just for example dont take it to heart) Say theres a small build up then a break, right at the break I might fade out the mids completely or just lower the volume or perhaps switch the low (if your mixer has a kill button\switch) of the two tracks. I think when you see the pros going nuts on the EQs they might be changing something very subtle that you might not hear right away. It may look like they are slamming in a certain sound with a quick turn of an EQ knob, I think because they are hearing the song through headphones and can hear all the details of the song that something might be changing in the back ground that might not be so obvious on the dance floor. Just my thoughts there =]

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Last edited by PrestonYoung on Feb-23-2005 at 14:24

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Originally posted by fr3sh alright well i am not claiming to be pro here after 3 weeks of spinning but i got the hang of riding the pitch... but i have been watching these videos of dj's going nuts on the mixer... with all these wild, querky shifts of the eq knobs.... what exactly are these guys doing?...ahem... what are YOU guys doing?

do you have links to these videos or know where I can see them? thanks!

After 3 weeks of spinning your confident enough by riding the pitch and beat matching your tracks good enough to worry about your eqing etc?


at this rate... by the end of the yr you'll be on otp of dj mags top 100

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Trance Is The Music God Listens To

a couple of the people i know including myself use the EQs to mix.

basically you got both records in time. keep the channel fader for the song coming in fairly low at around -40 dB and bring the crossfader into the centre. (before you do this you have to play both tracks in your headphones and get them peaking at about the same level). have the bass all the way down on the one coming in. and the mids low. now you need a good minute or so to pull off the transition really smoothly - you can divide most trance records into 4 bars per phrase (a bar being 4 kick drum hits long - a single loop if you will), with 4 phrases comprising a single movement. often there are 4 movements and then a breakdown. each movement usually introduces a new synth part or removes it from the mix so its noticeable when the song goes into the next phrase or movement. the 4th bar of every phrase typically has a short drum fill. like an extra downbeat or a little hihat fill. after 4 phrases there is usually a longer fill like a long fading snare roll or kicks going off in 1/8ths and 1/16ths. the idea is to queue your track off at the start of a new movement. that way all the phrases and fills and synth parts line up with the track coming in making this method even more seemless.

ok back to the EQs. first gradually bring up the channel fader until the hihats just about become audible on the record coming in. you bring up the treble on the track coming in in increments. a small amount every bar whilst doing the opposite (bring the treble out) on the record you are mixing out of. at the end of each phrase you will notice a gradual change in the mix - in this case at the end of 2 phrases the hihats for the track coming in should be audible and more pronounced on the record coming in so you are effectively replacing the hihats of the old tune with the hihats of the new one (with a brief few phrases where both seem to be playing at the same time for some doubled up madness). do the same with the mids subtley at first until you get to the 4th phrase. theres usually a long fill which allows you to do a more dramatic shift in the tone of the song with the EQ so you can bring the mid up fairly sharply and introduce some synths whilst bring out the synths on the other record. last one start bringing up the bass. you should have completed a single movement by this point and you can drop the kicks and bass in suddenly or bring them in slowly. at the end of the second movement all you need to do is tip the crossfader across and its onto the next record. i found this a much smoother way to mix but it requires a couple of things. i barely use the cross fader at all. mosto f the mix is done using EQs and on my mate's DXM06 - the kill switches.

i struggled on this method for a long time because it took me ages to beatmatch. it still does take me ages to beatmatch and you need to have the tune perfectly in time with at least 2 movements left on the record for you to be able to do this. otherwise you'll end up rishing it and the transition wont be so seemless. you can drop the tune in earlier or later. earlier, both tunes are in the mix longer and you can make the transition more transparent. or you could screw around by introducing a song part way and cutting off with a spinback or a scratch just as a teaser. if you leave it later than 2 movements from the end, getting everything in tends to sound a bit rushed and a bit scatty but ive seen some people pull off very quick mixes and the transition is amazing. i guess it depends on the song and the experience you have. shrugs. either way, theres no right or wrong way. but thats the way i try to do it and it works for what i want to get out of a good mix - a constant stream of music, seemlessly interconnected. it would be perfect for psy except for the fact that alot of psy doesnt always have exactly 4 phrases per movement. its sometimes 3 or 5. very annoying!

Last edited by Derivative on Feb-23-2005 at 06:48

You can use the EQ knobs for many different things.
You can prepare records to mix in better, you can give nice twists to the music, etc.

When you use EQ to make the playing record ( or the queued record ) sound better with the next record, you usually dont temper with it much, just twist a bit to 'bend' the music a bit so that it will sound better. Or to slowly bring a song out of your set.

When you use EQ to change music, you can create some really cool things. But its pure experience to wether you CAN use it, or CANT.
Like when you use a melodic vocal track, you dont want to turn your LOW knob down... in fact, you wont wanna turn ANY knob all the way down, this will seriously hurt the melody, and the vocals, and will sound like shit. These are things you just have to find out by trial and error. Some things sound cool, others dont. Just try alot of stuff out.

For example, lets take the LOW knob, if you use it on records wich are a bit faster, with more aggresive melodies. Lets say, with a pretty fast trance record ( note: dont do this when the melody 'floats', like when the melody slowly builds up and waves around, this will sound shit ), you could do this:
when the buildup starts with a nice fast melody, the people always wait for the bass to drop in. Lets say you are at the last 16 beats before the bass hits, you let the music go for 12 beats ( wich is just buildup melody ), and then quikly kill the LOW sound, that will make the melody sound different, in a cool way, and you can really spike up a audiance that way, sort of saying: watch your asses, here it comes!!!
When the bass is about the hit, turn the low sound to its right position ( do this fast, the faster and more precise, the better ), or a little bit to the right for some extra kick.

You can do all sorts of EQ tricks, just try different things in different records, and you will find some cool things to do.

I find things about melody pretty hard to explain, so if you dont understand i will make a sample file for you.

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quote:

Originally posted by Vivid Boy i didnt read it but i saw a she in there. damn bitches

quote:

Originally posted by Nikolas Vaughn After 3 weeks of spinning your confident enough by riding the pitch and beat matching your tracks good enough to worry about your eqing etc? at this rate... by the end of the yr you'll be on otp of dj mags top 100

lol... thanks???

i don't think i have ever had so much fun at something in my life... well... i have yet to try coke and participate in an orgy... therefore i am not yet a dj...LOL

Last edited by fr3sh on Feb-24-2005 at 01:53

quote:

Originally posted by 6iki_Snake But its pure experience to wether you CAN use it, or CANT. Like when you use a melodic vocal track, you dont want to turn your LOW knob down... in fact, you wont wanna turn ANY knob all the way down, this will seriously hurt the melody, and the vocals, and will sound like shit.

i totally know what you mean... i have a few tracks that sound very empty without a relatively even distribution of eq... like if i turn the lows down and put the lows up on the income track it still sounds very empty...depending on the track

I mainly use my Eq for matching records, but I also use the Eq to do tricks. One trick I used to do with my old mixer was slowly drop the bass down, hit the kill switch, crank back up the bass and then release the kill switch. This way the bass is gradually lowered, and then I can drop it back in real quick. My new mixer doesn't have kills..The other Eq effect I do is turn the leading track bass knob down and the incoming track bass knob up at the same time, quickly, at the phrase change. I also bring up the fader on the outgoing track or it may get lost in the transition. I usually do this when transitioning from normal punchy bass track to a deep bass track.