Hey guys,

Just wondering if you guys had any tips for maintaining consistent levels when mixing.

What I do is: when I am cueing up the track i first skip to the heaviest part of the track and then crank the gain up to right before the LEDs hit the red. This works fairly well most of the time, however, some tracks just seem to lack the 'oomph' that others have. What do you guys do in this situation? Do you just crank the gains so that the LEDs start hitting the red?

Anyone have any good tips for maintaining consistent levels?

Thanks.

listen to the main mix as you bring the new track in, how you do this depends on if you mix only in your headphones or not. I use my headphones for beat matching and cueing a track but as I bring in it I'll take one side off and listen to the PA as I bring up the line fader, if its not loud enough I'll add more gain or more low end depending. I tend to worry more about the main output redlining, I don't like to drive any one channel to more than about +3 DB but sometimes you can't really help it, just remember to keep an eye on your overall volume as you mix so you don't run out room to get louder.

I find that some tracks, even though they look the same volume on the meter they don't sound it. Some tracks just don't sound as full or as big, to fix this a little EQ on the fly can be helpful but other times it just makes it sound like crap because it will bring the track elements out of balance with each other.

At least that is what I do...

___________________
Pioneer CDJ-200s, Sony MDR-V700DJ,ASUS M51Sn Ableton Live 8, Behringer BCF-2000, Behringer BCR-2000, Vestax VMC-004FX

I keep my gains at 3 yellows (leaving one more yellow before red). So it's impossible for distortion to occur. Since I use Traktor I then skip to the part of the song where it's the loudest and I adjust it to the correct gain. Then I go back to the part I'll be mixing in (the first minute or so) and see how high the gain is there. Usually when im mixing a track in I want one gain bar lower then the track already playing (so two yellows while the playing track has 3). This also makes it so that if there is a couple instances where the peak I set at 3 yellows goes up by a tiny bit, it has that 4th yellow before it's hitting the red.

I really don't understand why all club dj's redline the mixers. If you want it louder talk to the sound guy and have him tyurn up the system, maxing out the mixer output is just dumb.

When you have an empty track that you want to mix after a full track, the key is to gradually EQ the full track so it becomes more empty before you bring in the empty track. For this you normally reduce the bass.

Probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

The secrect is knowing your tracks and not relying on the LED level indicators too much.

It's all about getting your tracks EQed for the mix, you can subtly adjust the EQs back to normal after the mix.

quote:

Originally posted by Domesticated Okay, some terminology clarification: The 'gain' is the rotary knob which controls the overall volume of a track, across all frequency bands. The 'equalisers' are the three (or sometimes four) rotary knobs which control highs, mids and bass. The 'fader' is the vertical control on each channel that also affects overall volume. If you're mixing without touching the crossfader (i.e having it right in the centre), your process should be as follows: 1. Open the incoming track in your headphones. Fast fast forward to a place where the music is relatively intense and most of the main elements are present, especially bass. Watch your mixer's meter at this stage, the lights should be peaking at 0db (just below red/yellow) on most mixers. If it's not doing this, twiddle your gain knob until the heaviest beats are at the correct level. 2. Cue the track back to the start, or where ever you want to mix in from. 3. After hitting 'play' on the incoming track, you can then work the faders and/or equalisers as you see fit in order to mix the two tunes. The gain knob is used only to make sure the two tracks being played are at the same relative volume before you start mixing them together. They should not be touched during transitions. That's what faders are for.

___________________
Mix archive | Melbourne club guide

quote:

Originally posted by Man_Devil some tracks just seem to lack the 'oomph' that others have. What do you guys do in this situation? Do you just crank the gains so that the LEDs start hitting the red?

If you're setting your gains correctly, this is usually because you are using a poor quality mp3 vs a good quality mp3.

___________________
Mix archive | Melbourne club guide

quote:

Originally posted by Domesticated If you're setting your gains correctly, this is usually because you are using a poor quality mp3 vs a good quality mp3.

I don't agree. I think it's more to do with the method of production.

I tend to just listen to the part that I'm mixing in when I cue and set the level with what is playing. Then I just ride them both out during the mix concentrating on keep a constant gain structure by using a combination of the gains and eqs on both tracks.

quote:

Originally posted by Jarvmeister I don't agree. I think it's more to do with the method of production.

I think that's also a big one. A heavily compressed tune will sound a lot punchier than a minimally compressed one.

___________________
Mix archive | Melbourne club guide

You should be able to mix smoothly on a Urei 1620, a rotary mixer with:

1. No gain control
2. No eq's per channel
3. No LED meters

All you really need in the end is a volume control per channel and a good ear.

Of course we have all sort of fancy controls on newer mixers, but just really focus on the basics of bringing in a track using the faders for a while, and it'll make everything easier.