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Help needed - critique my mix.
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View this Thread in Original format
| Andryuha |
I know I need more practice and I know that the following mix sounds like ass. I just need somebody to point out my mistakes and help me fix them. What aspect should I practice more? Thanks is advance!
[[ LINK REMOVED ]]
PS. I use Numark DXM06 and 2X Denon S1000. I'm a newbie as you caould tell. |
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| ASFSE |
| you may get more responses/help in the dj promotion forum |
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| Zoso |
| Also, if/when you post this in the DJ Promotion forum, include a track list. Many people won't give it a go without a proper track list. Hope that helps some. |
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| Factor VIII |
| I was listening to your mix. And you have a lot of train wrecks. for example at 24:49 you just do a quick crossfade from one track to the other. That may work for top 40, but in edm thats un acceptable. Try working on your beatmatching. Also a tracklist/CUE sheet would be nice. |
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| Andryuha |
Thanks for replies! When beat - matching I always have a problem where a beat in a song begins to "run away" if you will. It would match fine for a few seconds, but then it sounds like ass. When doing transitions - I just make sure that the beat counters on both decks show the same number. Then I match the beats up with a jog wheel. Anything else I should be doing?
Here's a track list:
1. Luminary - Amsterdam
2. Niyaz - Dilruba
3. Darude - Next to you
4. Kuffdam and Plant - The ones we loved
5. Above and Beyond - Good for me
6. Dallas Superstars - Fine Day
7. David West - Make you mine
8. Ferry Corsten - Are you ready
9. Gabriel and Dresden - Dangerous Power (cicada mix)
10.Incolumnis - Tsunami
11.Super8 and DJ Tab - Won't sleep tonight |
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| cherrybarry |
don't rely on the beat counters...use it to get within range, and then adjust with ur ears.
also, preview the track in ur headphones and make sure it is beatmatched before sending it to master out. |
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| Jarvmeister |
Good effort. Keep practising. You will be your own best critic before long, if not already!!
Jarv |
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| SPAWNmaster |
| its not beatmatched at all if it starts to "run away" how you put it. practice pratcie practice! get the basics down, listen to your own mixes and compare to others and then keep practicing. its the only way to get better |
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| Factor VIII |
| quote: | Originally posted by cherrybarry
don't rely on the beat counters...use it to get within range, and then adjust with ur ears.
also, preview the track in ur headphones and make sure it is beatmatched before sending it to master out. |
What he said. But also remember that it takes anywhere from 10seconds to 2 minutes to properly match two songs. The track will drift. Rarely will you not have to correct it after beatmatching with the pitch slider/ jog wheel. |
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| Andryuha |
| quote: | Originally posted by SPAWNmaster
its not beatmatched at all if it starts to "run away" how you put it. practice pratcie practice! get the basics down, listen to your own mixes and compare to others and then keep practicing. its the only way to get better |
I see. This is the kind of advice I was looking for. I thought it was OK for beat to run away and it should be corrected as you go. |
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| DJ Z |
hey dude....awesome!!!!
firstly, i am certainly not a great dj, but i learned the hard way like you. one of the best things u can do is sit down with another dj on the decks and learn some techniques. you will learn more in one hour from that dj than a year's worth of your own trial and error. I AM NOT KIDDING!!!!!!!
next..... Amsterdam is a nice pick!
It's my current #2 favorite vocal track (Can't Sleep is my #1) (although i think they are both past their maturity and peak hotness...but i love em.....maybe cuz i have mixed them a billion times)
just some techniques:
- Work on the 'intro'....basically do somehting fancy to start the set off...tweak some effects to build up the first few seconds or so..or use a very short (15-30 seconds) 'cool sounding' track to kick it all off...some DJ contests actually score your intro and outro.
- work on the 'outro'...just the opposite of the intro! spice up the last few seconds..etc.
- 2:23 first fade: let the first track run a bit longer because anyone who is a fan of that song (like me) wants to hear the rest of her vocals there. i know it's any easy fade because it gets quiet, but will piss people off cause they want to sing the rest. instead of fading the drums in at 2:23, try bringing them in at 2:00 while the other drums are playing...that way when the first drums end at 2:07, the drums never really stop but you hear her voice over the new track. (but be careful of the new track's pitch clashing with her vocals - so pick a drum section of the new track that has the least amount of melody in it, or a compatible melody).
- 5:32 sounds like u tried bringing in the next track but immediately aborted when u noticed it was a train wreck after a couple seconds....good job! better to bailout of a bad fade than to let it turn into chaos. u can always try again. if u are just running out of time with a track do your best a quick cut....better than a train wreck. (even seamless loops & emergency loops wont save you every time)
- 6:25 second fade. train wreck. new track was at higher BPM than last. doesnt sound like you were monitoring it too well in the headphones before u brought it in. beat match!!!
- 9:13 third fade. nothing wrong with bringing in the drums at a quite spot, BUT the drums had a meldody with them and you can hear the melody changing at 9:19 while u are still fading in - makes it very obvious that these drums are not part of the last track. your best shot here is to find pure drums only to bring in. then after it is fully faded in, let the melody come in. your goal when you r bringing drums in like this is to make people think they are still listening to the last track, obviously...be stealthy! now...since this is the second time in the set you are using the stealth drum technique, you just lost some cool points because you are using the same technique twice so close to the last one. (oh and this fade was not beat matched either, there were still some hi hats playing when you faded that you should have synched to). see my notes on your first fade...
- 9:23 the EQ is awful. sounds like the high freq has been cut in half. did you forget to check the high EQ? or maybe the track is just bad & you need to re-record it and fix the EQ....OR if you know the track's EQ sucks, boost the EQ on the mixer to compensate (but this only works on minor EQ tweaks...a crappy master will sound crappy no matter how much you tweak the EQ.
- 14:04 fourth fade. better. but way too fast... his vocals would have gone pretty well with the new track had you held them there a little longer. even though he was just singing, he is still singing to a beat...match that beat! EQ is still sounding a bit damp.
-20:33 fifth fade. slow it down...you faded it out in only 5 seconds - about 15-20 seconds fade time there would have been fine i think. it was coming along nicely... but be careful of over-doing fades: i see guys that do these massive, very well-matched fades like over 2 minutes, BUT you hear all kinds of build ups and break downs during the fade that were missed...not to mention pitch changes between the traks that clash during that time. crossfading is not ALWAYS about seeing how long you can hold the two tracks in snych - you have to listen for the natural breaks and take advantage of those too for the professional touch (in my humble opinion).
- 24:48 sixth fade. good job picking a natural break in the old track (the cymbal hit)....but the next track wasn't ready. loud hits on cymbals are excellent spots for you to apply some stealth techniques: in that second or two that the cymbal is prominent, drop a level (high, mid or low) here or there to help fade out. people with never notice.
- 26:57 seventh fade....uhhhh no comment.
- 29:40 eighth fade...good! but the volume of the new drums was too low at 29:49 when the fade was complete....the old track was completly gone & you were still raising the vol on the new track...u just got a little behind with the levels.
OK....enough 4 now :)
....and THINK STEALTH (or sneaky....whatever)
Hope that helps...
Patrick
DJ SNEAKY STEALTH |
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| Andryuha |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ Z
hey dude....awesome!!!!
firstly, i am certainly not a great dj, but i learned the hard way like you. one of the best things u can do is sit down with another dj on the decks and learn some techniques. you will learn more in one hour from that dj than a year's worth of your own trial and error. I AM NOT KIDDING!!!!!!!
next..... Amsterdam is a nice pick!
It's my current #2 favorite vocal track (Can't Sleep is my #1) (although i think they are both past their maturity and peak hotness...but i love em.....maybe cuz i have mixed them a billion times)
just some techniques:
- Work on the 'intro'....basically do somehting fancy to start the set off...tweak some effects to build up the first few seconds or so..or use a very short (15-30 seconds) 'cool sounding' track to kick it all off...some DJ contests actually score your intro and outro.
- work on the 'outro'...just the opposite of the intro! spice up the last few seconds..etc.
- 2:23 first fade: let the first track run a bit longer because anyone who is a fan of that song (like me) wants to hear the rest of her vocals there. i know it's any easy fade because it gets quiet, but will piss people off cause they want to sing the rest. instead of fading the drums in at 2:23, try bringing them in at 2:00 while the other drums are playing...that way when the first drums end at 2:07, the drums never really stop but you hear her voice over the new track. (but be careful of the new track's pitch clashing with her vocals - so pick a drum section of the new track that has the least amount of melody in it, or a compatible melody).
- 5:32 sounds like u tried bringing in the next track but immediately aborted when u noticed it was a train wreck after a couple seconds....good job! better to bailout of a bad fade than to let it turn into chaos. u can always try again. if u are just running out of time with a track do your best a quick cut....better than a train wreck. (even seamless loops & emergency loops wont save you every time)
- 6:25 second fade. train wreck. new track was at higher BPM than last. doesnt sound like you were monitoring it too well in the headphones before u brought it in. beat match!!!
- 9:13 third fade. nothing wrong with bringing in the drums at a quite spot, BUT the drums had a meldody with them and you can hear the melody changing at 9:19 while u are still fading in - makes it very obvious that these drums are not part of the last track. your best shot here is to find pure drums only to bring in. then after it is fully faded in, let the melody come in. your goal when you r bringing drums in like this is to make people think they are still listening to the last track, obviously...be stealthy! now...since this is the second time in the set you are using the stealth drum technique, you just lost some cool points because you are using the same technique twice so close to the last one. (oh and this fade was not beat matched either, there were still some hi hats playing when you faded that you should have synched to). see my notes on your first fade...
- 9:23 the EQ is awful. sounds like the high freq has been cut in half. did you forget to check the high EQ? or maybe the track is just bad & you need to re-record it and fix the EQ....OR if you know the track's EQ sucks, boost the EQ on the mixer to compensate (but this only works on minor EQ tweaks...a crappy master will sound crappy no matter how much you tweak the EQ.
- 14:04 fourth fade. better. but way too fast... his vocals would have gone pretty well with the new track had you held them there a little longer. even though he was just singing, he is still singing to a beat...match that beat! EQ is still sounding a bit damp.
-20:33 fifth fade. slow it down...you faded it out in only 5 seconds - about 15-20 seconds fade time there would have been fine i think. it was coming along nicely... but be careful of over-doing fades: i see guys that do these massive, very well-matched fades like over 2 minutes, BUT you hear all kinds of build ups and break downs during the fade that were missed...not to mention pitch changes between the traks that clash during that time. crossfading is not ALWAYS about seeing how long you can hold the two tracks in snych - you have to listen for the natural breaks and take advantage of those too for the professional touch (in my humble opinion).
- 24:48 sixth fade. good job picking a natural break in the old track (the cymbal hit)....but the next track wasn't ready. loud hits on cymbals are excellent spots for you to apply some stealth techniques: in that second or two that the cymbal is prominent, drop a level (high, mid or low) here or there to help fade out. people with never notice.
- 26:57 seventh fade....uhhhh no comment.
- 29:40 eighth fade...good! but the volume of the new drums was too low at 29:49 when the fade was complete....the old track was completly gone & you were still raising the vol on the new track...u just got a little behind with the levels.
OK....enough 4 now :)
....and THINK STEALTH (or sneaky....whatever)
Hope that helps...
Patrick
DJ SNEAKY STEALTH |
awesome response, man. I think this topic may also help many other beginners. Thank you! |
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