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Mixing trance offkey vs house and breaks
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| ClearVision |
I've spent about a month mixing a number of other genres... house, breaks, progressive, a little dnb... and over that time I have discovered the ease of which you can drastically change keys in those genres, and still maintain the energy level of the mix. With the majority of songs in these genres, the tone-heavy basslines and melodies of the tracks start and end fairly abruptly (or at most over 16 bars), and with proper phrasematching, you can get each song to pick up right where the last one left off.
I am back to spinning trance now, and am finding that changing keys really kills the energy of the mix if you want to do it in a way that avoids too much clash. The tone of every song is picked up about 32 bars after the start, but because trance intros and outros last so long, the real meat of the song may not start for another minute or two. So if you want to change key every song like I have with house and breaks, you end up having to wait much longer to cue up each song, leaving about two or three minutes worth of percussion, simple basslines and melodies to keep you and your listeners entertained.
I suppose the best way to deal with this is to just accept it as a part of the music, and try to stay harmonic so you can have longer blend times.
Anyone have any thoughts or comments regarding this??? |
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| Smiley :D |
if 2 tunes are totally out of key and i want to do the usual 128beat/1 minute mix i'll mix in lows much more subtly then more of a BAM new track at the end of it all, instead of bringing the bass in gradually throughout the mix
thats what i do anyway |
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| ClearVision |
yea, that is what i typically try to do, but i find that the mids and highs carry enough volume and tone that they still make the mix sound sour...
ill be trying some more mixes this afternoon, maybe if i play with the mids i can get this to work a little better. :( |
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| discobiscuit |
| use hard/software w/ key lock :) |
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| Nemesis44 |
| quote: | Originally posted by ClearVision
I've spent about a month mixing a number of other genres... house, breaks, progressive, a little dnb... and over that time I have discovered the ease of which you can drastically change keys in those genres, and still maintain the energy level of the mix. With the majority of songs in these genres, the tone-heavy basslines and melodies of the tracks start and end fairly abruptly (or at most over 16 bars), and with proper phrasematching, you can get each song to pick up right where the last one left off.
I am back to spinning trance now, and am finding that changing keys really kills the energy of the mix if you want to do it in a way that avoids too much clash. The tone of every song is picked up about 32 bars after the start, but because trance intros and outros last so long, the real meat of the song may not start for another minute or two. So if you want to change key every song like I have with house and breaks, you end up having to wait much longer to cue up each song, leaving about two or three minutes worth of percussion, simple basslines and melodies to keep you and your listeners entertained.
I suppose the best way to deal with this is to just accept it as a part of the music, and try to stay harmonic so you can have longer blend times.
Anyone have any thoughts or comments regarding this??? |
Nope, with trance you have to brutalise it a bit more. If you just play records back to back, i.e. mix at the and of the tracks, sure you are going to get some pretty dull results.
If you try and mix a little earlier you will find the results much more satisfying in terms of energy but it also requires a little more skill, but I'm sure you are up for that. You just have to look for mix opportunities differently.
I will have a dig through and see if I can find some examples.
Cheers
Nem |
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| Spoonz |
| quote: | Originally posted by Nemesis44
Nope, with trance you have to brutalise it a bit more. If you just play records back to back, i.e. mix at the and of the tracks, sure you are going to get some pretty dull results.
If you try and mix a little earlier you will find the results much more satisfying in terms of energy but it also requires a little more skill, but I'm sure you are up for that. You just have to look for mix opportunities differently.
I will have a dig through and see if I can find some examples.
Cheers
Nem |
that's kind of similar to how i would mix my UK hardcore tunes... not very long transitions, pretty short but mixing out of the old track as it comes to the end of a phrase where it's going to lose it's main energy into the fresh track where it's just away to hit a flow of energy, ie: when the main bassline or the teasing first parts of the melody are in the track as it starts to build
*takes a big breath* - i really should have paid attention in English!
timing is paramount if this is the method u choose however and there's less room for error imo |
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| Nemesis44 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Spoonz
that's kind of similar to how i would mix my UK hardcore tunes... not very long transitions, pretty short but mixing out of the old track as it comes to the end of a phrase where it's going to lose it's main energy into the fresh track where it's just away to hit a flow of energy, ie: when the main bassline or the teasing first parts of the melody are in the track as it starts to build
*takes a big breath* - i really should have paid attention in English!
timing is paramount if this is the method u choose however and there's less room for error imo |
I actually mix a lot of my tunes like that. When you hit the dancefloor with it and you do a key lift it's, the effects can be very dramatic.
Another DJ who does that a lot is PvD
It's a method that can be very effective but can get really boring if that's all you get.
Cheers
Nem |
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| ClearVision |
| Since I lasted posted here I went on a couple "marathon" mixes to revise my technique when changing keys... all of my mixes ended up being just fine, as long as I got the timing right like Spoonz mentioned. It's all about making sure that you bring the next track in during the break in each track where the tone heavy bassline/melody starts/ends. It doesn't happen in as cut-and-dry a fasion with house, but it works. I think the tracks I tried when I first started spinning trance again were just bad fits for eachother. |
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| Raveaddict19 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Nemesis44
I actually mix a lot of my tunes like that. When you hit the dancefloor with it and you do a key lift it's, the effects can be very dramatic.
Another DJ who does that a lot is PvD
It's a method that can be very effective but can get really boring if that's all you get.
Cheers
Nem |
+1 |
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| Raveaddict19 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Nemesis44
I actually mix a lot of my tunes like that. When you hit the dancefloor with it and you do a key lift it's, the effects can be very dramatic.
Another DJ who does that a lot is PvD
It's a method that can be very effective but can get really boring if that's all you get.
Cheers
Nem |
+1 |
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| dilpil |
| I have a program that analyzes my music library for key sig, and I mix only songs with keysignatures that are the same, or within a fifth of each other. And i dance around the circle that way. Ends up sounding alot more "trancey"- songs fade into each other very easily, and its hard to tell where one song ends and another begins if you mix it right. |
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| DJNeuro1 |
| learn how to mix in key. almost all professional djs do it. key progression from track to track is also an awesome way to build the crowd, as Nem said. |
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