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BPM question for club dj's
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| ravan |
'lo ! Looking for some experienced input on this..
Do you stay the exact BPM a full set, like 138, 140 etc..
And in general how much will you stretch a tune before not playing it..
Ie would you play a 136 in a 138 set but not a 134 ? (using the 'newer' (although quite old now) setups that wont affect pitch when stretching sound)?
Bonus question.. Harmonic mixing? Must have or not? I try to keep it harmonic but you easily lock yourself out of a lot of tracks if you dont plan it caaaarefully |
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| DjWoody |
| quote: | Originally posted by ravan
'lo ! Looking for some experienced input on this..
Do you stay the exact BPM a full set, like 138, 140 etc..
And in general how much will you stretch a tune before not playing it..
Ie would you play a 136 in a 138 set but not a 134 ? (using the 'newer' (although quite old now) setups that wont affect pitch when stretching sound)?
Bonus question.. Harmonic mixing? Must have or not? I try to keep it harmonic but you easily lock yourself out of a lot of tracks if you dont plan it caaaarefully |
The beauty of this game is that there's no set of rules. IMO, if you stay your entire set on one BPM it will get pretty boring quick. Many DJ's jump BPM's all the time. I personally do it all the time.
As far as Harmonic Mixing goes, I don't necessarily have my tracks marked or do I know all the keys to each track, but I'm pretty seasoned so I really don't have a need for it, I go by ear and I know what works and what doesn't.
:toothless |
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| ravan |
| Thanks for the input. I suppose im mostly talking trance/prog house which as far as i know in general stay pretty locked bpm-wise to keep the vibe going - but can see it must vary a lot. |
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| DjWoody |
PVD is a master at jumping BPM's. He speeds up songs or slows them out all the time.
It's really up to you. |
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| n3lly |
I wouldn't usually fluctuate up and down too much, if I start around 124/5 or so with some house/tech-house i'll move slowly towards 128/130 (techno) over 2 hours or so. Maybe up to 127/8 over an hour slot.
It's funny some songs at 128 sound a lot slower than others. While some 124 tracks seem a lot faster depending on the way they've been produced.
I know i've been playing tracks before at 125 and thought they were going a lot quicker, but it seemed right at the time so i don't let the bpm numbers dictate too much what speed i play at. Just go with what seems right for the room.
Usually i progress upwards but every few songs it's nice to slow things down again and then start building upwards again, the idea being to give people a little breather, but not losing the energy otherwise you'll have a good chunk leave the dance floor :)
You learn a lot the first few times you play out (or even if you're just recording a few sets for yourself and get feedback from friends)..
I don't bother with harmonic mixing. Usually my ear will pick up if two tracks don't work that well together, or more so my ears will 'tweak' if the sound is just right.
Stretching a tune.. don't really stretch them too far really, maybe 4/5% or so. Rarely will i go past 6..
Hope that helps. |
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| Looney4Clooney |
| some tracks, ones that you would use to change gears a bit, do the tempo shift in ableton. There are alot of tracks in that category. Or you can oldschool it. I don't know how it would work with digital stuff. but with vynil it was easy. |
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| clay |
| start at 128 end at 138 |
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| dj_alfi |
| quote: | Originally posted by Looney4Clooney
vynil |
moron |
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| n3lly |
| quote: | Originally posted by dj_alfi
moron |
Great contribution. Leave it out. |
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| SYSTEM-J |
DJs who stay at one tempo for an entire set are extremely boring. You can pitch some tunes a long way and they still sounds great, +5 or more on some occasions. Other tunes start to sound "wrong" quite quickly. But you should raise or lower the tempo, depending on your set. Unless it's a really short set, like an hour maximum, there's no good reason not to.
As for harmonic mixing, it's not necessary but it certainly removes a lot of the stress of track selection. It really depends on your style. I personally use harmonic mixing 90% of the time because my style involves a lot of blends and melodic tracks. Once I just used to try and avoid ugly key clashes and mix tracks that weren't in key, but I became much more strict about it because it gives better results, and now Beatport key tracks for you I use it as much as possible. Of course, it's nice to have certain tracks you can mix non-harmonically so you can change the key region of a set and keep things flexible. |
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| Fledz |
| The percussion often dictates the perceived tempo which is why a 128 BPM track can sound faster than a 124 when in fact it isn't. As Woody said, it's all about knowing your tracks. |
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