Mixing

[grad]

Originally posted by sirius
Only pussies fanny about clocking thier vinyl anyway...

jamie asked for help in getting started, i posted that i found it helpful using bpm's for a while.

can't all be legends now can we.

[sirius]

lol. Im only kidding m8....tongue was firmly in cheek at that point there!.

Whatever works for the person in question is the best way innit. seriously though, Ive never needed to do it. I just instinctively knew (even without having pitch control decks) if a tune was a fast tune or slow tune - easy.

Meant what I said about the labels/markerpen though.....

See ya

Sirius.

[zonecrew]

Jamie

All i can say is that after a few months of practise it will come together, you'll suddenly be able to do it and its like riding a bike mate you never forget once you stop.
I used to count in fours as well, couldnt really go wrong doing that and a few minor adjustments on the pitch control, having a good mixer helps as well, at the time mine was terrible...lol

[JAZ]

Stuff all that counting beats rubbish as I dont think it helps, the only way to mix is to learn to listen to the pitch of the records.
What do I mean by this? well listen to a drum beat playing then speed it up and listen again it will sound duhhhh duhhhh etc when slow and duhh duhh when you play it faster (if u see what I mean).
Now when playing 2 tunes and trying to get them the same by listening to the 1 thats playing and listen to the musics pitch compared to the other that your cueing up, eventualy (after practice) you will get to the stage where you can hear the musics pitch and know whether its too fast or slow.
Im sorry to say this will take some time but it will suddenlly click for you, I hope this makes sense

I personally would start by using a program like pcdj that works out the bpms of mp3s for you then practice with that by playing tunes slightly fater or slower than each other so you can hear the difference in pitch and learn what slower/faster pitches sound like.

[butty]

its a sixth sense mixin i rekon, i count 4's n just get that yeah put it in now feelin n buzzin, that n u just need to hammer it hammer it then hammer some more coz u can never stop learnin.

[Mike]

Hehe this seems to have generated a bit of controversy...

To some, beat mixing is a sixth sense, to others it takes ages for them to get their heads round. Without wanting to be a bigheaded bastard I found that as soon as I tried it I got the hang of it straight away although it does take a few years to get your mixes sounding better. On the other hand I have tried to teach other people to mix, including a mate who was a drummer and has a really good sense of rhythm, but when it came to beat mixing he hadn't a clue, just couldn't get his head round it...

Jamie one tip I will give you is this. Try and rely on the pitch controls on the deck as much as you possibly can, and not use your hand on the actual deck to slow the tune down slightly. This is very tempting with belt drives as the motors are not powerful so it's an easy way to slow the record down when it's slightly too fast. However belt drives teach you bad habits, when you move on to technics it's much harder to slow them down by hand. Plus whenever you touch the deck with your hand you will hear the effect of it through the speakers or on the recording.

[doolz]

u gotta check this book
how to dj properly by frank broughton and bill brewster
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/dance/rev..._howtodj.shtml

ive read me m8s copy very very infoirmatiove m8
ive never doen ne djing and i know a hell of a lot more afetr reading this book m8

tells ya everything ya need to know from mixing to even promoting yaself once uve learned to mix

very well writen easy to understand but its no idiots guide

[butty]

Originally posted by Mike
Plus whenever you touch the deck with your hand you will hear the effect of it through the speakers or on the recording.

i find that i can normally tap the tune on the bit where a beat aint there n u cant tell, beat that for twinkle fingers lol. its a bit harder altho when a theres a lot goin on in the tune

[fugjostle]

I personally say avoid beat counters like the plague... they get you into bad habits. All my mixes were shite for ages ("still are" some would argue) but you need to get the feeling of the beats. Just practice and it will come... nothing like finding that perfect match If you start using beat counters you start to rely on them at home and when you do a party or club you will be lost, especially if they have a crap monitor.

Keep off the fancy gadget stuff till you can do the basics. They don't help but hinder.

My tip is to listen to mix tapes, when you hear a belting mix of two records you own, go try and repeat it. I heard welly mix e-lustrious "on the ragga tip" into k-klass "mystery" and learned how to do that..

I watched this thing about a DJ school and they get the students to set a metronome going and then you have to get the two records matching the beat individually. Once you have them matched you can then try and mix them. The main problem is that it isn't just about the beat, there's key's and mixing 1 record at the start of the 4 and the other half way through... you've probably matched the beats but it doesn't sound like you have.

I found the counting the 4/4's to be a great help. You get the feel for when the bass drops and the singing drops etc. After a while you can predict it on tunes you haven't even heard.

The biggest problem is trying too hard... once you relax a little it becomes much easier. Copy someone else's mix and you'll get the hang of it... when I started I was trying to mix 110 bpm into 180 bpm

This book that everyone is going on about is the dogs nuts mate. Get yourself a copy because the sections on musical theory are excellent... just wish I'd read it a long time ago.

---
fug

[fugjostle]

Originally posted by butty
i find that i can normally tap the tune on the bit where a beat aint there n u cant tell, beat that for twinkle fingers lol. its a bit harder altho when a theres a lot goin on in the tune

lol mate.. I do that too but its normally my foot or head that keeps the beat

EASY MATE......................

Get VERY stoned THEN when you drop a mix you'll be like "Oh Fuck this Wank anyway"!!


Works for me everytime............. So Does Pro Tools!

[Dj M Jaxx]

Originally posted by jamie_crichton


Nasty thing is i bought belt drives so i hear its harder to mix

Ok Jamie....this is the book you want m8....and it's olny £3.99

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...547784-3642267

It has a section on how to Dj using belt drive decks......and other tips for em m8

Jaxxy

[fugjostle]

My advice is to stay away from belt driven decks. When you finally decide to buy some technics you will have to re-learn it all over again.

I learn't with belt driven decks and when I first tried to DJ in a club it was a nightmare. Its a whole different approach using belt-driven and my only advice if you decide to go the belt driven route is to only use pitch control for maintaining speed. If you can master it on belt driven then technics will be a doddle.

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Fug

[jamie_crichton]

COOOOOOOOOOOOOR

It's starting to work! i was well chuffed before got jinny and andromeda to humm perfectly together then faded out when the downbeat bit come for when the lyrics kick in...ohhh the joy.

I have found the bpm of my tunes and its helped TUNS saved alot of time i was wasting my time before hand they sounded like elephants clashing downstairs.

Thanks Grad for the bpm thing its top.

i'm just downloading the mixes i have and getting the bpm using atomix...its working sweet as so far. Just making sure i download the right mix unless the bpm will be wrong...

anyways i am chuffed.

C ya

[fugjostle]

Cheats and Charlatans !!!!

BPM Counters... you might as well buy some CD decks with auto-mix functions :p