Mixing

N

nutter007

Guest
I've been mixing for over a year now and I seem to be stuck in a rut!!!!

I line the tune up so that it will stay in forever in the headphones. When I drop them and try to use the cut switches in order to do the funky mixes, the tunes always go out while I am not paying attention. When I notice something wrong I try to fix it. This normally results in the vocals messing up (if I'm lucky). If not then I normally go the wrong way (slow them down when they are already too slow etc). This makes them Klang horribly and messes up my tape and all my previous perfect mixes go to waste. I've tried using the pitches to control them but they are too imprecise and the mix goes too fast then too slow. Whatever happens I cannot seem to complete a 45 min tape with out cocking it up somehow!!!!


Please could someone offer me some tips????? As I dont think I can teach myself any more and I am getting frustrated!!! Thanks
 
I'm not being an ***... but... practice makes perfect...

The most important thing is that you have beatmatched your two tracks to the best of your ability before throwing your second track in... My way is using my fingers to slow down or speed up the platter, and using the pitch to define the real speed... If track 2 is lagging, i give it a push... If it keeps lagging and i hear it's going slower than the previous track, i then use the pitch to adjust and give the second track again a push to syncronise the two tracks... rinse, repeat... :)

Then, when you've thrown in your second track, you have to keep monitoring if they keep into the beat... Mostly i try to follow the bass(line) of the first track and the higher sounds (hihats, snares) of the second track... What you can do is switch your PFL... Meaning, in the two first steps you have track 1 in your headphones, and in the two next steps get track 2 in your headphones... If possible try to get both of them in your headphones too, cuz hihats can be nasty... The bass might be on the spot but the hihats (because they're shorter and higher) can indicate that something's getting out of sync...

This method is good for me personally for 74 minutes of mixed music with a very light error and a very bad error... Some tracks just obviously suck, you know ;)
 
Wooter is correct in saying that practice makes perfect, persistence is the BEST tool when trying to improve your DJ ability. Every DJ you talk to, I think, would say the same thing PRACTICE, PRACTICE.. the learning curve NEVER gets flat - you can always teach yourself and improve on your own. Keep at it and you'll figure out a method that works for you.

-=P.L.U.R.=-
Ryall
 
Thanks

Thanks for the advice. I think I knew that already. I was just hoping that there was some simple thing that I was doing wrong, but I just guess I'm going to cancel the rest of my life and practice more!

By the way does any one have any experience with beatmatching equipment! Think I might experiment with that.
 
About BPM-counters et all... The best ones are the cheapest and you probably have em... your ears...

The thing with other BPM-counters and stuff is that they're never spot-on accurate (but the closest are the ones on pioneer mixers)... There's a thread in the equipment section about bpm-counters, and i tell there that it can come in handy when you're doing one of your first gigs or the monitoring system sucks... but for serious dj mixing you still need your ears...

If you thought that deejaying would be something easy, i hope you now realise you were wrong :)
 
Best remedy!

take two walkmans, put the left channel of your headset in to the first walkman and the right channel in the second.
Play slightly different speed songs in each walkman and carry this device while you eat, sleep and work. Maintain this for a week straight.
If you havent gone nuts.............you'll notice the offset of the beats while mixing before its even noticable to the naked ear.

GL! ;-)

h.prins@e-workx.net

http://www.e-workx.net
 
GOOD TIP !!!!

Good tip, ha ha !!!

It's right though, i find now i can near enough cue up a record before the beats even start just by listening to the initial sounds.

Strange, but true !!!

Rich.
 
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