Novice DJ Mixing Question

[SimplerCity]

I was just trying to mix 2 old skool house tracks together using Reaper (daw) last night and finding it a struggle. I would've thought it'd be easy.

One was 119 point something bpm and the 2nd track was 127 point something bpm.

What would you do in this situation? an old college chum who was a dj when I asked about mixing 2 different tempo tracks, he said you speeded one up or slowed one down depending. I decided then to go in the middle and chose 123 bpm for both and so speeded the first one up 4 bpm and slowed the other one down 4bpm. However, just about got away with it in terms of speed but then had trouble exactly blending them in. What would you do here? I tried just fading the first one out and that didn't quite work and so I decided to also fade the other one in too but still didn't sound right. What do I do to make them flawlesslessly blend together?

Thanks!

 

[rhythmgj]

You have to learn "beat-matching," a DJ skill which is still applicable, at least as a guide, even if you are using a DAW and actually editing the tracks rather than mixing live. Look it up (lots of stuff on the topic all over YT and the Internet). But you also have to be mindful of choosing tracks that are close enough in BPM. 119 and 127, imho, are too far apart. If you are simply trying to cross-fade or do a "Hip-Hop Slam" on the next track on beat 1, it could work, but would still be somewhat difficult. If you are literally trying to remix, d a "bass swap," or "mash-up" the two tracks in some other way, it will not work with tracks that far apart in BPM. You should think of a range closer to 3-5 BPM at most, imho (so 120-123 would work, as an example).

There are all kinds of tutorials on DJ skills out there; look some up. The skills are applicable in a number of ways, as I said, it even helps when you are hard editing (making cuts to waveforms, etc.)...


GJ

 

[SimplerCity]

You have to learn "beat-matching," a DJ skill which is still applicable, at least as a guide, even if you are using a DAW and actually editing the tracks rather than mixing live. Look it up (lots of stuff on the topic all over YT and the Internet). But you also have to be mindful of choosing tracks that are close enough in BPM. 119 and 127, imho, are too far apart. If you are simply trying to cross-fade or do a "Hip-Hop Slam" on the next track on beat 1, it could work, but would still be somewhat difficult. If you are literally trying to remix, d a "bass swap," or "mash-up" the two tracks in some other way, it will not work with tracks that far apart in BPM. You should think of a range closer to 3-5 BPM at most, imho (so 120-123 would work, as an example).

There are all kinds of tutorials on DJ skills out there; look some up. The skills are applicable in a number of ways, as I said, it even helps when you are hard editing (making cuts to waveforms, etc.)...


GJ

Thanks for the reply. I will have a look on You Tube.

However, these 2 particular tracks I was told were mixed together in the order I have them in a club years ago so the bpm being too far apart stumps me there.

 

[rhythmgj]

Do you have access to that mix, or did you just hear it/hear about it?

If you can get it, analyze what was done. Was it a mix (one track segued into another)? Was it a mash-up? Were parts of one track sampled and "flown in" over the other track?
These things can all be accomplished with different techniques, but it's impossible to give you any more accurate advice when it's just a guessing game. If you can get more specific with what was done, what you are trying to do, and which individual tunes we are talking about, that would help.


GJ