Guest Bugbread Posted December 5, 2001 Share Posted December 5, 2001 Anybody have advice for someone using DATs (or, honestly speaking, CD DJs who don't plan on beatmixing)? There's no advice for good ways to mix, techniques, etc. for non-beatmixers that I've seen. Any neat techniques/approaches? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Akira Posted December 5, 2001 Share Posted December 5, 2001 Make sure you use tracks whose beats are as close together as possible. Even though you're not matching up kickdrums it will still sound shocking if the intro/outro aren't around the same tempo. Other than that all the usual rules apply, make sure there's no key clashes and all the mixes flow well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ouroboros Posted December 5, 2001 Share Posted December 5, 2001 if youre not beat matching...then i would suggest not even putting beats near eachother...it never sounds good. use intros and outros with no beat in them...just some sort of swirly sounds and such....not too difficult with goa. that way bpms dont really matter. this may be cheating but...you can even make your own non-beat segues and just start playing it while one song exits and mix in the new song then fade it out...as long as there is some sort of sound connecting the two songs people wont notice, in fact the only time people do notice is when you @!#$ it up....and thats how it should be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mogwai Posted December 5, 2001 Share Posted December 5, 2001 ourboros has got the best method. Trance should be heard in its entirety and not just pulled together into one long beat. Some of the intros and outros are better than some of the actual beats so its nice to hear them and it gives you a chance to relax. Beat mixing works for techno but not for trance i feel. Do the listeners a favour and play them some intros !!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest [tom jaimz] Posted December 5, 2001 Share Posted December 5, 2001 I think it's usually best to leave at least a minute or two of silence between each track, just to allow for the impact of the last track to wash over people, so they can allow the mindset that that track has placed them in to enter new areas of thought. If anyone objects to this, or seems to think you don't know what you're doing, calmly explain that you're a professional. Then add another couple of minutes of silence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cymoon Posted December 5, 2001 Share Posted December 5, 2001 most of todays trance music is techno oriented. I dont find many tracks some type of music stories as they used to be in the past and so I dont think they need to be mixed in this outro-intro way that much. But it depends on situation and the tracks selection. Â IMO beat mixing works for most of todays trance music very well. Â And another advice for non-beat mixing: try to use breaks in the tracks, you can have 2 seconds mix which works really really good......if someone mix with DATs I really like this type of mixes..... Â ...and if you use outro-intro way be careful of the rhythm of melodies, noises or vibrations. They have often rhythm in them and the mix sounds bad (at least for me) even there are no real beats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest AtomicCow Posted December 5, 2001 Share Posted December 5, 2001 Usually there's in the middle of a psy trance track there's a breakdown where the beat goes out and there are some pads or swirly effects or weird noises or a guy talking or something. Pause the track right where that begins. Wait for a good entry point in the track that is playing right now. Start the other track. Make sure that you pause it exactly on the first beat of a bar and start it on the first beat of a bar of the track that is now playing. Even if you are a few bpm's away the tracks will keep in time for a few seconds and it will sound better. Then right before the beat is about to start again on track 1 , fade out track 2. You can get some really awesome mixes that way and the energy level doesn't go down . Â You can also write down the bpm's for all your tracks and then you can properly beat match tracks with the same bpm's. It works(not always though...and you need practice)...I do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest connor Posted December 5, 2001 Share Posted December 5, 2001 if you have cdjs: BEATMATCH. there is NO reason not to, even if you are mixing outros to intros. If it is lined up, it will sound better, period. Phrase match as well. Count bars and measures, always. In my opinion and experience, leaving so much space between tracks is a bad idea. The energy goes way down. My set philosophy is to let it build up from slow bpm tracks to a climax at fast full-on killers, then bring it back down again in a few tracks. This flow can NOT be attained without beatmatching or phrase matching. Personally, a good minute long mix is so much more effective while dancing for long periods of time than having to sit around for a minute without a beat. Breakdowns in the tracks are for resting. Just my thoughts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JanUa Posted December 5, 2001 Share Posted December 5, 2001 yep that's my opinion to connor trying to puzzle all these wierd noises and comming up with the perfect mix makes my smile endless.... if you mix by just putting in and outs together and without bpm adjustment ...i'm not scared to say ... but then my sister could do the djing and i will dance instead ( ofcourse we will splitt the money... hèhè) but that's just my opinion again...sorry  ps...xerox did this a few times in london (in..out..stuff) i stood there looking at my brother and his girl like '' come on ....hit me in the face with the bass...'' he got the right effect out of it ....but when you do this after every song ...it get's quit boring and you'll loose the energy...  (AtomicCow) you made a point there but it is not fun to loose 2min of the track every time you mix...........maybe you could adjust the numbrs on your computer(bpm)and retape them on cd or dat so you could beatmix..... hohioh JanUa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ouroboros Posted December 5, 2001 Share Posted December 5, 2001 i agree with you guys...beatmixing is the way to go. but the question was for help on non-beatmixing. telling him to beatmix isnt helping too much. Â its like if someone asked how do i get to this place by public trasportation..i dont drive..and then telling them, "well the best way to go is by car" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bugbread Posted December 6, 2001 Share Posted December 6, 2001 Thanks, Ouroboros. I admit, beatmixing is good, and if I could, I would, but, the way things stand: I'm doing my first ever show in a week. It's a private party, damn cheap entry (Cheaper than I thought it would be when I posted in another thread), so nobody is going to be super pissed off if it doesn't go well. I have no CDJ's at home to practice off, and I can't teach myself to beatmatch in a week with no practice materials. So I'm really asking for a crash course in not fucking up. So far, I'm practicing on a software based mixer, selecting songs with intro and extros that are not rhythm based, and thinking mainly about what type of songs to use at which point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest AtomicCow Posted December 6, 2001 Share Posted December 6, 2001 Just practice pausing and starting the track on the beat. And have those bpm's written down. Even if you are not properly beat mixing it helps if the tracks are at the same BPM. Â P.S. The reason I do this is because I have no access to cd players with a pitch control. Just a couple of regular cd players and a mixing board Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest narwhal Posted December 6, 2001 Share Posted December 6, 2001 Noone mentions a very important thing, the use of equalising during a mix. When you skip the intro of tuneB and start it with the beat at the moment tune A's beat stops and then at the same time you cut off the bass of tuneA and you cut off the high frequencies of tuneB you can very well mix two tunes of about the same bpm. You can also try to do it vice versa, the intro with bass cut off and the ongoing bass and beat of the previous tune. Just practice (at home- not in front of the audience) and enjoy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Von Stackelberg Posted December 6, 2001 Share Posted December 6, 2001 "if you mix by just putting in and outs together and without bpm adjustment ...i'm not scared to say ... but then my sister could do the djing and i will dance instead" I agree with you, but what about deciding on what tracks you put on??? IMO it's FAR more important for a DJ to put in good tracks badly mixed than bad tracks that flow together perfectly... Anyway, a goa track lasts 8 - 9 minutes, so even if there is a break-up between songs, the build-ups are enough to get you going again... and if you're in a sweaty tiny location, giving the audience a chance to catch their breath isn't a bad idea!!! I already saw more than once the situation where a DJ was just putting a killer song after another, making them flow with no breaks whatsoever in a small room... You know what happened? After dancing like crazy for the first hour, everybody was just sitting and looking at eachother helplessly because no one had the energy to dance anymore, even though the DJ played even faster and harder music than at the beginning of the set!! Not very nice for creating a good party atmosphere... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bugbread Posted December 6, 2001 Share Posted December 6, 2001 Yep, I figure song choice is going to be my "weapon". Hell, to be honest, if your sister picked good songs and mixed them without too much clash, I'd dance like crazy, even if she did't have "phat DJ skills". Eventually, I'll move up to beat matching, but at my skill level now it would be worse to even try than not to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JanUa Posted December 6, 2001 Share Posted December 6, 2001 nothing to say ... good luck! (maybe you could pause a track and push the play button at the right bar after the bass at the end of a track (count till 16 -32-64-128)) hoihoi JanUa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest AtomicCow Posted December 7, 2001 Share Posted December 7, 2001 A good DJ can make bad tracks sound good because he mixes them so well. but there's no substitute for a killer track : ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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