Psychrobatic Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 Hey there, wanted to share how I mix psytrance. My approach is different than the traditional way of mixing one track into another linearly. It's more like a mashup, where I try to layer two or more tracks at the same time and also I get to decide when to create a build-up, when to throw a break, etc. Hope you like it and I'd like to see more psy djs going crazy in the mix, instead of the same old boring intro/outro transition. Thank you, Namaste! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Soulstone Posted May 27, 2013 Share Posted May 27, 2013 Ok, quite impressive actually. But I see several problems arise with this technique. - It's only useful if you have tracks that are built very similarly, especially regarding the baseline and kick. - Can you perform this live on stage? All your tracks are carefully maped out. It looks like you chose the tracklist also very carefully in advance. Therefore you remove the spontanous track selection aspect of a live performance on stage. In other words: You are bound to your list and can't really divert from it... - Therefore your video looks very engineered. I mean it looks like you're not bouncing around behind the controllers. I imagine you staring at your screen and work the controllers with concentrated face. :-D - Sometimes it sounds like a mess when there are too many effects and layers playing at the same time. The positive side though is, that digital DJs should take your approach and combine it with classic mixing. That way you have special pre-built blocks which you can use when useful and still build towards it by classic mixing. That way it gives the DJ another techincal edge and at the same time leaves room for changing the direction of the mix according to the mood of the crowd. Cheers for your efforts. It's really great to see DJs taking advantage of the current technology. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psychrobatic Posted May 29, 2013 Author Share Posted May 29, 2013 Ok, quite impressive actually. But I see several problems arise with this technique. - It's only useful if you have tracks that are built very similarly, especially regarding the baseline and kick. - Can you perform this live on stage? All your tracks are carefully maped out. It looks like you chose the tracklist also very carefully in advance. Therefore you remove the spontanous track selection aspect of a live performance on stage. In other words: You are bound to your list and can't really divert from it... - Therefore your video looks very engineered. I mean it looks like you're not bouncing around behind the controllers. I imagine you staring at your screen and work the controllers with concentrated face. :-D - Sometimes it sounds like a mess when there are too many effects and layers playing at the same time. The positive side though is, that digital DJs should take your approach and combine it with classic mixing. That way you have special pre-built blocks which you can use when useful and still build towards it by classic mixing. That way it gives the DJ another techincal edge and at the same time leaves room for changing the direction of the mix according to the mood of the crowd. Cheers for your efforts. It's really great to see DJs taking advantage of the current technology. Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. - Yes, it's only useful if you have tracks that are compatible. - Yes, I can perform this live and have done it. Regarding the track selection, I've pre-selected the tracks to record that video but I have a tagging system (plus my memory =P) that allows me to know which tracks work well together. So if I'm playing Track X I have several options to mashup with. - For that particular video yeah, I don't have time to do anything else but to use the controller and help my memory by looking at the waveforms. - Yes, there are some parts I didn't like how it sounded, and it has a few details like I said in the video description but honestly I prefer a DJ that tries to be creative and makes some mistakes than the boring "cut and drop" that doesn't do anything. - But it has some advantages: you can create build-ups on the fly and you can decide where you want to throw a break. If you're mixing one track after the another, then you're having a break every 3 minutes (most progressive and full-on tracks have 2 breaks and lasts aprox 7 min). I don't think that's good for the crowd. The DJ needs to decide when to build-up and explode, when to break and lower the energy, etc. This video is over-exaggerated, I mean, I don't play a 1 hour live dj set like that, but I just can't do the "play and wait for 5 minutes to mix the next track", It just too boring to me. My objective with that video was to show that psytrance can be MIXED in creative and interesting ways. As you may know, most psytrance DJs haven't evolved with technology, haven't really taking advantage of it, they are stuck on mixing like if they were still doing it on vinyl. While on the other hand, you can see lots of DJs from other genres that do lots of crazy mashups, mixing techniques, looping, cue-juggling and anything they can think of. But the psytrance DJ only mix 2 tracks for a couple of seconds, swaps the bass and it's done (and that's the best case scenario, others don't even touch the EQs, they just slam the crossfader to the other side and that's it...) I'm not saying my mixing is perfect, not even close. I'm just giving my contribution and hoping djs would try to evolve in some way. By the way, I have some traditional mixes in my Soundcloud/Mixcloud/Youtube, check them out if you want. Again, thanks for the feedback! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Soulstone Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 Thanks for making that clear. This way you have my full support on this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotwang Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 I've thought for a while that it would be good if more DJ's tried this kind of thing. I'm not a fan of fullon but your mixing is very impressive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psychrobatic Posted May 29, 2013 Author Share Posted May 29, 2013 I've thought for a while that it would be good if more DJ's tried this kind of thing. I'm not a fan of fullon but your mixing is very impressive. So I'm not the only one that have thought about that then. Again, I'm not saying I have the truth and my mixing is perfect, I'm just experimenting. Why do you think psytrance DJs haven't evolved the same way DJs from other genres have? Psytrance scene is so producer-driven, the only thing that matters are the producers. Nobody seem to care how a DJ set is built and mixed, most of them just do basic fade in/out at the end, or mix in the breaks. Why's that? Am I crazy for thinking that psytrance should be mixed very smoothly, without making too obvious when the transition is happening? I mean, when I'm the crowd and I'm dancing, connected to the music... I always get distracted when I hear the awful/obvious change of track. It should be a continuos sound, a long trip, not lot of mini-trips of 6 minutes right? Again, is this crazy thinking? I'd like to keep discussing about this if you're interested. Haven't found any other forum/community that's interested in this subject. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotwang Posted May 30, 2013 Share Posted May 30, 2013 Why do you think psytrance DJs haven't evolved the same way DJs from other genres have? Psytrance scene is so producer-driven, the only thing that matters are the producers. I don't know that that's true - there are DJ acts that people pay attention to, and occasionally there are threads about them on psynews. Here's a recent one. Am I crazy for thinking that psytrance should be mixed very smoothly, without making too obvious when the transition is happening? I mean, when I'm the crowd and I'm dancing, connected to the music... I always get distracted when I hear the awful/obvious change of track. It should be a continuos sound, a long trip, not lot of mini-trips of 6 minutes right? Again, is this crazy thinking? Not at all, but you're not alone in thinking this. Many people complain about Goa Gil's mixing, for example (his live mixing, that is - I've only heard his mixing on albums, which is fine, but apparently he mixes badly live), and they wouldn't do so if they didn't expect better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psychrobatic Posted May 30, 2013 Author Share Posted May 30, 2013 I don't know that that's true - there are DJ acts that people pay attention to, and occasionally there are threads about them on psynews. Here's a recent one. Not at all, but you're not alone in thinking this. Many people complain about Goa Gil's mixing, for example (his live mixing, that is - I've only heard his mixing on albums, which is fine, but apparently he mixes badly live), and they wouldn't do so if they didn't expect better. Yes, I'm not saying all psytrance DJs are like taht. There are some really good DJ acts with really good mixing techniques and that you can tell they are into it. Anyway, I believe is a matter of time and new generations. Goa Gil doesn't mix, I've seen him live and he plays with 2 DATs and just press play in the other when the playing track ends. But it's ok, I'm not asking him to evolve and get used to new technology. --- What about the "Live acts"? I guess you already know why I'm using quotes. I've seen many "live acts" that has less live that a DJ set. Most of them have a pre-recorded mixed set (and not very well mixed, just plain fade in/out or filter in/out) of their tracks and they just play with the EQs and/or filters. Those who doesn't play a pre-recorded set just do what I like to call "Producer Set" (just like a plain DJ Set where the DJ happens to be a producer and he's mixing his own tracks). It's pretty hard to find really good live acts, with producers using Ableton Live for example to remix and re-edit his tracks while adding synth loops live and stuff. Nowadays the definition of "Live Act" to me is just a producer showing his tracks, with bare mixing (if none at all) and nothing really Live. I don't know about average crowd, maybe they don't know or they don't care but I do. I don't like to be lied in my face when I'm paying for a Live Act and I'm getting a pre-recorded set... What's your thoughts on this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K-BAN Posted June 4, 2013 Share Posted June 4, 2013 I would say most dj's dont do this because they dont want to mess with the song too much. Give it out through the speakers as it was created. Before watching this I feared it would sound like it was getting messed up with the volume all over but not at all. I had fun and threw my psy panties on stage ;D thanks for sharing this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GhostOnAcid Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 This video is over-exaggerated, I mean, I don't play a 1 hour live dj set like that, but I just can't do the "play and wait for 5 minutes to mix the next track", It just too boring to me.My objective with that video was to show that psytrance can be MIXED in creative and interesting ways. As you may know, most psytrance DJs haven't evolved with technology, haven't really taking advantage of it, they are stuck on mixing like if they were still doing it on vinyl. While on the other hand, you can see lots of DJs from other genres that do lots of crazy mashups, mixing techniques, looping, cue-juggling and anything they can think of. But the psytrance DJ only mix 2 tracks for a couple of seconds, swaps the bass and it's done (and that's the best case scenario, others don't even touch the EQs, they just slam the crossfader to the other side and that's it...) At first nice set and nice mixing. Its cool. As a GoaTrance-CD-DJ i can say, if I have nothing to do until the next transition i dance and smile behind the decks, because I love the music, which i play. I never bored if I was preparing a transition or mix one track into another. The next thing is, if you are a GoaTrance-DJ, its really hard to play two overloaded maxium melody tracks at the same time. For you and the crowd. Overkill! Also the kickdrum and the baseline sounds not in every track similar like in FullOn. In minimalistic or techno music it is more possible for experiments or crazy mixing techniques. But as a trance-dj I have more respect for the track. It is one artwork. And also as a dancer: I don't like it, the dj destroy this artwork. But do not get me wrong: You do a good job. And maybe for FullOn / PsyTrance its works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psychrobatic Posted June 5, 2013 Author Share Posted June 5, 2013 At first nice set and nice mixing. Its cool. As a GoaTrance-CD-DJ i can say, if I have nothing to do until the next transition i dance and smile behind the decks, because I love the music, which i play. I never bored if I was preparing a transition or mix one track into another. The next thing is, if you are a GoaTrance-DJ, its really hard to play two overloaded maxium melody tracks at the same time. For you and the crowd. Overkill! Also the kickdrum and the baseline sounds not in every track similar like in FullOn. In minimalistic or techno music it is more possible for experiments or crazy mixing techniques. But as a trance-dj I have more respect for the track. It is one artwork. And also as a dancer: I don't like it, the dj destroy this artwork. But do not get me wrong: You do a good job. And maybe for FullOn / PsyTrance its works. Yeah, it's a lot harder with goa, a lot of synths layers. But it's possible with full on and psytrance if you do it properly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hallucinary Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 nice idea to try something differant,but like its been said you could you never do this with goa, with great tracks why mess around with them, especially with old school, mixing it can be an art form in its self though im not a big fan of full on, what your doing looks very skilled Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Padmapani Posted June 6, 2013 Share Posted June 6, 2013 Why do you think psytrance DJs haven't evolved the same way DJs from other genres have? Psytrance scene is so producer-driven, the only thing that matters are the producers. Nobody seem to care how a DJ set is built and mixed, most of them just do basic fade in/out at the end, or mix in the breaks. Why's that? maybe it's still a legacy from the goa days. dj mixing has already improved from mixing dats to the way it is now. as a result people prefer "livesets" because they really are smooth with good transitions and no one cares about the djs. now i'm speculating that as a result of this the djs know they are only "filler" between livesets and don't put too much effort into their mixing and the circle starts again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psychrobatic Posted June 21, 2013 Author Share Posted June 21, 2013 maybe it's still a legacy from the goa days. dj mixing has already improved from mixing dats to the way it is now. as a result people prefer "livesets" because they really are smooth with good transitions and no one cares about the djs. now i'm speculating that as a result of this the djs know they are only "filler" between livesets and don't put too much effort into their mixing and the circle starts again You may have a point there mate, but I've heard lots of "live sets" in which there are no smooth transitions, just basic intro/outro fading. Anyway I'd like djs to put much effort into their mixing. I truly believe a solid and well mixed dj set can be really amazing. I'll keep doing my thing, maybe someday this will change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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