dabblin
Oh My God. This forum has not one bit of useful information on this topic. I've been mixing these genres of music for 5 months now. Self taught by the way. I want to share the basic skills I have learned so that up coming nubbies can get to the gist of making phat mixes faster than it took me.
There is no one trick pony that works for all three genres. So I'll break things down based on each one. Starting with Hip-Hop. To get the best feeling out of the mixes I've noticed club crowds don't really feel the long drawn out mash-ups. A pure-cut to the next song keeps the crowd happy and dancing every time.
So I will drop my first cue point at the beginning of the track...even if there is just a boring intro of the rapper talking. This can be useful in the future if you need to make a mix CD for a friend. My second cue point is around the start of the first 8 beat phrase you find most Hip-Hop tracks. Visually it varies from song to song so you have to listen listen and listen to make sure you hear the correct 8 beat phrase. My Third cue point is set at the beginning of the first verse. Sometimes it can start with an vocal cue like "uh"...if you miss this vital part of the first verses 8 beats making loops later will sound like a mess. So isolate your second and third 8 beat phrases first. This is the key to taking that and making mash ups.
Once you have those 8 beat phrases try using the loop shortcuts on the keyboard. Bring up your second cue and press the number 5 gets you an 8 beat loop. Check out your loop. You'll know if it's solid cus it wont miss a single beat...or the loop will just feel perfectly right. Now its time to take that 8 beat loop and play it over some song on Deck B with the tempo matched.
Start song B and keep your Deck A cued at the second cue point. Now as B starts to reach the chorus, you are going to listen to or count the 8 beats in your head as it reaches its chorus. Now pressing play timely at the 8 beat start of the chorus will get you a mash up in your head phones. You can hear that Deck A is looping over Deck B for 8 beats. Seems simple enough at this point. But how do you intro the song on Deck A into Deck B with a cut...well stop Deck A while Deck B continues on through to the next verse. Now go to the 3rd cue point on Deck A, where your verse starts. Listen carefully as Deck B is coming to that 8 beat chorus again.
Now the trick to getting this right is to use a 4 beat loop. Press 4 on your keyboard to get Deck A ready to only play a 4 beat loop. Press play on Deck A at the beginning of the chorus on Deck B. So now in your headphones you hear the song on Deck A repeating the first words over and over while the song on Deck B is perfectly synced with this but it's playing it's chorus. If you missed timed it slightly, just use the pitch slider left(or -) if you where early or right(or +) if you hit the button late. You'll know you've got a good loop when it just sounds right.
Sometimes the snares match...sometimes the kicks match...sometimes the base matches. It can very. But usually and very often even the words are synced perfect. So the chorus on Deck B might say "Go DJ, cuz that's my DJ" and the first verse would be repeating "Got a new pair of kicks and I kick-it" and it will sound synced.
As the chorus on Deck B is coming to an end, watch the wave pattern on Deck A and begin sliding the cross-fader to Deck A as you see the end of those 4 beats coming to a loop (NOTE: DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE VERY END OF THE LOOP -- START ABOUT 1/3 TO THE END OF IT). Quickly remove the 4 beat loop by pressing the number 4 on the keyboard and wow...it felt so seamless if you did it right!!!! And the crowd won't look at you funny like "where's my beat MR DJ...I'm trying to look fly on the dance floor."
Now you can experiment with it, like when you choose to bring in the second song...it doesn't have to be at the chorus as you will find if you experiment with it. Also you can do the same thing I described above with your second cue point. It will more then likely be a point in the song with very few words so that leaves room for less error in the transition. There are always creative ways to make it vary from song to song as well like using the back-spin and breaks when you are going to drop something very hot!!!!
Since this was so very long I will describe Mixing Soul And R&B in my next post.
Peace,
DJ DAB
AKA
"The Last Dragon"
There is no one trick pony that works for all three genres. So I'll break things down based on each one. Starting with Hip-Hop. To get the best feeling out of the mixes I've noticed club crowds don't really feel the long drawn out mash-ups. A pure-cut to the next song keeps the crowd happy and dancing every time.
So I will drop my first cue point at the beginning of the track...even if there is just a boring intro of the rapper talking. This can be useful in the future if you need to make a mix CD for a friend. My second cue point is around the start of the first 8 beat phrase you find most Hip-Hop tracks. Visually it varies from song to song so you have to listen listen and listen to make sure you hear the correct 8 beat phrase. My Third cue point is set at the beginning of the first verse. Sometimes it can start with an vocal cue like "uh"...if you miss this vital part of the first verses 8 beats making loops later will sound like a mess. So isolate your second and third 8 beat phrases first. This is the key to taking that and making mash ups.
Once you have those 8 beat phrases try using the loop shortcuts on the keyboard. Bring up your second cue and press the number 5 gets you an 8 beat loop. Check out your loop. You'll know if it's solid cus it wont miss a single beat...or the loop will just feel perfectly right. Now its time to take that 8 beat loop and play it over some song on Deck B with the tempo matched.
Start song B and keep your Deck A cued at the second cue point. Now as B starts to reach the chorus, you are going to listen to or count the 8 beats in your head as it reaches its chorus. Now pressing play timely at the 8 beat start of the chorus will get you a mash up in your head phones. You can hear that Deck A is looping over Deck B for 8 beats. Seems simple enough at this point. But how do you intro the song on Deck A into Deck B with a cut...well stop Deck A while Deck B continues on through to the next verse. Now go to the 3rd cue point on Deck A, where your verse starts. Listen carefully as Deck B is coming to that 8 beat chorus again.
Now the trick to getting this right is to use a 4 beat loop. Press 4 on your keyboard to get Deck A ready to only play a 4 beat loop. Press play on Deck A at the beginning of the chorus on Deck B. So now in your headphones you hear the song on Deck A repeating the first words over and over while the song on Deck B is perfectly synced with this but it's playing it's chorus. If you missed timed it slightly, just use the pitch slider left(or -) if you where early or right(or +) if you hit the button late. You'll know you've got a good loop when it just sounds right.
Sometimes the snares match...sometimes the kicks match...sometimes the base matches. It can very. But usually and very often even the words are synced perfect. So the chorus on Deck B might say "Go DJ, cuz that's my DJ" and the first verse would be repeating "Got a new pair of kicks and I kick-it" and it will sound synced.
As the chorus on Deck B is coming to an end, watch the wave pattern on Deck A and begin sliding the cross-fader to Deck A as you see the end of those 4 beats coming to a loop (NOTE: DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE VERY END OF THE LOOP -- START ABOUT 1/3 TO THE END OF IT). Quickly remove the 4 beat loop by pressing the number 4 on the keyboard and wow...it felt so seamless if you did it right!!!! And the crowd won't look at you funny like "where's my beat MR DJ...I'm trying to look fly on the dance floor."
Now you can experiment with it, like when you choose to bring in the second song...it doesn't have to be at the chorus as you will find if you experiment with it. Also you can do the same thing I described above with your second cue point. It will more then likely be a point in the song with very few words so that leaves room for less error in the transition. There are always creative ways to make it vary from song to song as well like using the back-spin and breaks when you are going to drop something very hot!!!!
Since this was so very long I will describe Mixing Soul And R&B in my next post.
Peace,
DJ DAB
AKA
"The Last Dragon"
Posté Wed 26 Nov 08 @ 3:14 pm
Posté Wed 26 Nov 08 @ 4:35 pm
