DJTeflon
Thought I'd post something up here on how to mix something more then just Techno / House. Since most of the Beat Mixing guides are geared toward the 4 to the floor mixing.
A little about myself :
-----------------------
Canadian DJ, currently just working parties, weddings, events when I can. Id do this for free if they wasn't any gigs, but then id never be able to afford the equipment. I play any and all music. Im training to be the next Z-Trip Mash-up DJ, but still a long way to go. Started off as a scratch DJ, now trying to master mixing... cheating a lil by using VDJ haha.
-----------------------
Stage 1 : Beat Matching
Note : If you can't beat match with Techno or House... don't bother trying to jump into Hip Hop. It's like trying to play \"Stairway to Heaven\" when you can't play \"Smoke on the Water\" on the guitar. Nothing against the genre, a personal fav, just it was meant to be mixed by DJs and the breakdowns are much more emphasized in the vinyl and on VDJ.
There's a few key points for Beat Matching :
Tempo Match :
It's much harder to find the tempo on a hip hop song. there's no kick drum on every beat (the big peak in the display) and songs will throw alot more curve balls at you then you might think. best is to start with simpler hip hop, example : anything by A Tribe Called Quest. They're easier to mix, they commonly have a strong first beat and if you're good at mixing you'll be able to adapt easier to tribe. plus they're sick. with VDJ you just gotta press the sync button as per usual. but hip hop will throw you a curve even there. You've gotta get your BPM's and CBG right 100%. LISTEN TO YOUR MIX before you give'r. especially with hip hop even if you think its in sync you could be wrong, and you get a train wreck. So..... get your BPMs and CBGs right before your gig. I've got 1000s of hip hop songs so its a pain to do everyone. but if ythe newest Rihanna song isn\'t perfect, then it\'s gonna sound like crap when you mix it. Get those BPMs right. There's a tutorial here :
http://www.virtualdj.com/forums/2509/Mix_lessons/Find_the_exact_BPM_of_you_favorite_song.html
- by Fruit
When you get the tempo right, you\'re not out of the woods at all.
Phrase Match :
Probably the most important thing for mixing hip hop, its phrase matching. And there\'s not much you can do to learn this other then feel the song. You\'ve gotta be able to hear the song and tell when a phrase starts and ends. Usually its a 8 bar phrase that is looped over and over as the main melody. Easiest way to get a phrase is make an 8 bar or 16 bar loop in the chorus. if all of the rapping/melody/singing comes at the beginning of your loop, then you\'ve found the beginning of the phrase, if everything seems to end at the end of the loop, then the phrase ends then. sometimes rappers will start a bit before a phrase, a piss off for mixing. but anyways. when you get a phrase, you gotta keep track of it. so when you\'re mixing in/out of a song you need to match the beginning/end of these phrases together. This will make your mixes 100% better so make sure your cue points start at the beginning of a phrase! your entry AND exit. sometimes when tempos match and the mix still sounds like crap its because your phrases aren\'t matched. the emphasis on the first part of the bar is split, so you\'ll get this double emphasis going... hard to explain unless you do this explicitly in your mix. The CBG things will find bars for you, not phrases. so don\'t assume just because your thick/skinny lines are matched up it makes the thing phrase matched. Just practice getting this right and you\'ll be set for hip hop. Start simple (tribe called quest) and then evolve up to something bigger. You\'ll notice some snags along the way tho, like two songs that are tempo matched and phrase matched yet it still sounds like crap. next section.
Clashes :
Key Clashes are the most common, since if you know anything about scales/keys (played an instrument?) there are alot of keys : major, minor for every key sharb and flat on the scale. according to camelot there\'s 24 possible keys a song can be in. and each song can properly mix with 4 out of those 24 keys. so that means if you selected another song at random, there\'s only a 1/6 chance its actually gonna work... sheet. there\'s ways to fudge this of course. One would be mix only thru non-melody sections. but most hip hop and dance don\'t have obvious sections of just drum. so you\'ve gotta be clever. one obvious section is the beastie boys \"let the beat mmmm.... DROP\" and then playing the next song, and cutting the beastie tune. not alot of tunes have this obvious outro tho... so if you can find them then more power to you. these are great for quickly switching BPMs and Keys without the floor knowing.
Drum Clashes happen almost just as often in hip hop. its when you\'re in key, you\'ve got the tempo matched, and you\'ve got the phrases in tune... then it doesn\'t match. piss off. best way to avoid this is to predict. don\'t assume the next song is gonna work perfect even if your Key/BPM is exactly the same. Have some other options. Have you\'re easy mixes ready. One way to fudge this is to but the Bass or fiddle with the EQ. its pretty simple. cut the bass of either the tune coming in or out, then mix. It fudges out some of the kicks. It doesn\'t work always though. And don\'t use this too often. fudging the bass too long and people realise the song sounds high-pitch and crappy.
Stage 2 : Cueing
I know i said phrase matching is the most, but this maybe even more. really for all genres of music. you know when theres that dj that can\'t even beatmatch goes up and plays rihanna, gwen stefani and fergie for 3 hours and everyone thinks he\'s the dopest when clearly he has no skill? he has more skill at cueing then you do. and sound selection i guess, but who honestly wants to play top 40 for 3 hours? Cueing hip hop will make your mixes sound professional and get the crowd jumping. and best of all if you can do this right you really don\'t have to worry about any of the above! dancers will go nuts just because you\'re playing the right song at the right time. Ex. you\'re in a complete rut. You\'ve rushed upto 150BPM and you\'ve got no decent songs that remotely mix into this song. it\'s got 1 minute left and clearly people have had enough of dancing to this techno crap. what do you do? Brake your turntable and press play on \"Touch the Sky\" by Kanye West. the crowd goes wild despite the fact that you jumped key, drums, bpm. you just chose a good song right? nah. you chose the right moment. with techno its pretty easy to mix out of breakdowns at any time. plus the brake completely demolished any chance of a professional sounding mix. Touch the sky however starts off with a bang. It has a memorable riff that everyone knows right off the bat. If you chose something like a underground MF Doom track that no one knows, people would be confused and pissed. plus you probably just started the MF Doom track at the beginning. You\'ve gotta find that sweet spot to cue into that only some songs have. Most of the Top 40 will have it, that first drum hit that starts the memorable riff. Techno won\'t because they take like 2 minutes just to build up to the memorable riff and if you cut into this section, it usually sounds unfinished. So with that Top 40 hit : cue in to the sweet spot (make sure its the start of a phrase!) and really just press play... you\'ll sound great and everyone will go nuts for your amazing \"pressing play\" skills. Of course you can use timecodes like me and make that a little more memorable and even scratch in a bit of the tune before it happens but it\'s all up to you. Do this too much and i\'d call you a human jukebox. But who cares what other djs say anyways... you\'re not playing for them.
Mixing out of Hip hop is the same dilemma. Finding that sweet spot to jump out of is just as important. So when you\'ve found that cue entry point and are waiting for a minute to start the track, take the time to find a sick exit point that you can cut out of. It will save you alot of time and make your mixes sound better. Getting the cue points right is even more important in Hip hop. When you listen to your tunes listen for little breaks in the rapping/beat that you can use to cut out of. Listen for a long pause. Most of them are found right after the chorus.
Stage 3 : Mixing
There are really 2 Types of Mixes you can do in any genre :
Mix or Cut. Both can be either Beat matched or not, depending on your situation and how good your entry/exit points are in each song.
So here\'s the summary of how to mix :
1. Beatmatch (you should have done most of this work before your set!)
2. Phrase Match
3. Preview (could they mix? check for clashes)
4. Get Start Cue Point (does it work with my other deck\'s exit point?)
5. Get Exit Cue Point (how can i mix out? Quickly/Slowly? do i need to beatmatch?)
6. If all went to plan above, Mix!
7. Loop
When you get better and know better about your tunes the above will work almost every time. instinctively you\'ll find tunes that work together. If everything matches (key, drum, tempo) you\'ll be able to mix very tightly. Letting songs play for 1-2 minutes is a tough gig with hip hop. You\'ll need to plan far ahead and get the Keys & Drums exactly right. But if you\'re DJing by the seat of your pants (playing songs almost completely randomly) you\'ll have to opt for the above strategy, and you won\'t be able to mix out every 2 minutes. Always try to have a good running order in your head and write down/memorize songs that you know work well together.
If you run into some problems beatmatching :
To start you can use some techniques :
- Loop the deck coming in to a smaller loop so that the drums do match (still need to start at the end of a phrase) then just fade out the other
- Loop the deck going out smaller and smaller then cut to the new song... this CAN sound cool just do this quickly, it works better with techno then hip hop... and make sure the next song is at a sweet point.
- Backspin/Break/LoopOut the other deck
(practice, practice, practice... this will save your life at the club but you gotta sound pro or else people will think you can\'t mix.
easiest if tempos are on but there\'s a clash somewhere. PHRASE MATCH!)
- Scratch the new beat coming in (timecodes, dont bother with your mouse you look like a tool) then cut the left side out as soon as you let go
(great for sounding pro when clearly you suck at mixing. just make sure you practice! and only scratch in on the ending/beginning of a phrase!)
- Fudge the EQ, check the earphones to see if the EQ will actually kill the drums/vocals as you want. THEN fudge. make sure you reset your EQ
before moving on.
- Cut in, just press play on the new track and fade/cut the old track out, depending on the exit point you found
(essential to have a strong entry point... or else people won\'t like this. usually just play something you KNOW the dancefloor will love)
Other techniques are pretty much cheating, but work just as well. If you find yourself in a rut, play a sweet premix you made in MixMeister or VDJ. any djs in the room will know you\'re cheating, but again.. you\'re not playing for them. The crowd may hear a crappy mix into the premix, but you\'ll wow them with all the premixes to follow so much that they won\'t remember. This will give you a chance to get your act together. select some songs for after and relax.
I also find with Hip Hop, Top 40, Dance, Pop that the crowd\'s reception of you is 90% on your song selection and 10% on your skills. In club settings it will be more offset, but really at the end of the day people are there to dance, not to watch and critique you. Don\'t sweat the small stuff and don\'t freak if you mess up a mix... cuz really... its surprising how little people care haha. As long as you\'re playing some sick tunes you\'ll be fine.
DONE.
If you have comments, suggestions, post. or if you know of some other techniques for mixing or techniques for dealing with the unmixable please post, we'd all benefit.
A little about myself :
-----------------------
Canadian DJ, currently just working parties, weddings, events when I can. Id do this for free if they wasn't any gigs, but then id never be able to afford the equipment. I play any and all music. Im training to be the next Z-Trip Mash-up DJ, but still a long way to go. Started off as a scratch DJ, now trying to master mixing... cheating a lil by using VDJ haha.
-----------------------
Stage 1 : Beat Matching
Note : If you can't beat match with Techno or House... don't bother trying to jump into Hip Hop. It's like trying to play \"Stairway to Heaven\" when you can't play \"Smoke on the Water\" on the guitar. Nothing against the genre, a personal fav, just it was meant to be mixed by DJs and the breakdowns are much more emphasized in the vinyl and on VDJ.
There's a few key points for Beat Matching :
Tempo Match :
It's much harder to find the tempo on a hip hop song. there's no kick drum on every beat (the big peak in the display) and songs will throw alot more curve balls at you then you might think. best is to start with simpler hip hop, example : anything by A Tribe Called Quest. They're easier to mix, they commonly have a strong first beat and if you're good at mixing you'll be able to adapt easier to tribe. plus they're sick. with VDJ you just gotta press the sync button as per usual. but hip hop will throw you a curve even there. You've gotta get your BPM's and CBG right 100%. LISTEN TO YOUR MIX before you give'r. especially with hip hop even if you think its in sync you could be wrong, and you get a train wreck. So..... get your BPMs and CBGs right before your gig. I've got 1000s of hip hop songs so its a pain to do everyone. but if ythe newest Rihanna song isn\'t perfect, then it\'s gonna sound like crap when you mix it. Get those BPMs right. There's a tutorial here :
http://www.virtualdj.com/forums/2509/Mix_lessons/Find_the_exact_BPM_of_you_favorite_song.html
- by Fruit
When you get the tempo right, you\'re not out of the woods at all.
Phrase Match :
Probably the most important thing for mixing hip hop, its phrase matching. And there\'s not much you can do to learn this other then feel the song. You\'ve gotta be able to hear the song and tell when a phrase starts and ends. Usually its a 8 bar phrase that is looped over and over as the main melody. Easiest way to get a phrase is make an 8 bar or 16 bar loop in the chorus. if all of the rapping/melody/singing comes at the beginning of your loop, then you\'ve found the beginning of the phrase, if everything seems to end at the end of the loop, then the phrase ends then. sometimes rappers will start a bit before a phrase, a piss off for mixing. but anyways. when you get a phrase, you gotta keep track of it. so when you\'re mixing in/out of a song you need to match the beginning/end of these phrases together. This will make your mixes 100% better so make sure your cue points start at the beginning of a phrase! your entry AND exit. sometimes when tempos match and the mix still sounds like crap its because your phrases aren\'t matched. the emphasis on the first part of the bar is split, so you\'ll get this double emphasis going... hard to explain unless you do this explicitly in your mix. The CBG things will find bars for you, not phrases. so don\'t assume just because your thick/skinny lines are matched up it makes the thing phrase matched. Just practice getting this right and you\'ll be set for hip hop. Start simple (tribe called quest) and then evolve up to something bigger. You\'ll notice some snags along the way tho, like two songs that are tempo matched and phrase matched yet it still sounds like crap. next section.
Clashes :
Key Clashes are the most common, since if you know anything about scales/keys (played an instrument?) there are alot of keys : major, minor for every key sharb and flat on the scale. according to camelot there\'s 24 possible keys a song can be in. and each song can properly mix with 4 out of those 24 keys. so that means if you selected another song at random, there\'s only a 1/6 chance its actually gonna work... sheet. there\'s ways to fudge this of course. One would be mix only thru non-melody sections. but most hip hop and dance don\'t have obvious sections of just drum. so you\'ve gotta be clever. one obvious section is the beastie boys \"let the beat mmmm.... DROP\" and then playing the next song, and cutting the beastie tune. not alot of tunes have this obvious outro tho... so if you can find them then more power to you. these are great for quickly switching BPMs and Keys without the floor knowing.
Drum Clashes happen almost just as often in hip hop. its when you\'re in key, you\'ve got the tempo matched, and you\'ve got the phrases in tune... then it doesn\'t match. piss off. best way to avoid this is to predict. don\'t assume the next song is gonna work perfect even if your Key/BPM is exactly the same. Have some other options. Have you\'re easy mixes ready. One way to fudge this is to but the Bass or fiddle with the EQ. its pretty simple. cut the bass of either the tune coming in or out, then mix. It fudges out some of the kicks. It doesn\'t work always though. And don\'t use this too often. fudging the bass too long and people realise the song sounds high-pitch and crappy.
Stage 2 : Cueing
I know i said phrase matching is the most, but this maybe even more. really for all genres of music. you know when theres that dj that can\'t even beatmatch goes up and plays rihanna, gwen stefani and fergie for 3 hours and everyone thinks he\'s the dopest when clearly he has no skill? he has more skill at cueing then you do. and sound selection i guess, but who honestly wants to play top 40 for 3 hours? Cueing hip hop will make your mixes sound professional and get the crowd jumping. and best of all if you can do this right you really don\'t have to worry about any of the above! dancers will go nuts just because you\'re playing the right song at the right time. Ex. you\'re in a complete rut. You\'ve rushed upto 150BPM and you\'ve got no decent songs that remotely mix into this song. it\'s got 1 minute left and clearly people have had enough of dancing to this techno crap. what do you do? Brake your turntable and press play on \"Touch the Sky\" by Kanye West. the crowd goes wild despite the fact that you jumped key, drums, bpm. you just chose a good song right? nah. you chose the right moment. with techno its pretty easy to mix out of breakdowns at any time. plus the brake completely demolished any chance of a professional sounding mix. Touch the sky however starts off with a bang. It has a memorable riff that everyone knows right off the bat. If you chose something like a underground MF Doom track that no one knows, people would be confused and pissed. plus you probably just started the MF Doom track at the beginning. You\'ve gotta find that sweet spot to cue into that only some songs have. Most of the Top 40 will have it, that first drum hit that starts the memorable riff. Techno won\'t because they take like 2 minutes just to build up to the memorable riff and if you cut into this section, it usually sounds unfinished. So with that Top 40 hit : cue in to the sweet spot (make sure its the start of a phrase!) and really just press play... you\'ll sound great and everyone will go nuts for your amazing \"pressing play\" skills. Of course you can use timecodes like me and make that a little more memorable and even scratch in a bit of the tune before it happens but it\'s all up to you. Do this too much and i\'d call you a human jukebox. But who cares what other djs say anyways... you\'re not playing for them.
Mixing out of Hip hop is the same dilemma. Finding that sweet spot to jump out of is just as important. So when you\'ve found that cue entry point and are waiting for a minute to start the track, take the time to find a sick exit point that you can cut out of. It will save you alot of time and make your mixes sound better. Getting the cue points right is even more important in Hip hop. When you listen to your tunes listen for little breaks in the rapping/beat that you can use to cut out of. Listen for a long pause. Most of them are found right after the chorus.
Stage 3 : Mixing
There are really 2 Types of Mixes you can do in any genre :
Mix or Cut. Both can be either Beat matched or not, depending on your situation and how good your entry/exit points are in each song.
So here\'s the summary of how to mix :
1. Beatmatch (you should have done most of this work before your set!)
2. Phrase Match
3. Preview (could they mix? check for clashes)
4. Get Start Cue Point (does it work with my other deck\'s exit point?)
5. Get Exit Cue Point (how can i mix out? Quickly/Slowly? do i need to beatmatch?)
6. If all went to plan above, Mix!
7. Loop
When you get better and know better about your tunes the above will work almost every time. instinctively you\'ll find tunes that work together. If everything matches (key, drum, tempo) you\'ll be able to mix very tightly. Letting songs play for 1-2 minutes is a tough gig with hip hop. You\'ll need to plan far ahead and get the Keys & Drums exactly right. But if you\'re DJing by the seat of your pants (playing songs almost completely randomly) you\'ll have to opt for the above strategy, and you won\'t be able to mix out every 2 minutes. Always try to have a good running order in your head and write down/memorize songs that you know work well together.
If you run into some problems beatmatching :
To start you can use some techniques :
- Loop the deck coming in to a smaller loop so that the drums do match (still need to start at the end of a phrase) then just fade out the other
- Loop the deck going out smaller and smaller then cut to the new song... this CAN sound cool just do this quickly, it works better with techno then hip hop... and make sure the next song is at a sweet point.
- Backspin/Break/LoopOut the other deck
(practice, practice, practice... this will save your life at the club but you gotta sound pro or else people will think you can\'t mix.
easiest if tempos are on but there\'s a clash somewhere. PHRASE MATCH!)
- Scratch the new beat coming in (timecodes, dont bother with your mouse you look like a tool) then cut the left side out as soon as you let go
(great for sounding pro when clearly you suck at mixing. just make sure you practice! and only scratch in on the ending/beginning of a phrase!)
- Fudge the EQ, check the earphones to see if the EQ will actually kill the drums/vocals as you want. THEN fudge. make sure you reset your EQ
before moving on.
- Cut in, just press play on the new track and fade/cut the old track out, depending on the exit point you found
(essential to have a strong entry point... or else people won\'t like this. usually just play something you KNOW the dancefloor will love)
Other techniques are pretty much cheating, but work just as well. If you find yourself in a rut, play a sweet premix you made in MixMeister or VDJ. any djs in the room will know you\'re cheating, but again.. you\'re not playing for them. The crowd may hear a crappy mix into the premix, but you\'ll wow them with all the premixes to follow so much that they won\'t remember. This will give you a chance to get your act together. select some songs for after and relax.
I also find with Hip Hop, Top 40, Dance, Pop that the crowd\'s reception of you is 90% on your song selection and 10% on your skills. In club settings it will be more offset, but really at the end of the day people are there to dance, not to watch and critique you. Don\'t sweat the small stuff and don\'t freak if you mess up a mix... cuz really... its surprising how little people care haha. As long as you\'re playing some sick tunes you\'ll be fine.
DONE.
If you have comments, suggestions, post. or if you know of some other techniques for mixing or techniques for dealing with the unmixable please post, we'd all benefit.
Posté Tue 21 Aug 07 @ 9:47 pm
fatkatzdj
Damn... I was just putting together the same info. Nice work!!!
Posté Tue 21 Aug 07 @ 11:10 pm
DJ Marcel_1
This might help as well.
Tutorial video Made some months ago.
Tutorial video Made some months ago.
Posté Wed 22 Aug 07 @ 2:31 am
