very very true Andrew....knowing your records inside out will help you
click much easier than before..
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Thu 08/01/2004 15:26
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: (313) how do you mix
On Thu, 8 Jan 2004 23:12:54 +1030,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> ok so i am curious to know how you all mix, im not
into
> tricks and things i
> just want a nice smooth mix without endless
> beatmatching (get on with the
> tunes i say!)
>
> generally when i mix house i tend to bring the next
> tune in with the bass
> turned 3/4 of the way down and gradually bring it up
as
> i bring the outgoing
> tune's bass down then i wind down the volume until it
> is faded out. or ill
> bring a tune in with the bass almost off then at the
> appropriate time ill
> swap the bassline into the new tune (if that makes
> sense)
>
> anyway its getting a bit 'samey' and im looking for
> some tips
hi, alex; from my experience i've found what is best
regardless is to know your tunes inside out structure
wise and use this to your advantage. know which songs
have beatless or acapella intros, which have these
sorts of breaks, which have these sorts of extros.
which songs fade in, which songs fade out; which sounds
kick right in with a beat, which soungs end with a
beat. which songs end cold (ie no fade out) and which
fade. then, when you're mixing, instead of thinking in
terms of tempo and beatmaching, just think in terms of
"stitching together" a fabric of songs into a whole.
example;
song 1: starts right off with a beat and has no
breakdowns that are beatless or acapella and it ends
cold.
song 2: has an acapella intro and then the beat kicks
in. it fades.
mixing this way you have a variety of options. you
could let song 1 play and the second it ends (because
it ends cold), you could start song 2. you could lay
the acapella from song 2 over song 1 in bits (ie not
all at once; "tease" it in) and then switch over
completely to song 2 (on beat, of course :)) at a time
that feels right.
when you've got songs with beatless intros and/or
breaks and/or extros, it becomes even easier because
you can lay the beatless intro from song 2 over the
beat of song 1, or start the beat from song 2 during
the beatless break or extro of song 1, etc.
as you get more confident with this style and know your
songs even better, your stiching will be even tighter
and you'll have times when even you don't know which
bit is playing from which song (when they're playing at
once) and you'll be creating new pieces of music (the
"third song").
when i started mixing, (this is extremely funny in
hindsight, but i was extremely serious about it at the
time) i was playing everything from public enemy and
new order and inner city to r.e.m. and u2 and led
zeppelin. and i was anal beyond belief (flashback to a
young andrew: mom: "andrew, how come you never have
your friends over anymore?" andrew; "because they don't
put things back in the right place!") whenever i got a
new record, i would take out my watch and find the bpm
of *every single track on the record* (yes, *even* the
ones that i would never play out!) and write them down
on a piece of paper in order from slowest tempo to
highest tempo on that record. i would then file all my
records (12"s were easier, of course, cos they would
have less songs to bpm than an album) in terms of the
lowest starting bpm on that record. here's the
punchline: then when i djed (i was doing like a 6 hour
set on weekends at the university plus gigs here and
there (back then they were called "mobiles")) i would
start the night around 8pm with songs at the lowest bpm
(say 60) and play all the 60bpm songs, then move to 62
for a while, then 65, etc. later in the night i would
be up to 120 or so. (gosh, that must have been
horribly painful and annoying and repetitive for repeat
attendees!) if i would get a request for a song that
was downtempo and i was playing in the 120 range, i
would say "i've already played songs in that tempo".
(yes, i hope you're laughing as you read this.
thankfully i'm not that anal person anymore, but you've
got to picture lil' ol' me back then, so damn serious
about bpms that--get this--if i got a new record, i
would not play it out--no matter what--until i had
figured out the bpms for it! crazy, i realize now.)
anyway, i cured myself of this
bpming-every-single-song-no-matter-what and
playing-songs-according-to-bpm-from slowest to
fastest-all-night a couple of years after i got into
that phase. at first i just didn't bother bpming every
single song, than i stopped filing them by bpm (changed
to alphabetical), than i got looser and looser with my
filing system until now, many many years later, i just
have pre-90s stuff roughly in one area and stuff since
then in another and the pre-90s is divided loosely up
into disco/funk, dance, and hip hop and the 90s on
stuff is loosely divided up into house, techno/electro,
and everything else rows. now when i mix i just go by
feel, if it is close and the mood warrants it, i'll
beatmatch, but otherwise i'll just stitch the songs
together in a fashion that makes best sense. speaking
of sense, hope this long ramble/blather makes sense and
is possibly of some use to you. take care, alex and all
the best with the mixing. andrew duke
Jason Trenholm was born 31 August 1969 and died
1 January 2004. We met when we were 5 years old;
he was my best friend for the next 29 years.*****
Andrew Duke releases out now:
Take Nothing For Granted http://cognitionaudioworks.com
Environmental Politics http://and-oar.org
Sprung http://bip-hop.com
http://warprecords.com/mart/music/release.php?
cat=BLEEP12&fc_type=CD
*Canadian electronica album of the year nominee*
More Destructive Than Organized http://staalplaat.com
Highest Common Denominator http://pieheadrecords.com
Physical and Mental Health http://dialrecords.com
74'02 (split with Hypo) http://tsunami-addiction.com
http://cognitionaudioworks.com
