Month: April 2019

Not too much to say about this mix. Probably more to say about the equipment.

So, this has got to be the silliest problem ever. As awesome as the DDJ 1000 is, I found myself yearning for something simpler, maybe even portable. So, I finally broke down and got the DDJ 400 as well. It’s nice. I’m back to 2 channels on it. It just needs USB for power, so there one less cable. And, I can DJ from my couch!

So, I felt the urge to put together a simple mix with the new equipment. I had another set of 3 tracks sitting around, so it was a good chance to put the equipment through the paces. I used hot cues, a loop, faders, beat sync, and EQs. It’s pretty amazing how much of what you get in the 1000 you still get in the 400.

My mixing style this time around was scripted. The only thing that is kinda of novel with this mix is that I tapped in the second track, Hey Baby. But when I did I was a little off time. You can definitely hear it. So, I had to nudge it back in time. All in all, it kind of makes for a cool, authentic sound, so I kept it.

This also marks the first time I’ve made two mixes in one day. Enjoy!

With Mix 36, I am continuing down my path of live mixing. I grabbed 3 tracks that I felt would sound good together. Today, I gave them a listen to figure out which order to play them in and figured out how many bars of intro music the latter two tracks had for the transition. The last track, Mistreated had 32; which is long! I thought about sitting down and playing out what to do, but I told myself, ‘we’re live dj’ing now. So, Go!’.

As such, the transitions are simple. I bring the latter track in at abou 40% volume with the low eq down. I then fade up, swap the lows, and fade out the first track. I’m still not 100% in the zone. I definitely am using the waveforms to clue me in on how close I am to a new phrase (which, I guess I could do with memory cues and not look at the laptop). Further, I am not using beat sync, but do take advantage of the bpm displays. So, closer to live.

One take, no practice. Enjoy!

The ability to truly mix live eludes me. At some level, I don’t even know what it means. I don’t know how much prep work real DJs do vs. just feeling it. I assume they can beat match, but do they do it while mixing? Or do they look at their laptops or just beat sync? Do they set cue points and loops ahead of time? How do they figure out how to pick the next track? If it is not already defined during preparation, what steps do they take to get it to flow right with the currently playing track?

I don’t know, but I want to move in this direction. So, I’ve set a list of things I think real DJs do and am beginning to add more to my repertoire. For this mix, I turned off beat sync (but did check the tempo display) and did not create a script. It’s not my best mix. I actually thought that I’d just delete if after I was done. But it sounds pretty good. It’s my first foray into a purely House mix. I figured it’d be easier with more instrumental periods to mix. I also, intentionally, did not script the transitions. I lined up the tracks, made a few cue points for references, and felt my way through it. Hopefully they’ll get better, hey, these mixes are the Rough Drafts of My Perfect Mix.

Enjoy!

P.S. – Fun Fact: The title of the mix obviously means that I am sort of mixing live. But the motivation for the wording is a term used at work for describing the ability of some devices to support limited functionality of live video streams.

As soon as I heard Rita Ora’s Let You Love Me, I thought of Mario’s Let Me Love You. They are mirrored in content and title and sound oddly similar. I brought them both into RekordBox and they played relatively nice together.

Since they are both pop tracks, they are tricky to mix because the artists sing over the entire track. So, I started looking for extended or club mixes, acapellas or instrumentals. The best I could come up with was a bootleg of Mario’s track on Youtube.

The mix is short, just one transition and an effect to exit. However, the one transition was challenging. I overlap Mario’s track with the instrumental. If you listen closely, you can hear the phasing effect at the beginning of the chorus. Towards the end of the chorus, I use a 3rd deck to play Ora’s track while fading out Mario. The transition successfully kills his vocals while leaving the beat going. Between the start of the instrumental to the point where Ora is going solo, I am tweaking EQs, faders, and the low pass filter to make it sound right.

Enjoy!