Mix 35 – Pseudo Live

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.