• Music

  • Mix Club - The Remedial Class

When I first started spinning twenty odd years ago, I needed to know my tunes inside out for my mixes to sound any good - cue points, breakdowns, drops etc.

Practice and experience changed that over time. Fairly quickly got to a point where I could just grab a bunch of new tunes, have a spin, and it’d come out sounding decent.

Haven’t done a ‘planned’ mix for years - one of the board festive mix swaps from a few years back I guess. Just don’t get the satisfaction from it that I once did, and honestly - I’d struggle to find the time. I’d say you’re better off just having a spin as often ss you can, and getting as comfortable as you can transitioning from one record to the next, whatever those records are…

Matt One thing is for sure, over analysing it is guaranteed to turn the whole process into a chore.

This ^^^^ x a million.

    Homegrove and I always record

    Also, this times a million. Always listen back - you’ll learn a lot more hearing the details of your mixes and your mixing style afterwards than during - phasing, blending, levels etc

      It’s more about the tunes than the mixing anyway. Just play a bunch of tunes that you like, rather than worry about the perfect mix, no one actually gives a fuck.

        nice one chaps. Felt a bit of a chore to me, thought I was being a lazy cnut, but really couldn’t see the point.

        Like the idea if linking tracks @Matt sounds really useful.

        Not sure Traktor will let me do that though

        I have no real idea. I prepped the arse out of my first couple of mixes recently, but like I’ve said. the mixing wasn’t great, so it probably didn’t matter. The last one was a proper open and shut case. Got the tunes together pretty quickly and to prep 14 or 15 tracks properly hardly takes anytime at all, but takes a lot of the stress out of the actual mix and got from buying, selection, order and then mix really quickly, which massively took the previous tedium of it out of the way

        looping the incoming track is my new practice thing. Mixing without a computer is a game changer for me and really love it. Mixing with a computer is basically the same as creating a playlist.

        mono-stereo It’s more about the tunes than the mixing anyway. Just play a bunch of tunes that you like, rather than worry about the perfect mix, no one actually gives a fuck.

        when playing in front of people, this is pretty much it. once you get to a certain proficiency with beat matching and keeping the levels constant, no one notices the difference between average and great skill sets.

            I’ve gotta agree with Mono on that one. I’m actually thinking that my mixing is getting worse as I get older at live gigs. Take the money and run.

            303abuser no one notices the difference between average and great skill sets.

            When was the last time you were blown away by a DJ’s technical ability in a club? Not just being tight at getting from a to b, but their imagination in putting a stack of records together…

                The internet has changed things on this front a bit too.

                Consider back in the 90s, DJs might have a very similar sounding set for a good two or three months, having it evolve with new tunes appearing over time. Now, nobody can be seen to play the same tune twice and release schedules are mental busy. So way back when, DJs had more opportunity to get to know their records; swerve the key clashes, find the cue points, get a flow etc. Now things have to be a bit more instant, hence the leg work that goes into setting up mixes, and why some DJs have ‘human filters’ going through new music for them.

                Put simply, DJs who prep sound better, but if you’re not recording it for other to listen to multiple times, don’t worry too much about it, just enjoy it.

                vinnyt77 i’m in the exception the rule. because of where i live, my options are seriously limited. if two decent djs stroll through here in a year, that’s a big year, so i only go see guys play who i know are good. my experience djing ruined average djs for me, i need good records and technical skill or i struggle to keep my head in it.

                the last great dj i saw was mark farina. green velvet a year an a half ago was ok, nothing special. kevin saunderson was phenomenal last time i saw him, danny howells a few years back. i just don’t get out much anymore haha.

                    Had another great day just picking random records of a shelf and mixing them in with not a care in the world.

                      303abuser I think the last time I saw a DJ whose phasing and mixing really blew me away was Ian Ossia, about 5-6 years ago. I think it’s partly the music of today - it just doesn’t seem to lend itself to mindblowing transitions in the way that records of 15-20 years ago did. At the same time though, it’s SO easy to be an ‘adequate’ technical DJ using modern tools and trickery, that a whole generation of DJs just don’t seem to have the knack of putting records together in a spellbinding way…

                          vinnyt77 all good points. i think it’s a much different skill set than it was when everyone played records, i know it wasn’t the same for me.

                            7 days later

                            Changing the tempo settings to +/- 6 is a massive game changer for me - who knew?! Thanks @Amps.

                            No drifting and was much easier and quicker getting things beatmatched properly - one positive I suppose is that it properly kept me on my toes before.

                              Saw Ian Ossia at the last ever Renaissance at The Cross.

                              He played b2b with Nigel Dawson all night and they were absolutely brilliant.

                              Unbroken1 Also, and bizarrely, the colour when you have +/- 6 looks like some kind of warning that you’ve got it wrong.