Mad_Cyril Have been battering away on a mix for a couple of months now, couldn’t quite get the selection right for a few different reasons. Spent a fair bit of time listening back on headphones, room speakers and car speakers, making sure the feel was right… just keep at it, it’ll come.
Good example of this; it used to take me ages to get tracks in key, can do it pretty quick now, few seconds, just knock them up and down a few semi tones until they ‘click’.
Mad_Cyril always sounds great when I’m mixing it - different gravy re-listening. I’m guessing it’s practice etc.
What’s helped me a bit is mixing the same two tracks - it sounds funny when they’re perfectly beat matched. How that’s helped is knowing what it sounds like when they’re nearly beat matched
Its not a key thing, bought mixed in key to help. More about getting the old washing machine effect but thinking I real time sounds ok!
Its things like the highs sounding alright to me but then when I listen back is like a herd of hooves going off.
Thinking things like;
Better to have monitors @ head height?
Closed cup headphones instead of HD25’s
Balance headphones/ output better.
Dubman
Yes mate. Wqs listening back to a recording.
I’m not using cue points, seems a bit rigid. Just finding a spot to mix in at and looping incoming so I can mix it in. Mainly 8 or 12 bars.
Feel like it run out of room, so might go to 16.
The cue points seem a better idea for places to start mixing out of tracks though.
How do you use?
Mad_Cyril Using memory loops is a good way to make sure that you don’t run out of track.
Mad_Cyril hd25s are great for mixing, that’s definitely not the problem. how are you monitoring before and after bringing the new track in? all headphones, headphones and monitors? when you cue the incoming track how do you have the sound split in headphones between the outgoing/incoming tracks?
If beat matching is the problem, then getting two copies of the same track and relentlessly mixing between them is the way to go. Removes any distractions about key or phrasing. You know they go together, so can just focus on getting the beats aligned. It does take practice though. Lots of it.
Once you have cued it in and it’s beat matched, ditch the headphones, you’re hearing it as it is then.
303abuser hd25s are great for mixing, that’s definitely not the problem. how are you monitoring before and after bringing the new track in? all headphones, headphones and monitors?
Tried both, results similarly poor both ways round!
when you cue the incoming track how do you have the sound split in headphones between the outgoing/incoming tracks?
I can hear both pretty solid but, this might be normal but seems odd, I can hear the incoming channel more the more I crank up the channel fader. Has me suspecting im not hearing incoming enough!!
Mad_Cyril maybe try this, see if it helps with some practice … when you’re beat matching play both tracks at equal volume in your cans, independent of the master output, and after you bring the new track in initially, take off the headphones and mix purely off the master output. you want to check back if the beats start to slip, but that will ensure you’re focused on the actual mix. also, if you’re ever playing out, you don’t have to worry about the cue features on the mixer (although that’s probably less of an issue now than when i was learning).
Mad_Cyril i think the other thing might be just to practice mixing tracks that you know are exactly in the same key and practice the transition in various places - it all depends on the tracks but start with track A say just after the last drop so maybe 32 or 64 phrases from the end and Track B from the beginning - so a long boring mix but in the same key and see how it sounds - then try at places with more complexity and build from there. there is no right answer - we all have different ways of hearing things - what sounds harmonious to me might not to you - for all i know i might be tone deaf!
To check the key of a track i run it through MiK and sometimes use the little keyboard feature so i can hear the key in the abstract just to convince myself it is the right one. but the other thing is this: WTF is wrong with the odd key clash of the tracks are good and it keeps the energy up? i reckon when i was going to the Gallery of a Friday night that the guys playing there were not massively programming by key all the time - just slamming in Madagascar to get the energy up !!!
I’m with you on the mixing, wasn’t really a massive focus for DJs when I was going out all the time compared to now.
This is more things like the highs, mids clashing badly and sounding a right old racket compared to what I thought it sounded like than the key.
Thanks for the input everyone, plenty of good ideas to work with 
Mixing in the cans is a dead end by the way. Ultimately you are trying to teach your ears to work independently and then make sense of what they are both hearing, in can mixing just makes this harder and will ultimately hinder your progress. It’s really hard to get over this fact, as in can mixing is something of a comfort when you start out, but it’s not the way to progress. Learnt this the hard way myself.
Plus, if you ever play anywhere other than outside your four walls, the mixer might not do ‘in can’ and you will look like Judge Jules rather than Sashweed.
Getting the volume just right between the headphones & your speakers/monitors is also important. To loud on the headphones and it’ll be much harder to beat match the monitor tune
