Mix Club - The Remedial Class
Mad_Cyril it’s probably more a thing with vinyl as volumes were all over the place with different pressings, but i’m sure the idea still applies.
basically, track 1 is playing at whatever volume at it’s peak, we’ll call it 8/10. when track 2 is at it’s peak, it also needs to be at an 8, but the file is mastered quieter and it’s a 6 when the faders and gain knobs are at the same positions. you need to gain match track 2 to track 1 before bringing it in by increasing the gain knob. that way when the fader is at the top, the tracks are volume matched.
if you’re leaving the faders up and using the gains to bring the new track in, you have to have really well trained ears to make sure the volume stays level from one mix to the next. otherwise you’ll get volume swings that become really noticeable, especially on a recorded mix.
erik Yeah, I stopped using it
Mad_Cyril I sort the gain out on the incoming track before anything else. You have more control with the channel fader then. In my shit humble
Spent a good 20 minutes perusing this thread, and I’ve now got loads more to think about in terms of my own DJ stuff. I was recently in the market for a replacement for my aging DJM-600, but after looking at my 1200 & 1210 which I hadn’t even turned on for a good year or two, decided to splurge on an XDJ-700 (2nd one gets purchased when the Musician’s Friend reward points unlock in about a month…~$113 savings, woop-woop!).
Both will be used as standalone Traktor controllers, seeing as I’m sick of looking at my laptop so much while mixing, and I also wanted to get back that old feeling of “manual” control. About the only thing I’m unsure about right now is controlling loops within Traktor itself, seeing as I tend to loop the absolute fuck out of tracks that don’t really fit together until they finally do. I’ve been using an NI Kontrol S2 that has Move and Loop control knobs (handy little bastards), but I don’t see any capability like that with the 700.
/lifestory
deathbysmurf XDJ 700 has loops in the touchscreen, you can just push one, it’s got all different lengths in it, up to 32 beats.
Homegrove FFS…hadn’t tried it on perform mode until that. Cheers (again).
- Edited
I’ve not put out any Livingroom-sets because they’ve sucked lately. Still play every Friday, but listening to the recording they’re dull as fuck, Hernan-level trouble getting to second gear. Yet it sounds great when I’m playing. Weird.
Some of it is probably beer, but maybe I also have too good a sound now, everything sounds intense when you play it loud.
Maybe you just need a change ?
I thought your mixing shot up in quality when you started pacing them out over the last couple of years.
Maybe something different will stretch you again? Freahen it up a bit.Some different styles or a different approach ?
Not as if you’re a rubbish DJ like Hernan
Homegrove I think a big part of that has to do with their search functions going to shit over the last few weeks. I think I’ve purchased all of 2 tracks from them since late January just because it’s such a slog to find decent tunes at the mo, and Bandcamp/Soundcloud search functionality is limited at best.
Luckily, I’m fucking dense and use Safari, so no problems at all.
Seems I needed to introduce a little change to the set up, and powered up Traktor again. I think I got a new mix done yesterday, will still need to listen to it through. Used my old set up, Xone P:X 5, Xone K2 and Traktor.
changing temp throughout a mix
Been messing about with more tempo variation in my mixes for the last couple of weeks. I’ve been trying to include tracks anywhere from 110 bpm to 130 in the same set. It’s not something I’ve ever really tried before and I’m finding it harder than I expected.
As a practice exercise, I’ve been aiming to increase the tempo by around 1 bpm on each track. By the time I’ve faded out the outgoing track and Tried to slowly increase the tempo of the playing track (without it being too noticeable), I’m finding the beatmatching and mixing in of the next track to be a bit of a panicked rush.
Wondering if anyone has any thoughts or advice on the matter.
Cheers
Matt I can’t do drastic changes, they always sound shit. The only way I can do it is with one track that has a beatless outro and mixing a faster track to that with a beatless intro.
I do however take the pitch up a few klicks (0.8 percent or something like that) after every transition. That way you can get from 118 bpm all the way to 122 in six hours!
…weirdly, I think I’m always bolder with tempo changes when mixing live, not keen on doing too much of it on a recorded mix (unless its deliberately chill/downtempo).
Like Hannu says, big changes are tough when mixing…. if you have an ‘end-goal’ tempo-wise, you need to bring it up very gradually over quite a few tracks. I’d also say, don’t be afraid to just do the odd crossfade, you don’t HAVE to beat-mix every track…. something with a nice whooshy intro/outro, preferably in-key, can make for a cool direction change.