• Music
  • Mix Club - The Remedial Class

Unbroken1 learning which go with which is specifically designed to be easy/memorable with Camelot though, MUCH less intuitive to know A flat minor > B major etc. unless you have some level of musical training.

Sure, though the combinations go beyond the Camelot wheel and then it’s really just another set of coding like reading music. It’s easier to relate to letters and numbers for sure.

Ditched Traktor, and just went with the XDJs with the sync off, and suddenly had 3 hours of fun last night on them. It seems using sync is a problem for me, I get bored. It’s funny because there is very little difference with using digital players, fucking up a mix on them is pretty hard even without sync.

    Dubman no. That’s what I meant about it being piss easy. I didn’t know you could do that? I’m not putting a piece of electrical tape on a touch screen. 😃

      Homegrove Forgive ignorance etc etc.

      So using your XDJs, you guarantee the two records are moving at the exact same speed, but as not using sync, you’re in control of releasing and aligning them before you start your transition?

      I ask, because like you, I get piss bored using the ‘full’ sync on Traktor…

        vinnyt77 yes. Well it’s not exactly the same speed, but with 0.02 pitch accuracy with the +/- 6 setting it’s almost as close as.

        Homegrove
        Have found using synch is boring as fuck.

        Use it as a cheat every now and then if I can’t quite time it

        Over the last 5 or 6 weeks I’ve started to record my mixes. It’s amazing the difference that practice makes to the process. I know that sounds like an obvious thing to say, but I had just never been bothered to do it before. I’ve just listened back to a 90 minute mix I did yesterday and it is so much better than the mix I did 6 weeks ago - nowhere near perfect or something I would want to publish, nor is it anywhere near the standards of the Hannu/Unbroken mixes that get posted.

        It’s really kept me motivated to keep practicing - although saying that, there is the odd time where you listen back and think ‘could that have been any worse!’

          gcw
          Good man, great to hear.

          @303abuser and @Dubman encouraged me to post one to get some feedback. Took me a while to get the balls to do but was well worth it.

          Wise heads 👍

          4 months later

          After about 4 years I got a new residency in town, the bar/ lounge section of a new restaurant once a month playing electronica and indie. Should be a lot of fun, and I’ve badly needed a reason to start buying that kind of music again. I’ve just listened to it on Tidal. I used to do those gigs a lot up until 2018 or so.

          • gcw replied to this.

            Homegrove good stuff Hannu. Its a proper buzz playing out isn’t it. I may have a gig lined up for early next year, my first actual non wedding/party gif for about 15 years lol. I may actually have to buy new music for it!

            Christ, getting together a playlist for a six hour gig where you can’t just belt out your current prog favorites is a lot of work. Especially with my method for gigs where I take double the tunes I have time to play and do the night out of those.

              14 days later

              Played my first wedding gig last night in ages. I stopped doing them awhile ago, because despite the good pay they are too much work. Made an exception last night because a couple approached me and said it’s a horror-themed wedding. That sounded interesting, and after getting a Spotify-list with the kind of music they were after I was firmly on board. It was so much fun, got paid great, and I almost never get to play these kinds of sets anymore. Tracklist from Rekordbox:

              1 Danny Elfman - This is Halloween
              2 John Carpenter - Halloween
              3 Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi’s Dead
              4 Kyle Dixon - Stranger Things
              5 John Carpenter - Escape from New York
              6 Julee Cruise - Into the Night
              7 Wet Waxies - Queen Knight
              8 Death In Vegas - Witchdance Dub (Dub)
              9 Da Iguana - Sombra Selvatica
              10 Massive Attack - Paradise Circus
              11 Massive Attack - Teardrop
              12 The Cure - Lullaby
              13 Róisín Murphy - Overpowered
              14 Echo & The Bunnymen - The Killing Moon
              15 Tears For Fears - Head Over Heels
              16 The Cramps - I Was A Teenage Werewolf
              17 Screamin’ Jay Hawkins - I Put a Spell On You (Alternate Take)
              18 Depeche Mode - I Feel You
              19 KC & The Sunshine Band - I’m Your Boogie Man
              20 David Bowie - Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)
              21 Type O Negative - Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare -All)
              22 Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
              23 Ramones - Pet Sematary
              24 Siouxsie And The Banshees - Spellbound
              25 Simian Mobile Disco - Cruel Intentions
              26 Goldfrapp - Strict Machine
              27 The Knife - Heartbeats
              28 Placebo - Every You Every Me
              29 We Have Band - Divisive
              30 Depeche Mode - Behind the Wheel
              31 New Order - Blue Monday (2011 Total Version)
              32 Pet Shop Boys - It’s a Sin
              33 House of Pain - Jump Around
              34 Beastie Boys - Sabotage
              35 Timo Maas - Help Me (feat. Kelis)
              36 Marvin Gaye - Got To Give It Up (Pt. 1)
              37 Moloko - Sing It Back (Boris Dlugosch Mix)
              38 SNAP! - Rhythm Is A Dancer (12′' Version)
              39 Underworld - Born Slippy (Nuxx)
              40 The Prodigy - No Good (Start The Dance)
              41 Blur - Song 2
              42 Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
              43 Rage Against The Machine - Bulls On Parade
              44 Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)
              45 Garbage - #1 Crush (Nellee Hooper Mix)
              46 Nine Inch Nails - Closer
              47 Robyn - With Every Heartbeat

                Sounds fun H. I’m guessing there wasn’t much in the way of mixing and it was more of a one track stops the next track starts thing?

                  Earlier this year, after taking guidance from this very board, I purchased a Pioneer DJ controller - the DDJ400. I had never previously had any experience of digital mixing or dj’ing at that point, I had only ever used vinyl.

                  My initial thoughts are that it almost feels a little bit like cheating? Being able to see the BPM of the track, and the key, as well as the beat counter along the top means that the actual basics of beatmatching are totally covered arent they? It allows freedom to focus on the actual transition itself, but it still feels a bit too ‘easy’ if you get what I mean? And then there is the master sync button which has got me wondering - is that used a lot do you think? What is to stop a DJ turning up, and using master sync on every single mix in a set?

                  I can see that there are hot cues, and loops etc but I havent looked into that yet really. It’s certainly a fun piece of kit and has opened up a whole new library for me - I go to beatport/bandcamp now and pick up about £20 worth of tunes and that tides me over for a month or so. Although file management is probably going to be an issue over time as my library grows.

                  Would be keen to hear others experiences of digital mixing - is the functionality of the DDJ400 similar across all of these digital mixers/controllers? I would be worried that I’d go to a gig expecting it to work like my kit, but then it would be a whole different interface!

                    Along_the_Wire I think that’s only necessary with a fade out end. You have to leave the track before that.

                    gcw well……….its a completely different experience than vinyl and much more boring if you ask me, especially if you want to play solid 4 × 4 progressive and techno with no use ball-juggling ‘skillz’ and using all the hot cues and leaping around cuntery which i solidly deprecate ….

                    it can get a bit samey so - 1. programme set so harmonically not shit. 2. play track 1 . 3. wait 5 mins. 4. put book down. 5. Cue track 2 to exact bpm - and where you want to start on the waveform. 6. Loop the first 16 bars of track. 7. Read another paragraph. 8. work out where you want to transition on the correct phase 7. fade in track 2 - 8. fiddle about ion the eq for a bit as if you were sasha in 1998 9. fade out track 1 . 10. Repeat for 4 hours.

                    A lot of the jeopardy of the rail crash is taken out of it which is ever present (for me) on vinyl - however it does produce more consistent mixes because you can programme the tracks much more easily and see what works with what. on vinyl that can take all week and often is very hit and miss. it shows the genius of diggers others programming really when all he probably had was his ears, a bontempi keyboard and lots of time.

                    rant over. enjoy
                    b x

                    • gcw replied to this.

                      baggers44 lol you know what, that 10 step synopsis is very much what it’s like isn’t it! You’ll get a nice clean mix every time but it will get a bit boring after a time. I was never very good at vinyl mixing anyway, so I am enjoying the novelty of a clean mix, and it’s great to easily record and listen back in the car later on

                        gcw aye ….so it begs the question that if we can all do that with a bit of practice what is it that people are prepared to pay for - and it looks like what they pay for is performance - so good looks, ripped physique, pouting, stupid dancing and ‘audience engagement’ . obvs not the music unless it enhances the above. maybe it was always a bit like that …dunno …getting old! and I know that there are many who still eschew all that stuff. anyroads I’m off to listen to a bit of Tozzi for whom mercifully none of the above applies

                        gcw if you are using a laptop, you can leave the screen in browser view while mixing to make it a bit more of a challenge. You can see the small waveform to keep an eye on where you are in the track but you can’t see the grid.

                        6 days later

                        I played for 5+ hours at home last night, and was listening to the recording today while raking the leaves in our garden. Not sure if the activity would have required Slayer instead, but bored myself with the mix. A case in point I don’t share everything I record. There’s deep and then there is snoozefest.

                          Homegrove I don’t shar everything I record.

                          Standard. I’d say, at the moment, less than half the mixes I do ever get uploaded anywhere.

                            Amps less than half the mixes I do ever get uploaded anywhere.

                            Send us some deets

                            Homegrove There’s deep and then there is snoozefest.

                            So I’d probably love it then. 😂

                            Form an orderly queue please gents:

                            Looks like something from a bargain bin in Asda post Christmas

                            a month later

                            I played a warm up set for Orkidea last Saturday for his Turku-stop on his 30 Years of DJ Orkidea-tour (dude started young, he’s 45). Playing only bars and lounges for a couple of years left me a bit lost at first with a proper big sound, it’s so much fucking louder. 😂

                            Checking the recording now for release tomorrow, and I’m surprised how good I did, no trainwrecks, a few dodgy mixes maybe. I also played for the first time with the CDJ 3000s and I don’t recommend just waltzing in when you’re playing with them for the first time. The settings were all over the place after the last DJ, and I had trouble setting them to my liking on the fly.

                            Warming up for a trance DJ was fucking fun though as a prog DJ, I could not go too hard. He requested I end with 126 bpm ffs. I used to warm up for him a lot back in the day, and he had requested me again. Got to play 2,5 hours too.

                              Requested I end with 126 bpm .

                              Proper Blue M&M Moment.

                              Homegrove Sounds like a good gig, looking forward to hearing it. I still remember my first time on a loud system, that initial panic of “I wasn’t prepared for this” fades, but it definitely smacks you in the face. That’s why I always like to have my first 3 records planned, just to give me time to settle in.

                              I think I still have a white label of unity kicking around, that vocal is probably worth sampling.