gcw Is there a need for all the kit he has there?
Doesn’t seem like it - I think the red box is just some kind of filter bank? He seems to be using it to just make it sound a bit cooler and to partly cloud the fact that the outgoing track’s loopy lead-line was running on one grid and then it’s going to be put on another. The grey midi device on the right just seems to be pressing play/launching the track from his laptop or whatever.
I think the two key things are firstly that the track he’s mixing out of has a 30 second beatless breakdown which provides enough time to mix the other track without the kicks sounding like a horse race.
Second, the synth loop on the track he’s mixing out of is already polyrhythmic/off from a usual 4-bar sequence, so probably it doesn’t sound as strange when it’s continued again but on a grid that’s a different tempo. Another advantage of the track’s loop being 5/4 is that the jump to the next tempo that can work with it (to a 6/4 loop) isn’t as huge as if it had been 4/4. If it were a track at 140 bpm where the lead is a 4-bar loop you’d need to have the next track at 175bpm to shift it up a notch on the sequence so it plays at 5/4. Most 4/4 loops would also likely sound shit when shifted mid-track to running at 5/4 anyway.
If the main loop ran over 8 bars, which would also not be too rare, then you can go from 140 to 157.5 (8/16 to 9/16), which is even less of a tempo jump (but may also sound odd).
If a 4-bar or 8-bar lead line is a more percussive/rhythmic sounding element, or perhaps a really washy/drifty synth line, then maybe it won’t sound as odd on a different grid? I can’t check so am just speculating. But if it’s say a vocal or strong melodic riff then it’ll surely sound crap. Without being able to test it though it could still well be that in the vast majority of cases it still sounds just wrong taking a 4/4 to 5/4, or 8/16 to 9/16.
Ideally you’d need to find other tracks which have long beatless breakdowns and where the lead sequence is already polyrhythmic/not in a typical 4/8/16 bar loop (or if it is then somehow doesn’t sound rubbish when landing on different parts of the beat when the new track comes in).
Even then, I can’t imagine many scenarios where you’d even want to suddenly increase the tempo by as much as 20% in a set.
