Basic Mixing

All this typing is all very good, but the truth is, this is just words. You have to put it into practice somehow. Personally, I learnt by listening to other people in the Mix. I had a tape of my friend Graham who got me into this Dj'ing lark, and as I bought all his tunes from him, I had all the tunes that were on this tape. So, I just listened to his mix, and did my best to copy it. Ok, it doesn't teach you a style of your own, but it does teach you the mechanics of mixing when you copy someone else.

Of course, not all of you have a Graham to copy, I think the best thing to do is find on of these now prolific Mix CD's that are getting released every day that is suited to the style you want to play, listen to that, get some of the tunes, and try to re-make it yourself. By having a set that you know can mix well together, you won't get into the problem in the beginning of tunes that just aren't compatible with each other. You'll learn more about tune placement that about beat matching by copying someone, but you still have to beat-match to do it!

I know a lot of them are done on computer nowadays, but the principle is just the same.

Anyway, onto the basic beat matching part (finally):-

The most common way, and most simples, is described below.

Firstly, get two copies of one record. It's a good idea to use an instrumental and one that has a strong bass drum intro. I used Robert Miles, Children when I checked this out, which doesn't really apply intro wise, but it was the only tune I had two copies of.

I'm left handed, so I tend to always start my mixes from the left-hand side. Therefore, the left deck will be deck A and right deck will be deck B. Leave the pitch control alone, centered, a green light (Or similar) will go on when it is at 0. Start deck A and let it run. You're not going to have to worry about deck A until it runs out (deck B should be running by then).

At this point it helps to know about musical structure, bars and such. If you are a big follower of music, you'll already have an idea of the structure of a tune, and should know when all the changes are going to occur in the specific tunes your using.

Anyway,

Through winding the record back or forward (use your finger to pull or push the record round the plate), find the introductory opening bass drum. Once you've found it, push and pull the record across the needle, as though trying to scratch, so you're comfortable with where it is on the record (It's also advisable to do this to check if it is a worn record, which the needle can suddenly jump out of the groove, making your night a bit annoying.)

Once you're comfortable with moving the record, position the intro so it is just behind the needle (So that when you let go the intro starts immediately.) Most people have the deck running while they do this, but I've seen a few who don't like it moving (likely from Swindon).

Basically what I'm saying is that you don't find the part you want to start the tune from, stop the deck motor, then press start when you want to start the tune in the mix - it's very difficult to start the tune in time this way. What you do is when you want to start the tune in the mix, you hold the record still with your finger, while the motor is running and the turntable is turning under the slip mat - then when you want to start the tune, you just let go - and because the deck is running underneath the record, it 'should' start up instantly to the speed the deck is running at.

You should know the structure of the tunes you're using, you'll know when things change, when a bar ends etc. etc. Wait until one of the bar ends, and release deck B on the first beat of the next bar. A few things might have happened.

1) You got nervous, twitched, and sent the needle out of the groove (Don't worry, start again)
2) You let it go too fast - oops! See below.
3) You didn't let go in time - oops! See below.
4) You dropped it in perfectly - Hey, you're a natural - do it again dapper!!

Some will advise that it's nice to do a small scratch with the tune before releasing it - a kind of rhythmic thing which gets you into the feel of the tune and makes the release timing a lot more accurate.

Correcting a record that is out of sync is easy. There are two ways of doing it. It all depends on the situation.

If I've dropped the record in incorrectly, I will either place my finger on the side of the deck (where all the 'bumpy' bits are)and apply pressure, slowing it down. Or I'll help the record to go faster by placing my finger on the label of the record and giving it a little push. There is another way though, I know a lot of people who will grab the center spindle on the deck, and either really grip it to slow down, or spin it round to speed up - your choice on how to do it.

If the record has gone out of time halfway through the mix, I still tend to do this, but some people swear by 'riding' the pitch control, but then all the work you did cueing up the record in the first place is virtually useless (even if it was wrong in the first place - doh!) It may also help, if you find you are always behind when dropping in a tune, to give it a little push when you start it (called THROWING) - sometimes, it's the added oomf that the deck needs to get it up to full speed (Happens more when using 45rpm tunes).

So, you've now learnt how to drop the tune in correctly, and it is running at the same time as deck A. Make sure the channel level on deck B is lower than A and slowly bring the crossfader towards the middle. This is the acid test. Unless you have a fader/rotator on the mixer, which helps you mix inside the headphones, you will not know until now how successful your attempts at matching the beats were. Hopefully, both tunes are running together perfectly, no maintenance is required because both are locked in sync (If however they aren't, just slow B down or speed it up as described above). Once the fader is in the middle, increase the level of B while moving the crossfader all the way to the right. With any luck, you should have successfully mixed between the two tunes, and the control of the levels means that there were no distortions or clashing of Bass drums and that the final level (volume) did not change much from the original.

So for the rest of the day, just keep mixing between A + B then B - A then A - B and so on. Remember that to get a nice flow to the mixes you need to match the beats placement in the bars:-

If you try (in this case) counting in 8's, then look at mixing the two decks like this:-

A - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

B - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

is what you are looking for,

A - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

B - 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6

Is undesirable - to say the least. Some records might work out of time, some people do it if they're in a rush, but frankly it mostly sounds cheap (like a Swindow DJ at Yates).

So there you have it. The bare minimum required when it comes to beat mixing. This is what everyone should strive to do when they first start. It's hard to concentrate on this for too long, you'll get pissed off with the tracks you're using, get bored and want to get into some heavy mixing, but believe me, without being able to do this well, it's going to take a long long time until you can mix like a pro.

Matching Beats.

This section is a short one on how to match two out of time tunes. Personally, I made it a little easier by calculating the Bpm's of each record when I started, so I knew before hand whether I'd have to speed up or slow down. (Also prevents Chipmunking voices by not choosing a record that has to be pitch increased by too much - that just won't match.) A good rule of thumb that was given to me, is try not to increase the pitch by more than 4. At the time I didn't have a clue what the 4 represented, but there are markings on 1200's with numbers , down the side of the pitch control. You'll see a big 4 there, try not to go past it!! (You can, but try not to)

Let's take an example. Paul Van Dyk - For an Angel, is about 138Bpm (I think) - David Morales, Needin U, is about 130 Bpm. We'll take it from the idea that this is the beginning of a set. For an Angel is going on first. You know that Morales is next - first choice - do you start off by slowing Angel down to about 136, so that Morales isn't chipmunked? It's completely up to you. I find that slowing a pumping tune down too much can make it sound really lethargic. Anyway...

By now, you know that you're gonna have to speed Morales up a bit, take a guesstimate as to how much. (In time you'll learn how to guess - if you're not comfortable guessing, just start from the next paragraph, and increase the pitch control in bigger chunks until you need to fine tune.) Find an appropriate starting point, wait for a beat that you can match in For An Angel, and let fly (Leave the x fader only on Angel!!) Correct any starting errors you may have made, and let it run for a second or two. By now, Morales will be either behind or ahead of Angel. (You might get lucky and get it bang on - unlikely though) What to do here is to adjust Morales as though it was a starting error (slow it down / speed it up with your finger), and then adjust the pitch control accordingly (when you practice enough, it'll be simple to do both at the same time).

Keep doing this until they're matched. I recommend letting them both run together for a while, for even though they sound in sync for a couple of seconds, after twenty, they can be badly out of sync! This does depend on how much time you have until you need to mix, but it does help. Sometimes, these adjustments are as fine as just tapping the pitch controller with your finger, so than it moves almost a millimeter. Of course, some records were actually recorded with a human error on them, knocking tunes slightly out of sync for no apparent reason. Work out what tunes do this, and then, leaving the pitch control alone, slow it down, or speed it up with your finger, as described above.

The BPM250 by Gemini can help matters by having BPM counters for the two main channels built in, with an LED display to show when tunes aren't matched.

Finally in this section, be careful when you are adjusting tracks while mixing (I.e. while both are audible.) Though it's normally better to adjust the tune that is about to come in, it's not always advisable. Take for instance a tune with piano hooks running through it. If you speed it up, it sounds bloody awful, suddenly goes out of tune, for half a second, then back into tune as the extra speed wears off. Or tunes with low melodic bassy intros, if you try to run that at the same time as a bass beat, slowing down the bass melody to keep it in time with the beat will make it go all out of key and out of tune. This is why we all practice, so that we can learn what tune needs what kind of special attention.

Try to always keep a tape in your machine, recording your practice sessions. Not only does it help you improve, or put you in your place if you think you're better than you are, but mixes that you throw together by accident end up working far better than you first thought, and you'll end up using some of them the rest of your life, an event which wouldn't occur if you didn't tape your practice sessions. It's sometimes better than practicing in front of your friends too, they'll either be too polite and tell you you're great, or know nothing about what you're trying to do, not get it, and tell you you're great, both things you don't need when you're a beginner.

Mixing Using CD's

As I said at the top of the page, this is a really basic guide to what to do, for those of you who look at them for the first time and go "eh?".

The first thing you have to learn is how to scan through the track. There are two main types of CD system that I've encountered over the years. Ones with a JOG WHEEL have just that, a wheel which has an outer rim, and an inner circle. The outer rim is used for scanning through the track - a small movement to the left or right will move the track slowly in that direction. A larger movement can take it through varying speeds, up to (I think) four times the speed, and if you move the rim all the way in one direction, you should find that it'll advance or retreat by one minute.

The inner wheel on the jog wheel is for very fine-tuning. It will take you through the tune frame by frame so you can find the exact point at which you want it to start from.

The other style is a button only control. What tends to happen is that everything works from the "SEARCH" buttons, where if you press them once or twice, they will search through the tune frame by frame, but if you hold them down, the speed at which it scans through the track increases the longer you hold it.

There's another style using a joystick, but I've not used it, so I'm not going to make up any advice!!

So, here's MY method for cueing up, adjusting the pitch, and starting the tune. I'm assuming that the mix is going to start from the very first bass drum in the tune - yes, I know not all mixes go this way, but it's simpler to describe:-

1) Find the track you want (There should be a "SKIP" button to advance through the tracks).

2) Find the position you want to start the tune from. A lot of CD's are nice in that the tune starts from the very beginning of the CD, so you don't need to do any searching for the beginning of the tune. There's even more friendly ones that start right on the first bass drum, meaning you don't have to listen to the track until the point the first bass drum to starts.

If you know the first bass drum comes in about 30seconds into the track, then use the fast search control on the unit to get there. If you can't remember where it starts, then just listen to the track until it happens. Either way, when this bass drum happens, press the PLAY/PAUSE button (most units combine PLAY and PAUSE) which will pause the tune at that point.

Now use the fine tuning control to get to the exact point when the bass drum kicks in. Personally, I like to set the cue point to one frame before you first hear the bass drum. I don't know if that's the right way or not, but it's the way I do it. Once you have found this point, PRESS PLAY/PAUSE. On all the units I've used, it's important that you do this again as this is what tells the unit that this is where you want the Cue Point to be set at.

Plus, pressing PLAY double checks that you have set it at the right point. If you have done so, press the CUE button on the unit. Again, with all the units I've used, what will happen is that the CD will go back to the point that you have just set. If you don't trust it, then remember the numbers of the CUE POINT that you set, then when you press the CUE button, compare what it reads with what you remember.

3) Beat Matching Once you're sure you have set the correct cue point, press play on the CD unit in time with the bass drum of the live sound (what's coming out the speakers). Chances will be that you are slightly too fast or too slow. Again, all the units I've used have a PITCH button on them. This isn't what changes the pitch, but what tells the system that you'd like to adjust the pitch - Obviously ? Make sure that this is selected (once pressed, you won't have to press it again).

With the pitch button on, you can now use the pitch slider to speed up or slow down the tune to get in time. You'll find also that there will be "PITCH BEND" buttons on the unit. As there's a chance the tune will have started to fast or slow when you pressed play, you'll have to get it back in time with the bass drums. If you're running too fast, press the - pitch bend button until you're back in time, and decrease the pitch control once in time (or while you're pitch bending). There's a good chance you won't have got it in time in one shot, so use the pitch bend and pitch control again to try and get the speeds matched again. Keep with this process until you're confident that both tunes are running at the same tempo.

4) Starting the Mix Once you have everything set at the correct pitch, press PLAY/PAUSE to stop the tune, the press CUE to get the CD back to the cue point you have set. When the appropriate moment occurs, press PLAY on the CD unit. If you've been a bit hasty pressing the button, or were too slow, use the pitch bend buttons to get the tune back into time.

The good thing about CD's is that the only way they'll go out of time is if you haven't set the pitch correctly, so as long as you have, and you've made sure that both tunes are in sync, then all you have to worry about it the controls of the mixer to make the mix happen. But that's another story.

This lessons, was brought to you by Mark E & James Divine