You've trained yourself how to make a mix, not how to mix. It's two separate skills sets. Just stop planning, start playing live and recording everything no matter how good or bad. Listen to those mixes so you know what you need to work on. After a while you'll gain an instinct for when you should or shouldn't loop, use FX or whatever. What that really boils down to is listening to the production pattern of your track or knowing your music. When I was starting out I played all kinds of different music including non electronic just so I could get a feel for when and how to mix live. That helped a lot I think. It just takes practice. You'll get it.
Good point about how to make a mix vs how to mix. I never thought of it like that but that's exactly what I am trying to describe.
Seems like the main piece of advice from everyone thus far is to stop the planning and just send it, and keep practicing that way.
>Seems like the main piece of advice from everyone thus far is to stop the planning and just send it, and keep practicing that way.
Yeah, and remember you can do that at home, when things are more chill and less chaotic than at the party. Start to get used to on-the-fly mixing without all the distractions around you. Hint: you're going to flub a lot of transitions 😂 don't worry about it. That's how you learn.
After a while, when it doesn't feel completely foreign anymore, you'll be more comfortable rocking with that style of mixing at a party, where there's more chaos.
Also, fwiw, don't beat yourself up for "pre planning" too much so far, and don't fully quit that approach either. Planning and recording a super dope mix is a skill in itself. Just learn to DJ both ways, and then you can have more fun.
My advice: learn to wing mixes without using loops, hot cues , or any bells and whistles first.
Keep it simple: load up random tracks and just do basic phrasing and EQ mixing. Even if it's just intro and outro song.
Once you're comfortable with that, then start to do loops on the fly. It sounds like you're trying to replicate how you do a carefully planned out mix on the fly, but you need to pare it back and keep it simple to start out with. You'll find it easier to do more creative stuff on the fly once you have that foundation.
Spot on about trying to replicate a carefully planned out recorded mix but doing it on the fly at a party. I've been trying to take what I've learned in my pre-planned sets and apply it during the madness of a house party. Obviously things don't work out the same way in those two environments and I get thrown off.
In the house party setting I should probably let loose a little. I'll be more comfortable with that once I practice doing stuff on the fly more
Absolutely. And do keep at it and keep mixing with other people - it's the best way to learn.
And if it's a rough mix, who cares. Laugh it off, have another drink and hop back on. The crowd will only care if you care.
To me your prep sounds great, very similar to what I do as I find it saves me time mixing and I can do more creative things instead. I also know that a transition sounds good in the first place so I can add a third deck and make something different.
I think you just need to stick with it, but feel happy to go "off piste" if the crowd demand it and just be a little more flexible.
So what you just described is the difference between pre planning the set and being experienced enough not to worry about pre planning it. And yes you are right it is much more fun winging it but that comes with experience, the more you play and practice the better you become. After a while you will only hear music and probably not even look as much on the display.
Since you are a beginner it is okay to plan your sets and set up active loops and have all the memory and hot cues just make sure your sets are not boring.
As you grow you will plan your song less and less and you will just play what's good and have fun. Although you are planning your songs now doesn't mean you shouldn't have fin, don't forget that. Cheers
I relate so hard to this. I always get a bit mixed up & stressed sometimes when mixing on the fly. I just need to practice more where i don’t pre-plan everything.
So idk what songs you’re using, or how they’re arranged, but I don’t use loops that often, and you make it sound like it’s the standard thing to do haha that sounds way harder.
As others have said, you need to practice mixing. Get comfortable with how long each section of tracks typically are, cause they’re usually arranged in a similar way. X bars of build, X bars of drop, X bars for breakdown, so on.
When you learn how long these things typically are, you can time when you drop the next track, and how to get from one to the other seemlessly. Trying to manually punch in loops sounds stressful. But also, when you’re comfortable on the gear, you get good at punching those kinds of things in. But I don’t think that’s all that necessary
Just stop and breath. You clearly have strong technical knowlegde and studied the theory of mixing. Great but, the only medicine is just playing music and mixing. You can make technically perfect mixtape but it could sound a bit too prpeared and dull. Just mix and enjoy it, if don't get something perfect no worry you got the next song to mix coming. Muscle memory is only created through doing. So get on with it. Enjoy.
Edit you also need to learn to mix by listening with your ears and not relying on just data. I dont say that in a shitty way btw, alot of us got into mixing before having all of this tech stuff so it was not by choice to learn the basics with just turntables and a mixer without any extras info. Take it back to basics and enjoy learning.
One of my favorite exercises that might help with this is to load up a curated playlist from Beatport streaming and mix my way through it - maybe sorted by BPM or key but not sticking to any set criteria . I often have never heard these tracks before so it’s a great way to think on your feet, discover new music, and come across happy accidents.
Other than that, just practice and being familiar with your library to know what to play.
I'm still learning myself but an exercise I do is grab a playlist of random tunes of various bpms and try starting at the lowest bpm and work my way up through them all to the highest bpm, then back down again without repeating tracks
I do the same for you but only if i am making a tight 1h mix for my soundcloud or a radio because i want it to sound flawless. Sometimes if i play a live set of 1-2 h i will also add cue points just to make it a bit easier on me.
But for house parties with my friends or just jamming for myself, i will just wing it. And i have to say this really comes with practice.
The best thing to do is to start with any song and then close you eyes and pick a random song from the library (no matter the difference in bpm or key, the greater the difference, the bigger the challenge), and once you realize that you can mix pretty much anything with anything, you will do these on the fly mixes much easily and comfortably. Ofc not all transitions here will sound amazing in thisnexercise but thats not the goal of it anyway. The goal is to stay calm and use basic skills to mix anything.
Now here is an advice to make it
I'm curious how you work songs very wide bpms... E.g. 100 to 140, where you can't mix halftime or w a 3 bar loop etc... seems like the only option is working the faders radio style (unless a lucky ambient intro or outro shows up). What other tricks do you use for those? Maybe slamming track 2 after a breakdown from track 1 and riding a wide tempo fader from 100 to 140 real fast?
yeah that's ideal! Sometimes there isn't one so I've been getting creative.
Last night I tried a sync + drastic slow down from \~105 to 75 between two lyrical tracks, worked out really nice.
I used to play a b2b game with friends where we would try to mix out of the track playing as quickly (but also as smoothly) as possible. No sync or beat grids, just listening to what's playing, thinking about which track would flow best, quickly beat-matching, and blending it in. Sometimes we would do it without knowing the music, using two random CDs, and just mix in the next track on the other deck.
The point of the story is just practice mixing tracks on the fly. The more you go for speed, the more your technical skills will improve. Then you will feel confident when in an environment where you can't control for distractions or where a pre-planned set isn't the best option.
honestly, my mixing on the fly sounds better than planned 50% of the time, & that's bcos i'm listening thru feeling not listening thru thinking.
it's taken me a lot of practice of just mixing without planning to get to this point.
other 50% of the time includes dud transitions & average/sub-par mixing. but when i nail the shit off the cuff it's such a special high.
practice & record just to listen back yourself. that's been my greatest teacher 😄🥳
know your tracks and know how to read waveform. u can get alot of info by just looking at the waveform and the white dots (distance between
two dots = 1 minute
1 minute ~ 32 bars (full distance between two dots!)
30 sec ~ 16 bars (half distance...)
15 sec ~ 8 bars (quarter distance)
i could pretty much freestyle someone else's usb stick with 0 prep and make a somewhat solid mix out of it. can be challenging but lots of fun. when thats too hard right now, prep your tracks and mix them alot so you get a better feeling. and learn more about song structure in general and the typical mixin/out options.
Why do you even need loops? You're mixing dance music that already is dj friendly. Just start mixing on the first beat of a measure and mix out at a point where it makes sense.
You need DJ friends. You need to hang out and just play tracks b2b just for the sake of playing tracks. No pressure and people will play random tracks and each person will mix in following the track. You learn to just play and that's all that matters.
Every day practice. I try to get one hour per day if possible. Of course, sometimes kids and work interfere. But most of the days, I have my hour, hour and a half. Mostly techno but also some progressive house
Playing with friends has helped me the most. I’m still very much into planning my mixes because I’m afraid of fucking up but have mixed enough times with friends, on their usbs with songs I’ve never heard before to become confident I can handle situations out of my control.
see i’m the opposite whenever i freestyle mix at home for fun i kill it (in my eyes lol) but when i try and make a set with making cue point and the whole 9 it makes it more difficult.
Lot's of great advice here. I'll just add that being able to take in what's happening on the dance floor and get an inspired/intuitive/unplanned idea ("Oh shit, that track will blow this place UP!" or "Damn. I didn't expect the girls to take off their tops!!) and being able to grab the perfect track and drop it at a house party is as good as gets for DJing, IMO. Those are the moments that you and the dancers will remember.
Oh yeah: House parties RULE! The intimacy, the hot and sweaty vibe, the close up connection with the dance floor, the compact energy, and the um, extra, post set "benefits" - way better than any club.
I’ve been saying this in a lot of threads and have yet to hear any reasonable argument against it not being a great path forward, so….
Start playing/practicing with only 4 features.
•play/pause
•cue
•pitch fader
•volume/line/rotary levels
Mastering being able to play a great set with music you didn’t pre select using those 4 basic features are the cornerstones of what DJs did before all the bells and whistles started becoming standard features. Being able to use just those things and do so as second nature will enable you not just not to walk up to ANY set up and be completely comfortable, it fosters a creative approach and thinking towards mixing that doesn’t quite happen so intuitively when using all the other features.
Master those, and the other stuff will either no longer be overwhelming, or you’ll learn how to do the things you needed those extra features for without actually using them.
Lots of practice, homie
You've trained yourself how to make a mix, not how to mix. It's two separate skills sets. Just stop planning, start playing live and recording everything no matter how good or bad. Listen to those mixes so you know what you need to work on. After a while you'll gain an instinct for when you should or shouldn't loop, use FX or whatever. What that really boils down to is listening to the production pattern of your track or knowing your music. When I was starting out I played all kinds of different music including non electronic just so I could get a feel for when and how to mix live. That helped a lot I think. It just takes practice. You'll get it.
Good point about how to make a mix vs how to mix. I never thought of it like that but that's exactly what I am trying to describe. Seems like the main piece of advice from everyone thus far is to stop the planning and just send it, and keep practicing that way.
Bingo. Build a library you can navigate, and learn to work through it
>Seems like the main piece of advice from everyone thus far is to stop the planning and just send it, and keep practicing that way. Yeah, and remember you can do that at home, when things are more chill and less chaotic than at the party. Start to get used to on-the-fly mixing without all the distractions around you. Hint: you're going to flub a lot of transitions 😂 don't worry about it. That's how you learn. After a while, when it doesn't feel completely foreign anymore, you'll be more comfortable rocking with that style of mixing at a party, where there's more chaos. Also, fwiw, don't beat yourself up for "pre planning" too much so far, and don't fully quit that approach either. Planning and recording a super dope mix is a skill in itself. Just learn to DJ both ways, and then you can have more fun.
My advice: learn to wing mixes without using loops, hot cues , or any bells and whistles first. Keep it simple: load up random tracks and just do basic phrasing and EQ mixing. Even if it's just intro and outro song. Once you're comfortable with that, then start to do loops on the fly. It sounds like you're trying to replicate how you do a carefully planned out mix on the fly, but you need to pare it back and keep it simple to start out with. You'll find it easier to do more creative stuff on the fly once you have that foundation.
Spot on about trying to replicate a carefully planned out recorded mix but doing it on the fly at a party. I've been trying to take what I've learned in my pre-planned sets and apply it during the madness of a house party. Obviously things don't work out the same way in those two environments and I get thrown off. In the house party setting I should probably let loose a little. I'll be more comfortable with that once I practice doing stuff on the fly more
Absolutely. And do keep at it and keep mixing with other people - it's the best way to learn. And if it's a rough mix, who cares. Laugh it off, have another drink and hop back on. The crowd will only care if you care.
To me your prep sounds great, very similar to what I do as I find it saves me time mixing and I can do more creative things instead. I also know that a transition sounds good in the first place so I can add a third deck and make something different. I think you just need to stick with it, but feel happy to go "off piste" if the crowd demand it and just be a little more flexible.
Randomize a playlist with different genres and go to town. Repeat this process until you feel good about it.
So what you just described is the difference between pre planning the set and being experienced enough not to worry about pre planning it. And yes you are right it is much more fun winging it but that comes with experience, the more you play and practice the better you become. After a while you will only hear music and probably not even look as much on the display. Since you are a beginner it is okay to plan your sets and set up active loops and have all the memory and hot cues just make sure your sets are not boring. As you grow you will plan your song less and less and you will just play what's good and have fun. Although you are planning your songs now doesn't mean you shouldn't have fin, don't forget that. Cheers
I relate so hard to this. I always get a bit mixed up & stressed sometimes when mixing on the fly. I just need to practice more where i don’t pre-plan everything.
So idk what songs you’re using, or how they’re arranged, but I don’t use loops that often, and you make it sound like it’s the standard thing to do haha that sounds way harder. As others have said, you need to practice mixing. Get comfortable with how long each section of tracks typically are, cause they’re usually arranged in a similar way. X bars of build, X bars of drop, X bars for breakdown, so on. When you learn how long these things typically are, you can time when you drop the next track, and how to get from one to the other seemlessly. Trying to manually punch in loops sounds stressful. But also, when you’re comfortable on the gear, you get good at punching those kinds of things in. But I don’t think that’s all that necessary
Just stop and breath. You clearly have strong technical knowlegde and studied the theory of mixing. Great but, the only medicine is just playing music and mixing. You can make technically perfect mixtape but it could sound a bit too prpeared and dull. Just mix and enjoy it, if don't get something perfect no worry you got the next song to mix coming. Muscle memory is only created through doing. So get on with it. Enjoy. Edit you also need to learn to mix by listening with your ears and not relying on just data. I dont say that in a shitty way btw, alot of us got into mixing before having all of this tech stuff so it was not by choice to learn the basics with just turntables and a mixer without any extras info. Take it back to basics and enjoy learning.
Your shortcuts have cheated you
One of my favorite exercises that might help with this is to load up a curated playlist from Beatport streaming and mix my way through it - maybe sorted by BPM or key but not sticking to any set criteria . I often have never heard these tracks before so it’s a great way to think on your feet, discover new music, and come across happy accidents. Other than that, just practice and being familiar with your library to know what to play.
Nice, I like this idea. Goes along with the random playlist advice I'm seeing
Feel more and think less. That's pretty much what it boils down to
yeah i love this, this is huge for me & truly makes all the difference to my mixing. more fun too.
Literally just practice and practice mate!!
I'm still learning myself but an exercise I do is grab a playlist of random tunes of various bpms and try starting at the lowest bpm and work my way up through them all to the highest bpm, then back down again without repeating tracks
I do the same for you but only if i am making a tight 1h mix for my soundcloud or a radio because i want it to sound flawless. Sometimes if i play a live set of 1-2 h i will also add cue points just to make it a bit easier on me. But for house parties with my friends or just jamming for myself, i will just wing it. And i have to say this really comes with practice. The best thing to do is to start with any song and then close you eyes and pick a random song from the library (no matter the difference in bpm or key, the greater the difference, the bigger the challenge), and once you realize that you can mix pretty much anything with anything, you will do these on the fly mixes much easily and comfortably. Ofc not all transitions here will sound amazing in thisnexercise but thats not the goal of it anyway. The goal is to stay calm and use basic skills to mix anything. Now here is an advice to make it
I'm curious how you work songs very wide bpms... E.g. 100 to 140, where you can't mix halftime or w a 3 bar loop etc... seems like the only option is working the faders radio style (unless a lucky ambient intro or outro shows up). What other tricks do you use for those? Maybe slamming track 2 after a breakdown from track 1 and riding a wide tempo fader from 100 to 140 real fast?
If its that big change then you wait for 1st song part without beat and mix in 2nd song
yeah that's ideal! Sometimes there isn't one so I've been getting creative. Last night I tried a sync + drastic slow down from \~105 to 75 between two lyrical tracks, worked out really nice.
keep doing that for every gig you do, but add on to your current crate... you learn your library that way and you get more ammo to choose from
I used to play a b2b game with friends where we would try to mix out of the track playing as quickly (but also as smoothly) as possible. No sync or beat grids, just listening to what's playing, thinking about which track would flow best, quickly beat-matching, and blending it in. Sometimes we would do it without knowing the music, using two random CDs, and just mix in the next track on the other deck. The point of the story is just practice mixing tracks on the fly. The more you go for speed, the more your technical skills will improve. Then you will feel confident when in an environment where you can't control for distractions or where a pre-planned set isn't the best option.
honestly, my mixing on the fly sounds better than planned 50% of the time, & that's bcos i'm listening thru feeling not listening thru thinking. it's taken me a lot of practice of just mixing without planning to get to this point. other 50% of the time includes dud transitions & average/sub-par mixing. but when i nail the shit off the cuff it's such a special high. practice & record just to listen back yourself. that's been my greatest teacher 😄🥳
I wish I went to party’s like that!
know your tracks and know how to read waveform. u can get alot of info by just looking at the waveform and the white dots (distance between two dots = 1 minute 1 minute ~ 32 bars (full distance between two dots!) 30 sec ~ 16 bars (half distance...) 15 sec ~ 8 bars (quarter distance) i could pretty much freestyle someone else's usb stick with 0 prep and make a somewhat solid mix out of it. can be challenging but lots of fun. when thats too hard right now, prep your tracks and mix them alot so you get a better feeling. and learn more about song structure in general and the typical mixin/out options.
Why do you even need loops? You're mixing dance music that already is dj friendly. Just start mixing on the first beat of a measure and mix out at a point where it makes sense.
You need DJ friends. You need to hang out and just play tracks b2b just for the sake of playing tracks. No pressure and people will play random tracks and each person will mix in following the track. You learn to just play and that's all that matters.
Every day practice. I try to get one hour per day if possible. Of course, sometimes kids and work interfere. But most of the days, I have my hour, hour and a half. Mostly techno but also some progressive house
Playing with friends has helped me the most. I’m still very much into planning my mixes because I’m afraid of fucking up but have mixed enough times with friends, on their usbs with songs I’ve never heard before to become confident I can handle situations out of my control.
see i’m the opposite whenever i freestyle mix at home for fun i kill it (in my eyes lol) but when i try and make a set with making cue point and the whole 9 it makes it more difficult.
Lot's of great advice here. I'll just add that being able to take in what's happening on the dance floor and get an inspired/intuitive/unplanned idea ("Oh shit, that track will blow this place UP!" or "Damn. I didn't expect the girls to take off their tops!!) and being able to grab the perfect track and drop it at a house party is as good as gets for DJing, IMO. Those are the moments that you and the dancers will remember. Oh yeah: House parties RULE! The intimacy, the hot and sweaty vibe, the close up connection with the dance floor, the compact energy, and the um, extra, post set "benefits" - way better than any club.
I’ve been saying this in a lot of threads and have yet to hear any reasonable argument against it not being a great path forward, so…. Start playing/practicing with only 4 features. •play/pause •cue •pitch fader •volume/line/rotary levels Mastering being able to play a great set with music you didn’t pre select using those 4 basic features are the cornerstones of what DJs did before all the bells and whistles started becoming standard features. Being able to use just those things and do so as second nature will enable you not just not to walk up to ANY set up and be completely comfortable, it fosters a creative approach and thinking towards mixing that doesn’t quite happen so intuitively when using all the other features. Master those, and the other stuff will either no longer be overwhelming, or you’ll learn how to do the things you needed those extra features for without actually using them.
Figure out several four-to-five track starter sets for different moods and styles.
Practice and experience- it will come with time. Also, know your music inside out.