Mixvibes Dj Community old forum

I agree with J-Kut the best harmonic mixing is our ears by far.

Stelios, Greece

j-kut wrote:7 years of musical education, i like to trust my ears
working as much with music as you do as DJ you shouldnt need that stuff imo (not to sound arrogant, just my opinion)

and concerning mixing vocal-layers together: never a good idea!

Good point - I've been a DJ for 25 years and my ears are my best tool, I trust them more than software! Mixing vocals!! ARGGHHH NO NO NO!!!

Thanks for the link Stelios, I'll give that a try.

Before 24 years a DJ told me: Rule number one, never mix or cut through or on vocals.

Stelios, Greece

sfronti wrote:Before 24 years a DJ told me: Rule number one, never mix or cut through or on vocals.

Stelios, Greece

Absolutely true, this will mess up everything!

i agree with every statment you old timers say experience counts

working as much with music as you do as DJ you shouldnt need that stuff imo

First of all thanks for the many responses so far.

I heard the same thing about beat-matching not too long ago. I agree that someone who calls himself a DJ should be able to to it manually - but if you can do it with one button you can use the saved time during the mix to be much more creative things. And you can never have too much time to be creative while mixing imo. In electronic music the times where DJing consits of blending two track in the first/last 40sec or so are over.
Look for instance what DJs (like Paul van Dyk) do when they go to a gig nowadays. They hook up their MacBook with Ableton live and a Hardwarecontroller and basically creating a brandnew remix of his tracks every single time on the fly. He doesn't care about beatmatching or fiddeling around with harmonics because all that is precalculated and organized wihin his Ableton live Session View.

If you ask me I think that the borders between live acts and regular DJing become blurred more and more. And while producers are already taking advantage of the freedom nowadays technology allows them to do, DJs sometimes tend so be really "old fashioned". I don't know why but it seems as some might be hurt by the idea that their hard gained ability to make two vinyls playing at the same speed becomes obsolete.

I think as a DJ in electronic music you always have to aim to create something unique. I love to take songs enterly apart and put them together totally different. Maybe i just like a few 30sec parts of a 10 minute song - so I can take these and make something completly new out of it ... you get the idea. Everyone can buy/download the tracks you are playing but noone can paly them the way you do - its unique. That makes a good DJ if someone asks me. :neutral

... and because of that I want software that supports harmonic mixing - because I don't want to waste the precious time while I'm in the mix.

... and because of that I want software that supports harmonic mixing - because I don't want to waste the precious time while I'm in the mix.

In my view, It already does support harmonic mixing; it even has a column dedicated to it (key, or comments columns). You can even colour code tracks if that helps you out too. You just need to do a little preparation before you play if you want to take full advantage of 'key' mixing. DJ'aying is 10% live performance, and 90% not what's going on in the booth. Most tracks you play, you hear before you play; so goes for key,track analysing, ect for most djs.
Not having a go at you, but it already is supported in a way; its just not contained within the program. Dont think it would make that much difference IN the program. I use key mixing, and use tons of cue points like sample shots and always mixing it up with acapellas in correct key, and i don't think its 'old fashioned'.......just know your camelot wheel options, and use your ears - U wont lose anytime in your mix
Cheers

Back in the days of managing a club I used a key to open the club's doors. Bang tunes all night long and use the same key to lock the club afterwards...
http://soundcloud.com/djnicob1/elininmix
Now that I'm not managing clubs anymore, I think I'll give this "Mixing in KEY" thing a try... Do I still have to use my ears ???

You might need to keep yours ears working well - nothing can create a great mix like your ears! Technology will never replace them!

However, I've heard some DJ's who absolutely MUST be deaf, because their music sounded like their ears were not in the room with them!

About vocal I like to mix them in, even as samples, or acapellas loaded on a deck.

I usually keep singing in my head on which key it should sound good, and I try to adjust for that.

I also try to use relative changing, so If I can, I set one deck to master tempo, and change the tempo to mach the other, that has Master tempo of, so I fine adjust the key on that one and sinc the other to it in master tempo. If it is playing I do it in the way you should not notice