very nice thanks ean..

nice nice
need to start using the last one sounds pretty cool

Nice video for the noobs, but some, like the loop roll one, might be a little too traktor specific… More universal techniques would be good. But by all means, still good.

Very nice idea, great article thanks a tonne

[quote comment="28436"]Nice video for the noobs, but some, like the loop roll one, might be a little too traktor specific… More universal techniques would be good. But by all means, still good.[/quote]

I mean… they do specialize in traktor. Its good to at least get a little in depth, even on such a noob friendly article

Good job! Wish this was around when I started mixing.

sweet, i get so taught up in massive effects and looping… it will be good to go back and study fundamental techniques. And props to you Ean, for making it look so easy. I guess that’s what practicing is for..

…

Good Article!

Techniques descrived above are useful in any software with “little” tweaks…

;)

…

i think the word ‘noob’ is getting thrown around a bit too much there tbh.
sweet vid for beginners (see what i did there? heh) but maybe #3 should’ve been first?

Nice work! This is gold for the new guys/gals I will definitely will be passing this along to my buddy who is just starting out. Sounds like the advanced DJs are getting hungry for more technical videos. :)

I like the idea of teaching people new techniques in mixing but people be aware the “Slam” techniques will get you labeled as a certain type of DJ if you use the constantly. Practice Practice Practice the long harder ways to transition a track and good things will come.

I can’t say I share other people’s enthusiasm on this post. Maybe its just music style or track choice but none of these mixes were particularly great really. Ok its good for beginners to see this stuff and try a few out, but (depending on music style of course) I’d prefer to see 5 different variations on more blend type mixes. I agree with hookerT above, doing these type of mixes a few times is ok depending on tracks is ok but definitely not to be overdone.

With most house and techno, advanced mixing means blending the two tracks together over a period of time to make one track naturally progress between each other while sounding good. The music needs a natural progression – I try to make my mixes last 30 seconds at the very least, but usually 1 minute, and maybe 2 if they blend well. “Layering” your tracks is what is important.

For example, I often like to bring the new track in so its like a new part of the song, keeping the bass low but letting the treble and mid slowly come in to eventually dominate the mix. Ideally you want the two tracks to be able to play at the same time and still sound great. Fine tuning of EQ’s can help this. Then you can gently play with the mid and treble to have the new track dominating the mix. I also like to cut the base from the first track and then bring in the base from the new track in succession which changes the rhythm. I usually take the fader from the first track down a bit at this stage and then gently fade it out.

Usually bringing in a new track is the easy part, its getting the old track out while still sounding good, without it sounding like its ‘hanging around’ is the hard part

:)

I think these are exactly what they say they are “basic mix techniques” Blending tracks for periods of time is more advanced, as it is pretty easy to EQ wrong (usually too much bass) or to have clashing harmony. Maybe Ean could make another video in the future with different blending techniques?
Also although the last technique is Traktor specific you can get kinda similar effects with a beat repeat rack in Ableton.

The more I think about it, the easier mixing house/techno/etc is compared to hiphop. usually there are no long intro’s and outro’s to help and you really have to know the music. Not saying that you don’t with dance music,but the difference is pretty big

[quote comment="28446"]I can’t say I share other people’s enthusiasm on this post. Maybe its just music style or track choice but none of these mixes were particularly great really. Ok its good for beginners to see this stuff and try a few out, but (depending on music style of course) I’d prefer to see 5 different variations on more blend type mixes. I agree with hookerT above, doing these type of mixes a few times is ok depending on tracks is ok but definitely not to be overdone.

With most house and techno, advanced mixing means blending the two tracks together over a period of time to make one track naturally progress between each other while sounding good. The music needs a natural progression – I try to make my mixes last 30 seconds at the very least, but usually 1 minute, and maybe 2 if they blend well. “Layering” your tracks is what is important.

For example, I often like to bring the new track in so its like a new part of the song, keeping the bass low but letting the treble and mid slowly come in to eventually dominate the mix. Ideally you want the two tracks to be able to play at the same time and still sound great. Fine tuning of EQ’s can help this. Then you can gently play with the mid and treble to have the new track dominating the mix. I also like to cut the base from the first track and then bring in the base from the new track in succession which changes the rhythm. I usually take the fader from the first track down a bit at this stage and then gently fade it out.

Usually bringing in a new track is the easy part, its getting the old track out while still sounding good, without it sounding like its ‘hanging around’ is the hard part

:)[/quote]

Off-topic:

It still troubles me how many people actually use the word ‘base’ when referring to low-frequency sounds (i.e. ‘bass’). I can understand how people who are not into a certain scene could mistake ‘Drum ‘n Bass’ for ‘Drum ‘n Base’. However, this guy I qouted seems to use it more than once (he did use ‘bass’ once however, so I’m guessing somewhere he knows how it should be written). I hope it just a typo (twice) because I would be really troubled when somebody that interested in DJ’ing and music would think that’s the correct way.

great tutorial…please show us more!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey guys,

Thanks for the feedback. These mixes each build on top of each other and will lead into the more complicated transitions in the next video. You have to master the basics before moving on to longer blends so it was important to cover a few simple mixes first.

@ Hooker T-

Yes, using a slam mix all night is certainly not recommended but neither is using one mix technique all night long. Its best to learn many different styles and mix them together. That is the idea behind this video series.

Hi Ean, when can we expect the next one?

Cheers

Ean,

Excellent job, I actually referred this post to a few guys that are just getting into DJing.

Maybe a good follow up would be how to use the EQs and filters more in a mix. I know a lot of DJs have a rough idea on the EQs, but something a bit in depth might help increase the quality of the mixes of a lot people. Give it that extra polished finish so to speak. Keep up the good work.

Great video! The red flags are new to me. Is there a tut showing what they are and how to use them?

[quote post="5310"]Great video! The red flags are new to me. Is there a tut showing what they are and how to use them?[/quote]

they are just cuepoints i guess

For rap, rock and pop, I LOVE the slam mix!! If you can line up tracks with similar pitch and tempo, I think it’s one of the best ways to instantly switch up the energy while still keeping people dancing. I understand that other DJs may think you are a hack that can’t beatmatch or whatever, but depending on the gig, the crowd may have a short attention span, so juggling and slamming different tracks has a real effect on getting the crowd hype, especially later in the night when you can drop just about anything from out of nowhere and people will go crazy. Sure, you still need to have blends and complex layers going on, but when the moment is right, slam in a series of three or four different tracks with rapid succession…. peeps will be luvn it.

Can anybody explain, what does Ean mean about the 16 Counts? I am a beginner and it´s very important for me to learn the basics. Thanks

Counts means beats. 16 counts means 16 beats. Read this article:
http://www.djtechtools.com/2009/01/26/phrasing-the-perfect-mix/
and then read every other article too ;) it will do you good.

Ean, you made my VCI loveable. When I bought it in 2007, it was pretty much shit with it’s basic Traktor 3 mapping.

V3 + these tutorials just made me throw away 5 hours on the two tracks above. It’s truly awesome. Thanks a bunch.

Good video. Nothing really new or difficult but a good summary of some options you can use.

Awesome video, watched it this afternoon.

The controller looks really fun to play with, looks like it has a ton of control.

Ean this is an great post. It should should be a series on its own. Maybe you could open it up (to other people’s contributions) on youtube like you did with the midifigther contest?

This was a great post! Its hard to find GOOD QUALITY training videos like this, without it either being a) some chav in his mum’s shed filmed on his iphone, or b) some guy trying to sell you the SECRETS OF THE TRADE (http://www.howtodjfast.com/) :] EAN!!! PLEASE DO MORE ON THIS AS A SERIES! I would pay haha

Great video…I really appreciate the info as a beginner myself, keep up the good work DJTT : )

I feel cliche saying this, but good job reading my mind and writing a great/greatly-timed article.

This is a great post for beginners, it’s sooooo important to build up as many transitions as pos. Not that it matters but I normally call slam mix “cut mixing” another method of cut/slam mixing is to stop the 1st song on the very last the snare before the last bar count, this leave’s a small gap, where if your on turntables you get a nice slur on the snare. Then if you want you can also fill the 1 beat gap with a baby scratch/jigga scratch/rub the appropriate drum kick of the next tune. Cut mixing/slam may be very simple but there’s many methods to play with, if the next tune you drop is 10bpm faster echoing or babyscratching the previous tune’s snare in time with the new tune can be a very effective way to help smooth dramatic bpm changes.
Great post Ean!

All newbie, but you put a lot of work in that-respect

Thanks a lot Shane, its a great help to me.

The concept I am most interested in is using all of the effects to mix completely different genre’s with each other and really play around with music styles. (Just like at the end of V3.0 tutorial 2 when the echo is used to bring in Hendrix).
Would love an episode(s?) of this series to go into how to mix big tempo changes and / or completely different genre’s.
That’s where it’s at IMO.

Awesome!

I think he already showed us how to do that. I don’t have time this morning to go through the archives. But I encourage you to :)
I’m sure more videos will be coming with more advanced mixing.

Hi Ean,

Great idea to get the starting techniques out there as I’m sure (from seeing some of the posts also) that people need these little pushes to get going, there you have a basis for starting out and can build from there, adapting the processes and adding your own spin (no pun intended).
@ Colly.tv – I think in Ean’s opening under the vid he has confirmed that this is just for beginners and is one part of many, maybe when the intermediate videos come out (if they are planning to go that far) then the techniques you are talking about will be covered?

Yes fingers crossed it would be great to have a continuation of that article. I’m guessing most visitors to this blog are not beginners though, but its always good to cover the bases from the start.

http://www.djtutor.com has some good tutorials it would be great if Ean did some similar stuff.

i think all these techniques could be used for even techno, electro, trance. I get what Colly.tv is saying but I think more traditional mixing techniques are starting to be used for the genre/ can be used. I personally love to hear an electro banger slammed into another one or the build up droping into another song. I think traditional long mix smooth transition trance style mixing is cool too and i have apperciation for both, but Colly.tv sounds like we can’t have a world of both. I love crookers and major lazor just as much as avb or pvd. Yes i’m sort of comparing trance and electro but i’ve heard the two combined and allot djs i know will even through a hip hop acepella on top. I guess this is more or less mashup form of djing but applied to electro /trance.

[quote comment="28452"]Hey guys,

Thanks for the feedback. These mixes each build on top of each other and will lead into the more complicated transitions in the next video. You have to master the basics before moving on to longer blends so it was important to cover a few simple mixes first.

@ Hooker T-

Yes, using a slam mix all night is certainly not recommended but neither is using one mix technique all night long. Its best to learn many different styles and mix them together. That is the idea behind this video series.[/quote]

Ean,
I agree with you 100%. I was merely stating, as you did, that getting stuck on one style of mixing (for beginners it’s usually the easiest) is not the best idea, hence the “practice, practice, practice the long harder ways to transition a track”. By no means was I trying to undermine your post with a negative comment. No hard feeling I hope.

[...] Link para o post original: http://www.djtechtools.com/2010/03/17/dj-tutorial-basic-mix-techniques/ [...]

Nice video, although calling some of the mixes different techniques, is a stretch ;)

It would have been nice to see not only the mixes, but include some of the reasons why you would use particular transition effects on certain tracks. Its about giving some context to the techniques.

@Ean: I want to become a DJ… I’m just started to mix songs and I have Traktor Scratch Pro… Is Vestax VCI-100 compatibile with Traktor Scratch pro??? What dj controler you are suggesting to me??? Thx!!! U are the best!!!

[...] DJ Essentials- 5 Mix Techniques [...]

[...] trainwreck anymore (every now and then, but not as bad as I used to).  I happened to stumble onto this DJ Tech Tools article and it opened my eyes to some new ways to think about song transitions.  Now, I’m really [...]

great information but awfull tracks… cassius and gopher…. is there any worst french touch artist ?

[...] Link para o post original [...]

Great video Ean!

Is that a VCI-300? If so, whats up with the echo freeze button?? I need one!!

Thank you for the video!

[...] http://www.djtechtools.com/2010/03/17/dj-tutorial-basic-mix-techniques/ [...]

Nice techniques especially the last one, it look kind off simple in the movie but I probably need a couple of hours extra to get it done :)

I’m looking forward to master all the techniques.
Keep up the good works.

More videos like this please! Would love some more advanced ones too :)

Hey good vdo very handy…Anyways could any1 show how to mix HIP HOP….

would you use a nurmark mixdeck for traktor pro program? i heard it messes up the sound? what you think>?

I’m a brand-new noob – aka beginner. We all need to start somewhere and generally beginner noobs are treated with disdain. Thank you Ean for being noob-friendly.

This is gold for the new guys/gals I will definitely will be passing this along to my buddy who is just starting out. Sounds like the advanced DJs are getting hungry for more technical videos.

When you have masterd these mixes, where would i be able to learn more advanced tricks? you can find me on facebook.com/rubenndekker ;)

I don’t think the loop roll is Traktor specific. I mean, if you’re specifically looking for the beat markers or something like that then yeah, but if you just rock your toons well enough, you don’t have much to worry about.

Nice. As a self taught DJ it’s nice to see someone doing these mixes and verifying what I had kind of figured was the proper way to do things.. I noticed on your more advanced one you kind of breezed through the basics, and now I see why. Keep this up.. Really like what you guys are doing with the site.

Hey ! When is the next video on more advanced stuff going to drop?
Hungry for this ! =D

I have already learned to mix, but now need to get gigs. Anyone have advice on this?
The best thing I have is http://www.challands.com/get-DJ-gigs.html

Can anyone help me?
I’m a good DJ, can mix will and have good taste. Do I need to meet promoters and give my CD? Any other DJs, please tell me how you get DJ gigs. Thanks :-)

TRAKTOR PRO

people that have EQ’s above 12 o clock are fucking nubs you’re just adding clipping not bass

people that have EQ’s above 12 o clock are fucking nubs you’re just adding clipping not bass

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Thanks, this was very helpful.  How do you count songs so easily, though?

[...] http://www.djtechtools.com/2010/03/17/dj-tutorial-basic-mix-techniques [...]

cool >>really quick

You said there would be a series on this? When 
can we expect the next video?

As a DJ, one of the basic fundamentals of performing is knowing how to mix music. Keeping that smooth flow, rhythm and energy on the dance floor is essential to a Dj and their performance in front of their crowd! In this article we will mention 5 secrets of Dj mixing tips that any beginner needs to know in order to become successful. Beat mixing has become easier than it used to be because most of today’s dance music tracks have lengthy introductions to a song and also long outro ductions to a song. With this in mind, it has also become easier for for newcomers to come into the scene and get involved because Dj equipment is as expensive as it used to be!

i am a noob at djing live but not producing house music. How would i transition dubstep to house.. 140 bpm to 128?

Can someone re-up these tracks please?

[...] (posted from DJ Tech Tools) [...]

Can anyone give me a pointer on what to do when starting out? I want to be a DJ but have not idea. Just been trying to find online courses but can’t understand it…

[...] yourself. This especially comes in handy when you’re trying new techniques – from perfecting those basic transition styles to practicing new styles of buildups - and want to assess how well those techniques worked in [...]

[...] sobre todo es útil cuando usted está tratando de nuevas técnicas – desde perfeccionar los estilos de transición básicos para la práctica de los nuevos estilos de acumulaciones  - y quieren evaluar la eficacia de [...]

[...] This especially comes in handy when you’re trying new techniques – from perfecting those basic transition styles_kmq.push(["trackClickOnOutboundLink","link_505a54bf44e7d","Article link clicked",{"Title":"those [...]

Very good and interesting site with very good look and perfect information … I like it.

[...] Tip: Sometimes the very best mix is to blend at the end. Letting the energy come down and back up again between mixes can be a good thing. Try checking out my classic DJTT video on five simple ways to mix tracks together. [...]