Beats/Bar/Phrases-Mixing Techniques.

[kickassDJ25]

Hey guys and dolls!

So for the newbies out there, like moi, I have a few questions I want to clairfy. My mixes are sounding rather poor if I'm honest, I give up after beatmatching 5 songs together. I usually just do outro into the intro of a another song. So I've been watching many videos online to improve my mixing and I'm kinda stuck, my mixes are boring and bland.

So let me get things striaght, 4 beats in a bar, correct? how many bars are in a phrase? Also, how do u know its a new phrase?

one other question, what if a song doesn't start with a beat? say it starts with a hit-hat or a clap like swedish house mafia-one? what to do then?

Also, do u guys have any tips/tricks to make my mixes sound interesting? I tried doing the drop but boy did it sound terrible!

thanks

K

[drumpusher]

Depends on the track, usually though a phrase is 8 bars, compromised of a 4 bar statement and a 4 bar response. how do you know when it's a new phrase? Usually you will have a ride or a fill pattern announce the drop of a new phrase, you need to listen out for these audio punctuations. You'll get it with practice, and soon you won't need to count along to find the phrase, you'll just hear it.

[kickassDJ25]

whats a 8 bar statement and 8 bar response?

[drumpusher]

The way the phrase is constructed. I wouldn't worry about it for now, keep counting the bars when the beat drops and learn to listen for the phrase indicators like rides and fills.

[kickassDJ25]

cheers man

p.s what part of Eire u from?

[drumpusher]

Waterford, you?

[kickassDJ25]

Dublin, nice to see a fellow Irish man on here:)

[Ocie]

Don't give up man, it's frustrating at first for sure. But when you finally start getting it all together it's an awesome feeling.

What helped me was counting 32 beats, because that would be the start of a new phrase in the song once you hit 33 (I would just start again though at 1). It worked for me.

When a song doesn't start on a beat, you just need to do your best to guess the start and the end of the first phrase or two. Cue it up in your headphones and see i if you can match up with the track currently playing.

[drumpusher]

Sorry dude, instead of 16 I mean 8 bars. Been a long day. I'll edit my post :P :teef:

[kickassDJ25]

Don't give up man, it's frustrating at first for sure. But when you finally start getting it all together it's an awesome feeling.

What helped me was counting 32 beats, because that would be the start of a new phrase in the song once you hit 33 (I would just start again though at 1). It worked for me.

When a song doesn't start on a beat, you just need to do your best to guess the start and the end of the first phrase or two. Cue it up in your headphones and see i if you can match up with the track currently playing.


It really is frustrating, I mix a few songs great then it goes pear shaped, its so frustrating!!!

counting the beats is a good trick, thanks :)

do u guys have any tricks to make your mixes sound different?

[kickassDJ25]

Sorry dude, instead of 16 I mean 8 bars. Been a long day. I'll edit my post :P :teef:

no worries :)

so 8 bars, every 32 beats theres a new phrase?

I read on the net its every 4 bars or 16 beats?!

[Ocie]

It really is frustrating, I mix a few songs great then it goes pear shaped, its so frustrating!!!

counting the beats is a good trick, thanks :)

do u guys have any tricks to make your mixes sound different?

counting the beat to keep track of phrases is a great way to make your mixes sound different. you'll start to use different songs, mix them with other different songs. the blending of the two tracks can make it sound like a new song entirely.

there are always effects, but i wouldn't worry about those for a little while.

it comes down to training your ears to recognize that the song in your headphones is in sync with your live track. You need to really listen and focus at first, it'll become second nature eventually. once you've got beat matching down, start to really focus on phrasing. that'll make your mixing very tight. baby steps first.

[drumpusher]

no worries :)

so 8 bars, every 32 beats theres a new phrase?

I read on the net its every 4 bars or 16 beats?!

Technically, yes. But that's the sloppy way to do it. This is where the statement and response comes into play. It'll be a lot tighter if you have patience and wait for the response to finish and drop your first downbeat on the first beat of a statement. Plus the response usually has the big noticeable punctuation sounds at the end of it so it's easier to listen out for.

[Hausgeist]

Technically, yes. But that's the sloppy way to do it. This is where the statement and response comes into play. It'll be a lot tighter if you have patience and wait for the response to finish and drop your first downbeat on the first beat of a statement. Plus the response usually has the big noticeable punctuation sounds at the end of it so it's easier to listen out for.

Yep. I'd rep you, but I have to wait.

[mostapha]

The info in this thread is good, just touching up on a few things that might make it clearer.

The VAST majority of dance music is in a 4/4 time signature with 8-measure phrases.

Some explanation.

Bars and measures are the same thing. Measures are called bars as slang for how they're written in sheet music. If you don't read music, it doesn't matter, just know they're the same thing.

4/4 means 4 beats to a measure, quarter note gets the beat. In most dance music (house, techno, trance, electro, etc.) that's how kick drums are written.

"4 to the floor" actually means that kick drum pattern, not the time signature. It means each measure has 4 kick drums on quarter notes.

In a 4/4 song, you count 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 ....

That's mostly what the time signature is for, to teach you how to count the most significant/dominant part of the beat.

In that sentence dominant just means the normal English word. "dominant" has another meaning in music too, but it's not relevant for this, so don't worry about it.

Ok, a downbeat is the first beat of a measure (the 1 when you're counting 1 2 3 4 1 ...). Just one more piece of useful terminology.

"Phrase" is just a musician's way of naming the basic piece of structure for a full song. In dance music, 999 times out of a thousand, it sounds like 8-bar phrases. This gives it tht feeling of regimented structure that we all know, hear, and respond to, even of we can't describe (or articulate) it.

You'll know you're hearing them completely right when you can drop a record at any point and KNOW when the next phrase is going to start within a measure or two, even if you haven't heard a phrase change yet.

There are 2 big ways to count phrases. You can count 1 2 3 4 5 ... 31 32 1, like someone said above. The more classic way to count is to count measures and beats at the same time: 1 2 3 4 2 2 3 4 3 ... 8 2 3 4 1. Either way, the downbeats you call 1 are always the start of a phrase. The big reason for counting the classical way is so that you know what part of a measure you're on at any given moment.

Why does that matter? You mentioned sings without a kick to start. If you know where the drums are supposed to fall, you can beat match anything that has drums. In most dance music, snares fall on the 2 and the 4 of each measure (only on the 3 in dubstep). Hi-hats usually fall on up-beats, which are half way between each number you're counting.

You count those 1&2&3&4&1.... The hats would happen on every & (pronounded "and"). But, that's a more common thing to change than the kick and the snare.

Anyway...

The big reason that phrases are important to DJs is that big changes in the track happen on a phrase change. They don't happen every phrase, but where they happen will be on a phrase.

That's the easiest place to mix.

Step 1 is beat matching...get the beats (quarter notes) to line up so the drums sound like they're playing together.

Step 2 is basic phrase matching...make the downbeats of both songs line up.

Step 3 is actual phrase matching. The first downbeat of a phrase happens at the same time in both songs. That way, when one track changes, it makes musical sense in the context of both tracks. Whether you can articulate it or not, you WILL hear if it's wrong.

That's most of it.

The last thing is to listen to what changes on which phrases in both tracks. Most dance music is insanely predictable in a few important ways. Every phrase or two during the intro, something new starts (at the start of a phrase). Every phrase or two during the outro, something stops. You kinda just have to hear throes changes, but things to listen for are when individual drum sounds start/stop, when individual synths start/stop, when vocals start/stop.

The easiest and cleanest way to mix is to line up the tracks so that the start of something in 1 track happens on the same downbeat as the end if something in the other one.

It's really formulaic, and it is by no means the end of learning to DJ or the only way to do it, but it's a DAMN good place to start.

IMHO, if you haven't mastered that, don't even think about moving on to anything more complicated. Don't touch any effects. Don't add a 3rd deck. Don't even touch your EQs. Learn that FIRST.

Then, start adding more stuff if you want, though depending on what you spin, you may not need to. Apart from scratching, that is ALL hip hop DJs do. And it sounds great for that style.

If you want an example, click on my mixcloud link and listen to the Breaks 2007 set. (or something like that)

That mix was on DJF 1.0's top breaks mixes list from about the time I posted it until the site went down this winter. And it was INSANELY simple. I did it in Ableton, but that doesn't matter. there were no effects in that mix. No EQs. No VOLUME FADERS. Every Channel was open the entire time. It is literally nothing but beat and phrase matching as I've described here. The mashup somewhere in the middle (it's the section with halcyon & on & on) was even done that way.

It's very limiting to have so few options on where to start a track, and sometimes you get into weird situations where tracks just don't want to line up or the crowd isn't feeling a track and you have to mix out early, but sometimes working within very strict constraints brings out your creative side.

As a little bonus, mixing this way is a great way to alter the energy of the floor. Want people more excited, mix a phrase or 2 early. Want to take it down a notch, mix a phrase or 2 late. It really can be that simple.

The complicated/hard part comes in learning your tracks well enough to hear changes before they happen and know when to start a track so that phrases line up correctly.

As a side note, I blame easy looping and hot cues for a lot of young DJs not knowing this stuff. Yeah, they're creative tools and can be great, but if you use then without knowing why you're doing it, you'll do more harm than good.

Questions? Comments? Lawsuits?

[Atomisk]

Mostapha nailed it as always. It doesn't hurt to take a few music theory courses, or even just looking up some very very basic music theory online. It makes learning 20x easier.

6gHEIF0rT2w

[Ocie]

welp, mostapha explained everything you need to know in excellent detail, as well as some extra pointers. and yes i agree with him on looping. all it takes is knowing your tracks.

[mostapha]

Also, I just saw all the typos. They were my iPhone's fault…maybe I'll correct them if it's not clear.

Also, because it came up on DJTT once…the whole "everything is 8 bar phrases" rule isn't set in stone…it's cultural. And it's not a conspiracy by the guys in black suits to make us all make the same music…it's a result of how the first sequencers worked. And it's stuck around because it works really well.

[Ocie]

given out too much rep :argh:

when 24 hours has gone by....

[kickassDJ25]

how do u guys mix commercial top 40 music? there's no real place to mix because theres so much going on, any advice?

p.s thanks so much lads for all your advice, greatly appreciate it.:)

[alazydj]

Top40 is the exact same thing.

If you need more time, get smart with loops. Either pre-loop a longer intro/outro/breakdown in Ableton (or any other DAW). Or just use your DVS/CDJs...

Others might agree that Top40 is usually best "Dropped". What I mean is that you count the 8 bars like anything else, and you just drop in the new song and drop out the old one.

However, there is no one way to do it...which is a good thing, because if there was only one way than this hobby wouldn't be very fun.

[drumpusher]

Drop the first downbeat after the intro on the current songs middle 8/bridge. :P

[kickassDJ25]

Drop the first downbeat after the intro on the current songs middle 8/bridge. :P

hey man, hows the form?

so the first beat of the new song on to the current songs middle 8/bridge? what is the middle 8/bridge? :(

[kickassDJ25]

Top40 is the exact same thing.

If you need more time, get smart with loops. Either pre-loop a longer intro/outro/breakdown in Ableton (or any other DAW). Or just use your DVS/CDJs...

Others might agree that Top40 is usually best "Dropped". What I mean is that you count the 8 bars like anything else, and you just drop in the new song and drop out the old one.

However, there is no one way to do it...which is a good thing, because if there was only one way than this hobby wouldn't be very fun.

I've been trying to do the drop, sometimes it work, sometimes it doesn't.

[drumpusher]

The middle 8 or bridge of a track is usually an instrumental 8 bars towards or near the end of the song before the final chorus, it usually changes up from the typical hook or riff in the verse or chorus. For example check the 'Amen Break' on The Winston's 'Amen Brother'

Heres the whole track:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxZuq57_bYM

Here's the middle 8 so you can listen out for it in the main vid, also one of the most sampled breaks in history.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwQLk7NcpO4

With pop there's usually always a bridge, get to know your tracks so you know when to drop it. This is not a hard and fast rule though, this is just what I used to do when I had to play Top 40.

[mostapha]

how do u guys mix commercial top 40 music? there's no real place to mix because theres so much going on, any advice?

There's less going on than there is in a normal dance track…it's just all louder. Top40 also uses different phrase lengths.

But there's a simple answer…mix it like hip hop. Do everything right like I said above, drop and slam the crossfader. Unless you're actually "doing a blend" (which was what mashups were called in the '80s) that's all you need and all I've ever heard when the radio plays streams from top40 clubs and my iPhone is dead.

And you have to listen to the old hip hop rule, respect the chorus. You can't mix from the chorus of one track into the chorus of another…it doesn't sound right. Mix chorus to verse, verse to chorus, or bridge to chorus. Mixing verse to verse or chorus to chorus breaks the structure that people have been listening to their whole lives and confuses them, even if they can't articulate it.

I'd also say just don't bother mixing because no one in a top40 club has ever cared that a DJ was there except to pretend they were friends to try and get laid……but I'm kind of a jack ass and think that the only reason top40 is played in clubs is to keep annoying people away from me and the clubs I go to. But if you actually want to mix, that's how you do it.

And, again, learn to do that first before you start using loops and hot cues.

[nolimitz]

Also don't forget that a "beat" in this sense doesn't neccesarily mean an audible sound (such as a kick drum or snare) but rather a place within the song that these instruments are supposed to play. Let's say @ 120bpm the song goes : Kick..snare..kick..snare. You would count that as 1..2..3..4.. but if u hear: kick..snare..kick..snare..blank..snare..kick..snar e, you would still count it as: 1..2..3..4..1..2..3..4. Get what i'm saying? probably sounds confusing lol

[kickassDJ25]

Also don't forget that a "beat" in this sense doesn't neccesarily mean an audible sound (such as a kick drum or snare) but rather a place within the song that these instruments are supposed to play. Let's say @ 120bpm the song goes : Kick..snare..kick..snare. You would count that as 1..2..3..4.. but if u hear: kick..snare..kick..snare..blank..snare..kick..snar e, you would still count it as: 1..2..3..4..1..2..3..4. Get what i'm saying? probably sounds confusing lol


I get ya, I think :)

[kickassDJ25]

There's less going on than there is in a normal dance track…it's just all louder. Top40 also uses different phrase lengths.

But there's a simple answer…mix it like hip hop. Do everything right like I said above, drop and slam the crossfader. Unless you're actually "doing a blend" (which was what mashups were called in the '80s) that's all you need and all I've ever heard when the radio plays streams from top40 clubs and my iPhone is dead.

And you have to listen to the old hip hop rule, respect the chorus. You can't mix from the chorus of one track into the chorus of another…it doesn't sound right. Mix chorus to verse, verse to chorus, or bridge to chorus. Mixing verse to verse or chorus to chorus breaks the structure that people have been listening to their whole lives and confuses them, even if they can't articulate it.

I'd also say just don't bother mixing because no one in a top40 club has ever cared that a DJ was there except to pretend they were friends to try and get laid……but I'm kind of a jack ass and think that the only reason top40 is played in clubs is to keep annoying people away from me and the clubs I go to. But if you actually want to mix, that's how you do it.

And, again, learn to do that first before you start using loops and hot cues.

Probably going to sound like a complete idiot here but when u use terms like bridge, chorus, verse, I don't full understand which part of the song these parts are in that song.

So here's a popular top 40 track at the moment:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xScsmPyspLg&ob=av2e


At which point would u mix out of this? also, can u point out which part of the song where the "bridge" "chorus" and "verse"

Sorry If this seems stupid but I am a beginner, thanks:)

[punky]

Learn to hear the phrase. It's kind of stupid, but you know Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water"? You know that guitar riff? It repeats over and over - that's basically a musical phrase. It's not always 16 beats or 32 beats. Make sure that your phrases don't overlap in weird ways, or if they do, make sure they sound good. :)

[de.j.l]

If the song doesn't start with a beat. a) fast forward to the beat , b) edit the track and put a beat in there or c) beat match it perfectly, use your internal clock and then play the ambience over the mix and have the beats hit on time(takes a little bit of practice but once you get better stuff like this becomes easier.

[mostapha]

Probably going to sound like a complete idiot here but when u use terms like bridge, chorus, verse, I don't full understand which part of the song these parts are in that song.

So here's a popular top 40 track at the moment:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xScsmPyspLg&ob=av2e

At which point would u mix out of this? also, can u point out which part of the song where the "bridge" "chorus" and "verse"

Sorry If this seems stupid but I am a beginner, thanks:)


I just noticed this post. Sorry. I'm in class right now and can't watch it. I looked up lyrics and couldn't really tell from that, but without hearing it, I'm guessing that there isn't really a chorus, just a bridge between 2 verses, 1 each by the 2 vocalists. But I'll try to remember to watch it later. In the mean time…

A chorus is a repeating segment, usually lyrical in top40 (less so in dance music; hip hop goes either way…repeated lyrics from the song they're sampling for the beat are usually choruses).

Verses have very similar rhythm, rhyme, and melodic structures with different words from each other, and they're usually different from choruses.

Bridges are rhythmically and melodically different from both of the other 2 and usually only happen once in pop. They're like breakdowns in dance music except that the beat doesn't always drop out.


If the song doesn't start with a beat. a) fast forward to the beat , b) edit the track and put a beat in there or c) beat match it perfectly, use your internal clock and then play the ambience over the mix and have the beats hit on time(takes a little bit of practice but once you get better stuff like this becomes easier.

I've done each of those on different tracks. B or C are my preference, but I've used A in a pinch (usually when someone's requested a hip hop track that would actually fit in with my set).

As much as a lot of people are going to discredit what I've said in this thread and call me a poser, waveriding really makes C easier if your software's transient detection is good enough. (SSL's is…haven't used Traktor like that, but I don't see it's UI giving you that much help)

I thought of it as cheating too until the day I dropped a prog breaks track with a 2-minute beat-less intro over another track and the drums came in perfectly on time. Totally worth looking at the screen periodically for a few minutes during your set. Dropping modern hip hop (think lupe, jay, em, not so much flo rida, bob, etc.) in a soulful house set (since a lot of it is >120bpm) where it makes sense and just playing the intro is another reason technology can be cool.

[djbigchamp]

I am still working on my phrase matching, and I find that one of the ways to improve is to listen to your music over, and over, and over again. Fortunately, I'm also a drummer, so counting beats/being on time comes second nature :teef:. I find myself phrase matching more fluently because I'm comfortable with the tracks, where the drops are, etc. I also know it has been deemed as cheating (by some), I find it very helpful to pay attention to the waveforms if you're DJing digitally. They're not always spot on, but they are a good indication of when to expect a phrase change.

But yeah, keep listening.

[AlanS]

Probably going to sound like a complete idiot here but when u use terms like bridge, chorus, verse, I don't full understand which part of the song these parts are in that song.

So here's a popular top 40 track at the moment:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xScsmPyspLg&ob=av2e


At which point would u mix out of this? also, can u point out which part of the song where the "bridge" "chorus" and "verse"

Sorry If this seems stupid but I am a beginner, thanks:)


At 2:03 the chorus begins. I'd drop a 16 bar intro at that point. Once the chorus ends, the vocal from the new song begins.

[kickassDJ25]

So start the new song at the beginning of the chorus? is this all thats done for top 40 stuff?

[sense]

At 2:03 the chorus begins. I'd drop a 16 bar intro at that point. Once the chorus ends, the vocal from the new song begins.
:bing: I second that

[kickassDJ25]

I'm just not fully understanding this, can someone try to explain or even show me? I've tried to mix a few tunes like this but its not sounding right

[mostapha]

Yeah. Send me a PM about it tomorrow some time, and I'll give you something with screen shots and audio samples.

[Ferryman]

It really is frustrating, I mix a few songs great then it goes pear shaped, its so frustrating!!!

counting the beats is a good trick, thanks :)

do u guys have any tricks to make your mixes sound different?

I was told to always listen out for the snares, but I learned with drum and bass. Also, I found quicker music easier to learn with. The slower the tune, the more you notice the 'clang' so it can be a bit more deflating. If you have any d'n'b, start messing about with that and slow it up once you get that nailed.... perhaps move on to garage / dubstep / grime and then slow it down to house, then hip hop etc. That was my approach any way.

Oh, how long have you been mixing for?

It took me about 3 months to learn to beatmatch properly by spending 2-3 hours a day on my decks most days (so like, 100-150 hours of practice) - so it does take time for sure. But don't give up at all - soon as it clicks, it clicks and you can concentrate on things like tightening up your EQing and harmonic mixing.

These things sound miles away, but believe me they're not - just keep doing what you're doing and soon it will all make sense.

[mostapha]

I'm just not fully understanding this, can someone try to explain or even show me? I've tried to mix a few tunes like this but its not sounding right

What genre do you want?

[sense]

this might help http://www.djtechtools.com/2010/03/17/dj-tutorial-basic-mix-techniques/ right below the video is the links to both tracks used in the video. I would suggest download and follow along like a practice session.

[Smallz]

It really is frustrating, I mix a few songs great then it goes pear shaped, its so frustrating!!!

counting the beats is a good trick, thanks :)

do u guys have any tricks to make your mixes sound different?

A trick that I've found that works for me is mixing the first build up of the track I'm bringing in with the second build up of the song I'm currently playing. I usually use this idea if the track I'm currently playing does nothing different on the second drop in comparison to the first drop, so I'll transition to the next song this way.

Another thing I do, and this isn't really a trick but more of a challange, is try to put out a mix at least once a month with the idea of trying to stay away from all the popular tracks that are being played (i.e. Beatport Top 10). It helps me search for new and interesting tunes that I wouldn't have searched for before. Of course every now and then I slap a mainstream track on there, but finding off the wall tracks that tailor to my kind of sound is awesome to me.

[kickassDJ25]

What genre do you want?

Hey

could u mix some top 40 stuff please? I can mix prog house well but not top 40

thank u:)

[kickassDJ25]

A trick that I've found that works for me is mixing the first build up of the track I'm bringing in with the second build up of the song I'm currently playing. I usually use this idea if the track I'm currently playing does nothing different on the second drop in comparison to the first drop, so I'll transition to the next song this way.

Another thing I do, and this isn't really a trick but more of a challange, is try to put out a mix at least once a month with the idea of trying to stay away from all the popular tracks that are being played (i.e. Beatport Top 10). It helps me search for new and interesting tunes that I wouldn't have searched for before. Of course every now and then I slap a mainstream track on there, but finding off the wall tracks that tailor to my kind of sound is awesome to me.

this is useful info, thanks, I'l try give this a go!

[kickassDJ25]

this might help http://www.djtechtools.com/2010/03/17/dj-tutorial-basic-mix-techniques/ right below the video is the links to both tracks used in the video. I would suggest download and follow along like a practice session.

this is great!!! thank u sooooo much

[mostapha]

PM replied to.

For everyone else…I don't really have any top40.

So, here is is graphically. Please look at the full size ones if you can't read the names of the regions. You asked for top40, so the "tracks" are broken into sections: 4-bar intro, 16-bar verses, 8-bar choruses, 8-bar bridge, 4-bar outro. If they're different lengths, adjust accordingly. The important part is where the transition happens, not so much what happens before it (in Track 2) or after it (in Track 1)…that's just a matter of opening/closing the fader at the right time and is beyond the scope of this post.

Blue sections are (mostly) played, red sections are (mostly) skipped. Infer whatever you want to about fader technique based on the genre you're thinking about.

An example of an early transition.
http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gtg054r/pics/phrase/one.png
In this one, you're just playing the start of Track 1 and then going into Track 2 pretty quickly.
You'd use this if you wanted to tease them with a popular song or remind them of something from the past…or just if you're at the peak of your set and just want that verse so you can move on to something else. This happens a lot in top40 and hip hop because it's the easiest part of a track to mix into with basically no chance of the crowd getting sick of Track 1 before you're done.

It also burns through music very quickly.

An example of a "normal" transition.
http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gtg054r/pics/phrase/two.png
You're keeping the meat of both tracks and mostly playing them with their structures basically in tact.
You'd use this during the bulk of a set if it's not peak-hour. Hip hop can be pretty different, but I'll discuss that later.

When you're doing this, you see a Track 1-Verse 3 and Track 2-Verse 1 basically lining up. You can handle that a few ways. If the parts compliment each other, you can play them on top of each other and have the verses perform a little duet with their lead lines (synths, guitars, vocals…doesn't matter). You have to be careful that they don't clash…meaning the rhythms have to be complimentary, the keys have to be complimentary…but that's not the end of it…you also have to pay attention to chord progressions and scales used. The best way to do that is with your ears, and it's 99% of the reason I think harmonic mixing–at least, the way MixedInKey sells it–is a complete joke.

That way of doing it works best–IMHO-with techno, minimal, deep/funky/chicago/etc. house, and stuff like that…maybe a bit more sparse in melodic content. Or, you could fade through them like in a lot of EDM (a lot of house, trance, breaks, etc.) or cut straight from one to the next at the phrase change (hip hop, most top40).

An example of a later transition.
http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gtg054r/pics/phrase/three.png

This keeps even more of Track 1's structure. You can use this as part of a warm-up or cool-down set. It's also the best techniques for really dense music where the structure is the most important thing (Trance comes to mind…at least, old trance). It's really close to intro/outro mixing in difficulty and timing, except that you're fading/cutting in something interesting from the new track so that you're not actually laying an intro over an outro, which bascially amounts to boring the crap out of your audience in a lot of genres. A lot of house and techno devolve into just a kick and a snare during the intro and outro, and 30 seconds of something so sparse can kill your floor if it happens at the wrong time.

An example of a transition to the middle.
http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gtg054r/pics/phrase/four.png

And this is one possible variation. Instead of jumping into a track at the beginning, you jump in at the meat. Lots of hip hop and top40 sound great like this. I think it was either a dubstep or electro DJ who first mentioned something called a "double drop". This transition is a variation on that. Again, choruses are lining up, so you could do the duet thing if the tracks work out. Depending on the last red verse, this could be a long fade, a cut…whatever.

Variations

These all just show one track into the next…and they assume you're letting Track 2 play out. Mixes (meaning from Track 1 to Track 2) don't exist in isolation unless you're playing an hour long set made up of 2 30-minute songs, which is pointless. So, you combine them in ways that make sense with the style and tracks you're playing and what you want to accomplish for your set/party. One of the big variations on this in top40 and hip hop is to basically always use the transition to a specific verse or chorus…and only play that verse/chorus (and maybe one section after it). You get to go through tracks very quickly, just playing the "meat," the part that you think everybody wants to hear…with none of the rest of the track.

That doesn't work at all for styles like Trance (where the structure is the point of the whole damn genre) unless it's something huge like the last set at UMF or EDC or something and you're playing the hooks from all your big hits from your entire career……but if you're doing that, no one cares how you're mixing, they just want to hear you play your tracks in that place. It can work for house, techno, minimal, breaks, etc., but it's risky. This is basically what all those tenminmix youtube videos do (well, the ones that don't completely suck) and it's not something I enjoy for EDM…but it is valid for some sets/parties.

I hope that's clearer.

I really wish I still had the Ableton set for that Breaks mix around, because you could actually see it in the waveforms that Live showed. Oh well. It's not wroth multi-tracking a mix in Logic or re-installing Ableton (and warping a set's worth of music) just to show that. Hopefully this helped.

[epik1]

just know your music well!

[kickassDJ25]

PM replied to.

For everyone else…I don't really have any top40.

So, here is is graphically. Please look at the full size ones if you can't read the names of the regions. You asked for top40, so the "tracks" are broken into sections: 4-bar intro, 16-bar verses, 8-bar choruses, 8-bar bridge, 4-bar outro. If they're different lengths, adjust accordingly. The important part is where the transition happens, not so much what happens before it (in Track 2) or after it (in Track 1)…that's just a matter of opening/closing the fader at the right time and is beyond the scope of this post.

Blue sections are (mostly) played, red sections are (mostly) skipped. Infer whatever you want to about fader technique based on the genre you're thinking about.

An example of an early transition.
http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gtg054r/pics/phrase/one.png
In this one, you're just playing the start of Track 1 and then going into Track 2 pretty quickly.
You'd use this if you wanted to tease them with a popular song or remind them of something from the past…or just if you're at the peak of your set and just want that verse so you can move on to something else. This happens a lot in top40 and hip hop because it's the easiest part of a track to mix into with basically no chance of the crowd getting sick of Track 1 before you're done.

It also burns through music very quickly.

An example of a "normal" transition.
http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gtg054r/pics/phrase/two.png
You're keeping the meat of both tracks and mostly playing them with their structures basically in tact.
You'd use this during the bulk of a set if it's not peak-hour. Hip hop can be pretty different, but I'll discuss that later.

When you're doing this, you see a Track 1-Verse 3 and Track 2-Verse 1 basically lining up. You can handle that a few ways. If the parts compliment each other, you can play them on top of each other and have the verses perform a little duet with their lead lines (synths, guitars, vocals…doesn't matter). You have to be careful that they don't clash…meaning the rhythms have to be complimentary, the keys have to be complimentary…but that's not the end of it…you also have to pay attention to chord progressions and scales used. The best way to do that is with your ears, and it's 99% of the reason I think harmonic mixing–at least, the way MixedInKey sells it–is a complete joke.

That way of doing it works best–IMHO-with techno, minimal, deep/funky/chicago/etc. house, and stuff like that…maybe a bit more sparse in melodic content. Or, you could fade through them like in a lot of EDM (a lot of house, trance, breaks, etc.) or cut straight from one to the next at the phrase change (hip hop, most top40).

An example of a later transition.
http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gtg054r/pics/phrase/three.png

This keeps even more of Track 1's structure. You can use this as part of a warm-up or cool-down set. It's also the best techniques for really dense music where the structure is the most important thing (Trance comes to mind…at least, old trance). It's really close to intro/outro mixing in difficulty and timing, except that you're fading/cutting in something interesting from the new track so that you're not actually laying an intro over an outro, which bascially amounts to boring the crap out of your audience in a lot of genres. A lot of house and techno devolve into just a kick and a snare during the intro and outro, and 30 seconds of something so sparse can kill your floor if it happens at the wrong time.

An example of a transition to the middle.
http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gtg054r/pics/phrase/four.png

And this is one possible variation. Instead of jumping into a track at the beginning, you jump in at the meat. Lots of hip hop and top40 sound great like this. I think it was either a dubstep or electro DJ who first mentioned something called a "double drop". This transition is a variation on that. Again, choruses are lining up, so you could do the duet thing if the tracks work out. Depending on the last red verse, this could be a long fade, a cut…whatever.

Variations

These all just show one track into the next…and they assume you're letting Track 2 play out. Mixes (meaning from Track 1 to Track 2) don't exist in isolation unless you're playing an hour long set made up of 2 30-minute songs, which is pointless. So, you combine them in ways that make sense with the style and tracks you're playing and what you want to accomplish for your set/party. One of the big variations on this in top40 and hip hop is to basically always use the transition to a specific verse or chorus…and only play that verse/chorus (and maybe one section after it). You get to go through tracks very quickly, just playing the "meat," the part that you think everybody wants to hear…with none of the rest of the track.

That doesn't work at all for styles like Trance (where the structure is the point of the whole damn genre) unless it's something huge like the last set at UMF or EDC or something and you're playing the hooks from all your big hits from your entire career……but if you're doing that, no one cares how you're mixing, they just want to hear you play your tracks in that place. It can work for house, techno, minimal, breaks, etc., but it's risky. This is basically what all those tenminmix youtube videos do (well, the ones that don't completely suck) and it's not something I enjoy for EDM…but it is valid for some sets/parties.

I hope that's clearer.

I really wish I still had the Ableton set for that Breaks mix around, because you could actually see it in the waveforms that Live showed. Oh well. It's not wroth multi-tracking a mix in Logic or re-installing Ableton (and warping a set's worth of music) just to show that. Hopefully this helped.

Epic! thank u sir for putting the time and effort in to explain this.

It makes a bit more sense now, all thats require is for me to put the practice in :)