mixing in live, phrasing & other noobie questions

[eggssell]

hey yup. ive got a couple of djing questions that some of y'all pros may be able to help.

just wanting to know whether people "mix in live" or to cue and then bring in. im sure theres a technical term but it doesnt come to mind.

just to clarify, so its all beatmatched, and you know exactly where in the phrase you want to drop it, do you drop the with the line fader up (which is what i am referring to as mixing in live) or line fader down. thats kinda question 1.

i am assuming with longer mixes you would drop it with line fader down and then bring it in gradually (tweaking eq as needed).

having assumed the above, (now the real question) do you still drop on the one. i.e. the first beat of a phrase. so that by the time you bring up the fader its further down the phrase like the 5th or 6th or 7th or 8th beat or so on of a phrase.

OR do you drop in say at the 56th beat of a 64 beat phrase, and then bring up the line faders at the 1st beat of the next phrase?? i.e drop it in wait about 8 beats and then bring it in such that the next track is introduced at a 1st beat of a phrase.

of course with the latter i guess you can drop on the one and then wait for the next phrase (be it 32, 64 or more beats later) before bringing it in.

anywho just wanting to gauge what y'all do. currently i always drop on the one, but find by the time i get myself sorted to start bringing it in (i.e being confident its matched) its a third thru the phrase already and i missed where i wanted to bring it in which was actually the first beat of the phrase.

please ask q's if its all mumbo jumbo, as im sure i can explain it better if probed. and i know there is no one you must do formula hence why im asking what you do, which could be all so just let me know in what situations.

cheers

[CBG]

Most good DJs will drop it in with the fader up, they are very good at pressing the play button at precisely the right time. This also applies to a more fast and furious tyoe of mixing like Bloody beetroots where a simple nudge of the platter wont be noticed even if you do mistime dropping the track in.

In more progressive types of music like prog, trance, minimal, tech, etc. Most ppl would drop it in and move the fader up, just sounds ugly if the drop the track in there at full volume (in most cases)

No you would very rarely ever start one phrase in the middle of another . if you wanted to assure the beats were perfectly matched, you would start a 2 bar loop, match the beats and then when the phrase begins. rip the fader up and then exit the loop.

ok if you're having trouble dropping it in. try the loop thing, or do what I do: once you have matched up the tempo, just press the cue button over and over again to the beat of the original track to get a feel for the cue point. When your ready and its at the last bar before the next phrase its: cue-cue-cue-play! or 2,3,4,1!

[eggssell]

oh yeah, im on tt's so dont have a cue or play button, but what you saying makes sense in terms of fader up or down in terms of genre mixing. so cheers

its not as though i have trouble dropping in beat (well im no pro yet but im happy how that part is progressing hence trying to get to the next step), its just i drop on the one, have a listen to make sure its right (a few beats past), fugg around with the eq as to how i want to bring it in (another few beats past) then i start to bring it in. now if its okay maybe 8 beats have passed, so its usually still okay to bring it in as it may be in between a phrase but the start of a bar at least.

i guess its only buggin me that i might know the start of the next phrase would be perfect to start to bring it in, but i dont feel confident enough to drop it with faders up at that point. so hence came up with the strategy of bringing it in before the one. maybe its a practice thing.

[CBG]

ohh turntables lol. forget what I said about looping and cueing then lol.

umm, well maybe you need to read up more about phrasing if thats the case?

You should find that theres is 8 bars to a phrase approx. 15 seconds, and phrases ussually come in pairs (30secs) or pairs of pairs (1min). Follow this and you should be ok. Take note of any song that doesnt as well.

For example: after a breakdown, wait for 4 phrases to drop in the new track. There should be about 1-2mins remaining in the track.

And a good track will make it pretty obvious when a song is going to move onto another section by using a big drum roll, white noise build up reverse cymbal etc.

You learn a lot more when you produce.

[SourceRaver]

Not sure if this will help answer your question but it'll give you another mixing style when only using the channel faders:

I beatmatch the tracks and on the incomming track (before I bring it in) I turn down the treble to say 11 o'clock, turn the mid down to say 10 o'clock and the bass to about 8 or 9 o'clock. When the timings right I'll drop the beat and start moving the channel fader up relatively quickly. You can hear the track in the mix but its just 'sitting behind' the current track and you can correct your beat matching without it being too obvious. Then when I'm ready to introduce the track, I up the treble, mid and bass (doent always need to be in that order) while simultaneously reducing the matching eq on the outgoing track. Then bring down the channel fader for the outgoing track.

I find this method works well for reasonably long prog house mixes. I have a friend who sometimes does the above but has the channel faders in the full position and only uses the eq's to bring in and remove a track!

[eggssell]

oh cool yeah that sounds like a plan. i find im usually right give or take a nudge or a finger, but just find myself listening with faders down for at least four beats or longer before i even think of bringing the fader up. hence why someitimes i miss the best oppurtunities.

yeah i read about the eq only mixers, i dont think i could do it.