Taken the plunge - First complete newbie mix

[Brenchen]

Hi guys,

After much learning and reading about how to get started and got myself some equipment, I've finally taken the courage to record a mix of six tracks together.

It's nothing fancy, just beatmatching and joining tracks together from head-to-tail, played around with some effects which was fun at the time but sounded awful afterwards , and also pressed a wrong cue on a playing track by accident when I was trying to cue up the next track.

I would be much appreciated to receive some comments and CCs for this mix. Thanks in advance.

Brendan

[Cupe]

Aye guys get in and lend some feedback here yea

[wrxfiend]

That was smooth to my ears, as the guys will tell you, im pretty much strictly a hip hop guy, but i couldnt pick any obvious mistakes and liked the fx you used.

Im sure the others will giv you some more feedback.

Nice job

[AlexJ]

the effects cut into it abit from my opinion. maybe dont use flag/phaser in a buildup that is already dominated by high lead synths.

echo is great effect but again be careful easy to make a good mix sound choppy if timing is off. quantize is fantastic but it doesnt always make things sound awesome.

wait for the end of the phrase before you cut the backing track. it sounds weird when it randomly phases out.

i wouldnt let the opening track of a mix run for 6 and a half minutes unless mix is deliberately like deep house/tech or something else experimental. keep the crowd on their toes and use your opening couple of tracks to build excitement

if your using trans effect to make a little buildup, cut the effect before the vocal as when it has to chop up a vocal it doesnt sound nice.

3rd transition was abit dicey. try to avoid a bunch of down time between tracks and if there is a long outro/intro make sure its beatmatched. nothing worse then waiting for the next track to start and then the choppy beat rips your ears apart. This will be one of the hardest things to develop to go from 'strength to strength' something i still cant get quite right. that being said, it still cleaner then some club mixing ive heard in recent days.

i liked the use of the hotcues

overall i thought it was a great first mix. all constructive criticism, i might of missed half of it if i wasnt listening for it.

[Brenchen]

Thanks for the feedback, very informative! I'll work at what you're saying and try again soon

Several questions though:

• RE the opening track, if say I cut through a few hot cues to speed up the progression of the track and bring in the 2nd opening track, again do the same, it would be more effective? At this stage I don't have a DJ name or a dedicated opening like I hear some DJs have...
  
• Would you say the last and the 2nd last track simply don't mix well together because of such a change in the energy levels?
  
• Effect wise I think I probably shouldn't be using any at this stage as it sounds terrible to my ears, not sure how it sounded to your years? They seemed too harsh...
  
• During the 3rd transition, would you say a good fix might be placing another track in between the transition so you have get the harmonic trainwreck?

Cheers

[eggssell]

ill try to have a go at listening this week if i remember. (feel free to bump in a couple of days to get more bites).

but your point 2 is good advice! you dont need effects to learn how to mix. get that down pat. then add effects to tracks for spice. then learn to use effects as a transition tool.

i myself still never really got onto step 3. except maybe echo out outgoing track because train wrecking bad

[Kodiak]

I'm listening now... Will come back with some detailed feedback. But from what I'm reading, forget effect, for now at least. They are one of those "look at me, I'm using effects" things that in all honesty very few real DJ's use much of. It becomes a bit Paris Hiltony in you are just turning knobs and fucking up the song rather than adding to it (unless you actually are good at it).

Everyone is different and has their own style. For me, I actually like playing out the first song almost completely. I find it sets a tone and I like to build a set rather than smack right in the face on the outset. But the first and last songs are usually the only ones I play all the way through. But this I have found has come with experieince.

Still listening....

[Brenchen]

Yea I won't bother with the effects for now, not only I get overwhelmed when I apply it, it sounds terrible... Personally, I like stacking melodies on each other, but haven't really done anything beyond stacking chorus and versus of the same track together.

Much appreciate the discussion here

[Kodiak]

Thanks for the feedback, very informative! I'll work at what you're saying and try again soon

Several questions though:

• RE the opening track, if say I cut through a few hot cues to speed up the progression of the track and bring in the 2nd opening track, again do the same, it would be more effective? At this stage I don't have a DJ name or a dedicated opening like I hear some DJs have... Forget DJ name intro bullshit.... The only ones who do that are egotistical radio type DJ's.... As I said earlier I didn't mind playing out this song, but mixing songs into the existing song at earlier points is experience you will gain. There are natural points in songs where this sounds right to do, you will work them out, I don't doubt that.
  
• Would you say the last and the 2nd last track simply don't mix well together because of such a change in the energy levels? I actually liked that variance in dynamics. What I would say is the levels of your last song were too quiet (this can be seen in the Mixcloud waveform) and didn't match the volume of the previous songs. But varying dynamics are a good thing. I maybe would have brought that last song in a couple bars later though so it dropped in right where the vocals started.
  
• Effect wise I think I probably shouldn't be using any at this stage as it sounds terrible to my ears, not sure how it sounded to your years? They seemed too harsh... If effects sound really obvious I find they are intrusive. Don't worry too much about them at this stage.
  
• During the 3rd transition, would you say a good fix might be placing another track in between the transition so you have get the harmonic trainwreck? Are you talking between the 2nd and 3rd song? This is the only one that stood out to me as dodgy and seemed just more like a fuck up... Shit happens

Cheers

My replies in Red. Overall I think it's a great first go. Everyone has a first mix that is not so flash. What equipment are you using? I think AlexJ addressed most thing things, so I won't repeat what has already been said.

[Brenchen]

• During the 3rd transition, would you say a good fix might be placing another track in between the transition so you have get the harmonic trainwreck? Are you talking between the 2nd and 3rd song? This is the only one that stood out to me as dodgy and seemed just more like a fuck up... Shit happens

My replies in Red. Overall I think it's a great first go. Everyone has a first mix that is not so flash. What equipment are you using? I think AlexJ addressed most thing things, so I won't repeat what has already been said.

I was referring to the 3rd and 4th track, harmonically it seemed a bit clashy? But yea, 2nd and 3rd is a bit of a screw up as well now that you mention it, I didn't pick it up in the first place... Cheers.

[Kodiak]

I was referring to the 3rd and 4th track, harmonically it seemed a bit clashy? But yea, 2nd and 3rd is a bit of a screw up as well now that you mention it, I didn't pick it up in the first place... Cheers.

I re-played that a few times to see what I was missing and could hear no faults.

[Brenchen]

I was referring to the 3rd and 4th track, harmonically it seemed a bit clashy? But yea, 2nd and 3rd is a bit of a screw up as well now that you mention it, I didn't pick it up in the first place... Cheers.

I re-played that a few times to see what I was missing and could hear no faults.

OK thanks for the clarification, I'll take that as being acceptable. Cheers!

[Brenchen]

Take 2, here it is . Changes are:

• Cut the intro in half and blend it into the second track
  
• No accidental mistakes in one of the tracks like the first time
  
• Made efforts to beatmatch before bringing anything in
  
• No effects of any kind used
  
• Tried to mix a rap into the final song, but wasn't confident, so didn't go quite as well as I'd like it

My overall impression is that it does seem to sound better with all of your advices! Cheers!

[Brenchen]

What equipment are you using? I think AlexJ addressed most thing things, so I won't repeat what has already been said.

Sorry I missed this part. I'm using Numark Mixtrack Pro 2 and Kontrol F1 (currently only as a cue machine). Software wise I use Traktor Pro 2 on a Zenbook PC.