Phrases and long mixes - help?

[Scottie]

I was wondering when I should start bringing in a track relative to the beginning of a phrase, so that I can switch over the basslines at the start of the next phrase or the one after. Is there a rule to follow here that makes it sound better or is it just dependant on the circumstances?

[Mitch]

Always start bringing in the next track at the start of a phrase bud.

Phrase matching is important to making transitions work well

[russell]

It all depends on what tracks your mixing when you wanna switch things up. A lot of tracks have a small break after the first to second minute. if you work it so that one tracks finishing when the drop hits then its pretty sweet... however, it all depends if that suits. It's a lot of trial and error. Pratice enough and you'll start to develop a natural understanding of when you should be mixing.

Practice the EQ'ing....

[Lurk6r]

Most radio songs loosely follow this structure

intro -> verse -> chorus -> verse -> chorus -> bridge/break -> chorus x 2

start the second song at the start of the first songs bride. Either the bridge will be the same length as the intro, or more frequently twice as long, so loop back to the start and the first verse should happen as the bridge builds up to go into the final chorus.

Generally speaking.

[Addi]

I'm by no means a musical genius so i'll explain this as easy as I can without using legit words lol...

Intro (generally 30secs, 45secs or 1 min) -> Breakdown (Varies) -> Main beat (Varies) -> Bigger Breakdown ->START THE NEXT TRACK NOW Main Beat -> OR NOW Outro

This is all I did when I was learning beatmatching and phrasing. For electro/house music anyway. More often than not this will work out pretty perfectly if you start the new song just as the last main beat comes in. Your breakdown for the new song will start just as the outro for the old song comes in. Or if you start the new song at the start of the outro, it will be even easier to beatmatch, and still sound pretty legit. Might be a longer transition and could be boring especially if you want a fast pace energetic mix, but for now this will help you understand how songs work and when you can bring them in.

[OxyKon]

Russel pretty much said it their you also have to know your tracks, when im mixing i find that just after the main breakdown is the best time to start your next track, play around with the Eq levels so the sound doesnt overload and then finish the transition

[awesome88]

for long mixing/beginners mixing/easiest mixing to get beat matching down

1. get extended remix's

2. mix intro of song coming in at the start of outro for song going out

3. fiddle with eq's

4. get money, fuck bishes

[mattus123]

it also depends how long the phrases are

lets say you have track a (mixing out) - the phrase that you plan on mixing out of is 16 bars long

your mixing in track b (lets say from the intro) the into is only 8 bars long and then drops

you are going to want to hit play on track b half way through the outro phrase of track a (8 bars before that phrase finishes)

if Track A- outro has the same phrase length as Track B-intro then you want to press play on track B at the start of the outro phrase in Track A

hope that makes sense

[russell]

A good thing to do is to find a few tracks that have clear intro/outro's with only a kick or a kick and hi-hat. This will make it easier for your ears to follow what is doing what with regards to tempo of the tracks for beatmatching thus keeping your mix in check if your holding it for a while and stop you getting lost in a sea of pads and percussion.

Not sure what style of music your after so don't know how readily available tracks with this type of intro/outro are.

Another good way is to just load the same track (when I was learning it would be buy two copies of the same record) on both decks, increase the pitch on one deck to a random % and try to match them up.

[Scottie]

Thanks for the quick responses guys, really appreciate it So would it be a good idea to have track A's chorus, and then an "inbetween" phrase (verse? I think someone up there said) for switching to track B, and then track B's chorus in the phrase after that?

So,

verse/intro (a) -> chorus (a) -> verse (a/b) -> chorus ( -> infinity and beyond? [Or larger gaps between choruses for tunes to get more time]

This is just me getting a basic, flowing-ish mix down before I try anything too complicated.

[mattus123]

not 100% what you mean by an 'inbetween' phrase

but from the looks of it that could work.. just if ur gonna mix out of a chorus and there is vocals in the chorus, when your bringing track b in make sure there are no vocals

vocal clashes = BAD

if u can man, record a couple of transitions and we'll be able to listen and advise

[jedstur]

Generally I find it best (when mixing trance here) that once the second drop/peak kicks in for a last time, that you start the cued track from here.

I find most tracks followed the structure: Intro > verse > break > build-up> drop/peak... then back to a bridge/second verse > shorter build-up > second drop/peak > outro.

By the time that final peak finishes in the live track and the outro begins, you'll have finished bringing in the majority of the intro of the cued track and the cued track should be swapped over into by then... then fade out the old live track and bam.

[Scottie]

Sorry for the late reply here, had real-life issues to attend to. So I've been listening to a mixes everywhere on my iPod, and from what I hear some people don't start the incoming track on the start of the phrase, unless it's for a 'drop' style mix (where the crossfader just gets chucked over to the other side at a start of a phrase with nothing else done from what I can tell).

I'd also like to add that most of the music I'll mix (save small house parties) will be deep dubstep, which is 8 bar phrases, but it's pretty simple to mix in that it's all focused on sub-bass. I haven't figured out the chorus/verse/etc on those types on tunes, but I have got it down in trance/house etc thanks to you guys