Spicing up my mix sets?

brgil96

Member
Joined
Nov 21, 2012
Location
Portugal
Hey guys, so, heres the deal

I've been mixing for about, huh, idk, 9 months now? with a pair of cdj-100s and a cheap behringer 3 channel mixer. And I'm growing bored of it.
First, DnB doesn't really stick with most people in the area... But I'm expecting no soluton to that. The thing is, I'm finding my own mixes boring. I'm growing tired of the "simple" play deck 1-> play deck 2-> beatmatch-> doubledrop-> repeat, mainly for the breakdown that goes between drops... it kind of kills the flow to be always doing it. What can I do to make my mixing more interesting? The most common solution would be getting a 3rd deck i guess, but I just can't afford it at the moment. I could set up some cue points somehow to try to avoid that breakdown but I'd end up having to do really short mixes, and this decks being as shitty as they are, I end up messing it up most of the times i try to... Any sugestions?

heres my last mix if anyone wants to have a listen: http://www.mixcloud.com/dbmatterdnb/dbm-jan-2014-promo-mix/
 
Stop double dropping everything, it's boring as fuck. I used to be the same, now I try to double drop as little as possible
 
Thats what I'm trying to do.. Now finding a way to mix a second track before ending the drop of the first one is not always possible, with 2 decks that is. Guess I'll try doing shorter mixes, but that kinda kills the energy.. oh, and about keeping the same level of energy when switching from 2 tracks to one, its mostly about EQing right? I usually bring down the highs a bit on the background track but thats not always enough, is there anything that could help that? (yeah besides track selection)
 
Get a 3rd deck. Changes the whole ball game. Adds so much more energy to a set in my opinion too. Avoids those pesky energy killing breakdowns too.

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I'm trying to save the money for that. Meanwhile I'm trying shorter mixes and avoiding breakdowns, but most of the time its weird cutting the mix so quick
 
I always use tobasco. Not too much though. You don't want it to dominate everything. Just a hint every now and then. Maybe try an airhorn or whatever condiments you find in your kitchen.

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I'm trying to save the money for that. Meanwhile I'm trying shorter mixes and avoiding breakdowns, but most of the time its weird cutting the mix so quick

On a serious note, don't avoid breakdowns. I've seen djs who drop tunes as a breakdown in another tune begins and it's fucking awful. If the are drums constantly playing for an hour it gets a little boring. The crowd become tired and tunes lose impact. A dj set is meant to be a roller coaster ride. Peaks and troughs. Not just anthem after anthem. Try and please the crowd whilst throwing in a curveball for good measure. Andy C gets this spot on. He might play a cheesy track to keep the newer crowd interested then tease a classic with it to get the heads pulling gun fingers and hurling abuse d
 
Play the same tune on both decks, get them in time, then pull one of the tunes back and let go in the space of one beat. It'll then be one beat behind the other tune and you can then fuck about with the crossfader. Et voila a bit of spice or variety or whatever. Piss easy to do as well.
 
I always use tobasco. Not too much though. You don't want it to dominate everything. Just a hint every now and then. Maybe try an airhorn or whatever condiments you find in your kitchen.

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On a serious note, don't avoid breakdowns. I've seen djs who drop tunes as a breakdown in another tune begins and it's fucking awful. If the are drums constantly playing for an hour it gets a little boring. The crowd become tired and tunes lose impact. A dj set is meant to be a roller coaster ride. Peaks and troughs. Not just anthem after anthem. Try and please the crowd whilst throwing in a curveball for good measure. Andy C gets this spot on. He might play a cheesy track to keep the newer crowd interested then tease a classic with it to get the heads pulling gun fingers and hurling abuse d

Bang on.
 
So, a week ago I got a friend to borrow me a cdj200 and voila, 3 decks :) even though everything is pretty much the same, with 3 decks the mix just seems to flow a lot better, and adding that to being able to do some fast mixes every now and then, I've been having a lot of fun in the past week.

I've uploaded one of my recent streams where I was just trying some new stuff, if anyone wants to listen and give some feedback I'd appreciate it greatly :)

http://mixlr.com/bruno-dbm/showreel/bruno-dbms-mixlr-16/[/MIXLR]

some notes: the cracks you hear, and sometimes only one channel working etc, it's because my faders are getting f*ed up; the three/four mixes around the 10min mark are just bad, I know :lol:
 
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