Comments on: How to mix disco.

By: OLD SCHOOL D J 1969-80

OLD SCHOOL D J 1969-80 — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:59:19 +0000

THERE ARE MANY GOALS IN D J ING …MOVING FROM ONE SONG TO ANOTHER ,, HIGH LIGHTING AND AUGMENTING BITS AND PICES OF SOME SONG . SAMPPLING AND PLACING PARTS FROM ONE SONG INTO ANOTHER.

FIRST AND FORMOST IS ABSOLUTE MAINTANCE OF THE TEMPO (BPM) THEN THE RYTHMIC SYTLE OF THE MUSIC..
THIS BECOMES SIMPLE FOR THOSE WHO HAVE A GOOD MEMORY AND RECOGNIZE WHAT IS BEING PLAYED..OTHERS CAN SUCCEED BY TAKING NOTES AND CATAGORIZING THERE MUSIC.. THE STATICS OF WHAT IS BEING PALYED ADD TO WHAT WILL MIX WELL ON THE NEXT SONG PLAYED.

THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS WHEN A CROWED DEMANDS A SPECIAL SONG !.

I HAVE BEEN TO CLUBS WHERE THE D J PLAYED FOR A DOZEN OF THERE FRIENDS AND TO HELL WITH EVER ONE ELSE!!!!
MAY D J `S HAVE REPUTATIONS FOR PLAYING SPECIAL TYPES OF MUSIC ONLY SUCH AS RAP NOISE ,, DURMM AND BUGLE NOISE .. THERE ARE MANY SPECIAL GENREAS..

I LIVE IN LOS ANGLEAS CA ..RAP NOISE IS SO DOMINATE EVERY WHERE YOU GO. IT IS KILLING ME .. I WILL NOT ACCEPT THIS POO ON MY EARS ..

By: Carina

Carina — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:23:08 +0000

I’m a new chick on the djing scene and Disco music is in my soul! I love getting some Jazz Funk and Northern Soul on the go and I do tend to take a trip down the soulful/gospel house route too.
I usually play in bars, however, I have a gig in a club this weekend. I’ve had a spin on a big sound system before and it’s obviously so much harder to play Disco when it’s loud and in your face and not quite the background music in a bar. Since I’m female, all eyes… and ears, are going to be very much on me and I’m expecting a rougher deal than most male dj’s get. I feel I have to prove that I deserve to be up in that dj box.
There are going to be a few ‘important’ people coming to hear me and I really hope that they’ll not judge me and criticise my mixing (as it’s very,very basic!).
Mixing is not what makes a great night out. For me, a great night is when there’s a conection with everyone in the room. People are chatting and dancing and loving the vibes. Being a good dj is about creating an atmosphere where people can have time out and escape from the world outside. They should get caught up in the music, unite with one another and let it all go. It should be a huge party! Sure, the music should match and be pleasing to the ear but it’s shouldn’t be all about the technical stuff… that’s not what the original artists intended.

By: Stu Robinson

Stu Robinson — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 20:43:35 +0000

I agree with what your saying 100% – and if you listen to any mix I have done I often do still beat match, but my point is, I used to think that beat matching WAS mixing – and now I know its just one string to the bow. Your just as right in what you are saying about it being a more than useful part of the arsenal. I appreciate everyone here taking the time to post, seems many people agree. Im going to do a follow up article for this at some point soon.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:45:47 +0000

I’ll add my name to the list of those that agree with your article. Very on-point when you speak of track selection being key.
I do however feel the need to defend the art (yes, I believe it is an art) of beatmatching. I definitely think that it has a very important role in djing. Maybe not for all genres; disco, soul, boogie, et. al., the genres which almost always use live drummers. The techniques you described for mixing these types of music (chop mixing, fading) work perfectly in those cases. But if I were listening to a dj playing house, and he/she was train-wrecking left and right, I would say they need to spend more time practicing before they play out. Beatmatching for smooth blends is as much an integral part of house as a 4:4 beat.
That being said, there are definitely those dj’s out there that abuse beatmatching. If two records don’t require a 3 minute blend, you’re not going to make them sound better by doing it. Likewise if you’ve got a couple records with long intro/outros and you only blend them for 30 seconds, you’ve got a bore-fest of empty beats on your hands.
I guess my point is just that some types of music don’t need proper beatmatching, but if used wisely and with the right type of music it’s still a very important thing to know how to do as a dj.

By: casbah

casbah — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 08:22:58 +0000

Great article, this is something I’ve always believed and followed in my sets, mixing is great, but selection should always come first!!

Like you say, the only real problem seems to come from the other DJs in the room…

Lastly, someone mentions the fact that there are new ways to mix using current technology and this is very true, especially applies to non-rigid styles like disco because you can totally mess about with the grooves while playing and push that “how to get from one tune to another” barrier.

By: raymondo

raymondo — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:34:31 +0000

like your thoughts on mixing! my views totally lets mix it up!

By: gmt

gmt — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 05:41:13 +0000

ahh, needed this bad.

after being away from turntables a while i tried blending some disco records kind of expecting them to ride for 30secs to a couple of minutes and pretty much became enraged when this didn’t happen like with house records.

like someone said earlier lots of people are making their own edits which is awesome, i’d like to start doing that myself.

and also the comment about utilizing the eq’s when blending, maybe some light could be shed on different hardware as some just sound so much better than others.

“it’s to rock a party, not ride the pitch.”

good words.

Thanks!

By: deepfunkintheforest

deepfunkintheforest — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:46:25 +0000

Great article and spot on about all the techniques involved. Some disco can be mixing well if it has a solid 4/4 but as you say short mixes are the go as they invariably drift. Hearing guys like Frankie Knuckles mix disco must have been incredible.

As you say though perfect beat mixing isn’t the be all and end all of a good night but bad mixing can be.

One other trick is EQ mixing by killing the bass channel on the outgoing track slowly and bring in just the bass from the incoming track can create a nice mix. Then fade out so just the Bass from the incoming track is playing then bring in the mids and highs from that track.

Guys like louis Vega are master of the eq mix as well as beat mixing

By: Victor

Victor — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:29:19 +0000

Great article, I am admittedly a beat mixer and will ride a beat forever and the more on point I am the longer it goes. I need to back out of it. I have a friend that is great at chop mixing and I need to go watch him. Even just adding some of that with what I can do would give me and my sets new life. Thanks from Boston.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 12:21:51 +0000

Nice article Stu!

I’ve been over the whole must-do-super-long-drum-n-bass-blends mixing style for years now.

I played a gig a couple of weekends back where the best DJ by FAR was one who doesn’t beat mix (and never has in his 20 years of playing records).

I think I’ll track down “Love Saves the Day” for some inspiration. What were the other music / DJing books you read? I went through a period of reading a bunch of music books and Bass Culture, When Reggae was King came out tops for me.

By: adamw

adamw — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 19:06:39 +0000

Good article. It’s definitely about the overall flow of the set and not necessarily the content.

By: Victor Quintero

Victor Quintero — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 18:10:14 +0000

Your are so on point with all aspects of mixing and knowing when to drop a track while playing live. It truly is an art when you play at a party and take the crowd on a rollercoaster ride of all genres of music!!

Great article!
DJ VIC!

By: Stu Robinson

Stu Robinson — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:09:13 +0000

Posted up a new article today that kind of compliments this one, its called “discovering disco”, and you can find it here:
http://www.cosmicboogie.co.uk/2008/09/discovering-disco/

By: Kidross

Kidross — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:03:42 +0000

believe it or not, theres new ways of mixing coming about – as you may have realised or thought about as you use serato.
A-Skills, years ago was blending between tracks using the Loop functions on CDJs and creating short loops that would half and half again, sometimes pitch-shifting them right up to create a climax, then bringing them down to the incoming tunes rythem.
I heard The Freestylers doing a similar thing, dropping in and out of A-ha’s Take On me in the middle of a breaks set. Blinding.
I’ve occaisionally used a similar technique of looping an incoming break, and then setting the outgoing loop without actually listening to the record – immediatly putting it out of time – but then filtering it and then blending in the incoming bassline. if you do it with a very recognisable bassline, the crowd goes ballistic!

Basically, all three are almost Dub/echoey feeling segueways and need digital technology to achieve.

But the key to it all is tune selection – and getting it right for the crowd at the right time.

Rock on everyone!

By: Scott K.

Scott K. — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 03:20:16 +0000

great article. and way to subtly dig on those obsessed with beatmatching boring records (the tiesto pic) : )

luckily for many dj’s too worried to risk having an “offbeat” mix, many new disco re-edits are appearing. to hear a few i’ve put out, check out my page (myspace.com/boxmusic)

love & music,

Scott K.
boxmusic

myspace.com/boxmusic