Are you one of them dj's

[Jimmy]

 

i now kill time by pressing different cue buttons, makes me look busy at least.

altho its times like that when i really think i should try 3 deck mixing.

Yeah, cos everytime I hear two songs playing together the first thing I always think is how much better it would sound with another song playing on top of them both.

 

i was thinking recently actually, someone put a 3 deck mix up and didnt really do much with it, just mixed quicker. it'd be nice if people stayed on 2 decks and applied some features to the tracks, ie hot cues/loops and all that extra jazz that dvs's and cdjs can do now.

[djdiggla]

I've never really understood EQ properly.

 

I've had to use it much more extensively on shitty sounds systems in the past though

 

Totally. I don't completely grasp what is the proper way to EQ but tend to mostly use it on shit soundsystems to try and make it not clip or sound muddy.

[djdiggla]

i now kill time by pressing different cue buttons, makes me look busy at least.

altho its times like that when i really think i should try 3 deck mixing.

 

I'd like to try 3 decks for live mashup type stuff.

[Jon]

I am one of those DJs. I prefer mixing on gain knobs rather than volume faders. I tend to use EQ quite a lot too, though mainly mixing with the lows, and using mids and highs for boosting if necessary.

[DJ Rock Well]

Yeah trolling aside, I think 3 decks only really gets useful when mixing elements of a track separately - wether that's mixing beats and accapellas independently or breaking tracks down into smaller parts (although even then, I think maybe ableton or Traktor remix sets would be a better bet if you're really pulling apart a track).

[Jon]

I find I want 3 decks quite a lot, normally when I've found a nice blend but then don't want to stop the blend in order to mix the next track in

[Dubba Dutchdj]

I am one of those DJs. I prefer mixing on gain knobs rather than volume faders. I tend to use EQ quite a lot too, though mainly mixing with the lows, and using mids and highs for boosting if necessary.

 

Same, I mostly use gains for mixing and line faders for cutting. Unless a mix or shit PA dictates I don't really fuck around with EQ half as much as I did back when I was playing crapply mixed/mastered garage records. I've spent an equal amount of years between hip hop and edm style dj'n, never over milked the poor mans filter EQ trick my self, unless the mixer has proper isolators or filters it sounds wanky any way. I've seen countless dj's abuse EQ to create peaks and troffs through a whole set, "little is more" must of past them by.

[doppelkorn]

Isn't mixing with the gain supposed to be a cardinal sin?

 

Gain is for setting levels, faders are for messing with levels? Chris?

[Dubba Dutchdj]

I guess its more fine tuning than actually proper mixing, for blendier edm style transitions I'll have the incoming songs gain set just a bit off the same level as the current track, I bring the next track in by quickly bringing up the fader and then I use the gains to fine tune the levels, I feel I get a more finer scope doing this and it means I can still cut with the line fades while in the mix without fucking up the volume levels. The gains them selfs don't go thru massive adjustments.

[Guest loop skywalker]

ive started using........ meh

[djdiggla]

Isn't mixing with the gain supposed to be a cardinal sin?

 

Gain is for setting levels, faders are for messing with levels? Chris?

 

Really? I guess that makes sense but I use them for mixing b/c I always hit my volume faders. But I also keep the levels low relatively compared to other DJs

 

EDIT: Oh, actually, I guess I do mix with the faders but usually adjust the gain so the levels are correct for that specific tune.

[kut_class]

i quite like using the mids to to bring the snares forward from the tune coming in/push back current tune, if its a blend mix.Makes it less harsh when you take the tune out as the new tunes snare has dominated for a while. Yeah, kill the bass mix is standard.

 

I also prefer to use the gains , that way it leaves me the option to cut on the up faders.

[Wax On]

i fill my time (I don't scratch) by looking bored and checking instagram.

haha ditto

[mattnice]

actually i don't have instagram, i mainly check - guesshermuff

[Steve]

Mixing with gain knobs? SMH.

[Clownstyle]

Only time I ever use EQ's is to rolloff the bass so the mix doesn't sound too muddy.

 

A lot of the time I hear people not mixing in key, which can sound really awful. I find a lot of people I speak too don't actually know what this is

 

 

Harmonic mixing or key mixing is a DJ's continuous mix between two pre-recorded tracks that are most often either in the same key, or their keys are relative or in a subdominant or dominant relationship with one another.

The primary goal of harmonic mixing is to create a smooth transition between songs. Songs in the same key do not generate a dissonant tone when mixed. This technique enables DJs to create a harmonious and consonant mashup with any music genre.

[motosega]

the reason why you were told not to mix wit the gain knobs is this:

 

the mixer channel built is like this:

 

input-->gain-->eq-->line fader--> cross fader--> main out.

 

the workflow that its designed for is:

 

1: put on a new track

2. adjust gain knob untill the vu meter sits at arround 0dB

3. adjust eq to taste.and maybe the gain again if needed.

4. mix with line faders and crossfader.

 

 

your eq's response probably isn't completely linear over different volume levels. they are probably cabilbrated so that a +6dB boost on the eq is realy +6dB when the signal is 0dB coming out of the gain stage. if the signal out of the gain stage is e.g -3dB then you might only be getting +5.5dB of boost from the eq, even though it is set to +6dB, or it might be 6.5dB depending on exacly how the eq is build,

 

on a decent mixer the differences are probably smaller than this though.

 

in real life you'd be hard pressed to tell the differnce, even with a spectrum analyser and a pair of golden ears.

 

i say bollox to the orthodox fascists who say you shouldn't mix with the gain knobs and don't even know why!

[djdiggla]

Only time I ever use EQ's is to rolloff the bass so the mix doesn't sound too muddy.

 

A lot of the time I hear people not mixing in key, which can sound really awful. I find a lot of people I speak too don't actually know what this is

 

 

Harmonic mixing or key mixing is a DJ's continuous mix between two pre-recorded tracks that are most often either in the same key, or their keys are relative or in a subdominant or dominant relationship with one another.

The primary goal of harmonic mixing is to create a smooth transition between songs. Songs in the same key do not generate a dissonant tone when mixed. This technique enables DJs to create a harmonious and consonant mashup with any music genre.

 

I have all my stuff tagged for harmonic but usually am too lazy to fuck with it :/

Use it more in Ableton than anything else.

[doppelkorn]

@Steve/Chris: I'm sure there are good reasons for not mixing with gain but they're lost in the midst of my mind.

 

I guess one reason it you don't know where to stop.

 

You can easily push a track into the red. Say you've got your track playing in one channel, peaking at 0db like every good boy does and with the gain set at +8, say, as it's quite a quiet track. Now you bring in track two but it's natively much louder than track 1 was so for it to peak at 0db it only wants to be on +4 so you've only got a tiny fraction of the gain knob to bring that up to its desired playing volume and can never quieten it fully out of the mix without also messing with the upfaders.

 

Right?

 

Gain is a booster, the upfaders are cutters so you want to boost all your tracks up to the same set level then cut them to taste to suit your mix. If you do it the other way round then you're applying not cut but boosting them all over the shop.

[ELGEE]

when i used to mix dnb i used the eq's all the time, you have to if you want your mix to sound good.

 

you dont have to on a lot of other genres as they arnt as layered with drums/bass's etc but with things like dnb you need to.

 

switching up bass's and dropping out high's sound sick in the mix when done right, you mixes arnt just fading in and out they are blending corrctly and sound smoother.

 

mixing with upfaders is an amature way to mix.

 

im guessing most of you guys who dont eq just mix hiphop etc or you are just shit at what you do .lol

[doppelkorn]

I think people are confusing gain and EQs in this thread.

[Dubba Dutchdj]

@Steve/Chris: I'm sure there are good reasons for not mixing with gain but they're lost in the midst of my mind.

 

I guess one reason it you don't know where to stop.

 

You can easily push a track into the red. Say you've got your track playing in one channel, peaking at 0db like every good boy does and with the gain set at +8, say, as it's quite a quiet track. Now you bring in track two but it's natively much louder than track 1 was so for it to peak at 0db it only wants to be on +4 so you've only got a tiny fraction of the gain knob to bring that up to its desired playing volume and can never quieten it fully out of the mix without also messing with the upfaders.

 

Right?

 

Gain is a booster, the upfaders are cutters so you want to boost all your tracks up to the same set level then cut them to taste to suit your mix. If you do it the other way round then you're applying not cut but boosting them all over the shop.

 

I prefer to adjust the master out before I push gains to 8db, especially phono channels as your more than likely gonna get some hiss/white noise with the gains all the way up. Obviously fucking around with a master output on a big PA is a bit of balancing act while mixing live but needs must in some extreme cases of extra quiet tracks.

 

Thinking back I've only ever had to do this in my vinyl days when playing poorly pressed/mastered records, seems pretty rare that I get extreme differences in track levels since going digital and if I do come across an extra quiet tune the software gain knob normally lends a hand.

[mattnice]

This started out talking about over excited dj's goin crazy on the knobs, Now its a Mix on Gain Witch Hunt

[Steve]

But the gain knob mixers need to be outed so we can burn them at the stake, Matthew!

 

 

I guess one reason it you don't know where to stop.

You can easily push a track into the red. Say you've got your track playing in one channel, peaking at 0db like every good boy does and with the gain set at +8, say, as it's quite a quiet track. Now you bring in track two but it's natively much louder than track 1 was so for it to peak at 0db it only wants to be on +4 so you've only got a tiny fraction of the gain knob to bring that up to its desired playing volume and can never quieten it fully out of the mix without also messing with the upfaders.

Right?

 

I don't really understand this example, but I am tired so forgive me.

 

You set the gain when you first put a new record on one of your decks so that the perceived volume of both tracks is the same when both line faders are at the top. The reason for that is because if you bring one line fader down temporarily to cut one track out, or to do some fading scratching effect or whatever, when you slam it back up you can just whack it up until it hits the end of the fader slot and you know it can't push the volume above where you set the gain at.

[Deft]

Gain structure on an analog dj mixer is reasonably important though you will probably only notice problems at extremes. I would guess that pretty much all dj mixers these days only attenuate the signal through the channel and crossfader stages (i.e. pass audio through at 0dB at their maximum positions).

Getting your input gain set up is not particularly hard for pre recorded music, especially modern compressed to shit stuff.

There is enough headroom to not sweat it too much. Using your input gain to keep the average level around 0dB should give you the best signal to noise ratio.