Counting in phrases, on EDM

0:00 Another demonstration stroke tutorial with EDM electronic dance music

Alright guys, another demonstration stroke tutorial with EDM electronic dance music. First of all, I've got to say a big thank you to Fran for my new hat. I hope you like this. This was handmade. This is like a one-off. This is so cool. This guy makes hats and if you are interested in something like this, having your own sort of design, then I'll put an email in the description of this video. Go and give him a shout and just say that you saw this hat on one of Jonathan's videos, alright? I'm not going to get anything from it. I had to pay for this but I don't mind because I like it. It's really cool. Alright, in this video, first of all, we're using music from CDPool, June 2014. We've got a couple of cuts here from the global releases and you may think that the music in the background is a bit muffled. Well, at the moment, I've got a Wharfedown Pro. It's the Titan 12D and it's got a cover over it.

Now just have a listen to the difference in sound if I take the cover off. Have a listen. Hell of a difference. Okay, right, two tunes we're using. Sorry, I've got a cold or something. I don't know, my nose feels like shit. Sorry. Alright, the two tunes we're using is Praxxis featuring Kathy Brown. Turn me out. It's the Stefan Thorsall mix. I will put the names, title artist in the description. And also we're going to be using Kellis' track entitled Rumble. Now the object of this demonstration is to show you about bringing tracks in at the right time, the right point. So this really is for beginner DJs as well. I'm going to do a mix and I'm going to do a couple of mixes. One will be right but wrong, the other one will be right but right. You'll see.

2:41 Not blancmange, you know, sorry, trifle I meant, the trifle

Okay, so let's just go back a little bit here. Also what we're going to try and do, I'm going to try and teach you, is to listen to the phrases of music, to the timing you will notice in most, 99% of modern day music. When you're playing EDM dance music, you have structure inside the track. It's not just a beginning and end and the producer's like chucked in loads of stuff, a bit like a blancmange that someone's going to shake and it's just a mess. Horrible. Don't like blancmange. Not blancmange, you know, sorry, trifle I meant, the trifle. But what they've done is they've structured it so the whole track has structure inside from beginning and end there is structure. So let's just do a mix that's right but wrong and then we'll do another one that's right but wrong.

5:22 It's that golden, golden number in EDM

And right okay so you know sometimes when you're so used to trying getting it in right it's actually difficult to get it wrong what we're gonna do now we're gonna break this down let's have a listen. I'm going to start counting my bars as soon as we get into the chorus. 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 sausage, beans, chips and eggs tomatoes, hashbrowns and sausages beans, chips, tomatoes, eggs bananas, apples and pears 2 3 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 2 3 4 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. Alright and it finishes there listen. Alright it's that golden, golden number in EDM. It's 16. We've got a collection of bars and we have 16 of them. Now let's listen to the beginning of this track and see if we've got a similar sort of amount. Hopefully. Turn the volume up first. Now you listen to

This track as well, it doesn't start on the counter when you've got a bit of a... It doesn't really like that, it's just a beginning. Here have a listen. So again if you've got a track like this that's got some sort of a beginning without a beat, if you're a new DJ try and find a way to do that. Find the first beat but make sure when you do find the first beat, the first beat is at the count of one. If you're not sure on... If you're not sure if it is the count of one then run the track forward a little bit, find your timing and then count backwards and then this will pretty much, it'll make sure or you'll find out, you'll know that it is the count of one. 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 That's fine.

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 3 4 1 2 3 4...

... 8 Ok, so we had sixteen bars and then we had a change. again we've got another change there, let's have a listen from that point. Let's start counting from there and see if we have a bigger change. One, two, three, four, one, just beat up, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, listen. Okay so we've got vocals there. Now what we could do with this mix potentially is I could start this track at the beginning of the vocals on the other track. The beginning of this one which would mean as soon as we have 16 bars finished there, we have the 16 bar beginning finish here which means then we'd have another 16 bars before the vocals come in on this one. Alternatively what I could do, I could move this track forward 16 bars, start after the first 16 bars so

8:36 Do not go wide because it's a frigging nightmare

As soon as the vocals finish there the vocals will start here. Why don't we do them both? Right so. Let me just get out of wide feature because that's a blinking nightmare to mix with and I'm going to go, by the way quick tip here. If you want to do a lot of beat mixing it's very good idea if all of your tracks are at similar BPM to stick to roughly plus or minus 10% on your pitch. Do not go wide because it's a frigging nightmare. Wide is great for effects. So let's go back to the beginning. Hold on. Sorry I was at the point where I did the vocals so I need to again, I need to start this at the beginning of the track. Listen. There. It works but it's almost like you've got this energy with the vocals and

11:14 Just follow me and I think you'll see where I'm going here

Then all of a sudden it just goes. Let's try it now after the first 16. Let's go back again and again what I could have done there, instead of using the filter make me shout boom and then the track come in. Now there is another way of doing this. It's slightly more difficult, but it could be quite good fun. So what I'm going to do, I'm going to form a hot queue at the beginning of the vocals here. Just follow me and I think you'll see where I'm going here. So right at the beginning again this track. Right so the third one, I try to continue the vocals but again you know I was messing around a little bit here just I don't know volume up and down but imagine what you can do if you start adding effects

And concentrate on the overall mix. Alright now again I hope that's been a help. The tracks I've been using are from the CDPool Global releases June 2014 so I'll put a link down there as well to CDPool and I will put the names of the tracks, I promise. Practice and enjoy. I love the hat. Thank you very much.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.