DJ Phrase Mixing Tutorial Using Dub Step

0:00 We're going to do a beatmix to begin with in phrase, key and time

Alright guys, in this tutorial we're going to do a bit of a phrase mix with a couple of dub set tunes. On the right hand side we have Believer Super Who Men Remix, on the left hand side we have Breathe No. 96 Remix. It's just got No. 9 and then a 6 at the end remix. What we're going to do is we're going to mix in phrase, in key and in time. We're going to do a beatmix to begin with in phrase, key and time. And then I'm going to show you how you can do pretty much exactly the same transition even if you can't mix to save your wife. Okay, so first and foremost we need to find a good time to not only start our mix but have the mix and also a very good time for the end transition where we go from the one on the right to the one on the left.

So we do that by finding a change in the track. Now this is really what I'm going to explain now is 4. Beginners, what you will find is during most 99% of dance music tracks you will have a definite... It's almost, it sounds as though something's finished in the track. The track hasn't finished but you've got a definite sort of change. It's almost as though maybe it's like oh the vocals are finished and oh there's something else started. And then after that something else has finished, something else starts. What that's called is a part of the track that's known as the phrase. It could be for example... The instrumental break. Instrumental break could be 16 bars, 8 bars and then it will change into maybe vocals that could...

Of chorus that could last for 16 or 18 but not 18 sorry 16 or 8 bars. That could be classed as another phrase. I'm now going to play a part of the track that is a phrase and I've set a hot cue here.

There. Let's just go back a little bit.

1:59 Did you notice and did you hear the difference there?

Now did you notice and did you hear the difference there? Let's just go back again. Here's the point coming in. Bang! That's where I'm going to start my counting. One, two, three, four. Horses, bunnies, apples, pears, bananas, chips, fish, mushy peas. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. This video is going out to Ryan and Ella. One, two, three and eight. There. Okay so we had 8 bars. Let's have a listen from that point there where I've just stopped it and see if we've got to change again. I'm just going to go back a little tiny bit about that much. Nah, a bit more. There. Okay so definite change because we went into sort of quite a nice twisted sort of soulfully bass line. Prior to that we had a load of vocals so where we had the vocals we had 8 bars.

So... Let's have a listen to the beginning of this track, the other track first. Not much going on. There. What I've done... I set a cue point or hot cue sorry from that point there. Let's do exactly the same with this track. Let's count from here.

4:20 Let's try that transition from here straight in

One, two, three, fifteen, seventeen, forty-two, five hundred and sixty-five. One. Just being silly. Three. And you guessed four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Eight again. Right now even if you're not a DJ maybe you're a rocket scientist or maybe you're a nurse just about to open someone's tummy up. You should pretty much be able to work out that we've got eight and eight so if we add that to that then... Stop it. Then of course they should sort of fit together like Lego really. So let's try that transition from here straight in. Right let's imagine you cannot mix to save your life. You can't beat match, you can't do it. How can you do a transition like that?

You may not be able to do the wiggly bits of moving the crossfade up and down and the low pass filter. What you can do is something like this. Now that was our transition point where we went from the one track into the other. So pretty much all you've got to do is something like this. Let's just press play on the breathe track.

6:51 I would then be bringing track four in at 4 minutes and 52 seconds

There. Right I'm going to find the point of the transition on the believer track. Okay so... There, I'm gonna pause that at that point and I've got the breathe track paused as well. Alright so we are now constructing our mix. We've played two tracks and the believer track is our track three. The breathe track is our track four. Now what I would do is I would have a piece of paper and I would have track three believer at 59 seconds or roughly a minute. Bring in track four at 4 minutes and 52 seconds. So during the course of our mix we've played track one, track two. We're on track three. I would know that track three... At 59 seconds. I would then be bringing track four in at 4 minutes and 52 seconds. Now this is what we do.

And even if they're not in beat. Now I've now put them completely off beat. And to prove a point let's just try and mix them. That's pretty bad. Okay so... All we gotta do... From there, that's our point where we're bringing the next track in. So let's just go back a tad. We're sort of pretty much like half way... Well we're just under half way through. Or sorry, we're over half way through. No yeah we are under half way through the initial sort of point where we started the last mix. So...

Yeah actually I just need to get my cue point here ready again don't I? So... Let's go forward.

Now again I have got a visual interpretation of the track. We're at 1 minute and 10 seconds. So not only can I see the time, I'm also listening for the transition point. So... Cross fade over. Ah! Yeah that's why it was on wide. That's why it sounded so bad. Okay. So all I'm gonna do is press play. There. Bang straight over. It's pretty much as simple as that. No need for a mix. All it's about is making sure the transition point stays in time with the phrasing of the other track. That's the important bit. Phrasing. I hope that's been a help. Practice and enjoy. Thank you.

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