DJ Tutorial on mixing with Acapelas

0:01 Another video on mixing acapellas

Alright folks, another video on mixing acapellas. I'll just pause that. By the way, look in the description for the names of the tracks. That's quite a twisted sort of electro style track. This guy here, which is the acapella, is more of a soulful track. Now there's one important thing here. This acapella is from years ago. So when this was made, I'm pretty sure it was made without a drum machine. It was a real band. So the vocals is going to be all over the place where the BPM is concerned. It's not going to be at a constant BPM. So, in other words, if I set that up and set the pitch on this guy, there's a possibility of this one slowly going maybe a little bit faster, a little bit slower. Also, what I've had to do is take off the master tempo because I need to change the key of the track. Now, first of all, with the master tempo on, can you see that? If I just put that like that. Master tempo on, can you see that red?

Dot that red LED. Let's play it first. Have a listen, slow it down. Keeps the same sound. Speed it up. Now have a listen if I take the master tempo off. Now I actually need the master tempo off and this is the irony. This is the most annoying bit, which is a bit of a shame but then again this is the beauty about let's say having hot cues because you can edit the track. I need to actually have the speed at a certain speed but at the same time I don't want to have the master tempo on because if I have that on it won't sound right in the position where I want it to be put in, if you can understand where I'm coming from there. Now there are certain aspects of this video that you'll look at and think that's sort of crap, there are certain aspects where you'll scratch your head and wonder what I'm doing.

2:23 I've almost got to try and bring that in before

There are certain aspects you may think, that's a good idea, but the whole idea of videos like this is for you just to have a look and maybe think, I could do that, or I don't want to do that, or I'd never do that, or that's a good idea, I'll go and try it right now. So, got a track over there, I've set some cue points, and what I'm going to do is have a mess around using this particular track. Three cue points, have a listen. Now also, the last one, it's such a good vibration. That, to someone who's just starting off using acapellas, is probably a really difficult part to use because it's not on the count of one. It's such a good. That's, you see, one, two, three, it's such a, one, two, three, it's such a, one, two, three, it's...

4. So it's almost like just before the 4. It's such a good is on the count of 1. It's such a 1, 2, 3. It's such a 1, 2, 3. It's such a good 2, 3. So I've almost got to try and bring that in before. Now this is where we start to learn how to count. No, no, I'll start again. This is where we start to learn how to bring tracks in or bring certain parts of, let's say, the likes of acapellas in before the count of one. Now it's difficult to begin with but once you get the hang of it, it's very easy. If you imagine jazz, jazz is all over the place. Jazz isn't necessarily... One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Jazz can come and go all over the place. Something like this, if you can do this really correctly, if you can do this well, it sounds fantastic. So what I'm going to do is play the track over here. Turn that up. And here we go. Sorry. Also, you see, if you have got effects, then you can utilise effects in with the acapella as well. I mean, basically, you've just got to open your mind and think,

4:23 Let's wang this one forward a bit

What can I do? How can I make the most noise as possible and just give it a go? Right, so let's wang this one forward a bit. Because just at that point there where the tone, the feel of the track drops slightly, bringing in that, it's such a, would, in my mind, work fantastic. Now let's have a listen again. So, in a sense, just maybe, if you think about it, you have a practice with something like this, I was having a bit of a mess around and just going all over the place, but sometimes, which is a well-known fact, less is more. So in other words, just by hitting that, it's such a good vibration, that one point there makes it go bosh, bang, alright? Now I hope this has been a help. Now bear in mind as well, like I said earlier, if you've got effects, you can bring effects into the mix while you're using the acapellas. And also, let's say at the moment I'm on track 5 for example.

I could flick through a CD where I've got loads of acapellas. I could think, well, I could use track 5. I could also maybe use track 7, track 8. So make a mental note of the different tracks and then maybe go to one, go to the other. It's all about knowing your music. Hope it's been a help. Planks and enjoy them. Practice and enjoy.

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