How to Construct a Mix Tape for a Demo Night Club BY Ellaskins the DJ Tutor

0:01 First, three four, listen

Alright guys, hopefully this video will inspire you to do that perfect mix for that client who wants to hear you. They want to hear how good you are, they want to be impressed and the only way of impressing them is to get their attention from their first sound. If you can do that, then you've got them hooked. Why do they make blockbusters have beginnings with explosions and people being shot or tornadoes or hurricanes? Because at the beginning they want to catch your attention. They want to grab you by the things and make sure that you watch the rest of the movie. If they just started off with some faff, then a lot of people would get bored. So, what we've got here is we've got Justin Timberlake's Sexy Back and we have Kellish Bounce Acapella.

So, oh not that one. That's actually the Renegade Master, so I need to get that one ready actually. So, that's another part of my mix. So, let's have a listen first of all to Justin Timberlake.

This is where you've got to be very quick and also constructing your set before you do it is paramount. It is of the most importance. There's no point just chucking it all together because we want this. We want it to be near damn perfect. This is close, but it's not close enough for what I'd want it or what I'd like to get if let's say I was going to have a mix and put that forward to a future client. So, let's have a listen.

You ready? One, two. So, first of all, I'm thinking you're ready. One, two, three, four, one and so on. If we have a listen to...

Now, the first thing is we need to make sure we know the time signature of this action. Acapella and it's as follows, one, two, three, four, one. I can't so it doesn't come in on the count of one now that if I was to show you that, hold on, let's bring this in on the count of one. So, let's first of all play Justin Timberlake sexy back from the first kick. Let's get that first kick first.

Right, have a listen.

2:41 They'd throw it away straight away or they'd probably stop watching it

I'm sorry, if you did that, it would just sound terrible and they'd probably throw the CD or your mix away. They'd throw it away straight away or they'd probably stop watching it. So, we need to make sure we have the right time signature. If you're not familiar with the acapella you're using then you need to listen to the original, get the correct time signature then come back to the acapella. Once you know the correct time signature, you will know where to bring it into the mix and also even more importantly where not to bring it into the mix. You ready? Phrasing works, everything works together but we've got a dry acapella. We need to add more depth, more vibe to this acapella and we can do that by adding some effects.

4:50 I did bring another cue point

So, simple one, we'll use the echo. So what I'm going to do now is I'm just going to get the correct time signature over Justin Timberlake using the acapella, sorry, using the echo on channel two. To begin with when I have the acapella, I had it on Justin Timberlake not on the acapella filter. Let's put... all of those sections together and let's see what we end up with. Let's disengage the effect, bearing in mind we can put the effect in and take the effect out at any time so we can take it to as many levels as we want. Again, I've said so many times before, the only thing stopping you is your imagination. Cue point, listen. Okay right, I did bring another cue point... Sorry, I did bring the acapella back in there but admittedly it wasn't...

Maybe in the right time signature or the right phrase but I was trying to think outside the box. You know, bring in a little bit more of the acapella. They're not ready or... No, it's not... They're not expecting that. It's... you've given them something. It's an analogy here. You know, you have your starter, main course and suite. Well, it's a bit like saying to someone, you know what? After your suite, I saw you enjoyed your main course. I'm going to... I'm going to give you a little bit more of the main course. Make sure they want it, of course, but I hope you have taken that in. The other track I was using was Renegade Master. The phone's going, got to go practice and enjoy, sorry.

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