11:07
Adding effects to a mix that already works
On YouTube this video is called Intermediate DJ Lesson Getting the Perfect Mix and Adding Effects
What this lesson teaches
The most complete lesson in the course, because it builds the transition first and only then adds the effects. Two soulful house records, a plan, and five executions.
The question he asks before touching anything
Not "are these in key" and not "do these match" - but how do they make you feel?
One is soulful and uplifting. The other is soulful and deep. Same sort of key, same style, similar tempo - and different in the only way that matters on the night.
So: does this take the room higher or lower? He decides to go from the uplifting one into the deeper one, which is a deliberate step down in energy, and that is a legitimate choice rather than a mistake.
The magical last minute
The central piece of knowledge, and it is a fact about how records are made.
In roughly the last minute of a club record you are pretty much guaranteed 32 bars of material you can mix over. Often it is structured as sixteen bars of bassline or melody and then sixteen bars of just the kick - because producers know DJs need an exit, and they build one in.
He finds the break near the end, sets a cue point at it for reference, and counts the bars to the end of it. That is the whole preparation: know where the break starts, know how long it is.
The transition, plain
Cue the incoming track at its own good point, start it in the break of the outgoing one, and bring it in.
And he notes what is underneath: after that break there is just a house beat and nothing else, which is why a chop - cut straight from one to the other - works perfectly well here. If you are not confident beatmixing, this is the version to use, and it will not sound like a compromise.
Then the same transition, four more times
With a filter. His description: one of the best effects of all time. Engaged on the incoming channel, released as the cue point lands.
With a quantized echo. He makes a point of checking the echo is quantized to the track before using it, then throws the echo and hits the hot cue straight into the next record.
With a roll. A quarter roll, caught on a particular vocal syllable - and his running commentary while he hunts for the right spot is the honest part: too far, not sure that will work, let us try catching the "me". He finds it by looking.
With roll and filter together, which is where it ends up sounding like a record rather than a mix.
The lesson in the order
Every one of those five is the same transition at the same point between the same two records. The effect is a layer on top of a decision that was already correct.
That is why the course is called what it is. An effect cannot rescue a transition in the wrong place - it decorates a good one, and draws attention to a bad one.
And his instruction
This experimenting is what the bedroom is for. Finding out that the roll works on the "me" and not on the bar before takes ten minutes at home and cannot be done in front of people.
The gig is for executing what you already found.
Contents of the video
0:00 We've got a couple of tunes here by Mr Lenny Fontana
Alright guys, we've got a couple of tunes here by Mr Lenny Fontana. One track is entitled In The Morning, that's on the left hand side and the other track Save Me, it's the original mix. Both are the original mixes and you can find links to these two tracks in the description. Okay, in this video what we're going to do is we're going to do a very basic chop from one track to the other and also a mix transition. The idea behind this tutorial is to show you and explain how you can get that CD style quality mix just from using a very simple piece of kit sort of mix you could do in your bedroom but it's about finding the right place to bring the track in not just chucking it in anywhere okay let's have a listen to in the morning first i'll just skip through a little bit nice soulful uplifting vibe both tracks by the way have
We've been run through the rekordbox, Pioneer rekordbox software. Now we'll try Save Me. Very nice bass line with this one. Again, very soulful but both tracks are soulful. The one on the left in the morning, soulful, uplifting. The one on the right, Save Me, soulful but deep. So again, this is where you have to... When you're listening to tracks, you've got to try and think how do they make you feel? Even though It's pretty much the same key, the same style and feel and vibe. When you get to that vibe stage, you need to try and work out, well does the vibe take me higher or lower? This one's a bit deeper, isn't it? Okay, so what do we want to do? How about we mix in the higher vibe track, deeper one. So, let's move forward a little bit towards the latter part of Save Me. Now there is a break here.
2:20 I'm now going to count the bars until
Here we go. Now what I'm going to do, I'm going to set a cue point from the beginning of that break. That's just for my reference. I'm now going to count the bars until... So count exactly how many bars I get to the end of this break. So 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 4, 8, okay now all right sorry what I should have done is let that carry on playing. All right now if we listen here we've gone from the track into the end of the track it's around about that the last minute which is sort of known as the magical last minute where you're pretty much guaranteed of getting 32 bars. The 32 bars could stay the same or also you could have a defined
Break, a definite change after the 16th bar. So you've got sort of 16 bars of maybe bassline melody and then 16 bars of just that kick. And most producers will give you that because it's a great way of just doing an easy end and beginning transition from one track to the other. So let's have a listen again right after that break. There we go. All right, there you go. Now let's have a listen. To in the morning again, and I'm going to go from A, which is where we start getting that really good soulful vibe. All right, but let's have a listen prior to that soulful vibe. Two, three, four, two, two, three, four, three, two, three, four, four, two, three, four, five, two, three, four, six, two, three, four, seven, two, three, four, eight, two, three. And right now then.
Need I say any more? I could pretty much finish this tutorial here because a lot of people would be going, yeah, I get it. I know exactly what he's going to do. Well, you're wrong because I'm going to go and perm my hair now and stick my arms in a bucket of chocolate covered whatever. OK, that's probably not a good idea. So I will do the transition. So what we need to do is from B, that point there, I'm going to start this track. Now, I'm not using headphones so what I'm going to do, I'm going to... It may go off slightly but I want you to listen to the two tracks playing together and then what I'm going to try and do is just bring this one in slightly over the speaker so I can hear it myself and then bring it down so we have the break playing by itself and then bring them both in together and you should get the idea of how I wanted the transition.
5:10 Straight after that break we've just got a house beat
To sound like. So we go back a little bit, we're at the beginning of In The Morning and we're just a little bit before that break on Save Me. Coming up to it here and now again let's take this not many steps further but again have a listen to Save Me. Alright straight after that break we've just got a house beat. That's it. There's nothing else at all. What we could do, we could do a chop. So if you're not very good at beatmixing, this is what you can do. So there, that's it. Alternatively, what we could do, again, you know, it's so simple. There are so many different ways of doing this transition. Okay, so I'm going to start these two tracks again from the same place, from B, which is... Shut up. From B, which is the beginning of the break, and the in-the-morning track, which is at the beginning of the track itself. So if I just press these two buttons here, the cue and the play. OK, this point here. Bang! I can take that out. So what I did there is I used a tiny bit of the beginning of that track, the kick, the timing, in the break where there was...
8:05 Echo and what I'm going
Just the vocal saying save, save, save me. Now let's do this again but this time let's add some effects. Let's just add one of the best effects of all time which is the filter. So B, let's go back a little bit. I'm just going to set another cue point there so save me messing around. So we're at the beginning of this track here. Filter already engaged. Just waiting for my little cue point now. I can see the green cue point coming in. Here we go. That's another way. All right, let's try something different again. You see, it's wonderful to experiment. This is the sort of thing you should be doing in your bedroom or wherever you are prior to going and playing out. How can we make this transition more exciting, more vibrant, more fun instead of just, yeah, chop and change? So let's maybe go to Echo and what I'm going to do, I'm going to make sure... Hold on.
Make sure it's quantized so the echo now is quantized with the track, so two. There you go. Now what I did there is I added the effect but then I just hit the hot cue, bang, straight into the next track and away we go. Let's do something else. Let's try the roll. Okay, so let's have a listen. So what do we want? Let's have maybe quarter roll. Go forward a bit. Oh, too far. I don't know about that. I don't know if that's going to work. Let's try that me, the me. Just catch that me. We're going to try that. Okay, now this is where quickness comes in. You know, your life is at stake here and you've got to turn these knobs otherwise you're going to have your head chopped off. No, you're going to be really quick. Okay, so...
Hang, there you go. Alright, another way of doing the mix. We're doing the same transition but we're adding the roll and I hope you noticed as well I added a bit of the filter there as well. I hope that's been a help. Don't forget to check out these stunning tracks from Mr Lenny Fontana and as ever, thank you to Manuel and Lenny for letting me use these tracks from Karmic Power Records. Practice and enjoy. Just gotta do this.
This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.
