One Way to Mix out of Key and Get Away with It DJ Underground July 2019

0:00 I've got some new releases for you from CDPool Underground July 2019

Alright guys, I've got some new releases for you from CDPool Underground July 2019. Right, that's going to happen anyway. Also, there's a bit more to this video because it's a demonstration and a tutorial as well. But I think the most important part of this video is in the description. There is a promo code. Now the promo code is for working DJs who work... This is the important part. Now then, if you would like to, let's say, get a subscription for CDPool, then check out cdpool.com, use that promo code and your first month you will get 50% off. Now this is a biggie, alright? This is excellent because it means if it's normally that much, it's going to be half that much. Alright, now at any time you can stop your subscription, okay? But let's imagine you are a club DJ and you want some good quality club tunes. Well, CD Bull have the club releases. Maybe you like deep Chicago kind of soulful house, they have the global releases. Maybe you like some two-step, some R&B, some twerking kind of stuff, you've got The Urban.

Handbags, full-on party, big room, they have the club, sorry, the dance series. And then if you're more sort of, you know, you just like that sort of heavy vibe, full-on house music, there is the club series. Now in this video I'm going to be using the underground series of tunes. So I have put my tracks through rekordbox and the tutorial part here is about mixing out of key and getting away with it, alright? Now I've said time and time again, you've got to mix in key to keep the flow, the vibe, the energy. Because for example, a track in a certain key gives an energy. A track in another key gives a certain energy. If those energies work well together, those two tracks will be in some way in key. They could be in exactly the same key or they could be in keys that harmonically complement each other.

2:15 Drum pattern, rest track, beat track

But what happens if we're going to use two tracks that aren't in key? How do we mix those? Well one way of doing it, one way, is to mix the beginning and end where there's very little going on. Now I believe the first person to ever form a track The actual beat of the track in key with the rest of it was bomb the bass, beat this. Because the track started with a drum pattern and that drum pattern was actually in key with the rest of the track. And that's what pretty much every single producer does today is even the drum pattern, the beat, the kick will be in key with the rest of the track. But because there's no vocals, there's no melody and so on, and there's no bass line, it's a little bit more difficult to determine if it's the right key or it's a key that matches. So you can sort of, and I emphasise...

This sort of get away with it. Alright, so I am going to put on the right hand side Dance For Me. Now, I'm using rekordbox, I'm using the Pioneer XDJ-RX2 and the tracks are in alphabetical order. But if you go to the website cdpool.com, click on the correct page for the underground releases July 2019, you'll be able to get all of the tracks that you will expect to have either on the hard copy... Hello, I'm welcoming you to my set and here's the first tune. Also though, it's got that feel of good night, thank you and thank you very much, I'm glad you enjoyed the music. So really it's appealing for the beginning and end of set. Now I'm going to go towards the end of this track, so let's skip through, hold on. Now this will give you an idea of what the track's like. What I try and do in these videos is not play the entire tracks, it's to give you a generalisation of what will be on the compilation.

4:48 What I did there is sort of a beginning and end mix

So let's go towards the end of the track, we'll go to about here and I'm going to bring in now a track called Elevate. Okay so what I did there is sort of a beginning and end mix. I was very careful, we've got that kind of wobbly sort of sound in the background. Now that's not a full on vocals or harmonising sort of sound even though there's some sort of melody there. For a lot of people who maybe can't distinguish really well between keys, you can get away with something like that. That actually worked. That wasn't too bad anyway. Now this one here is a track entitled Elevate. This is the original mix. So let's try and find something else. In fact, all I'm going to do, I'm going to go to the next track in alphabetical order which is Fever, the original mix. Okay, and again we've got the beginning of the track is just a kick.

Okay, so let's skip through this a little bit to give you an idea of what it's like. You see, this shows what the Underground series is like. Very experimental, very like... A lot of the tracks are quite minimal. You know, you don't just get house, you get a bit of drum and bass in there as well, you get a bit of techno as well. So all aspects have twisty-bendy sounds. That's how I like to interpret it. Okay, let's go towards here. Oh, let's wait for the drop. The drop. Good, because it's got... I like that. There's a bit of soul there. It's almost like you've got a couple of ladies going, we're really happy, and then some guy with a steamroller going... Sorry, this is just a picture in my mind, which is good because music should paint a picture in your mind. Think about it. There you go, they've just gone, help us! They've just been rolled over with a really heavy steamroller. OK, let's go towards the end of the track.

7:16 I'm not thinking at all about keys

And what I'm going to do now is bring in the next tune. I'm not thinking at all about keys. What I want to do is make sure the track I'm going to bring into this has just got a beat. You know, the less there is in this track, the better. Just going to wait for my phrasing and I can see on the wave format we're coming to a new phrase. 5, 2, ok. So this one here, like I said, is a track entitled Fever, this is the original mix. Same thing. We'll go to the next one. The next one, Funky Cobra, the original mix. Liking it? Okay, let's skip forward a little bit. We'll go to about time there. What I'm going to do here is I'm going to start the next track on after the break. So as soon as we get that drop, I'm going to start bringing the next track in. I'm going to use a different effect this time. I'm going to use the sweep. What that does, it eliminates...

9:04 Let's just skip it forward a bit

A lot of this sounds, so you're just almost left with the high and the low. So let's just skip it forward a bit. That might sound a little bit strange that one. Because I'm not using tracks that are big and bold and full of music and full of vocals and so on, you can sort of, like I said earlier, you can sort of get away with it. But I highly recommend you don't do this all the time. This isn't the sort of set you would do In a big nightclub. This isn't the sort of set you would put together on the fly and do this all night. If you're going to make a set, you've got to try and think of harmonising the songs to make sure that they match musically. That's the key to keeping the energy flow alive in the room. Vitally important. OK, so let's go back. I'm going to randomly select something now. Luxury Kills, Gemstone Remix.

12:37 Let's check out something else

So I'll put that on this side here. Skip this forward a bit. I'm skipping it back a little bit because I want to bring the next one in, in phrase. Here we go. Too bad. Quite funky this one actually. Funky. A skip sort of vibe to it. You could probably play this to a bunch of Hell's Angels and they'd come and say, yeah love it man, great tune, and still throw bottles at you. Rolling, rolling, rolling. Raw hide, remember that one? Some of you might get that. All right, let's check out something else. Plastic Dreams. Right, okay. Random. This is random now, okay? Last one. Very minimal beginning to this. Sweepers down. What was it from the 90s? Perhaps it was Plastic Dreams. Yeah, the Ibiza remix, of course. Wow. Amazing.

I mean, this is the underground. This tune is like, guess what? I am from CDPool Underground Series. Yeah, yeah. Alright, so once again, if you go to the description, you will see the link to cdpool.com and also there is that promo code. Copy and paste it, go to CDPool and get your subscription and the first month you get 50% off. It's a no-brainer, alright? Practice and enjoy.

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