This Is How a DJ Should Not Mix Music!

0:00 First of all, this is at all completely not making fun of CDPool

Right, I'm going to do a really strange video. Now first of all, this is at all completely not making fun of CDPool. This is demonstrating a bad DJ. Now I'm going to be using, first of all, so it's going to be like a demonstration of the new releases from CDPool anyway, so first of all I'm going to be using the global releases for January 2019. Check out the link in the description to CDPool.com. Global releases are your more soulful house music, nice melody, bit of chilled beats, but it's pretty much always sort of house style-y. The reason this is going to be a little bit more controversial is because this is going to be how not to mix. So if you're going to do a set and you want to know what not to do, then follow this.

Take these instructions to a T, and your set will sound absolutely rubbish. Now of course I'm going to be demonstrating some of the tracks, I'll let you know what CDs they are, and what tracks, of course, as well. I'm using the hard copies, the CD versions. You can also download the MP3 or WAV as well if you want to. And the only criteria is you've got to be a DJ and you've got to be working in or around Europe. You will have your own CD pools, so let's first of all play track one from disc number one. This is Smooth and Turrell, a track entitled, there for me, The Vilqui Remix. So, alright, so again, this is going to be how not to mix. This is going to be quite fun actually. Now, as I've always said, and you ask any other DJ out there who's been in the business for quite a while,

Is to mix in key. That's because you keep the energy, for the flow. The next one really is in beat. And then the third one, sort of on par with the second one, is in phrase, because you don't want vocals over vocals. But even if you had vocals over vocals or the beats clashing, if they weren't in key it would sound terrible. So what I'm going to do now, I'm going to put some mixes together, where I'm not even going to try and mix, I'm just going to chuck in the next one. What I'm not going to do, is start the next one right at the beginning, because quite often with house music you've got that four to the floor for a good sort of eight or sixteen bars before any kind of music or melody comes in. So I'm going to go to, for example, track three.

Okay, track three, it's four minutes and nineteen seconds long. It's Dan T, a track entitled Yeah. What I'm going to do, I'm going to skip forward and I'm going to search forward to the first kind of break.

3:01 Let's spin this board a bit

Okay, let's spin this board a bit. So again, this video hopefully will give you an idea of what's on the CD. So you'll get a general idea of the global releases and what to expect. So let's go to the break here. This is how not to mix.

A phrase out of time, out of key and out of everything. Alright? Now that's not to say the tracks are bad, it's just the transition is not good. So when you see a DJ like just randomly selecting a point in another track and just bringing it in in a random place, it's not happening. It's just not going to happen. You know, that spoiled two very good songs. So by definition, in a way, if you're going to do a bad mix of two great songs, you're going to spoil the tracks. See? Now, how uplifting and vibrant is this? This is track three from disc number two. Don't forget to check out the link in the description and go to Global January 2019. You've got all these tunes, soundbites of these tracks as well, of course, as the other tunes on the twin CD.

All right. So let's go to seven random. But in fact, I'm just going to go really random. I'm going to press the button back, forward, back. What are we on? Oh, we're on number two. All right. Oliver Knight, leave. Sorry, leave. Let me tell you the original mix this time. I'm going to start from the beginning. So what I'm going to do, though, is I'm going to press play on the one, two, three, four. The pitch is a dead center. So the tracks will be the original speeds they were meant to be as they were made in the studio and one.

5:10 One hundred and twenty eight bpm, one hundred and twenty four bpm

See what I mean? One hundred and twenty eight bpm, one hundred and twenty four bpm.

9:40 After the break

That's not happening. That's not happening. That wasn't actually as bad as the last one, but it was still horrendous. OK, Oliver Knight, let me tell you, let's skip it forward a bit. Same kind of vibe with these two tunes. The Dan team is slightly more uplifting, sort of deep. But then let me tell you, tune is a little bit more deep. Like it like this. OK, let's go to track number eight. Ronnie Deep featuring Ammo Moses. What's that? Unpredictable love. OK, so we're going to bring that one in. Now I'm just going to go to a random place in the track. Skip it forward. OK, keep that there. Let's just go forward so we can hear a little bit more of this tune. Now believe it or not, there are still DJs who will mix like this.

They have no idea of phrasing, key mixing, beat mixing or anything. They just seem to think that, oh, play one, find a point in the other track and bring it in. Terrible, just terrible. Watch, have a listen. Press play. Oh actually, I can't really spoil the drop, can I? I can't spoil the drop. I'm not that hard. It's a bit like going to a park, isn't it? With a bag full of little bits of bread and having all the pigeons around you and go nyeh nyeh nyeh nyeh nyeh and walking off. Can't do that. All right, now I'm going to do it. Press play. Still not very good, was it? That wasn't very good because there was no thought about choice of tracks or choice of feel or vibe or energy. You know, this is the key. The key. That is it.

If you get that, you got it. All right. So let's choose another one from the disc number one, going to number nine. Like I said, Ronnie D, pee up. The next one from disc number one is the Soul Trend Orchestra Touch the Sky. So I'm going to press play. I'm going to go to the first break. Halfway through the first break.

8:01 Pitch is in the centre

OK, pitch is in the centre. Let's press play and let's see what happens. I don't know about that one either.

It sort of worked and it sort of didn't work, but I mean, again, we've got we've gone from a kind of jazzy Brazilian style that's lifting. See again, you know what? We've stepped. If you imagine you're walking up some steps and you're walking up the steps. Two, I don't know, to the second floor in your house and the steps are equal distance apart and all of a sudden you've got some huge monster step. You can't get up. It's like, hold on a minute. Calm down. You know, keep them the same. Keep everything symmetrical. Try and follow some kind of flow. And that's what is not happening here, which is exactly what this video is about. So let's keep this one here. Track number nine from disc number one. Let's play one more from disc number two.

I mean, normally I would never do this kind of thing, especially with tunes like this track. Number ten, no one else is the D3 classic mix from disc number two. I feel the change inside my veins. OK, this time what I'm going to do is press play on the one in this side here. OK, not touch the page. So I'm going to press play on the one at the beginning of the phrase. In fact, let's go to after the break. Three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. Get ready. Two, three, four. Again, beats were completely off. It was a bit like, oh, hold on a minute. I mean, some people would say, well, yeah, we're not beat, but it sounded all right, but then it still didn't work because there was no thought in bringing tracks in correctly.

Right time. Right place. All right, very, very important. All right, I'm going to finish off here with track number ten. No one else. This reminds me of she's a bad mama jammer. Just a small she's a bad mama jammer. Anyone agree with me? Old school. It is the melody.

She's a bad mama jammer. She's a bad mama jammer. She's a bad mama jammer. Come and get this. OK, like I said, this is no one else. Nice to like it. It's almost like new disco style because this was 116 BPM. All right. Practice and enjoy. Don't forget. Check out the link in the description to see people dot com right down there. What I'm going to be doing now is once or twice a month, I'm going to be doing a live stream using the new releases from CD Paul for that month. When I do the live stream, I will be promoting it beforehand. The live stream will probably go on for about an hour or so when it's finished. I'll probably delete it just in case we get any issues with copyright and all that kind of shit practice and enjoy. Thank you very much.

Take care.

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