BPM transitions (mixing help)

[Eltsac]

Holla,

Hope you're all well.

Gotta question for fellow dj's out there on a bit of help as I'm stuck...

Essentially I dj mostly within tempo brackets, with a mix only having tunes that stretch a bpm range of 10 or. (i.e 130-140ish) Unless of course I am mixing some half speed stuff, like slow jams with dnb or whatever.

Regardless, I want to stretch beyond this, and have a set that will slowly build the bpm count but am really stuck for moving beyond a certain point. So I would like to start at more downtempo hip-hop electronica, move up into garage, through to 140ish stuff and upto juke and autonomic type dnb. I can mix each of these genres on thier own well, but want an uber all inclusive mix.

An example of the problem is playing a tune at 80bpm, itll be cool and all, pitched up to accomodate the next tune (like guido's the way you make me feel) at 94bpm, but of course the Guido tune is now spinning at -5% or so. Now when I want to bring in a 103bpm tune, itll be pitched down too low etc. Obviously getting worse as you move up the bpms.

I mix vinyl on some technics so the scope for movement of tempos isnt great...plus I am not a fan of a sudden wang in the tune that is playing caused by suddenly pitching it up loads to accomodate...

Is there anything I can do really?

What are your techniques for moving through the tempos?

Cheers a lot.

[HamCrescendo]

sudden wangs.







sorry.

[Eltsac]

sudden wangs.







sorry.

Joker...

I don't wanna be a wanger... bottom line.

Tragic if that's how it has to be though, surely there are other ways. I just got a korg kaoss pad, maybe I can sample some stuff and then transition, more hip-hop style cuts? I dunno, tis frustrating...

Any one else...

[bassrael]

if you have a kaoss pad you can just put some effects on the end of one tune (with no beats) and start with a new tempo. i don´t like mixing tunes which are pitched too much, so i understand you want to put different tempos in one mix. no problem with some delays etc imho.

[brokedjs]

One way is to find tunes which naturally change tempo, so for example Reso - Technetium, starts of on a hype hop sorta tempo and then changes to 140.

Another way is to use an fx unit, drag some of the sound out as you move the pitch up (much like looping on a CDJ and adjusting the pitch). Can sometimes sound messy but enough practice and it will work.

Another way (And I know you spin on vinyl but for CDJ users) Create your own edits of tracks, mix it up a bit, give the audience something they arent expecting when they hear a recoginisable track part.

Scratching is also an option, much like in hip hop mixes scratching can mask a transition between tunes.

[volcanogeorge]

Sometimes echoing out the last beat of song A at the tempo of song B can sound nice, worth a try.

[pkay]

Find tunes with transitions in them

Plenty of tunes accross all genres that change bpms

[Eltsac]

Cheers for the help you lot..

Will go home and mess about with it all, still unsure about the notion that there are loads of tracks with multiple tempos in them on the breakdowns or whatever. I mix mostly left-field type of stuff on vinyl, and most of the breakdowns keep the same tempo, or if anything go half speed, but im yet to notice a switch from 120 to then 90 or so in the breakdown, would be sick though as its just what i need!

Cheers though you lot, will probably post the mix once it sounds clean..

One thing I've noticed is that I notice every little error or slight adjustment in pitch and it annoys me, whereas my girl or mates who are listening don't notice anything... I guess it doesn't have to be as tight as i think?!

[Eltsac]

Rah... just did some research.. for anyone who wants to know, metric modulation is the answer!

Its essentially using the timescale of coherent pieces as a guide and creating a seemingly out of sync mix that becomes coherent at certain points in the mix. Probably try this out, though I have to get to grips with what time signatures all my tunes are in. I guess then it just involves transitioning the tunes at the right point...

check...

http://blog.pandora.com/archives/podcas ... ulati.html

[gravious]

Metric modulation can cause madness!

I have tried it a few times, and been surprised at how much I use the musical parts of tunes to beatmatch, not just the beats, and that gets trickier when the phrases are out of time even if the beats are kind-of locked...

Also, I'd imagine that the vast majority of electronic/dance/dnb tunes will be 4/4, with the odd others (3/4, 6/8 and suchlike) every so often (fairly rare though), so might limit your options.

Other things I have used in the past:
- Use tempo-less parts of tracks to mix together (e.g. percussion free outro/breakdown into similar intro, and just key match it)
- Get from 130-140 to DnB speed by mixing in a 45rpm dnb track at 33rpm, then flicking over to 45 just before a drop (works best if there is a silent bit before drop!). Ok, this can be a bit choppy sounding in terms of tempo jump, but it's better than just boshing the fader across without any beat matching at all.
- As above - your own edits with tempo switches (but no good unless you use serato or something)

If you are a producer, just make some tracks with the required tempo jumps in them. Aquasky used to do that to get from dub to breaks to DnB. Worth having a look to see if any of those tunes ever got released I suppose?

[mimzy]

I spin on ns7's. They have a 'sync' feature like a lot of software controllers do, which I don't use for normal spinning cuz hell that takes the fun out of it, but when mixing BPMs here's a neat trick:

1. Audience is hearing left deck
2. Right deck is spinning a track at a different bpm.
3. Pitch the right deck to the left deck's tempo.
4. Sync the LEFT DECK to the right deck's tempo.

Now, you can pitch the left deck and the right one will follow it, and it'll be a smooth transition for the listener. You can gradually move to the new tempo and the right will follow. You need to pick the right part of the new track to combine this with or it won't work. Big, crazy snare roll DnB intros work fantastic when coming from slower tempos, for instance. Looping one or both decks often works too.
You don't always need to conceal the fact that you're changing tempos. If you make a 'big deal' out of the transition you can grab their attention and throw them a curve ball and they'll love every second of it.