Mixing Hip Hop

Showbiz Connor, post: 36433, member: 7627 wrote: hi guys,

I’m strugglling to mix hip hop smoothly due to the irregular beats but more importantly the vocals on the tracks.

my sets are all good and have great flow thanks to MIK but the actual mixes can be a little messy if I’m trying to put two rap tracks together.

I’m experimenting with looping the start of the incoming track and mixing into the loop but do any of you more experienced guys. Obviously hip hop and EDM are very different so I’m finding that I have much less time to beat match

Any tips for cutting between tracks rather than mixing or any other common techniques am I’m struggling to find anything on line to help me

Thanks

Hey how ya doing? As a DJ who has been mixing Hip Hop for years and I means years from the time of 2 Turntables and a Mic there is a great advantage to having the software to make things happen in your mixes. Find yourself a clear four bar portion of the song that youcan loop. It may even have a bit of a vocal to it as long as the loop is chopped correctly by you. Use that loop as the transition to your next song by letting it play out as you bring the other song in. If you can scratch like Michael Lawrence mentioned then that will be even better. You don’t need to be able to crab scracth or do flares or chirps but a quick chop cut(the basic scratch where you just bring the record back and forth while clipping the crossfader back and forth) will do the trick. You can fade the loop out after you bring in your new song by doing a backspin and then applying an echo to it to fill the sound. Let that 4 bar loop go on for a total of 12 bars, bring your next song in on the begining of the 2nd go around of the 4 bar loop and by the time you get to the third loop you have established the next song in the mix.

“Find yourself a clear four bar portion of the song that youcan loop. It may even have a bit of a vocal to it as long as the loop is chopped correctly by you. Use that loop as the transition to your next song by letting it play out as you bring the other song in.”
nuff said

When I mix between EDM and Hiphop or any genre I use the acapella to get a smooth transition. This technique helps me a lot. If all else fails just slam into the next track.

Even with hip hop, I typically beatmatch about 90% of my set. Obvsiously when you have a drastic temp change you need to find another way, but for songs with a similar tempo

1. Know your music inside and out. Know what works good with what, and what doesn’t.

2. Know your EQs and filters. Know exactly what frequency each EQ or filter can take out of the specific track your playing. This is much more important in hip hop since you have more irregular beat patterns

3. Pre-cue your music once youre familiar with the tracks. Place hot cues at your ideal intros, and before you move on, be sure to practice it, to make sure its ideal. Once you have it at the spot you prefer, leave a note in the comment section on what that cue means. For example: 8 bar intro, 4 bar intro, slam intro, loop intro, etc. Chances are, after mixing the track a few times, youll remember exactly what your cue is, and how your gonna transition in, without referring to the comment.

4. Loop Outro/Cue jump intro beatmatch: This is an advanced technique that combines the first 3 methods I explained above. I tend to use it alot in hip hop, and DnB. If your hip hop track doesn’t have an instrumental intro that you can beatmatch, go to the end of the song and see if you can find a workable instrumental there. You will be surprised with how many hip hop tracks have instrumental outros, so its good to take advantage of them. If there is an instrumental, place a cue point on the 1-beat of it, as well as a cue at the start of the track, on the 1-beat of where you want the track to come in. To beatmatch, you can loop the outro for as long as you need to, and slowly EQ it in to the out-going track. When making the transition, you will use the second cue (the cue on the 1-beat at the beginning of the track) and jump to it, from the end, while at the same time cutting the volume out of the outgoing track. This is a technique I taught myself, and Im not really sure if any other DJs do this for transitioning purposes, but with a few hours of practice, precise pre-cueing, proper EQing, and knowing your tracks inside out, it’ll come naturally, and impress any screen watchers 😀