first recorded mix – Feedback and tips to do better would be very nice

NADALSCORE: 3/10

Please post what gear you are using so we can refer to it.

Nice selection of records.

DJ mixes ought to be at least 60 minutes long. Yours is too short.

You cut track # 2 in too soon (when there’s a lull in the music you don’t want to fade the other record in, it doesn’t sound good); wait for the beat to start again and then start cutting in the next track gradually.

Something to try later on when you get better: Instead of fading in a record, cue it up to where the bass begins and slam it in sync with when the bass starts up again hard on the other record (check that they’re in sync, dropping the next track 😉

This technique helps keep your mix moving and keep people dancing.

You cut # 3 in too soon, too, because you waited too long to cut in the Calvin Harris track. Make sure to keep your eyes peeled to your time elapsed and/or your progress bar to avoid this. As a rule of thumb you should be starting to mix in the next track within 90 seconds of the end of the current track.

After this, the mixing is just too sloppy, unfortunately. That said, progressive house can be very hard to mix together, due to all the melodies which need to be synced as well (it’s not just about the beats, it’s also about the track’s key—A minor, B-Flat Minor, etc). Are you aware of what your tracks’ keys are?

It might be a good time to consider harmonic mixing, what the pros do. Harmonic mixing is a style of Djing, very commonly used by most, if not all, top DJs—it ensures your mixes are pretty much perfect because you’ll always be on key.

Get yourself Mixed In Key 5 software (about $40): this will tell you which key your track is in, which allows you to make near-perfect DJ mixes. Once installed on your computer, slide your entire music library on the Mixed In Key deck, wait for it to process all your tracks, and then move your tunes back to your DJ software; you will notice each track is now embedded with key and BPM information. After that, you can just sort by key and/or BPM.

One thing you could do now is, you could practice doing an entire set in C minor, for example. That way your tracks are all harmonically matched, and you can focus on becoming a better beat-matcher.

Keep up the work

NADAL
paris

here, study this:

http://www.upload.ee/image/2752690/vdj2.jpg – in virtualdj, right click on that [title / artist / …] bar and select those two i marked in red. and the green box – click there twice to view the numeric key. now only move 1 step up or down (or stay in the same key) when you select the next track (when the key diff down there shows 0 they mix together well).

other general tips: listen to more mixes, dj mixes don’t necessarily have to be 60 minutes – they can be 30 or 45 as well. viel glück!

Mixes could be of any length, like the BBC commissioned 10minute mini mixes.

Mixed-in-key is nice but I don’t like memorizing complex chord pattern images. It’s funny how sitting by a piano from the young age has done imprints to know what keys work together without the need of a cheat sheet. I suspect the same will happen to anyone who does a lot of mixing.