Post your favorite transition techniques

My general way is like this:

Track A is playing. Track B has the volume and bass turned all the way down.

Usually around the last 2 minutes of Track A I’ll start up Track B. Over the course of of 32-64 beats I’ll gradually bring in the volume of Track B with the bass still turned all the way down.

Over the course of the blend, I’m gradually bringing up the bass on Track B while lowering the Bass on Track A.

Many times I’ll just let Track A hit its end and it seemingly goes out nicely while Track B kicks it up into it’s “meat”. Other times I’ll cut off Track A at some point if the “meat” of Track B kicks in sooner. If Track A seemingly won’t “calm down” musically, then I’ll slowly fade its volume down and play with the EQs on Track A to kill it off, letting Track B musically take over everything.

My main goal is to have things liquid…seamless. I want the two tunes to meld and work together, complimenting one another, so you don’t have a sudden change that throws everyone off. I usually get this most of the time.

With some forms of music, the intro/outro is shorter, like when I used to play Electro House. I still do my usual kind of transition, but not drag it out too long.

Programming is key in all this. It’s not so much about how you’re playing as it is what you’re playing now and what you’re playing next. I’m often thinking about how these two tracks will meld as well as how the set is moving in terms of energy, and if I feel I’m headed in a right direction.

Chuck van Eekelen, post: 42485, member: 2756 wrote: I generally use that little sliding knob thingie that lays flat under the upright sliding knob thingies … Somehow one track suddenly goes less loud and the other one get’s proportionally louder when you move it from one side to another, almost like magic! … Seems to work real well.

If I am playing with the old black plastic thingies and I don’t have the side to side sliding thing on my apparatus with all the sliding upright thingies and flashing lights and such, I just wait for one black round disc to finish and then stop it (or the pencil-shaped tip at the end of the s-shaped metal tube that moves from outside to inside of the disc will hit the self-adhesive paper thingie with the whatyamacallit’s name on it) and then press the square, pressable metal thingie that says “PLAY” on the other rotating machine. I just leave all the upright sliding thingies up as it seems that when I put them down, sometimes sound does not come out of the big, heavy, squarish wooden or plastic boxes with the round, moving, circular thingies.

It’s all still very complicated to me.

Greetinx,
C.

This. This should definitely be the opening paragraph in the next “learn how to dj” guide.

I wait until there is an awkward moment of silence then hit play on the next deck 😉

D-Jam, post: 42481, member: 3 wrote: Many times I’ll just let Track A hit its end and it seemingly goes out nicely while Track B kicks it up into it’s “meat”. Other times I’ll cut off Track A at some point if the “meat” of Track B kicks in sooner. If Track A seemingly won’t “calm down” musically, then I’ll slowly fade its volume down and play with the EQs on Track A to kill it off, letting Track B musically take over everything.

My main goal is to have things liquid…seamless. I want the two tunes to meld and work together, complimenting one another, so you don’t have a sudden change that throws everyone off. I usually get this most of the time.

Great explanation and use of metaphors, made it really easy to understand your train of thought when you’re mixing and what it is you’re doing exactly.

I think I have this problem where I try to get my mixes “PERFECT” with each and every transition. I’ll listen to the outgoing track outro a handful of times to figure out and see (on the waveform) exactly where I want my transition to mix over, self admittedly obsessing over this aspect of my mix. Trying to get the phrasing perfectly aligned to achieve a “perfect” mix… which I am now realizing is an absurd goal and is causing me to waste a lot of time relistening to the track over and over again. Having taught and trained myself this method over the last year, I feel like my mixes lack creativity now and I rely too much on watching the waveforms and using the preview player to cheat (so to speak). My mixes just seem so stale to me now.

DJ AMK, post: 42822, member: 9439 wrote: Load all 4 decks with random tracks, hit play then head over to the bar.

LOL!!!!!! OMG this made my day!!!!

In the days of vinyl I loved to scratch my back with the vinyl I just took of the platter. It just gave you that extra reach and USB sticks just do not cut it…. so I guess I know why so many people still use DVS.

my favorite transition is honestly intro outro. might be more complex than it sounds, but probably not.

i pretty much only spin trance, so keeping a constant flow to the set is a priority. ill find a 8 bar chunk like a minute or 2 into the next track, then use the mid and low EQs to slowly bleed them in, waiting for the downbeats ( i guess thats what theyre called ) with the woosh noises and shit to boost the next track in by like 10% while dropping 10% of the corresponding EQ, and perhaps dropping the upfade on the outgoing track by 1 dB.

its hard to explain without knowing the actual terminology, but thats my favorite way to mix. smooth as paula deen butter.