DJimC
Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
DJimC
ParticipantThe upgrade to VDJ Pro (which I am using) is pretty expensive. Depending on the device you bought with the LE version, it’s between $150 and $300. It does give you lifelong updates and upgrades to new versions.
Traktor Pro 2.5 is much cheaper, I believe it’s about $80.
I don’t think any of the LE versions provide a recording function
ParticipantThe record function is part of the software, so with the right software you can record your mixes on the mixtrack pro just fine. Most controllers come with a LE version of the software which sometimes doesn’t contain the recording functions.
I think it’s also possible to loop the output of your controller back into your computer (as a mic in) and record from that source using some other software.
ParticipantDoes the problem also occur when you match the BPMs manually? If that’s the case is seems that the BPM detection on the slower song is off and it needs to be adjusted (perhaps manually).
July 18, 2012 at 2:05 pm in reply to: Is counting to 8 instead of 4 in your beat counting wrong? #1008037ParticipantI prefer counting in groups of 4, the reason begin that structure of most music is focussed around that:
4 beats to a bar
4 bars to a ‘group’ (of you need to match these 4 bar groups as well to get a logical transition from one song to the next)
quite often 4 of these 4-bar-groups will be the length of an intro, verse or break within a song.Ofcourse, you could always count to 8 and make ‘groups’ of 2×8 beats instead of 4×4
For everyone who says it’s all instinct: yes after a while you will do the above more or less automatically, but I find it easier to know the theory when trying to develop my instincts. Furthermore counting the beats out still helps me when setting cue points in songs which lack a distinct beat or melody in their intro’s.
ParticipantI’ve got a Mixtrack Pro, so I’ll try to answer your questions from that perspective:
1) The mixtrack pro has buttons for 3 cue points per track and they are normally set to a ‘jump to and play’ setting
2) The mixtrack pro has a decent sound card, certainly good enough until you reach truly great club setups. The build-in soundcard gives you 1 output for your headphones and 2 RCA outputs for a mixer. You don’t nead any soundcard in your laptop. If you take a mixer without a soundcard, you’ll need a soundcard that allows for 2 outputs (which most laptops won’t have) or you need to use a splitter.
3) I’ve used my mixtrack for parties with up to 300 people, so yes it’s good enough
4) This seems to be a list of the controller supported by DJay: http://www.algoriddim.com/djay-mac/accessories/midi I’ve never used Djay, so I can’t really tell you what you’d be missing in comparison to VDJ/traktor/serato
Good luck!
July 17, 2012 at 4:45 pm in reply to: Lets all "Like" each others Facebook Fan Page. Post your links here! #1007973Participantdjswap, post: 24013, member: 2684 wrote: D
Done for you mate! your turn now 🙂
Already did so 🙂
July 17, 2012 at 3:32 pm in reply to: Lets all "Like" each others Facebook Fan Page. Post your links here! #1007953ParticipantGreat thread, will be going through all the pages this evening and giving them likes.
Mine: http://www.facebook.com/IamDJimC
I’m trying to post regular links to songs I’ve discovered and mixes that I make. When I get a gig (mostly local gigs in Holland) I’ll put up a link to the event. At the moment most posts are in dutch, if I get many international likes I might switch over to english. In the meantime, enjoy the music.
ParticipantCongratulation Terry. I’m pretty new to the forums, but with some quality moderators I’m quite sure it’s got a bright future 🙂
ParticipantWith DJ software that enables you to adjust the key of your song on-the-fly, there’s really not much of a reason not to mix in key. I know VirtualDJ can do this quite well, not sure about the others. An adjustment of half a tone (i.e. C#m to Cm) often won’t distort the song too much and it allows you to choose from 8 out of 12 possible keys instead of 3 out of 12 without adjusting your key.
When making playlists, I also use the key as a second filter (after genre) to narrow down my music collection a bit before checking which song would sound great next. This is also a great tool when I have to pick a song live without a prepared playlist.
ParticipantFirst off, try to find songs that mix harmonicly (in key). You’ll probably be playing quite some songs parallel to eachother, so it’s important the keys match.
Second, skip most of the intro’s and breaks. If you want to fit 10 songs in 10 minutes it’s going to be drop after drop after drop. If you want to play an intro or break, play it parallel with the previous (or next) song. Combining acapella versions of tracks with other instrumental tracks can also help with playing more ‘tracks’ without it all becoming too crowded.
If you want to get really tricky, try mixing the break of song 1 into the intro of song 2 (should be a reasonably long intro) which then leads to a double drop with song 3 (song 1 should be mixed out by then).
July 14, 2012 at 6:09 pm in reply to: Adding decks or using a sampler for acapella overlays? #1007742ParticipantI agree that both can be used to achieve the same aim. Still there are some difference in their use:
– an extra deck gives me the ability to listen to the sample before playing it (I don’t think this is possible with a sample slot in VDJ)
– an extra deck gives me EQs for the sample
– an extra deck gives me the ability to keychange the sample, which IMO is a big deal since you’d want your sample to mix harmonically with the music already playingNow the only con I could think of for an extra deck is the fact that most controllers don’t have 4 decks. Of course there are plenty that do, but it might be a bit overkill to buy a 4-deck controller just to use the two extra decks as sample decks.
ParticipantI’m using Virtual DJ, which actually has a nice search function already (and it’s getting improved in VDJ8).
Furthermore I’m often using the automatic genre boxes when I’m constructing a playlist. If you have some genres that you like to combine in your playlists, it’s also possible to add multiple genres to a song (for example add a Top40 genre in addition to Dance, HipHop etc to have easy access to all your Top40 songs).
When building a playlist I almost always sort my music by key, as I’m very keen on having a harmonic mix. Mixing mostly Drum and Bass makes it somewhat easier because the BPM is always close enough to not worry about that.
ParticipantAre you using the exact same laptop/PC and the same USB port when you’ve changed rooms?
I’ve had some problems with the Mixtrack when I used a different USB port when I reconnected it. Often trying another USB port and restarting the software resolved the problem for me. I’m using Virtual DJ.
ParticipantLike others have said before, nice track selection. Good combination of some lighter liquid songs and heavier songs (i.e. tripwire).
The mixing of the songs was quite good too. However, with some of the drops it felt like you were a bit surprised at the speed of the buildup of the incoming song. You solved this quite nicely by dropping the old song quickly, but such a transition could be improved to smoothen the overall feel. I guess that just comes with praticing the same mix (or combination of songs) many times.
Also, try to keep a firm grasp on your volume levels. I think there were 1 or 2 moments where you mixed the new song in too quietly and had to absuptly adjust the gain to regain some energy. This is something I also struggle with 🙂
Dispite the above (hopefully constructive) criticism, it’s a really nice mix. I’ll definitely be following your future mixes.
-
AuthorPosts