s2 mixing two songs question.
s2 mixing two songs question. Posted on: 23.01.2012 by Jaleesa Zheng So i recently just bought a s2 & macbook pro, some nice headphones 3 days ago.Been playing around with it i love it, i found two songs both progressive trance songs. I enjoy and start to try and mix them together. It sounds okay, wondering what i need to make it sound excellent. When mixing two songs, you want the same genre correct? Like two progressive trance songs not 1 song Electro house the other trance. I match bpms and select the tracks i like. I Start one track, then find a good spot to bring in the other track. Are you suppose to play both tracks at the same time? It sounds pretty bad when two songs playing at the same time, so i play one song for like 8 minutes then slide the slider to the other track. I'm not sure if thats mixing songs. Not the best transitions like I've heard in person. So i download a accapella and decide to play that ontop of the track thats playing. Not sure if I'm mixing correctly. Any tips help, I've watched youtube videos but they have a lot of extra midi controllers with they're s2. Im just using s2 & downloading songs that are same genre and playing one, then stop it, play the other song. Any guidance helps. Heres my first track, i want it a lot better. I'm not dancing to my song, I'm pretty sure nobody else is either lol. Fascinated by pope:chowmein http://soundcloud.com/pope-chow-mein/fascinated | |
| Chong Prestwich 01.02.2012 |
Originally Posted by DJAdamDaniel
have a listen to this transition, see if you can work out whats going on (description in the waveform comments) http://soundcloud.com/dj-adam-daniel/transition-example |
| Dierdre Stillabower 31.01.2012 |
Originally Posted by ExTrCt.
You're using the S2's soundcard, so any speakers you use have to be hooked up to the outputs on the back of the S2, by either 1/4" or RCA. You CAN play over the speakers connected to your laptop, but you'd have to use the laptop's soundcard, and you'd lose the ability to cue in a separate channel.
Originally Posted by ExTrCt.
Just to reiterate someone else's advice: don't do this. |
| Chong Prestwich 31.01.2012 |
Originally Posted by ExTrCt.
the reason you dont get sound from your speakers is because the sound card in your mac and the sound card in your S2 are two separate things. you need to connect to a stereo (or powered speakers, amp, etc) via the rca (phono) output of the S2. so yes, you WILL need one of 'those cords' they are cheap though! but you will also need some bigger speakers than some $20 PC speakers, or at least use your home/bedroom hi-fi. p.s i'm sure this info is in the manual |
| Jaleesa Zheng 30.01.2012 | I have 20$ laptop speakers i bought from walmart, i plug into mac. Unplug my headphones no music comes out of the the speakers. When i hooked it up at guitar center, they opened up a cord, plugged into my mixer then into the nice speakers they have setup. I might need one of those cords and some of those speakers. So i usually just use my headphones. Yeah when i mean cranked up to the max, i have them turned all the way to the right lol. I watch videos and notice nobody has theirs to the max. I should start leaving them in the middle like you say. The mid's and Low's i usually have turned all the way. I will try with them at standard position. I will watch those two videos toevening . I have a math test on wed, so just been studying for that non stop. |
| Nedra Fresneda 30.01.2012 | When you say crank to the max, do you mean all the way to the right? You should NEVER do this unless you want to specifically boost certain frequency but you rarely max it. Use your EQs close to the resting position (0=centered) and to the left when you need to cut off certain frequency. |
| Chong Prestwich 30.01.2012 | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9hn7...eature=related |
| Chong Prestwich 30.01.2012 | have you tried watching any of the vids yet? seriously they are helpful http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIt0o...AItY7zpjRJXtAM and you honestly need to hook up to your stereo or something, will be harder to learn just with phones! |
| Jarod Perrodin 30.01.2012 | Are you not hooking it up to any speakers? |
| Jaleesa Zheng 29.01.2012 | When i unplug my headphones no music plays out loud. |
| Jarod Perrodin 29.01.2012 | Id say practise without headphones. its only you listening so it doesnt matter if it sounds off, the headphones wont sound the same as your speakers anyway. Maybe pick 2 tracks you like and just mix from one to the other and back again. Practise, you will get what your after. Once you have the basics mastered you can mix everything alot better, just get to know what sounds nice and what sounds horrible. Start with basic tunes, practise I didnt listen to the mix yet, you might already be better than me anyway |
| Jaleesa Zheng 29.01.2012 | Yeah i hardly ever touch the hi's just in standard position. In the middle. I like the mid's they are loud enough to hear when the new track comes in. But i turn down the bass. Ive been trying new methods. Turning both the mid and lows down to zero. But it seems to sound good with the mid still turned up a to hear, then i bring in the Track B with the Lows cranked up to the max and the Mids cranked up to the max. Then i turn down the mid on Track A to zero. Wondering if i should gradually increase the Mid & Low on Track B or start it off with them to the max. Just trying out new things. My ears are sore from having headphones on for like 2 hours. Ima take a break for a couple of hours. Still nothing impressing me graghh. Maybe a year later i might have something decent who knows. Thanks for all the input. |
| Joselyn Supina 29.01.2012 | Also, don't be afraid of the mids, I usually turn those up when I bring in a new song...leave the highs in the middle, maybe up a hair, bass down, mid at 2-3 o'clock position...bring the track in. Listen to both tracks play for a bit in headphones to make sure it sounds ok. |
| Joselyn Supina 29.01.2012 | Tapping shift can be a lifesaver when you don't have the beatgrid set properly or if a snag jumps bpm's. If two songs aren't meshing at first and I have time, I'll tap shift and try to get things lined up. Also, I believe it was Mostapha on these community s that said practically every modern EDM track will have a rounded BPM...as in 128, 125, etc. there should be many that come out as 128.34 or whatever. I've found this to be true with most of my EDM tracks. |
| Jaleesa Zheng 29.01.2012 | I don't have ableton. I start traktor 2 program. Load both tracks. Load my loop samples, drum, bass, lead, perc. Push play at both songs same time sounds bad, with the Mid, Low turned all the way up to the max. So i change it up. Start one song in the beginning instead of both at the same time. I stare at beat grid waiting for the jagded lines to smooth out to a straight line. I turn down the Mid,Low to zero. Bring in the heavy bass from Track B to take a more dominate role. But the transition sounds bad. Im not sure when the downbeat is in either song. Im just watching beat grid waiting for the crazy lines to smooth out to a flat line. Thats when i believe the down beat is when it goes from a lot of action of sounds to little or no sounds. Probably not the correct down beat term. Seems like i learn better when a person shows me in person lol. Im not really getting anything accomplished by reading or watching videos. I need a real life tutor almost. |
| Jarod Perrodin 29.01.2012 | My top tip would be, get to know your tunes, its the one thing that will always make you mix them better. Also you can beat grid from the s2 with my map, but thats another story Tap (tap shift on the beat) does alot of the awkward beat gridding for you after 5 taps the tempo and rough beat mark will be done, then just mark the first beat. You can scroll through the track with the S2 move nob to see its staying in time. There are loads of ways to beatgrid a track, but tapping shift 5 times is the easiest |
| Kandra Fagler 30.01.2012 | here's some (osx) hotkeys to help you beatgrid like a boss: E/R -> Beat jump Left/Right (Deck A) T/Y -> Fine tune the playhead left/right (Deck A) when deck is paused Control + 1/2/3/4/5 delete hotcue / delete beatgrid (Deck A) workflow: 1. Load a track 2. most probably traktor would have set an incorrect grid (if you chose to automatically beatgrid on the settings) - delete this by pressing Control + 1 3. use T/Y keys to move ur playhead with extreme precision to the first downbeat of the song, keeping eye on the phase, and then click on the "insert beatgrid" button on the grid panel underneath the track 4. Use E/R keys to beatjump - you will see that if the grid is incorrect the playhead wont align - adjust bpm to fix this, in many cases the beatjump will show downbeat consistency and that means your track is perfectly gridded , and just to make sure scroll to the end of the track to make sure the end of the track align as well , scroll till near the end and use the E/R keys to beatjump till the song ends - everything aligned perfectly? perfect grid! 5. click on the pedlock button something like that on some cases the track will have multiple BPMs and this would need some additional work in ableton to fix , on another case the bpm remains the same but there will be an off-time somewhere in the middle of the song that requires you to insert another beatgrid to fix |
| Melissa Westerhouse 29.01.2012 | you know how I know you are a noob... you assume Guitar Center knows anything. Get your info here, these guys (and girls?) are great. You could also listen to someone elses mixes, download the tracks and try and mimic them. Of course for practice purposes only. You have the best tools at your fingertips. Keep recording your mixes that way you will be able to look back and pick out some of the better mixes. |
| Jaleesa Zheng 29.01.2012 | Im focusing on Grid and Phrase, now i know how important the bars you guys talk about are. I just need to learn the correct spots and how to read them/use them. Thanks again Watching this video hopefully this will teach me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ1IHZWhvc4 |
| Gene Beauplan 28.01.2012 | Don't drop that beat.. believe smooth... EQ more/Beatmatch more Learn to grid and phrase. |
| Jaleesa Zheng 28.01.2012 |
Originally Posted by DJAdamDaniel
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| Chong Prestwich 28.01.2012 |
Originally Posted by ExTrCt.
try this. track A playing. track B keep the mid and treble at 0db but kill the bass. cue it up on a downbeat. bring track B fader up to same level as the playing track A. whilst track A is playing, continuously count the 1 2 3 4 (try to group them in sets of 4 bars, 16 beats, if you can) then when you come to a 1 (preferably on the first of a four-bar section - something will usually happen on this beat, in your first track you get a hi-hay symbol) hit play on track B. both tracks should now play in time (assuming sync is turned on both tracks!) let them play for a bit then when you get to a downbeat kill the bass on track A for 4 beats then bring the bass on track B back up on the downbeat of the next bar. might record an example for you once the missus has gone out and i can crank the volume up! lol |
| Jaleesa Zheng 28.01.2012 | Okay i tried some house tracks out lol http://soundcloud.com/ewok-productions/deep-soul-house |
| Chong Prestwich 28.01.2012 | talking of music genres, maybe try a few house or tech house tracks just to practice the beat-matching as these kind of tracks usually have a nice steady 4x4 rhythm and will normally have a clear intro/outro and a nice breakdown in the middle. whenever ive taught others ive found it helps. ive a house mix "S2 house mix" on my website if you want ideas of tunes although any track from beatport top 100 house or tech chart will probably do |
| Jaleesa Zheng 28.01.2012 | Great idea.I believe vocals ontop of the beats i play would be some extra flavor. Like his music, if you listen to wakes & bakes. That girl who sings, makes the music more interesting, So far I'm just playing tracks with no vocals. I want some old school acapellas from the 90's or before that to make my songs more interesting. Bars I'm still learning, i don't know where bar 8 or 16 is.. I need to learn how to read music correctly. I just look at the beatgrid if thats the right term. If its flat then i wait for a beat thats about to pop up and i play a loop at the same time. So far i got some sample loops. Like drum, bass, lead, Perc. All samples but trying to learn with those before i spend money on acapella loops, beat loops, drum loops. How do i enable my effects to my loops? Like i have beatmasher(spelling), peak filter, Format filter as effects on the Deck A. How to do i use those on the loops? Still learning this controller. If you listen to dub step house in sig, the beginning are my sample loops playing. Some dub step bass, dub step perc, trance lead. Just all samples i through in the sample decks. I tried to time them together so it sounds good. I like the start of the song thats me just throwing together samples, then i start track at beginning and it sounds okay. I just need to transition from 1 song to other without making it sound like crap lol |
| Melissa Westerhouse 28.01.2012 | dont forget you can effect your loops and make them seem like they are longer or build up when you want. |
| Melissa Westerhouse 28.01.2012 | They all have posted great advice and the only thing I can add is... you talk about adding vox (vocals) when you feel. put a good section of "track 1" in an 8 or 16 bar loop. then you are able to drop your vox when it is appropriate. you can also just play loops to feel the bars and such. best of luck. |
| Jaleesa Zheng 28.01.2012 | Excellent setup, i believe if you can master vinyl then you can master anything. Technics are sweet. I wanted a two of those and a dim 900 with 2xcdj2000's way out of my price range though.lol Yeah I've never heard of indie house, so far I'm digging you're style. Bringing something new to the table. You're transitions are flawless, you blend it all really well. When i play my music through my headphones it sounds awesome like all the effects and sample loops, then when i hook up some cheap 20.00 speakers to play out loud with some bass. I can tell what i need to work on. Some effects aren't the same timing as when the beat drops. Yeah i don't really jam to dub step. This other music community i post on. Thats all these people post is a million different dub step songs. Growing up i watched dj's play electro house/Goa Trance/Progressive trance, thats what i love. Seems like the new generation is all about dub step. Hopefully i can learn to mix all sorts of genre's just so people never stop dancing. Listening to your wakes & bakes |
| Joselyn Supina 28.01.2012 | I have an S4 and two technics sl-1200 mk2's that I run through Traktor Scratch Pro. I just started using the 1200's...trying to actually beat match instead of falling back on the sync button. I just got a new MacBook Pro about a month ago that is used mainly for djing - trying to keep it clean and not cluttered with a bunch of programs. Then I have KRK Rokit 5's for monitors. I have cheap Aerial headphones that I got because they looked cool, but sound like ass. I will be replacing those soon. Also have a Midi Fighter Pro on the way, that should be arriving on Monday. Indie Dance/House is something new...a lot of my friends listen to it, so I thought I'd try it out and see if I was any good. I like a lot house and electro, but figured I'd have a bigger audience if I went with indie. I just listened to your track, not bad, especially if you just started. Like I said, I've been doing this since August and I still trainwreck constantly. My original mixes are horrendous. There sounds like their might be some beat matching issues near the end, but I believe the beginning is pretty solid. I'm not huge into dubstep, but will listen to it occasionally...I would definitely say you're off to a good start! |
| Jaleesa Zheng 27.01.2012 | What type of gear do you use? Is Indie House the genre you prefer? Sounds good, i grew up on Goa Trance, indie house reminds me a little of Goa. I just bought my MBP 13" s2 and xone 53 headphones on the 19th. Im enjoying all of it. I will go listen to your mixes right now, my friday evening is me staying home playing with my gear listening to other peoples music. Im having fun. Im not a fan of dub step but i thought id try to mix two heavily dub step bass songs together. Here are some sample songs that came with traktor i tried to blend them together, check it out if you get bored. http://soundcloud.com/house-productions/dubstep-house |
| Joselyn Supina 27.01.2012 | I had so many trainwrecks in that mix...I drank too much tequila when I was doing it and thought it came out great. When I finally listened to it I was a little bummed. As you can tell from my mix cloud, I still suck a whole bunch. I posted another one toevening . I started this mix last Sunday with about 40 tracks and worked it down to 16, playing the same mix all week and learning the tracks. Finally got it all to click toevening when I got home from work. You might want to check out Mixed In Key and the camelot wheel...which is called the circle of fifths in the music theory world. I use mixshare's Rapid Evolution 3 (free) to key all my tracks and find the BPM. You should still play by ear, but playing songs with keys that go together can help the mix sound better as well. As long as you're having fun practicing, that's all that matters. |
| Jaleesa Zheng 27.01.2012 | Yeah even when i press sync its still not good transitions as you can tell by the songs in my signature lol. I just tried last evening with the new tricks i learned, didn't get any great transitions in. But i learned how to save parts of the song and drop them down into the sample deck and play them as samples. Thats very helpful. I like your indie house song. Open up your mind, thats a good song A+ Goodjob. Damn i hate math thats my worst subject. I will practice toevening start both songs at random points like you say. I have 4 songs total. I practice on 2 tracks over and over until something cool happens. I really want to make them work together. More practice i suppose. No job, No lady. Lots of free time, i want 1 good mix lol graghh. |
| Joselyn Supina 27.01.2012 | In additions to the normal transitions, you can throw effects on a track to get it to match up to an existing playing track. Gater can be a very handy tool. Last evening
I took a 1/8 loop of some synth, threw some reverb on it, then gated the hell out of it and brought it in over the drumbeat. It matched up nicely with the drumbeat and as the drums faded out to a closing synth noise, I faded out the filters and released the loop and transitioned into the new song. (I don't know if that makes any sense or not, but it sounded cool last evening
.) Moral of the story, filters can help when songs don't quite mesh. I've been trying to play more Indie Dance type stuff where the beats/drums float a bit, especially when the band has a live drummer. Filters help a lot when I can't get the transition to work smoothly on its own. And really, the more you practice, the better you'll get. If you just started on the 19th, give yourself some time, you'll get the hang of it. I just started messing around in August...with a full time job, I don't get much practice time. I'll never be awesome, but as long as I'm having fun, thats all that matters. |
| Chong Prestwich 27.01.2012 | at the min i get maybe 2 hours a week practice with the s2, but i work full-time, am doing a part-time mechanical engineering degree, teach at a dj society, gig and have a missus to try n keep happy! lol the technicalities should only take maybe 5/6 hours, the bit that normally needs practice is being able to tell which track is ahead/behind the other, when do move fader/eq from one track to another etc. also, some people will never learn to dj, these are generally the same people who cant dance in time or even clap in time to a song, these people will never learn to mix even with a sync button!!! (ive tried believe me!) really get your hear round beats,bars, downbeats (start songs at random points and see how long it takes you to identify the first beat of a bar, and then the first beat of a 4 or 8 bar section. most djs should be able to pick that out in a couple of bars (vocal-only sections aside!) first, unfortunately it's more math! lol. but they are the building blocks, the dna of a beat-matched dj set! finally, i find moving in time to the music helps a lot, especially with starting a track (prob more important on cdjs) and picking out downbeats. move your head, foot, finger, ass, whatever, just move! (if the music aint making you move you're probably playing music you dont like anyway!) |
| Jaleesa Zheng 27.01.2012 |
Originally Posted by manchild
Originally Posted by DJAdamDaniel
Been trying to manage school and practice on my gear at least 2 hours a day. How many hours a day do you guys practice? Just curious. I try and do 1 hour to 2 hours of learning then my ears get sore from headphones blaring music. I need some good speakers and a desk. I just have my computer on a small stand then my s2 on the bed next to the computer lol. |
| Chong Prestwich 27.01.2012 | some good vids by ellaskins on youtube... http://www.youtube.com/user/ellaskins?blend=1&ob=4 http://www.youtube.com/user/ellaskin...query=tutorial |
| Addie Engbrecht 27.01.2012 |
Originally Posted by ExTrCt.
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| Jaleesa Zheng 26.01.2012 | Great video brings me confidence. Makes me wanna try and play two off beat songs now and see if all the drunk people dance anyways haha :P |
| Addie Engbrecht 26.01.2012 | This ones my favorite http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6foI...eeAHTwjsYAAQAA Joking btw |
| Jaleesa Zheng 26.01.2012 | I open my Traktor Kontrol s2 setup guide. Says nothing on how to mix songs. People keep telling me to stay away from sync. Even when i do push sync my music isn't sounding the way i want, its still challenging for me to make two songs sound decent. Ive had my gear since the 19th. And I've been teaching myself all these musical terms. No dj friends to show me examples or give me directions. I read online and try out new things, i went to guitar center today and setup gear and they show me how to use my gear . They don't use traktor 2 software, so were all learning the program together. But they showed me some new tricks that i didn't know before. Add some more flavor to the songs. Now i just need to work on timing correctly i go back monday. He's going to setup a traktor s2 on the store iMac and plug in some good speakers. Since all i have is headphones no speakers to play out loud. I learn more in person on monday should be exciting though |
| Ranae Selck 26.01.2012 | Please try to learn to mix and beatmatch WITHOUT sync enabled. You really need to get the feel of nudging a track forward and backwards and riding the pitch fader. It's honestly more fun, than pushing play and sync |
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