>> DJ Craze's - Mix and Scratch Workshop
>> Lesson 2
Beat Match
It's really easy once you get the hang of it. I'm gonna demonstrate.
On my right turntable I have one beat and on my left turntable
I have another beat. First I'll start off by playing the left
beat. Okay, so I've got that beat, in my headphones I'll be
queuing up the other record, looking for it and where it starts.
The other beat is playing and I'll throw it in on the four.
What you're trying to do here is make both the snares match
up.
If you give it a little push and you adjust the pitch to make
it go a little faster it can match up with the other snare
on the left turntable. So once you get that sorted out, you
bring the right turntable back to the beginning and you just
count a couple bars until you feel you're ready.
It's almost never gonna be perfect so you gotta give it a
little push with your hands and keep adjusting the pitch.
Once the two snares are perfectly matched you have a mix.
The Breakdown (Crowd Control)
Another important part of mixing is the breakdown, especially
for drum & bass, house music or whatever you're into.
The break down is the key. This is how you control the crowd.
Wait for it to mix and once it goes into the breakdown you
can be playing with EQ's right now, making it more interesting
when you're mixing.
Take out the bass and when the breakdown comes in, turn up
the bass. There's a lot that goes into mixing, a lot that
goes into controlling the crowd and these are good ways. So
when the breakdown comes in, just turn up the bass... and
you'll smash it!
Teasing The Crowd
To make mixing little bit more interesting there are ways
you can play with the records, giving the crowd a little tease
about what's coming up next... here's an example.
You got that one beat going, get that other record ready,
wait for the four - 1,2,3,4... just teasing them. Play around
with EQ's a little bit, that always works. You gotta make
it sound interesting.
So what I'm doing here is playing with EQ's and with the
top faders, fading one in, fading one out. And when your ready
for that breakdown, just fade the other one out... and there's
the breakdown.
The Sample
Here it goes. You have a beat running, you look for a good
part in the song that you're about to mix and you just play
with the beat a little bit. You gotta find the right sample
in the songs. A lot of songs have a little breakdown where
they cut off everything and have samples you can play with.
Tease the crowd with it a little bit. And when you're ready
to bring it in...
Freak The Sound
You look for the breakdowns, usually you can tell because
it looks a little lighter on the vinyl. There are a lot of
ways you can freak the sound. You can slow it down. You can
make it go faster. You can play it the normal way. That's
how you can freak a sound.
