Advanced Tips

Once you have the basic understanding of how music is structured and how to mix it all together you may find the world of DJing can get a little bit dull, especially if you can't afford to buy new records every week.

There is a lot more to DJing than straight beatmixing so you may look to branch out a little.

Accapellas and Instrumentals

Depending on your success with beatmixing and those techniques described previously, this will test both your technique and your ability to beat match with no beat. You can for example totally push the boundaries by mixing something with no beat at all. Instead of creating a transition from one tune to the next you can layer the two separate elements together to create your own tune. These are commonly known as mashups.

To do this you need one of each of the following, an instrumental and a separate accapella. An instrumental as you will know is just the backing to a song with no vocals or main lyrics. An accapella is exactly the opposite - main vocals only and no backing at all. Because of this it will have no beat for you to monitor against. By virtual beatmixing (or tempo mixing may be a term that is more fitting to the technique) you can apply the lyrics/vocals only over your choice of instrumental instrumental backing. Obviously the same rules apply as they would in straight beatmatching and the only requirement is that the BPMs of both records need to have a BPM scope that overlaps to make it possible to match them on your pitch sliders. Apart from that there are no rules and you are limited purely by your imagination and skill as a DJ. Check out some mashup's I have done in the Mixessection of the site. For some good links to accapellas and the likes, see the Linkspage.

"Patent" Mixing

I described a "patent mix" as a mix that is unique to a DJ.  Although other DJs may have mixed the same two records before, the difference is as follows.  It differs to a normal beat-mix, in the fact that both tunes will share fundamental similarities such as identical noises, sampled vocals, breakbeats or chord progressions within the music structure (this chord progression is now more widely referred to as "harmonic mixing").  The records seem like they were written for the sole purpose of being mixed into each other.  The discovery of some these patent mixes (a wider term I use that includes harmonic mixing) were spontaneous and occurred whilst randomly flicking through the records in my room.  Whilst listening to the tune another record would spring to mind and I'd think, "That beat is the same as this one and they might work well over this." Its then just a matter of trying them and experimenting.

Harmonic Mixing

Instead of just picking random records to mix as normal, you will by now have discovered that even if your beats are correct and your pitches are accurate, certain tunes simply do not mix together. When you layer a synth over another synth there are musical imperfections of the two clashing which sounds horrid. Basslines are just as awkward to manage as the synths, especially if they have a tune within in them as found in the more funky and melodic side of drum and bass.

This concentration on musical structure seems to be a more recent concentration point in the DJing world. The point of this is to select two tunes purely based on their musical structure as both will be written in exactly the same key.

With harmonic mixing the resulting mix means synths / piano breaks can be mixed over each other without fear of them clashing and sounding awful.  By this harmonic layering, you can create a sound that is twice as rich as a normal beatmix.   String these patent mixes together (with other "normal" beatmixes in between) and you are well on your way to creating a flowing set that creates different moods throughout.

Some DJs now go to the trouble of playing a tune when they first come into contact with it, whilst tinkling on a piano or keyboard to try and work out what key its written in. They then write down the key they think it written in to try and allow for these harmonically planned mixes to eliminate the possibility of them clashing. Some DJs even sort their record into batches so all one key signature are grouped separately from another. Bit odd all that.

Also harmonic mixing can be used to build up the feel and aid the DJ to create energy peaks within a set. One tune can be running and another is mixed over the top. When the mix is finished, it is possible to plan it so that the melodic tune that comes in is written in a higher musical key, which to the non music theorists out there means the sound is lifted to a higher note, thus adding to the energy of the set and lifting the crowd. The feeling as the next record drops is that the not only does a new track drop bringing with it a new tune but music itself has created a lift, raising the energy on the dancefloor.

This in my book can have several disadvantages as well as the pro's as listed above. Some records will have a key change built into them already and will occur as the record is played anyway. You may be planning to mix a tune and you have your new one ready to mix. All is going well until near the end of the record the producer has already written in a key change to pre-create this lift in energy. This then leaves you with a tune that now doesn't harmonically mix (as the key signature of one tune has changed) and kind of defeats the object. You would then have to mix it "normally".

A second problem with it is that although everybody has the greatest intention in the world trying to decide upon the key signature the tune is written in, it may be fairly difficult to decide upon that. As drum and bass is written in a very moody manner with musical laws being almost thrown out of the window in order to create the dark moody sound (by using musical intervals that wouldn't work in harmonic music and would "clash") it is currently known for. That's a generalisation and I'm not saying everything is totally random otherwise anyone could write it - certainly not the case.

Every tune in drum and bass will be written in a minor key which will give it this moody sound. In fact even the happy sounding tunes like trance and some house are usually written by the producer a minor key although but they will use harmonic ruling in the music's composition to ensure all notes complement each other and are pleasing to the ear. Some drum and bass will use non-harmonic musical steps (minor 6ths and diminished 7ths are not often used in tunes but can be found in dnb I'm sure!) in a bass line to give an eery sound or stab. Such "non-standard" note selection written in on purpose is partly responsible in my opinion in its proven design for success - in fact that is what makes it dnb.

Trying to work out accurately what key a dnb record is in could be very confusing compared to a trance tune where there are lots of harmonies and the individual musical notes are easier to spot and recreate on a keyboard. Dark atmospheric drum and bass uses a lot of noises and effects layered as well as musical notes, but the two can become blurred and difficult to categorise into "notes".

If you get the process wrong and then mix another record in the same supposed musical key it will not be harmonic in the slightest and thus defeats the whole point of it. In addition, if the music you mix doesn't have nice harmonies or is particularly a criteria of the music set up, its also a bit of a waste of time.

You have probably guessed that I don't particularly favour harmonic mixing. Its good in my opinion if you find a couple of records that mix especially well. Even two moody tunes where the bassline on one compliments the strings on another is very satisfying and should be embraced. I just don't think getting bogged down into detail of logging every record and keeping lists of what will fit with what is a good way to keep your mixing spontaneous. Basing every mix on this principal will leave you with a set that sounds planned (not necessarily a bad thing) and as long as your predictions on the key signatures was the correct a mix that sounds consistently in the same key and is harmonically lovely. But all tunes written in the same key for 60+ minutes? Your mix runs the risk of sounding flat and manufactured. Not much variety for the listener is there? And that, my friends is my main problem with it.

Use it as an effective tool to enhance a mix but I personally don't plan anything using it as a key criteria to any mix that I do. Maybe I should use it more but in the main what I mix wouldn't benefit me or add anything jaw dropping. It seems a lot of trouble for very little reward. Try for yourself and all being well you'll totally disagree!