Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with mixing

Help a newbie DJ!

aceyprime — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:02:41 -0800

I want to start DJing - specifically mixing and mashing songs and learning to scratch. I only want to make mixes for myself but might someday want to play for a house party if my skills improve. I need your input on equipment and how to get started! I love music but have no experience DJing so anything you have to share would be helpful. I spent a bit of time attempting to research it but feel totally overwhelmed by all the options available.

What controller & soundcard (or other equipment) should I consider? I've looked at the Vestax VCI-100, Hercules RMX and M-Audio Xponent so far but have no idea what would be best to get started. I want a controller that will be good for scratching. I'd like to spend less than $700 total.

What should I look at for software? Seems like Traktor and Virtual DJ are popular and support most controllers.

What should I do to learn the basics? Any good DJ forums that are beginner friendly?

Should I buy a Tonium Pacemaker?

jonnyploy — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:54:53 -0800

Should I buy a Pacemaker if I am not a DJ and don't have all that much dance music? I am thinking of acquiring the above product which is a pocket-sized DJ system, however I'm worried that my music collection is unsuited. I do have a limited collection of funky house from the last few years but this is mainly in the form of Hed Kandi compilations. I have music spanning several genres including: soul (60s and 70s), funk (60s, 70s, 80s), britpop, 80s cheese, electro-pop from the last few years, it goes on...

Will I be able to effectively mix tunes from these different genres and therefore get good value for money from my purchase?

A secondary, related question: where online can I purchase vocal-only and instrumental versions of songs? I have tried itunes (obviously) and hit a blank. Are these even available to buy?

Music track suggestions for beginner DJ

TimeTravelSpeed — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:46:01 -0800

I just bought a dinky music mixer for my PC, and would like some suggestions on specific tracks to try out on it. Would also like suggestions on bands to use in general. I bought a Torq MixLab Digital DJ System from woot.com last week and realized that I have no appropriately phat beats to lay down. In fact, my new computer doesn't have any music on it whatsoever.

I need to populate my library with tracks that are for use with mixing. Any suggestions?

For example (please pardon my lack of lingo / understanding of DJ-ing):

"Try playing the intro of 'Digital Love' by Daft Punk by itself until the drums kick in. Once they start, fade slowly over to DJ Sir Beatsalot's remix of 'Crystal Rave'. When I was learning, this helped me get a feel for the basics...blah blah blah"

Any additional tips and tricks are welcome too.

What is the easiest way to make live loops using nothing but a laptop?

dcams — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 21:11:21 -0800

What is the easiest way to make live loops using nothing but a laptop? I have a Macbook Pro running XP and OS X, with Ableton Live. I'd like to use the built-in recorder but I might also use an external mic at some point.

I'm not a DJ, but I'd like to play one for a little while

um_maverick — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:40:40 -0800

I'd like to overlay audio (spoken word) from a DVD which I own over the music of a CD, which I also own, to create a new CD. Is this doable? Is it doable for someone who has no idea how to start with a task like this? A good friend of mine is getting married and as a joke for his bachelor party, I'd like to lay commentary from the 2004 World Series over a Social Distortion concert, and create a new CD to play during the party. Yes, there's a long story behind all this, which I'll spare all of you. I want it to be a "montage", where quotes from the broadcast come in, and the music gets a little quiet at those times.

I had seen some posts about Audacity, but I'm not sure if that can retrieve audio from both of my source formats. Is there an easy way to do this? Am I best off just finding a professional? I'd like to keep costs to a minimum if possible, but I'm ok putting in some sweat equity. Thanks!

Best software for newbie DJ

wildrain2008 — Mon, 26 May 2008 19:52:35 -0800

Best software to start mxing and creating my own dance tracks? I've always been a fan of music especially downtempo/triophop/chill/trance and progressive house. I have some extra cash in my "hobbies" account and would love to start creating and mixing my own dance music and who knows where that will lead..

What is the best software/website/guide to start off with? The only stuff I've played around of the years was acid pro to fix mp3s that sounded a bit off.

All advice is welcome.

PS. one f my favorite dtemp hubs is www.somafm.com "fat free"

Help me use my DJ equipment to play music again

elr — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:23:19 -0800

I bought a Behringer BCD 3000 mixer a few months ago. It came with the Limited Edition version of the program Traktor (Traktor LE 3.0). Initially, the Behringer wasn't working with my computer because it doesn't have Vista drivers. I changed the driver compatibility so that it thought I was using Windows XP and it worked fine... until I upgraded to Traktor LE 3.3.1. Now I can't get the mixer to affect Traktor in any way. What do I do? When I checked the preferences it appeared like the BCD is being recognized, but I an't get it to adjust the volume or tempo, play tracks, or do anything.

(please forgive me if I'm using the wrong terminology for anything...and for using Vista)

where would tupac not go to collectively mix music online?

garfy3 — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 13:56:53 -0800

i'm looking for a site like jamglue, but one more focussed on the indie-rock/acoustic stuff, and way less consumed by hip-hop? what are similar web-based, track editing/mixing alternatives? [not that there's anything wrong with hip-hop, of course, just not my thing at the moment]

Good production mixers for a podcast?

clockworkjoe — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 11:28:13 -0800

I am looking to get a mixer for my podcast, 300 bucks or less. I would like to get the Alesis IMULTIMIX8USB but I'm not sure if the recording to ipod is worth the extra 100 bucks. Can someone recommend a good usb or firewire mixer? I am recording to the latest version of garageband on my macbook. You can hear the quality of my work here http://www.slangdesign.com/rppr

Also, would a USB mixer send each channel to a separate channel in garageband? When I record two voice now, it mixes to a single channel. This is a pain obviously, as my cohost has a different voice than mine so it needs to be mixed differently.

http://www.bswusa.com/proditem.asp?item=IMULTIMIX8USB

Video DJ software for live-adjusting speed/hue/brightness/etc.?

jruckman — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 13:34:40 -0800

I need to find software that will let me tweak the speed, hue, saturation, brightness, etc. of videos live -- and any other effects but those are the basics. Mac or PC. I've got gigabytes of solar satellite footage from the TRACE satellite that I want to mix live w/ a DJ -- tweaking the speed and bursting the saturation and hue in sync with music. The key here is live tweaking -- not post-production software like Adobe Premiere or Final Cut. Thanks in advance for the insight!

Want to add real mixing to my mix CDs on my Mac.

two7s_clash — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 19:57:06 -0800

I'm a long time mixtape (er CD..) enthusiast and MAc user, and I'd like to take things to the next level by actually doing some real mixing and looping etc in my creations. I've researched a lot of DJ tools (Tracktor, Logic, Mixxx, etc), but I'm not really interested in doing anything live or realtime. Nor do I particularly care to replicate decks. On the other hand, I don't think high-level audio production suites are what I'm looking for either. Overkill. Either way, the costs seem prohibitive in most cases. It boils down to this: I need to be able to beatmatch, crossfade, loop and save to mp3 and then split the resulting track into smaller ones of my choosing. My thoughts so far are to use a BPM counter in Itunes and then try my hand at Audacity. Don't really know how to split mp3s yet... Any alternative ideas or successful set-ups?

Hey MixMaster, What's The Matter With You?

teemo — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 07:10:44 -0800

How can I learn to mix (not DJing, Audio Engineering) my own music in my limited spare time? I've bought books and read what I can on the net, but I find that I'm more of a "hands-on" learner type. Lately I feel that this is what's holding me back with my music-making. I'm in NYC. Music has been my first love/passion since I can remember. A lot of times it's what keeps me going and at some point I'd like to master the art for my own sake, as much as that's possible (not taking stuido mastering into account), and be able to make my own consumer-ready releases. Relative to that, the past couple of years work has become a major time suck in my life which leaves a lot less time for what's become largely a hobby for me. I'm ok with the "hobby" aspect, but I haven't finished a song in that time (tons of loops/ideas though) and I can't help but feeling that it's largely due to "so-so" mixes. While I subscribe to the theory that a good song is a good song poor mix or no and should reflect that even when composed on, say, a guitar, but I also think it's hard to stay motivated when I know it's only going to end up as a "so-so" mix. I know that mixing comes down to frequencies and cutting them (or boosting as needed) and practical application of compression, EQ, etc, (the theory I mostly get I think), it's the "in practice" part that I get stuck/frustrated with given that simply writing music, beats, etc is time consuming enough on it's own. I have fairly "pro" monitors (DynAudio) and do most of my composing/mixing in a computer sequencer. If I do say so myself, I also have a pretty good ear, it just seems that I get to a point where I'm cutting a frequency " . .is that right? . . is that right? . . .damnit was that . . ." and then I get to where I can't tell if it's better or worse than when I started.

I know there's places like Full Sail and such, but some cursory research suggests those places are largely AE diploma mills and seem a bit overinflated in terms of price and just seem overkill in terms of what I'm after. I'd suck it up and volunteer to be coffee boy or something, but frankly don't have the time for that. I saw that the New School offers classes for this, but so far that doesn't seem to start until Sept. which does my impatience no good. So, what's the best route to go in NYC for someone wanting to learn Audio Engineering in their limited spare time?

How does software to detect musical key work?

rongorongo — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 06:26:19 -0800

How does software which tries to detect the key of a piece of music work (and how reliable is it)? As a some-time musician key detection always seems like a pretty complex job (great explanation of the full complexities from chrismears in this thread) so I was wondering how applications such as Mixshare and MixedinKey go about the job. Both seem to be aimed at people who want to do harmonic mixing so I guess they are primarily interested in dealing with dance music.

Help me make music for MuFi

snsranch — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 19:08:38 -0800

Can you help me be a better home recording engineer? I've posted some things to MuFi which were pretty fun, but are technically suck-tronic. I've been making music for about 20 years, but have never recorded my work in any serious way and don't really know what I'm doing.

1. The Rig: A Shure SM58 to a Eurotrack MX802A mixer to MAGIX audio studio 2005 DeLuxe. I also use a Korg workcenter and various amps and guitars.

2. What's really killing me is mixing the vocals. Guitars and banjo with or without amps seem fine but when I try to lay the vocal tracks it just sucks.

I know there is no easy answer to this, but perhaps (even though I've searched alot) an online totorial or something might be helpful. I know there are some gurus out there, I've heard you on MuFi! Thanks in advance.

Help me learn to properly mix tracks.

thedaniel — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 17:49:35 -0800

Help me learn to properly mix tracks. I've been exploring the one-man-band model for a while - using recording software to put together different tracks I've created as a way to get my compositions out of my head and into my ears. I'm pleased with the way it has helped my songwriting process, but everyone I've played the songs for has had an unflattering comment on the mix. I posted to Metafilter Music for the first time, and cortex left a comment about the inadequacy of the mix. I knew he was right, and at this point I had to admit that yes, I have a problem, and that I should try to get help:

My name is Daniel, and I'm an unskilled mixer.

I usually have a hard time getting my tracks to sound "together" and often spend quite a while tweaking levels with little improvement. There are tracks at ma46.com, the one on MuFi that garnered cortex's comment was this track.

Live Video Mixing in FCP?

provolot — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 10:04:15 -0800

Help me edit video in real-time, from two recorded feeds of the same event! I need to edit a movie of an event that was already recorded previously. There were two cameras (mini-dv), and I can synchronize them -- that's not a problem, but I'm wondering if there's any way in Final Cut Pro (or any OSX software) to edit them in realtime -- that is, to have the two feeds play simultaneously, and appropriately choose either feed for a certain moment in time, while the feed is playing.

If you've ever worked with a simple live video mixer, you know what I'm talking about...

Exactly what the hell is Paul Oakenfold doing?

disillusioned — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 03:47:26 -0800

Exactly what the hell is Paul Oakenfold doing? I think that I understand the basic concepts of simple DJing—beat matching, crossfading, pitch bends and all those fun terms you can throw around. But DJing a party or wedding is going to be different than doing whatever Oakenfold does, right?

Basically, I'm asking what exactly he's doing to create his mixes. Take Another World or Tranceport or Live From Home @ Space In Ibiza. This obviously isn't just patching together several existing records, is it?

Where does he get his source sounds? I'm referring more to the back beat and effect loops he uses—I know I can look up on Amazon what the core tracks are that he uses, but he adds a lot over them... Drum machine? Synthesizer? Software packages?

How much of this can he do live? I know he spins live regularly (although not as much, presently) but is he able to stack layer upon layer of these after effects and cool loops that you hear pitching up and down and getting quicker in tempo and all of that? Or is all that done in the studio?

What sort of software and hardware is required to do this?

And finally, how does what he's doing compare to a (what I consider) original composer of techno/trance, like Darude or Aphex Twin (not quite techno, but lots of drum machine stuff). If he's mixing or remixing, and they're composing, what do *they* use?

A lot of questions, but I'm hoping some of you more experienced beat masters can help me at least understand what's actually happening. I've read this already, but still can't quite conceptualize of how something like Oakenfold's mixes are generated, especially if they're handled live.

Thanks in advance, natch.

Music Mixing Freeware Needed.

Shfishp — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 13:57:33 -0800

Music mixing program needed! Does anyone know of a freeware program I can download that lets you mix wav files together? I am creating cd's for my wedding reception and I want to mix the songs so that when one song is ending, the next will start without that second or two of silence. I have programs that let you put one after another, but they don't let you layer them. Any ideas?

Oil painting advice requested

GriffX — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 22:24:37 -0800

Artistic Metafilter users, I need your advice! I have recently acquired some oil paints and a brush, and am very much enjoying using them so far. I wonder if anyone has some advice about the non-obvious stuff regarding oil painting. I've already discovered some things that I didn't know before (i.e. a bit of red paint and an equally-sized bit of yellow don't make orange, they make slightly lighter red), but please post obvious things anyhow - I probably don't know about them. I (to my shame) have spent almost the entirety of my artistic life using Photoshop and Lightwave, so this is very fun and confusing territory for me.

Does anyone know of some blinding pro-level software to remove vinyl rumble? What about vocals?

Pericles — Mon, 04 Oct 2004 13:56:56 -0800

Digital Music: Anyone know of some blinding pro-level software to remove vinyl rumble. (We're remastering old band music from vinyl for re-issue on CD; master tapes lost. Waves Renaissance software suite via Cubase takes too much of wanted bottom end out). Also: I can find software to remove vocals from a track; anyone know how I can isolate *only* vox from a wav?

Where can I find a battery-powered music mixer?

badstone — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 13:56:08 -0800

I am looking for a battery powered mixer. Some friends and I want to start doing street shows with a pair of Handytrax and an old skool boom box. But, we're stuck on the mixer problem. Googling "battery powered mixer" turns up the wrong kind of mixers, and we don't want to use a generator.