Mixing dubstep 101? A basics discussion

[turtle456]

Hi everyone, im new to dubstep and would like to learn how to mix it better.

I've been mixing house music mostly for a while now which seems really basic and easy compared to the crazy beats of dubstep. I'm just wondering what are some techniques everyone uses and if I am doing the right thing.

When I have a dubstep track playing, I have a track I want to mix in playing on my headphones. Generally what I have been doing is cueing ahead of the long intro and straight to the first beat (on the one in my headphones). I set this as my cue point and play from here to try to get the tracks beatmatched. Once beatmatched I wait for the appropriate time/beat in my first song and drop the second song from this point, skipping the intro of the second song. Do other people follow this technique?

I can't see any other way of beatmatching without by passing the long winded intro section. Also, I find it otherwise impossible to drop the second track from the very beginning of the intro and still know that you are on beat.

Just some basic questions I am trying to clear up, would love to know if I am doing this properly, I don't know anyone in real life who mixes dubstep besides myself lol


One more question, when trying to beatmatch ive just been trying to match the snares? Sound correct? THe kicks are all over the place and impossible to judge...

[isiahfire]

When I have a dubstep track playing, I have a track I want to mix in playing on my headphones. Generally what I have been doing is cueing ahead of the long intro and straight to the first beat (on the one in my headphones). I set this as my cue point and play from here to try to get the tracks beatmatched. Once beatmatched I wait for the appropriate time/beat in my first song and drop the second song from this point, skipping the intro of the second song. Do other people follow this technique?

Thats how i started off, once you've been doing it for a while and know your tunes you'll hear subtleties in the intro that can help you mix.

One more question, when trying to beatmatch ive just been trying to match the snares? Sound correct? THe kicks are all over the place and impossible to judge...

Subjective there isn't a right or wrong, if it works for you, then its correct!

[prisoner]

what tunes are you trying to mix?

i think it's better to start from the kick at the begining of the bar, but i have friends who mix from the snare (which is usually on the third hit).

if you've got a tune beatmatched from the drop, you shouldn't have much difficulty mixing from the intro as the song should be sync'd up.

it's really down to practice though, and just getting used to your tunes.

[honey-d]

Hi everyone, im new to dubstep and would like to learn how to mix it better.

I've been mixing house music mostly for a while now which seems really basic and easy compared to the crazy beats of dubstep. I'm just wondering what are some techniques everyone uses and if I am doing the right thing.

When I have a dubstep track playing, I have a track I want to mix in playing on my headphones. Generally what I have been doing is cueing ahead of the long intro and straight to the first beat (on the one in my headphones). I set this as my cue point and play from here to try to get the tracks beatmatched. Once beatmatched I wait for the appropriate time/beat in my first song and drop the second song from this point, skipping the intro of the second song. Do other people follow this technique?

I can't see any other way of beatmatching without by passing the long winded intro section. Also, I find it otherwise impossible to drop the second track from the very beginning of the intro and still know that you are on beat.

Just some basic questions I am trying to clear up, would love to know if I am doing this properly, I don't know anyone in real life who mixes dubstep besides myself lol


One more question, when trying to beatmatch ive just been trying to match the snares? Sound correct? THe kicks are all over the place and impossible to judge...

Ok so I'm pretty new at DJing too but I'll try to help out. I usually like to cue the song I'm going to mix in at the intro of the song, ie the first bass hit. I get the beats matching up pretty nicely and then when I feel the first beat building up (doing rises, fills, etc. so you know there is a structure change) and then hit play right when the original song starts the new set of bars. I like trying to match the breakdown of the first one with the intro of the other so it sort of blends from one to the other, plus having both tracks do their rises and fills and stuff at the same time can sometimes have even more of a pull to the next section.

On matching snares this is 100% the way to go if you are just mixing basic halfstep dubstep, the problem with relying on the snare is as soon as you hit a song that does not have the snare on the third beat you'll run into trouble. This is especially a beezy if you want to be mixing in some 2 step rhythms into the half step rhythms. The most important thing here is being able to feel where the beat is regardless of how the high hats are skipping, or how the bass drums are swinging sometimes and not others, etc. You said you started with house, right? You have to basically imagine that 4x4 kick drum over the beats you're mixing. If you can feel where the actually beats are and identify the tempo none of the percussion or anything like that will throw you off cause you'll always have that metronomic boom boom boom boom going in your head, ya dig?

Good luck man

[turtle456]

I'm still dropping the track on the first beat but what im doing is matching the snares to get my track beatmatched.

As for what tunes i'm trying to mix is a really broad question because im just trying to mix any dubstep tunes. I'm just trying to figure out what the general technique most people use for this.

The really long winded intros are what is screwing me up... Cueing after the intro seems to be working at the moment. I've also noticed that dubstep mixes can be way shorter than house mixes, no more 2 minute long mixes to contend with. Sometimes I will have a mix that only last 8 or 16 bars and then done...

It's tricky shit, just gotta keep practicing I guess


Also something that takes practice and i'm finding it almost hard to figure out especially with Excision tracks is just when exactly is the first beat! That sounds kind of ridiculous and simple but just the amount of crazy ass sounds and robots makes it really tough to distinguish when the beginning of a new bar is sometimes

[jolly wailer]

with very few exceptions I cue from the edge everytime


that intro is there to get the tracks tempo matched rolling up to the drop

[jolly wailer]

and the sparseness of those intros are what makes them really suitable for fading in to introduce elements of the incoming track

[turtle456]

with very few exceptions I cue from the edge everytime


that intro is there to get the tracks tempo matched rolling up to the drop

Yeah I hear what you are saying...
So you make sure your track is perfectly beatmatched first, then cue back to the very beginning of the track and play from there. This way your tune builds up to the drop instead of just turning into something completely different so suddenly..

My only issue with that is if you are a little bit out on your beat matching then you are fucked, are you not? At least if you start from the first beat you can have time to adjust/correct in your headphones before bringing it in

[evannoots]

If there is a beat from the edge, i'll usually cue right from the edge of the record and beatmatch with snares and highs. I find most long winded intros usually have a cue deep in the mix, like a little click or somethig on the first or third beat. Just gotta listen for that.
If you're dealling with long winded pad intros with nothing in them, i'll usually try cueing from the beginning of the edge if there's and obvious first hit and then I'll wait for it to drop and see how the tunes line up after the drop. A big chunk of dubstep tunes are at 140bpm, and they will usually fit together with minimal beat matching. If they're obviously out, back spin the record from the drop and cue it up again from there..
With anything not half-step, just practice and, like previously said, imagine the familar 4/4 beat in your head and it's usually pretty obvious if the tunes are matched up, I find it helps if i bob my head or tap my foot and just feel it out rather than really concentrating on whether its on or not..

once beatmatched, I'll cue from the edge of the record again and work around the drops.. This is probably the most important part.. knowing when the tune drops so you don't have it clash with the tune playing.. basically practice and know your tunes well.

Cue from the start and listen as you're mixing the next drop in.. if you're a little off then yeah it will sound like shit once it drops.

[Mr. Mittens]

it really comes down to the individual tune imo. some intros have absolutely no percussion and are very difficult to "be sure of" if your tempos aren't sync'd perfectly... some intros are like, essential to the tune and your rinse will sound way better with a more sophisticated progression if you include it. Like when everyone got their hands on Mala's "Level 9," the cats that mixed in the intro definitely stood out to me.

while the snare is the loudest sound, and good to cue with in a really loud situation, if you can hear the high hats they are better for beatmatching because there are four times as many of them as snares, sometimes even eight or 16 times as many! you can tell if you're off right away, as opposed to having to wait a whole nother measure for the next snare. sometimes I use the snare as a quick ballpark estimate then I use the high hats to lock it in.

[jolly wailer]

with very few exceptions I cue from the edge everytime


that intro is there to get the tracks tempo matched rolling up to the drop

Yeah I hear what you are saying...
So you make sure your track is perfectly beatmatched first, then cue back to the very beginning of the track and play from there. This way your tune builds up to the drop instead of just turning into something completely different so suddenly..

My only issue with that is if you are a little bit out on your beat matching then you are fucked, are you not? At least if you start from the first beat you can have time to adjust/correct in your headphones before bringing it in

I know my records pretty well so instead of finding my tempo +/- then cueing back to the beginning I'll just cue when suitable and almost immediately fade in the other channel, then I ride the pitch while I'm eqing/fading the tune in

sometimes you don't have time to tempo match and go back.. gotta get fading on the fly

[rekstep]

love to ride that pitch control but nahhhh i always beat match my drops and intros into new songs , if u get it wrong just let the track playing play on ,try again .. give yourself time , no use trying to do a song for 45 sec then drop again when ur new to it... most important is enjoy wat your doing , dont always think about what people say u have to do.. more wat u think will sound good.. takes time and practice

[dan_thompson07]

I'll usually drop the needle somewhere near the edge (but after the intro) and beatmatch the tracks from the first kick I come across. As I'm the only one hearing it in the headphones it doesn't matter if the bars don't correspond, all that matters is getting the tracks in time.

Once the beats are together I'll take it back to the start and always mix from the intro. 9 times out of 10 there will be something in there to let you know if the beats are still in sync - even if it's just a chord change etc. If you aren't perfectly in time by the drop, as long as you got them as closely matched as possible before taking it back to the intro it will only take a quick (and most of the time, unnoticeable) flick of the pitch fader to nudge them back into sync.

Also, if a track has a long and percussive enough intro I'll occasionally just cue it from the start and get the beats matched during the intro. I made a point of learning to beatmatch without touching the platter, and by using the pitch fader only. This is just my preference, but I find that I can get the track beatmatched much quicker this way so it's useful for mixing from intros "on the fly".

[Edit] Just noticed the 2 posts before me - it's all about riding the pitch! Every time.

[redshiftdubdnb]

a few things: i dj dnb and dubstep

make sure to cue tracks up on the beginning of a phrase, almost always a sequence of 4 measures. you can tell from listening to chord changes/climaxes when a new phrase starts. do this because when you sync up PHRASES as opposed to just MEASURES, you get lots of nice climaxes and stuff.

if there's rolling 8th or 16th note hi hats, try using those to sync up as well. use the beginning kick of a measure, the snare on the third beat, and any hi hat rythms to tell if you're synched.

finally, try to blend in like 8 or 16 or even 4 bars of intro or something, because it blends well that way if you can start bringing in the intro, and have it climax as the old song is being faded out. beatmatch with something after the drop if you can't beatmatch to anything in the intro, then go back to the place in the intro you want to start blending.


hope this helps, i've been mixing since about december, and i've picked up tons of stuff since then.

[drlego]

dont be afraid to go for longer mixes. Watch for clashes between the Lows and the highs. Lows because of the bass in the songs, a lot of dubstep tunes have their bassline replicated on the subbass too.

The highs can clash because even though you dont have 4 x 4 kick pattern you might have snares and highs in their place. (Boom tss T tss)

Match in a variety of different ways and try killing EQs when holding a mix together for a prolonged time.

[spydee]

its all about crafting the basslines imo. level out the middle and higher frequencies accordingly so that a tune with a bit more going on in those frequencies isnt overshadowing the other. then its all just open from there really i reckon.

i dunno about how others find it, but for me most of the rhythm is on the bassline so mixing that part right and having good control over that allows you to really do some great stuff. once your comfortable you can just start playing about and basically make a completely different track lol.

[_boring]

Personally i'm not much for long winded mixes, i like the intro to be the mix most of the time, that way it builds anticipation of the next track, and then boom! The intro has a purpose very much so in dubstep IMO. The intro should be timed tho with the flow of the first track in a way so that when the first track is coming to an end in its cycle, the 2nd tune begins its cycle, therefore making it seamless musically (8/16/32 etc). now whether or not i just cut it over to the 2nd track, or drop the bass eq on one of the tracks down and keep mixing just depends on the mix, and usually the hi hats/snares/atmosphere are what will make you have to keep mixing. i love drops in dubstep more than long mixes, usually, its just my style, but again it depends on the type of tune you are playing, some tracks are made to drop, some are made for long winded mixes that flow into eachother, and IMO its key to use both tactics in a set to keep it interesting. i always start on the first kick tho.

also, its KEY in my opinion to know the BPM of your tunes. that way u dont have to concentrate so hard on listenin to the incoming tune you can just jockey the pitch around to get it matched up, and keep your attention to the flow of the music that the audience is hearing rather than what is in your headphones.

also, another "trick" i use is, i do a lot of practice with mixes i know i might want to use in a set, so that way you go into a set having like 5 or so different "sections" of tunes that flow together nicely and you can choose between those different sections of mixes during your set, this way you have more flow and impact when you need it! if you need to go from one style of dubstep to another, then you can have those mixes that arent planned at all, inbetween a string of tunes you KNOW is going smash together perfectly, and im not talking about them being exactly in order, but just have some mixes on deck that you know you can hit a home run with so you arent up there looking through your tracks for 2 minutes. you should be able to choose the next track within 30 seconds to a minute TOPS or you are gonna fuck up the flow most likely. i like quick mixes and rarely do i use both sections of a tune without using one section as a mix. also, have tunes that you KNOW are perfect bridges from one style of dubstep to another. every track has a purpose (or a few) and you should spend time getting to know what they are intended to do to a set/dancefloor.

[apexfromnz]

yeah i agree with the last dude. do it all in the intro. its not very often i find my self mixing while theres kicks going on in both tunes.

biggest thing i've found with dubstep is just get your mix sequenced right. like sort it so your last tune is gonna build into some kind of fill or a breakdown or just something that you can cut away from cleanly and time it so your next tune is gonna drop right there.

that way you get 2 big build ups a bit of a pause then the big drop from the next tune. most dubstep (that i play atleast) is pretty similar to dnb in the fact that the first drop is always a massive. i reckon its criminal to mix through the drop. kinda misses the whole point of the tune.

alot of the time im more worried about the sequence of the mix than if its perfectly beatmatched too. seamless mixing is for ableton and prog dj's lol its not a bad thing if the crowd can tell the next tune is coming in as long as it drops at the right place. its kinda like "ok i can hear the next tune now....whats gonna happen here"

[JDuBzz]

I Completely disagree, theres nothing better than a double drop (if you get it right), mixing intros is ok but it's a starter, as you get better at mixing expand make the mixes longer make the basslines compliment each other blowing audience away with huge mass of Bass! Got a couple of double drops on soundcloud, also always get feedback on your mixes as you may think it's gone well but at the end of the day you aren't skanking in the crowd

http://soundcloud.com/jdubzz

[slugabed]

it's really down to practice though, and just getting used to your tunes.