Mixing dubstep 101? A basics discussion

[JDuBzz]

you deffinately have to know your tunes, also when it comes to mixing structure it, don't pick your favourite dubstep tunes and mix them together in most cases it won't work, choose songs that will perfectly compliment each other. Either with melody or bass

[noam]

learn to beatmatch with all of the drums, that is, learn to beatmatch the kicks at the start of a bar, learn to beatmatch with the hi-hats, learn to beatmatch snare patterns (ie tunes with snares on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and how any combination of those tunes sound together) that way you wont get caught out

learn to mix for drops, and learn to blend, otherwise it'll just get boring for people listening (mixing-wise anyway)

learn to keep your levels the same between both tracks

dubstep can be mixed on 8bar patterns, so on the 8 or 16 sounds best

thats all i can say, as im at the same stage, seems like some good points to focus on for me anyway

[kizza2435]

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

This. You must make use of the "long winded" intro if you are to successfully mix dubstep.

[frankb88]

Its different for everyone, go to a club and you will see different dj's doing totally different things. Without trying to sound generic but just do what works for you and develop your own style.

...But personally, I almost always mix from the edge. Firstly it helps me get the track beat matched correctly and secondly and really importantly it helps you bring elements of the new song into the mix so it doesnt just drop in and sound abit, meh.

I know you didnt ask this in your original question but when i started mixing dubstep I used to have a habbit of mixing from the edge, blending the intro into the original track then as soon as the new track drops taking away the original track all together. In my opinion a mix sounds much better when you keep the two tunes going for a while and using both tracks. Especially with dubstep with dirty wobbles, cutting between tracks works great.

I see someone else already say that don't just pick your favoruite tracks and mix them in. Its important to find tracks with similar keys and compatible melodies. If you pick the two right tracks it tends to be harder to fuck the mix up than it is to put together a reasonable mix.

[JimmaJamJamie]

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.

I never thought about this , will start doing it from now on. Cheers for the advice fella.

[spydee]

listen to youngsta. real solid base on how to mix dubstep to perfection.

[noam]

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"

'seamless mixing is for ableton and prog djs'?????? really mate??

seamless mixing should be for every dj

and if you only mix intro's and then cut does it not get boring, serious question though cos its kind of a limited way of mixing two tunes, i mean you're essentially just cueing tracks then?

[boogiemeister]

I've been DJing for 12 years now but the basic thing to beatmatch is mainly to lock both beats in bars. In most cases the kicks will line up, the snares also for a great part but of course there's exceptions. You mainly have to see the entire beatmaching part in conjunction with how the beats line up in bars, if the first kicks always line up then that's a good sign. In Dubstep the hi hats are an easier guide however like someone wrote above already because the kicks and snares are relatively sparse compared to the hi hats.
When I started out I listened to mixtapes and tried to emulate the blends myself, this should give you a good understanding how to beatmatch records and what sort of songs might fit together.
As far as the actual mixing goes, I like to blend relatively long but a standard blend would be the last eight bars of record 1 with the intro of record 2 and then playing both songs for some bars while cutting out the first record.
Here's a live mix I threw together the other day. The blends are what I would call standard mixing.
http://www.divshare.com/download/11118253-c8d
Of course you should throw in some variations now and then to build up and bring down etc. This will come with time anyway. The only thing I would try and avoid is mixing intros with "midtros" so there's basically no beat going for like 8 bars. This mostly takes out the "tension" of the mix. It works sometimes but that's rare.

[_boring]

In my opinion a mix sounds much better when you keep the two tunes going for a while and using both tracks. Especially with dubstep with dirty wobbles, cutting between tracks works great.

I see someone else already say that don't just pick your favoruite tracks and mix them in. Its important to find tracks with similar keys and compatible melodies. If you pick the two right tracks it tends to be harder to fuck the mix up than it is to put together a reasonable mix.

yea it really just depends on the time of night, the crowd, the dancefloor etc, im not sayin i always just cut to the other track but sometimes its more effective. dubstep to me is about the space a lot of times so i dont like to clog shit up tooooo much is all im sayin. you can tell when something coming in is going to mix well tho!

[abstractsound]

record what you do and listen back to it. if you nod your head as much as you do during a mix by your favorite DJ, than chances are you are headed in the right direction. many times what sounds good in your bedroom through the headphones doesn't translate in a different space and time, say 'pon the car stereo driving 'bout town.

[frankb88]

record what you do and listen back to it. if you nod your head as much as you do during a mix by your favorite DJ, than chances are you are headed in the right direction. many times what sounds good in your bedroom through the headphones doesn't translate in a different space and time, say 'pon the car stereo driving 'bout town.

Now that is a quality peice of advice... Its the same with most forms of music too. When i was starting to learn guitar i noticed if i recorded it, it would sound a lot different to what I was actually hearing. Doesn't make much sense but its true.

[babylonburn]

Even if there isnt a beat in the intro you should be able to get a rough idea of the BPM from chord changes, repeated motifs etc. If not just lock it in on a bit with beats and then go back to the intro once its locked.

Like someone else said though, most dubstep is around 140 BPM so you should be able to subtly pitch ride to match up in any case

[turtle456]

So many different techniques and ideas to consider, thanks for the constructive replies

Alot to practice and consider.

I think most importantly is to not mix using the same techniques everytime, beatmatch in a variety of ways (kicks, snares and high hats), and to include the intro when possible, and to know what tunes/mixes work well together

[turtle456]

record what you do and listen back to it. if you nod your head as much as you do during a mix by your favorite DJ, than chances are you are headed in the right direction. many times what sounds good in your bedroom through the headphones doesn't translate in a different space and time, say 'pon the car stereo driving 'bout town.

Good tip, I was using this technique when mixing house music

[Mr. Mittens]

Cheers for the advice fella.

guaranteed nice to see such a positive thread. The other big thing that's been mentioned here is PHRASING for sure! Just because it matches doesn't mean it mixes. The other best piece of advice here is

listen to youngsta.

[twentyOneDummies]

Love the positivity and knowledge on display: cheers to you all.

My question is: how often do you just let an intro (or the mostly empty space between the first and second drop) play out? I usually try and keep things hitting back to back but some drops NEED that breathing space for full impact (Breakage's "Higher" comes to mind). Wondering what people thought about that?

[rekstep]

the only thing i trip over is when ur have ur 2nd song lined up etc , and the track playing is reaching its outro or like.. between its 1st and 2nd drop where really ur planning to drop the, 2nd tune
is the timing of blending ur first tune and ur 2nd tune so the first doesnt drop before u get ur 2nd to drop , or vise versa , ur 2nd tune drop before ur first is finshed or to a point where its ready for the 2nd to drop

[Mr. Mittens]

Love the positivity and knowledge on display: cheers to you all.

My question is: how often do you just let an intro (or the mostly empty space between the first and second drop) play out? I usually try and keep things hitting back to back but some drops NEED that breathing space for full impact (Breakage's "Higher" comes to mind). Wondering what people thought about that?

In their mix from last November Truth rinses the intro to V.I.V.E.K.'s Meditation Rock into the breakdown of Higher, and they both drop at the same time- so heavy

[AL4228]

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.

Well generally dubstep has a kick on 2 and 4, so it woulden't be bad to match snares.

[bolsty]

im going to bump this thread as it helped me a lot around the time the thread was created as i was relatively new to mixing, i've made leaps and bounds since!