Mixing Different Tempos.

[vishes]

Alright, so I'm working on a sort of tribute mix of a certain producer but I ran into a little problem. The thing is that most of his tunes are around 140 bpm, but some others (and actually my favourites) are between 120 - 130 bpm...
So basically I was wondering if there's someway to still use both tempos in the same mix?

Is this possible in any way? Are there like special tricks that you can use to cross this bridge from 120 to 140? Or is this not done?
Of course, if the bpm's aren't too far apart you can choose to speed the track up or slow it down, to match the other. But if there are vocals involved this won't sound good most of the time, and obviously the difference between 120 and 140 is too big to do this in the first place.

So I'm just curious if you guys know any ways to do this succesfully.
Thanks!

[Kaslo]

If you can find a part with a breakdown splash you can just play the new track in at a drop beat in its own tempo, while more or less fading out the other track. A lot of dubstep and glitch hop mixes use this technique to switch between tempos.

[wub]

There is a difference between mixing and beatmatching. Let the music guide you, not the numbers.

[Basic A]

As someone who doesnt just DJ edm or grid-based music this is my shiz the problem is I have not the faintest idea how to explain it to you...

Find ambient part of a song at 130... like some shit with a pad... if your using CDJs, bang a loop point right there in-tempo with the bpm your changing to... done... if your using turntables, get good at backcueing right around 33rpm, let pad play forward, gently cue back and play forward again... The second one, you might want to cut the bass hard, it will mask the parts where theres an alternation...

Beatmatch em, like, set your pitch faders... play 16 bars with deck a pitched up, re-cue deck a, play 16 bars with deck b pitched down... kinda call n response but in pitch terms...

Find the first beat of your incoming tunes drop... EQ out all the bass and mids... When theres a breakdown on the outgoing tune, release that incoming beat in-time with the outgoing tune, cut fader, re-cue, re-release, cut fader, re-cue, re-release... do this in time with the outgoing tunes breakdown, as your outgoing tune builds up, bring your EQs back in on the incoming to build it up in tandem, using that one beat your playing fader open... Outgoing tracks first beat of drop = smash that fader to incoming track...

Fuckin WHEEEEEEEEL... Generally if you do this and then say 'Alright this next choon, from the edge, give it up for my man _____' into a microphone, the audience will be on the edge of their seats.

[vishes]

Haha I agree with you there, wub.
I'm usualy beatmatching though, and that's where it becomes difficult if you've got tunes with different tempos that are quite far off.

I was talking about Shackleton btw, or any Skull Disco material for that matter, and I've tried to do what Kaslo said but these tunes are mostly not following the standard pattern of intro-drop-pauze-drop like most Dubstep tracks do. And that's what makes it difficult for me.
Most of his tunes are around 140, but some of my favourites are 120 and as of yet I haven't really found a way to include both...

[vishes]

As someone who doesnt just DJ edm or grid-based music this is my shiz the problem is I have not the faintest idea how to explain it to you...

Find ambient part of a song at 130... like some shit with a pad... if your using CDJs, bang a loop point right there in-tempo with the bpm your changing to... done... if your using turntables, get good at backcueing right around 33rpm, let pad play forward, gently cue back and play forward again... The second one, you might want to cut the bass hard, it will mask the parts where theres an alternation...

Beatmatch em, like, set your pitch faders... play 16 bars with deck a pitched up, re-cue deck a, play 16 bars with deck b pitched down... kinda call n response but in pitch terms...

Find the first beat of your incoming tunes drop... EQ out all the bass and mids... When theres a breakdown on the outgoing tune, release that incoming beat in-time with the outgoing tune, cut fader, re-cue, re-release, cut fader, re-cue, re-release... do this in time with the outgoing tunes breakdown, as your outgoing tune builds up, bring your EQs back in on the incoming to build it up in tandem, using that one beat your playing fader open... Outgoing tracks first beat of drop = smash that fader to incoming track...

Fuckin WHEEEEEEEEL... Generally if you do this and then say 'Alright this next choon, from the edge, give it up for my man _____' into a microphone, the audience will be on the edge of their seats.

Thanks for that, I sort of get what you're saying there.
I'm not calling myself a DJ though, not at all. Just making mixes with a DJ controller and Traktor so excuse me, but I'm completely oblivious to some of the things you said there haha.

And as I said above, the mix I'm working on will be made of Skull Disco tunes, and as you probably know, those aren't really tunes that have massive drops or get wheelies.
Basically, what I want to accomplish with this mix, is to create a flow. As if it sounds like 1 single, 30 minutes long tune, if you know what I mean. Not a mix filled with drops.

[mikeyp]

like someone said, do a straight drop in.

maybe if the track you're mixing out of, isolate the vocals, and fuck with em with effects to kind of make a build up, and then go straight to the next track.

[syrup]

wheel, gunshots, some BOH BOH! and drop the other tune

[Basic A]

As someone who doesnt just DJ edm or grid-based music this is my shiz the problem is I have not the faintest idea how to explain it to you...

Find ambient part of a song at 130... like some shit with a pad... if your using CDJs, bang a loop point right there in-tempo with the bpm your changing to... done... if your using turntables, get good at backcueing right around 33rpm, let pad play forward, gently cue back and play forward again... The second one, you might want to cut the bass hard, it will mask the parts where theres an alternation...

Beatmatch em, like, set your pitch faders... play 16 bars with deck a pitched up, re-cue deck a, play 16 bars with deck b pitched down... kinda call n response but in pitch terms...

Find the first beat of your incoming tunes drop... EQ out all the bass and mids... When theres a breakdown on the outgoing tune, release that incoming beat in-time with the outgoing tune, cut fader, re-cue, re-release, cut fader, re-cue, re-release... do this in time with the outgoing tunes breakdown, as your outgoing tune builds up, bring your EQs back in on the incoming to build it up in tandem, using that one beat your playing fader open... Outgoing tracks first beat of drop = smash that fader to incoming track...

Fuckin WHEEEEEEEEL... Generally if you do this and then say 'Alright this next choon, from the edge, give it up for my man _____' into a microphone, the audience will be on the edge of their seats.

Thanks for that, I sort of get what you're saying there.
I'm not calling myself a DJ though, not at all. Just making mixes with a DJ controller and Traktor so excuse me, but I'm completely oblivious to some of the things you said there haha.

And as I said above, the mix I'm working on will be made of Skull Disco tunes, and as you probably know, those aren't really tunes that have massive drops or get wheelies.
Basically, what I want to accomplish with this mix, is to create a flow. As if it sounds like 1 single, 30 minutes long tune, if you know what I mean. Not a mix filled with drops.

Ahhh... in your situation, make edits... Youll get picked on really bad by other DJs if you bring edited tunes out live, but for stuff like your describing, studio mixes n shit, open the tune up in your daw...

Say it has a 16 bar intro... make 8 bars of it a unique audio clip, timestretch it to the tempo you desire, and stick the original, unmodified bit after it... Save that as its own file... Now, youve got a portion of the track that will be easy to loop up and beatmatch, followed by an un-modified part... The timestretching will leave severe artifacts, but as long as you leave the bulk of the tune original, and only timestretch the parts where 2 tracks will be playing at once and getting eq'd, noone will notice...

As I said though, dont make a habit of it, I can see where your intentions are so I told you to do it, but in most all other circumstances, Id be one of the dickheads givin you hell for it haha.

[vishes]

Really? Do people do that? I'm a bit hesitant of doing that tbh, but I might be trying it out. Not sure if it'll be a smart thing to do if I'm also planning on upping the mix on my soundcloud though?

Anyway, I've just been messing around with a 135bpm track by him that has an intro made of solely vocals and a bassline, no drums. So I think I'll just kill the bass on that and let the vocal run over the first track till it drops.
We'll see how that sounds.

Thanks for the replies!

[curly123]

If your mixer has an echo/delay effect on it, start delaying the tune playing 2-4 bars before the end of a 16 (or whatever), stop it so it delays out or even add a cheeky mini pull back and switch to the other tune. That's the sorta thing Oneman does when he's mixing from shit like RnB to Grime. to Oneman!!

[Basic A]

Really? Do people do that?

Well, as far as I know, this is what people label as studio mixes... multiple takes, edits, ect... vs. live mixes, exactly as it sounds.

Like I said, do it with the sincerest respect and dont front.