DJs need certain critical skills to be good. You need to be able to select good music for your audience, and mix that music together in an appealing way. “Good” music is very subjective, but there are some mixing techniques that will work with almost any genre of music out there. This is the juicy stuff of being a DJ. This is where you get to be the artist.
How do DJs mix songs? DJs start by picking two compatible songs and use their musical skills to blend them together. Here are five basic techniques (with text and video instructions below):
- Smooth Fade
- Beat Drop
- Bass Swap
- Loop Ending
- Song Tease
Be Silky Smooth with a Smooth Fade
The smooth fade is the simplest transition possible. You simply fade out the end of one song while you fade in the beginning of the next song. While this mix is very simple, it is very effective for mobile DJs. Weddings and parties will likely have a wide variety of music, and much of it will not blend together well. A smooth fade between songs prevents both silence and jarring cuts between tracks. Smooth fades also don’t require beat matching.
The secret to excelling with a smooth fade is to be musical with it. It should almost be like you are conducting the music yourself. Pick a good spot at the end of the first song to start your fade, and finish the fade at a good transition spot on the next song. This will usually line up at the end of one 8- or 16-bar section and the beginning of another. But, the bars and beats are not as critical as musical phrases. Musical phrases are kind of like ideas or sentences. You can feel when the music has come to the end of a phrase, and either repeats it or starts a new one. That is the spot to start a transition. Your goal is to make the music feel seamless, as if the same artist just started a new song without a break.
It is important to be aware of any silence you are creating between songs. Most of the time, you are going to want very little if any break between songs. Sometimes, you will want a slight pause between the music to give the dance floor a breather, or if you are making a big shift in the music. Play with your pauses and see how you crowd reacts. With practice you will learn what amount of transition time works best for you.
Drop the Beat Like a Boss!
A beat drop is another fairly simple transition, but it has a lot more punch to it. As your first song is playing, you are going to cue up the next song to a really strong starting beat near the beginning. I try to make sure the next song is going to come in very strong, without too much intro. The beat drop is all about making a statement.
Once you’ve got the next song cued, you simply wait until the last beat of a phrase of the first song, and hit the pause button on the first song at the same time you hit the play button on the next song, exactly on the first beat of the measure. If you time it right, it will sound like the beat never stopped and the next song just carries on. This is great for songs that you have beatmatched because the beat just keeps on.
To get this timing right, you will need to be counting the beat of the first song. Most popular music has 4-beat measures, so you would count the 1-2-3-4 of the first song, and hit both buttons on the 1 (aka the downbeat) of the next measure.
A beat drop like this works well to mix together two songs that are very different, where you can’t match up the beat or the key. It also works well with a lot of older songs that aren’t at a consistent BPM. Those songs tend to resist beat matching, so you will need to either fade them smoothly or use an abrupt transition like a beat drop.
Swap It, Don’t Drop It!
For a bass swap, you will need to have two songs that are beatmatched. Turn the bass down completely on the second song, and start playing it over the first at the start of a musical phrase. When you are ready to transition, just turn down the bass on the first song and turn up the bass on the second.
You can do this quickly on the beat or slowly over time, depending on the feel you are going for. Once you have the bass swapped, you can either fade out the first song or cut it abruptly with either the pause button or the crossfader. You can see how the choices you make will subtly change the style and the energy of your transition.
Caught In A Loop
If I want to make a transition longer and more obvious, I use an 8- or 16-bar loop at the end of the first song. This technique is all about being musical. Make sure the beats and keys are matched between the two songs, and try to let the second song play as long as you can while the first song loops underneath it. Good transition points are when the drums kick in hard or when the lyrics come in on the second song. This is a technique that you have to practice and feel to get right. You need to know both songs pretty well to know when to transition. When you do it right, it sounds awesome!
You can also layer in the Bass Swap transition if the second song starts with heavy bass. This works well if the second song has some distinctive melody at the beginning. Again, practice and experiment. I’ve tried looping on the fly at an event, and sometimes the effect isn’t as clean or as noticeable as I want. But the crowd rarely notices when you mess up. As long as you can keep the beat going and there aren’t any major clashes, you’ll be fine.
Oh, You’re Such A Tease
If you’ve got two songs that match well in beat and key, you can do a bit of live remixing with a technique I like to call a song tease. Find a very recognizable spot in the second song and cue it up. Your best bet would be a piece of the hook or a memorable instrumental. As the first song is ending, find spots to drop in the cue for the second song. Again, this has to be very musical, like it’s a part of the first song. It’s easiest to use the downbeat of both songs, but if you have some rhythm, you can also just kind of sing the second song in your head to figure out where it might fit.
Do a couple of teases in the first song, but don’t overdo it. If you get it right, and the second song is a massive hit, your crowd will go crazy anticipating the next song.
Once you have sufficiently teased the crowd, transition to the next song with any of the other mix techniques.
In Summary…
These four simple mixing techniques will get you through most of your DJ events. They are simple but they are effective. Practice with some of your favorite tunes and gain some confidence for your next event. Once you have these down, you can find new techniques and get even more creative. Happy mixing!
I even put together a quick reference card for you to take with you. Click below to download.
