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Topic: Hip Hop mixing tips. - Page: 1

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I have been teaching myself and reading books about djing for only a month now, so I am what you call a noob,lol. Alot of people tellme to practice my beatmatching on EDM music because its easier, but my ultimate goal is to mix hip hop/rap well. Does anyone have any advice or tips on mixing hip hop, or just mixing in general? :) Thanks
 
Posted Fri 17 May 13 @ 11:38 pm
DjRatRHome userMember since 2010
Learn how to master scratching into a hard cut. Hip hop generally has very short to non-existent intros, so a lot of times you have no choice but to hard cut instead of beatmatching. You can do them without scratching in, but it'll catch the audience off-guard (which isn't necessarily a bad thing if done in moderation).

Ultimately I'd suggest getting either a timecode setup or controllers with motorized platters if you want to get into serious hip hop mixing. I love my Stanton SC System 1 thanks to its large platters, but Denon & Numark make some great motorized controllers too. Many hip hop mixing techniques are very hard to pull off on jogwheels, such as scratching and beat juggling, so I suggest you save up.
 
Posted Sun 19 May 13 @ 8:55 pm
As DjRatR said, some scratch techniques might serve you well if you intend to be a Hip Hop DJ.
A lot of rap and hip hop just won't blend, so cutting and scratching is the way to go. Wish I could do it. :(
One key to beat-matching hip hop is to realize that you won't always mix on a "big beat" such as the kick drum.
Many times I beat-match and blend on a hand clap or cymbal instead of the big bass notes. The EQ is key here.

Good luck,
Tim
 
Posted Mon 20 May 13 @ 2:47 pm
Much appreciated advice, I will definitely start shopping around for a motorized platter now. And just to be clear, a hard cut is transition to the other song very quick, correct?
 
Posted Wed 22 May 13 @ 1:45 am
Another quick questions for you two, before the thread gets blown away, how do you two practice? I feel like I have been practicing, but am not sure what I am practicing at. If that makes any sense....
 
Posted Wed 22 May 13 @ 1:49 am
I started out mixing house music for practice, as you've been told previously, electronic music is easier to mix. (usually)
Once I was comfortable I progressed onto Hip Hop and so-on. Still learning all the time.

-You can practice mixing the same song on both decks.
-Find a mixed set or mash-up that you like and try to do the same thing in your practice session.
-Watch some youtube videos of different DJ's and try some of their tracks and techniques.
-Record your mixing while you practice, you can go back and listen later.

Listen to other DJs mixing, ask other DJs questions. Come by the VDJ radio site sometime, visit with experienced DJs in the chat room while you listen to DJs from all over the world mix live. http://virtualdjradio.com/hangout
 
Posted Wed 22 May 13 @ 8:55 am
Nice, yes ill drop by sometime, do you spin on their? And yeah house and dance music just seem very easy at this point, almost anything I do with it sounds pretty cool, haven't hot into harmonics yet though. And what would be the objective or goal in mixing 2 copies of a track on two decks, just make beautiful transitions and make it seem like the songs lasts forever?
 
Posted Wed 22 May 13 @ 6:41 pm
Don't forget about the looping functions in VDJ! Those can help you create a 'break' in the song to allow you to bring the next song in. Also radio versions of most hip-hop are very hard to beatmatch. Look into special DJ edited versions of the songs and instrumentals. (Funkymix, Ultimix, etc...) Instrumentals are key to mixing hip-hop.
 
Posted Thu 23 May 13 @ 6:20 am
I use the same track on both decks for practice, experimentation, you can keep the two sounding like one or keep them in time while you juggle or flip doubles or play the tracks in a round. It helped me with the structure of music.
I do spin on VDJRadio, not nearly often enough right now. In the middle of changing jobs, selling a house, finding and buying a new house, son graduating high school and club gigs are keeping me busy right now. There are good DJs there to chat with and listen to, I learned a lot from those guys.
 
Posted Thu 23 May 13 @ 10:39 am
I'll try out the same song on two decks now, I'm loving all these tips y'all are handing out. Do any of y'all mind putting up a sample mix on here? It'd be nice to listen to something that I'm actually in contact with the maker
 
Posted Thu 23 May 13 @ 9:17 pm
 
Posted Fri 24 May 13 @ 9:22 am
That mix was real nice! So the important thing here is creating breaks between songs?
 
Posted Tue 28 May 13 @ 10:43 am
Not always a break, sometimes a cut, sometimes effects, depends. That's where practice comes in, you learn what works with each track and under different circumstances.
 
Posted Wed 29 May 13 @ 11:31 am
TDBennett wrote :
Not always a break, sometimes a cut, sometimes effects, depends. That's where practice comes in, you learn what works with each track and under different circumstances.


So what you're saying is just be creative cause there's no one sure shot way of mixing hip hop...right?
 
Posted Thu 30 May 13 @ 10:50 am
@danielsr2006, I guess so. unless you're boring like me, I pretty much just blend em together.
 
Posted Thu 30 May 13 @ 12:43 pm
Where did you get those pre mixes tracks on the "live from little rock" mix on Feb 28th that has the long intros and outros?
 
Posted Sat 01 Jun 13 @ 10:22 pm
I purchased my drops from http://www.djdropsbywigman.com/

quality drops at a good price. you can google "dj drops" to find some other options.

Need to get more made myself, I quit using DJ Sweet T as performance name.
 
Posted Mon 03 Jun 13 @ 9:11 am
Nice site, but I was actually asking about the actual tracks with the long intros that are pretty dj friendly, for instance the track Trey songz-2 reasons. That intro has a nice 8 bar intro I beleive, im not listening to it at the moment to be accurate lol.
 
Posted Mon 03 Jun 13 @ 7:28 pm
Maybe he's just looping it....
 
Posted Tue 04 Jun 13 @ 6:53 am
Sometimes I loop, sometimes the track has been edited for mixing with longer ins and outs.
The particular track you mention, "2 Reasons" was edited by DJ Jynx with a nice intro.
There are lots of places to pick up DJ friendly tracks with intros, outros and breaks; LateNightRecordPool, Beatport, Crooklyn Clan, Promo Only to name a few.

Good luck,
T
 
Posted Tue 04 Jun 13 @ 9:49 am
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