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Topic: Tutorial of Mixing with atomix:For Newbies

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Tutorial of atomixmp3-For Newbies

First of all i want to apologise for my poor english.I am not making this tutorial for showing off but just trying to help really beginners to introduce them in the logic of mixing.

General
Atomixmp3 is a program created for helping the Jockey making LIVE mixes.It is not for preview mixing and the filosophy of the program is to simulate the 2 turntables and a mixer.

Getting started
First of all we have to understand how the program works.This program is based on 4/4 beat recognizing system.That means that songs with a stable 4/4 beat rythm (like house,trance,techno..etc) can be mixed easier than others like d'n'b brakebeats,r'n'b,rap etc.Of course you can use it mixing all kind of styles of music as i mention its just a simulation of turntables.I will talk about 4/4beat music cause is the most easy one to understand and work with this program.
The philosophy of atomix is " I have one Song (mp3 file) and another song (mp3 file) that has to be played in the same rythm"...to be played with the same rythm...that means that the Beats has to be adjusted one over the other.In this time came the idea to have the song file in his "original form" and this is the wave gram.The wave gram will show you grafically what is the music that you are listening.There you will recognize Beats as a straight long lines,Hihats as a small little "hills" and baseline as a big round shaped "mountains".This elements will help us making a good mix.

Talking about music
All the songs are created over an acquarate mathematical rule of the 16 beats.This rules says that in one song new elements (like bass,hihats,crashes..etc) will be added every 16beats or multiplucation of 16 like 32,64 etc.or even sometimes like some rock songs every 8. Finding the correct beat to start our mix is one of the most important job.
Most of the songs of 7-8 min has an intro about 1.5-2min and an outro of 1-2min.In the intro and outro of a song there is usual a beat,hihat and bass without melody.That parts of the song will help us for making a good mix.

Making a good mix
to make a good mix you need first to know the song that is playing and the song that you are mixing very well.In other case your mix will sound propably like shit.
You have to know exactly the time of the intro and outro of the song...cause best mixes made when intro time of mixing song is adjusted with outro time of playing song.And the work of a simple dj is excactly that.But not only that.
1.Selection of good music that "fits"
2.knowing atomix byheart
3.imagination of composing the mix
4.right song at the right time
5.talent

ATOMIX STEP1
when you open atomix regardeless skin that you choose you will actually see the same stuff.
2 players left and right that each have:
play,stop,cue,and magik button,3eq band of bass treble and high frequencies,3 effect buttons,a pitch bend and loop buttons.
also you will see informations about the song that are very valuable.that is:
the wave form of the song showing beats hihats and baseliners,
time that passed,remaining time and total time
also you will see the bpm (beats per minute) of the song calculated by the program (working for 4/4beats song best)


ATOMIX STEP2
also you will see a mixer that has
2 chanels of volume and gain controling the db of the output of your song (2 upright sliders)
a crossfader (horizontal slider) that is changing actually the volume from deck 1 to deck 2.(i am not using it although)
and a preview volume control to listen and adjust the song before you play it live.

ATOMIX STEP3
Ok here we start loading a song.Loading a song by drag and drop it in one deck will automatically show the wave form showing the begining of the song.The first job after loading a song is to cue it to the right position.Cuing a song its like setting a flag on the wave form that tells the program the beginning of the song (ususally riped songs have a starting silence of 1-2sec).The best songs for begginers for mixing are those that start with a clear beat.After cueing a song in the right position the song is ready to be played.(when you cue a song then everytime that you load it it will start from cue position and not from the beginning,returning to the beginning of a song you have to press stop button after you load it)
Be carefull and never cue a song out of the 16beat system that i mention...

ATOMIX STEP4
This is the time where you select the correct beat to start your mix.After understanding the 16beat system you will realize that its better to select the first beat of the 16 or 32 beat system for starting the mix.(To know which beat is the first its easy cause its usually attached with a crash.Crash can usually be found in the first beat of 32beat loop).The beat that you have to select for starting the mixing depends of the current playing song and the song that is in preview.Lets see an example to understand it better.
Lets say that the current playing song is an 8 min song in 128bpm and lets say that in about 2 minutes from the end of the song there is a crash and there are 3 sounds left (beat,hihats,bass) and lets say that the in the last minute of the song there is another crash and 2 sounds left (beat,hihats).In the cue position there is a song of 6 min in 128bpm with 1 min intro...that means the first min of the song will be only beat and hihats.The easiest way of mixing this 2 songs is starting the mix first beat of the song in preview adjusted to the beat with crash 2 min before the ending of current song.In that way the bass of one song will not meet the bass of the other song and it will be a soft,long enough,mix.After 1min of playing both of the songs at the same time there will be the crash of the first song (which will continue without bass) and the crash of the secong song which will add a bass or a baseliner.For playing the song in cue totally adjusted to the current song you can use magik button next to play (synch)

Tips
1.Overdub:Overdub is created when you are playing 2 songs at the same time very loud so the beat of one song try to overlap the beat of the second song creating a beat bulgy distorted.To escape that there are 3 ways.First to nudge one of the beat little bit forwords or backwords by pressing left or right button once or twice.Second is to use the volume control of the songs by adding volume to the song that you are mixing and removing volume from the curent playing song.Third to use Eq
2.EQ:Eq is the most usefull tool of dj.Actually its the tool that will help you cutting up some frequencies of the song.Its really important to understand the use of the eq cause you can create better mixes and correct mistakes also.In atomixmp3 every player has a 3 band eq.Bass Middle and High frequencies.Sounds (loops) of one song are adjusted to that frequencies.For example hihats are adjusted to the high eq.That means if you cut the high frequency with the eq the hihats will not be heard anymore on the song.In the Bass eq are adjusted sounds of Beat and Bass.If you cut the bass eq the beat will be barely heard and that helps for protecting in overdub.in the Middle eq are adjusted "main elements" melody of one song.If you mix 2 songs and the melody of the first one doesnt match with the second one you can cut the middle eq frequency and the mix will sound better.Also cutting the bass can be used as an effect in a monotone song.Cutting the bass for 16or 32beats and then relase it will sound good.Eq is helping you to mix 2 songs in any place that you want cause you can choose which sound will be left after cutting frequencies.
3.Analize:Nerer play live a song that you never played before.Analizing a song with right click will give informations to the program about the volume level of the song (preventing overdub) and bpms (preventing unsychronizing).
4.My mixing technique: personally i like very long mixes of 2-4 min.I have a curent song playing with max volume and gain about +1.7.The song in cue is in the volume of around 2 (scale 0-10) and i start to mix those 2 songs with cutted bass of the cue song.I increase the cue song volume smoothly and in the right moment i relase the bass of the cue song and cutting the bass of the current playing song.This can be easyly done by creating a shortcut for making 2 actions.I have created letter Z for kill the bass of deck 1 and kill the bass of the deck 2.Of course its not the only way to make a mix...it depends of the inspiration ,of the moment and of the skill.But for beginning it sounds good enough.

Lovely words:Mixing is a virus.Good jockeys have to think not what they are going to play next but what they are going to play after :) this means that you have to imagine your mix before you make it and you have to think which song will be in your playlist after 2-3songs from now.Listening the songs over and over again and playing with the program hours and hours trying to understand the logic will give you the skill to create whatever you want.

At the end:Dont forget.Atomixmp3 is just a perfect tool helping you to mix.Its not making the job of a jockey but it just makes our work easier.

Cj-Dimitris.T
http://cj-dimitrist.tripod.com/


 

Posted Wed 20 Aug 03 @ 8:25 pm
DJ CocoPRO InfinityMember since 2003
good job ! thanks dimitris !
 

Posted Mon 08 Sep 03 @ 6:02 pm
anytime :)
 

Posted Sun 14 Sep 03 @ 4:36 am
camp-edHome userMember since 2003
Thanks I Needed That. Great Job
ED
 

Posted Fri 10 Oct 03 @ 3:11 pm
:)
 

Posted Thu 16 Oct 03 @ 2:13 pm
i will when i will find some extra time:)
 

Posted Fri 31 Oct 03 @ 1:08 am
Very good... but i can't download plugins ;(
 

Posted Sun 28 Dec 03 @ 1:57 pm
buy the software then!
 

Posted Sun 28 Dec 03 @ 2:42 pm
Helllooo,,

First Of All Thanks Alot on that Advise and it really is helping me Alot Alot !!!

And finally, that's to everyone who is helping !
 

Posted Wed 14 Jan 04 @ 6:38 am
I'm Sorry ,
I meant Thanks To everyone That Is helping !
 

Posted Wed 14 Jan 04 @ 6:39 am
I appreciate the how-to also.Thanks.
 

Posted Thu 20 Jan 05 @ 5:12 am
Tank´s friend, you have the oportunity to create this dj Monster, (just joking), a will folow your tips. :¨)
 

Posted Wed 13 Jul 05 @ 10:58 pm


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