I was talking to a DJ on my guild in World of Warcraft and he gave me some tips on mixing. I was wondering what tricks ya'll like to do and how you can make a record sound more like it's blending and not going to another record.

Harmonic Mixing and phrasing correctly do it for me.

describe these technics if you can.

harmonic mixing involves mixing records so that they are 'in tune' with each other. ive argued that this is impossible 99% of the time (the intervals of bpm and the intervals of notes are scaled differently), but others will say it's possible. phrasing refers to when the new record comes in with respect to the old one. dance music is written with such a structure that there are certain times in the track which lend themselves well to mixing in or mixing out. these points are the first beat of each 16 bar block of music. you can mix in at the first beat of an 8 bar block of music, but this isnt as smooth due to the structure of the tracks.

in addition to these tips, i pay special attention to eqing the mix. preview the mix in the headphones to get an eq for the new track that mixes well with the first track. eq the new track to the old one, not vice versa. be especially careful with the low end for eqing - the bass from two tracks playing at once can sound really shitty, even if it is just the kick.

as a general rule, i cut the bass 100% out of the new track when i bring it in. i also take the new track's trebble down a hair, as too much trebble from the two tracks can be too piercing. mixing the new track's bass in can be trickey and knowing your tracks well helps with this. to mix in the new track's trebble back to 100%, i usually bring it in as i bring down the old track's trebble equally. this can be done over several bars or all at once (at the start of either an 8 or preferably 16 bar block). for most mixes, the mids for both tracks can be left alone.

to experiment with using the eqs for mixing, try this: for the new track, take the bass, mid and trebble down to the zero or cut mark. if you have a half decent mixer, you should be able to bring the line level to 100% and not hear anything from the new track in this setup. mix in the new track not with the line level, but with just the eqs.

also fyi, keep your bass, mid and trebble at the middle mark. unless the track was pressed crapily (in which case you might not want to play it out), no further eqing is necessary.

and one last thing, unless you are doing any fancy cross fader work, bypass your crossfader or just keep it in the middle position and do all you mixing with your line level faders. its more accurate this way. you can put the line levels all the way up to 100% volume but be sure to adjust the gain on the lines to make sure you are going too far into the red, as this will 'clip' or distort your signal.

the last thing i will say is that the best way to learn how to mix is to watch how other people do it. but realize that everybody does it a bit differently and there is not necessarily only one right way to do it. do what works for you, so long as you dont form bad habits. but mostly, have fun! dance behind those decks, cause that should be your #1 motivation to be doing it

download an ass load of mixes from local djs that you think are bad ass..

find out when they play.. go watch them, learn, and apply what you saw to what you are doing.

ie.. watch how they cut out the eqs, bring up the lines, and level out the eq's.. how they beat match.. are they pushing and pulling, riding the pitch or a bit of both.

ps.. dont fuck with effects, until you know what the fuck you are doing.. i hate that shit.

Sapphari explained it well.

If you need examples, look up my name under mixes and download Groove Exposure 001 or PT Week 05. Listen to the transitions between tracks and you can hear them being layered, but not conflicting. I can post the general keys for GE 001 if it will help you understand.

Worry about keeping your beats in synch for long periods of time, then learn phrasing, then learn key structure.

Just my opinion though. It all falls into place.

Yah I have a cheap mixer ($$$) so I don't have an effects button or anything.

I'm really phycked about tomorrow night. I'm going to run through my record collection and see what mixes together and what is more of a floor feeler and whats more of an inbetween. I'm going to have my laptop hooked up to Channel 2 (I have a 3 channel mixer and I use channel 1 and 3 for my tables) so I can use a 10 second count down for the drop (unless anyone knows a record I can get tomorrow for real cheap).

so, how did you play? did you have fun? did people dig it?

Well I learned one thing. I don't know why but I think DnB is a lot easier to spin then Trance/House. I spun 3 sets. First was DnB, then the other 2 were Trance/House. Everyone loved me and kept handing me drinks. I didn't drink much though because I can't spin drunk or high (plus the girls need to call 1-800-bartend or something similar, yuck).

Using the method that Sapphari mentioned helped me out a lot. There where times when the record I was spinning was just ending and I had to do something quick. So what I did was cut the low to the record I was mixing with and bring the beat in. Then as soon as the record ended, I slide the fade into the next record and turned the low back on. No one could tell. Messing with the mid and high helped too.