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Topic: mixing rock? - Page: 1

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im having a bit of a problem mixing a set of rock music. any quick tips?

should i be looking more at tructure, keys or bpm

now i know i should be looking at them all but nothing seems to fit orrectly, is there something im missing?
 
Posted Tue 08 Mar 11 @ 7:01 am
First off, most rock music is a human creating the rhythm, not a computer. Even with a click track, a human is going to have variations in tempo. One thing you could do is use deck 3 or 4 with just a 4 on the floor beat. That is usually the standard in most rock songs. You could then use that beat and have cue points set at the guitar solo aka, bridge, and hit the drum loop near the end, then hit the solo cue point in time with the drum beat, put that on a loop as well, probably 16 or 32 count depending on the solo. Use the pitch lock to lock all the pitch sliders together, match the new song coming in and fade out the guitar solo while fading in the new song and leave the drum loop going until the new track kicks in the vocals.
 
or you can just warp the tracks in abelton squashing and stretching the waveform until it is in perfect time, then you would be able to mix the whole song with anything
 
Hmm

While its quite correct that rock music is produced by humans the only time the human factor is a problem is with live performances. The vast majority of recorded rock has been through the mixing and post proccessing studio stages. During this proccess tempo/BPM is set for a constant replay BPM using quantization. Any change or variation in BPM is intentional. You can of course sample kick drum and rythm components from any rock music you choose and use this as a basis for building a backing track to sync your mixes to. You will still have to use BPM matching and some high pass filtering to allow the made up backing track to hide the rythm track on the origonal matirial but it works well. You can also layer additional guitar solo work and so on to add interest and wow factor.

Have fun

Daz
 
Blulite wrote :
im having a bit of a problem mixing a set of rock music. any quick tips?

should i be looking more at tructure, keys or bpm

now i know i should be looking at them all but nothing seems to fit orrectly, is there something im missing?


This is where more music theory comes in to play, so this is where your ear is going to play a major role! It can be done, but skillfully you're going to have incline your ear to fluctuating sound rock music can give you. Like DJ NUTZ said, "most rock music is a human creating the rhythm, not a computer." So you'll have to prepare yourself mentally to keep the beat in tuned in your mind. I don't know how long you been a DJ, but if you go back to old school methods, you experiment with any and everything to find a sounds that match from any genres. I mean people make it seem like RUN DMC and AREOSMITH was this new phenomenon, when it first came out, but in reality DJ's was mixing rock with RAP and R&B as well way before that song even hit mainstream.

Basically in a nutshell, you're not missing anything, this is the time you'll have to just trust your creative instinct more than ever.
 
thanks nutz, ive done a set which ill be uploading later, the problem i found is most of the tracks had to be palyed in full and mixed very lightly. there was just nothing i could think of at the time to mix them more.
 
Don't worry Blu. Once you have your sound courses under your belt and get into DAW software there are a whole bunch of things you can do that will let you be creative to the MAX.

Daz
 
thanks everyone ill upload my set a littke kater for feedback,

this is only a very basic set with very minimal mixing. untill i work more on the alternative side of the spectrum some more, im afraid its all ive got.
 
One of the reasons I love strip clubs, is I can play anything. I mix rock all the time, and it is no difference for me than any other style of music. The reason is I started mixing when all music was played by humans. It is a challenge, but once you practice, it will become easier. It is so much easier mixing computer based music. So the trick is to know your music. Just like any other music, you have to pick and choose which songs to mix, and when to mix them. Not all songs go together. I do not mix vocals over vocals. I use a lot of loops, because I know where to loop. This is where experience comes in. Once you know your music, when you get something new, you will start to imagine what will and will not go with it. You may think something goes, but when you try it, it doesn't. No sweat, you move to something else. Or, you may try it later, and find that you just need to change the point in time, to make the mix. After awhile, it will come to you naturally.
 
 
Keep working on it blu. I didn't hear any mixing or anything that made it dynamic and set it apart from automix. The music was just played end to end and there was no real build up. The energy of each track was different and there were too many sub-genres mixed together. In short, it didn't sound like much DJing going on there. No blends, no effects or samples, and your track selection was all over the map dude.

It was hard to listen to and I ended up shutting it off at the 53 minute mark. Sorry but you need to work on it.

No offense, just my opinion.
 
thanks man, as ive never even attempted to mix rock before i thought id start with very basic and find out off you guys where to go from there, as i couldnt seem to work out the best way to mix the tracks.

do you have some recomendation for my next one. i actually found it rather dificult to find any really good compatable tracks.

im going to practice more on mixing this stuff as i think i definitly need it.

a lot of people are looping? and someone says to loop the bridge. once the bridge is looped should i then

a: bring in the lead
b: bring in the vocals
c: bring in the entire track?

about track selection, can you give me the low down on how to go about it. the tracks were simply chosen for 2 reasons, a: i knew them and b: they sounded like the matched.

only to discover the track selection was pants and hence the reason i had to end to end them
 
Be careful or you will miss the point of the exercise. This topic is awesome because this is what sets the real DJ's apart from the NLU's that just use the sync button and all they play is hip hop.

Mixing, blending, beatrmixing, whatever your style, means absolutely ZERO if you can pick the right songs to play in the right order. You have to listen to the song structure. Rock is not easy to loop sometimes because the music is so dynamic. In order to mix that kind of music, you need to have a handle on the phrase structure of the song. Read this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-two-bar_form

Mixing in at the proper point is crucial with rock music. This is one of those situations where you need to make sure you hit the mix points. Miss it and the mix will sound off. With rock you also have to go by more than just tempo. Just because Pour Some Sugar On Me and Under The Bridge are the same tempo, doesn't mean they mix well. You Shook Me All Night Long starts with a guitar solo that feels much slower than the rest of the song. So with so many variables, mixing the right songs in the right order is what separates a great DJ from the mediocre. You have to take into account how the music makes you feel. Try to get a handle on the energy of the songs and make sure there is a natural flow to the mix.
 
music theory my friend. thats all it is. and like everyone else said picking the right songs aswell as picking the correct mixing points. personally i would tend to cut most of the rock songs if i get a chance of course only at the correct time in order to keep the energy level the same... also you can fade them off soon as there is a decline of energy. lastly if you really want a tight tight set is review your songs and keep them with in the same bpm and make a computerrize beat FL works great 1 or two beats with a rock drum line and maybe a basic baseline so you can use it to just blend in the out going song into the incoming song. but again learn music theory its great to know
 
thanks nutz :D im going to try another set, but im going to take a lot of time choosing tracks and see how they work out.

would you, or anyone for that matter, please do a half hour - 1 hour set that i could listen to so i can get some more of an idea what im listening for?

thanks again for your help...
 
I am planning a rock set for my next Podcast. It comes out on Sunday.
 
bloody nora, how hard is track choice with rock music? lol.

same bpm and same key but they just dont go "at all".....completely different sound.....think this might take a while to learn
 
should i be chopping these tracks up? what about tracks that have vocals all the way through??
 
Hi Blu
Rather than dealing with a 60min epic, try doing a 10-12min mix with lots of interest. Perhaps look at working with some rock from whatever your fave band is. Most rock bands have a very destinctive sound that to a large extent is carried through their work. Thats what makes for example ACDC instantly recognisable and clearly distinguished from say Iron Maiden.
You realy need to know the music you are going to mix. That way you can think of solos or riffs that other people will pick up on and recognise what track they are from. They will "get" your mix and understand what you are doing without having to think.

Not rock but some examples of commercial tracks might be Madona using ABBA's "Man After Midnight" as a backing for her track Hung Up. Or The Saturdays using Yazoo's Situation. There are loads more examples of this being done. If I were mixing AC/DC thie first thing that would spring to mind is how can I get the riff from Thunderstruck in there LOL Its repeated through the entire track and instantly recognisable so could be used to join,preceed or solo in another ACDC track and help to keep the continuity going. The clasic "Audience participation" parts work great to. Take the part in Bon Jovi's You Give love a Bad Name as an example. The track drops to vocal and drums for a few bars. Perfect for the crowd to sing allong to and get the hands up in the air. A little cheesy perhaps but it works!

Once you have some work done on the individual bands you can look at daisychaining each minimix together using whatever mix styles work for you. Sometimes a chop somtimes a beatmatch and so on to keep it interesting.

Just some ideas for you

Daz
 
thanks daz, ill try that and see how i go.

and why can i smell food?? someones cooking chicken.......must be drifting in the window
 
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