Why beatmix at all?

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It just makes the night linear. Why not play each track to the end, leave a gap, then start the new track?

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Saturday, 3 May 2003 11:50 (twenty-two years ago)

cawse peepil wanna gett dawwwnnnnnnn!

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Saturday, 3 May 2003 11:57 (twenty-two years ago)

why try and get things at all

― Ronan (Ronan), Saturday, 3 May 2003 13:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Colin there are a kazillion clubs where people do pretty much this. I've never seen beatmatching at an indie club. Or a townie pop-chart nightclub place.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Saturday, 3 May 2003 13:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I think it has something to do with the fact that most of the records you hear played in dance clubs are recorded with the knowledge that that's how they'll be used. What is the intro/outro to many dance singles? Do they announce themselves in the same way many pop songs do? I was actually at an rock/indie type club last night were the djs tried to segue the songs together instead of playing them end to end. The expererience was painful. If a pop song opens with a dramatically, stops on a dime, whatever, you're going to lose that if you're trying to mix them together, and it will sound like chaos while you're doing so. You've really got to know your material, know what the songs sound like, and decide the nature of your segue based on that. That said, there are probably a pile of rock or indie tracks you could successfully match beats with, but it's definately not an assumed thing. Also re "leaving a gap"; well if the song just stops or ends dramatically leaving silence, then leaving a short gap afterwards would serve to enhance that effect. Lots of songs fade out though; my general advice would be to start the other track up quickly, and not try and merge them together. A rock or indie (indie IS rock, why am I saying that?) crowd has different expectations than a strictly dance music crowd. The thrill comes from 'oh here's this song, now that song!' rather than just wanting to move to the perfect beat for an extended period (obv I'm generalizing wildly here).

The more I think about this the more I'm becoming convinced I should DJ again.

― Sean (Sean), Saturday, 3 May 2003 17:39 (twenty-two years ago)

cause the music is made to dance to
your idea would make this more difficult and less fun

― robin (robin), Saturday, 3 May 2003 18:11 (twenty-two years ago)

You may as well have said ALL music is made to dance to. Unless you think I'm proposing using this approach on dance singles, which I'm not. Maybe my ideas might make it more difficultfor some to successfully DJ... but if you're taking your work seriously you should know what you're doing anyway. And you get more fun obv.

― Sean (Sean), Saturday, 3 May 2003 18:19 (twenty-two years ago)

notwist - another planet goes into interpol - p.d.a so fucking sweetly

― naz, Saturday, 3 May 2003 18:40 (twenty-two years ago)

There are so many cool trix besides beatmatching tho -- dropping a hard beat right into the middle of an extended build, just slamming the selector back and forth, etc.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Saturday, 3 May 2003 19:17 (twenty-two years ago)

not to mention extensions of beatmatching like putting vocals over tunes, speeding up or slowing down tunes, dropping the bass out, etc etc

― Ronan (Ronan), Saturday, 3 May 2003 19:18 (twenty-two years ago)

or that digital stretchy thing with vocals. broader than br-o-o-o-a-a-a-aaadway.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Saturday, 3 May 2003 19:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, people seem to have no trouble dancing all night without a skerrick of beatmixing at dancehall nights.

What prompts the question is a couple of local nights here in Sydney where some reasonably skilled techno DJs (can beatmix well, but wouldn't win the wukka-wukka DJ Olympics on six decks and a barbecue or anything) have thrown all that out of the window and just started jamming unrelated tracks together in a kind of super Balearic megamash of speeds, styles and genres. The result? (Drinks, looks at camera): Refreshing, unpredicatble, exciting!

I spoke to them about why they weren't beatmixing any more. They said words to the effect that they were indeed trying to restore surpise into the process, and that beatmixing is opposed to that process.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Saturday, 3 May 2003 20:24 (twenty-two years ago)

They said words to the effect that they were indeed trying to restore surpise into the process, and that beatmixing is opposed to that process.

well that's oversimplification if i've ever heard it! but i'll give props to any dj that can construct a good set beatmixed or not.

― disco stu (disco stu), Saturday, 3 May 2003 20:44 (twenty-two years ago)

2 Many DJs to thread...

― disco stu (disco stu), Saturday, 3 May 2003 20:46 (twenty-two years ago)

NOT beatmixing makes LESS sense to ME

― stevem (blueski), Saturday, 3 May 2003 22:22 (twenty-two years ago)

do they leave a gap at the end of tracks at dancehall nights?

― robin (robin), Sunday, 4 May 2003 02:54 (twenty-two years ago)

having two decks is a mistake too.

― gaz (gaz), Sunday, 4 May 2003 02:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I prefer mixing, espcially because many times two records are better than one.. making combinations of tracks is one way a dj can express him or herself.
as for surprise, well, that seems easy to me... i mean, pick any randomt two records and just play them... why bother going out? and if people are going to be dancing all night, well, i realy cant imagine that approach working that well, really.
that being said, I have Levan's mix, and he sometimes just slams new records in with no mixing. he does, however, match the beats and tempo, which is why slamming everything in worked for him... if you are playing some record at 130bpm and want to do a dramatic switch, playing anything much slower or faster could potentially sound messy... I really think you have to be a very very good DJ to be able to fuck with tempo and switching between violently different tracks, but I am guessing that this is not the case with the vast majority of indie and wedding DJs... there is one notable exception, (classic Disco DJ) David Mancuso, who does no mixing and no pitch adjusting. he also probably knows the BPM and key of every record he plays by heart... do you see?

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Sunday, 4 May 2003 03:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Jeff Mills Live In Tokyo to thread

― Millar (Millar), Sunday, 4 May 2003 03:39 (twenty-two years ago)

I will not be satisfied until there are five minutes of silence after each track, and anyone who talks or sneezes during this five minute interval is violently but silently ejected from the club

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 4 May 2003 03:43 (twenty-two years ago)

maybe we can have a club where only 4'33" is played over and over again.

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Sunday, 4 May 2003 03:47 (twenty-two years ago)

that approach is only going to be 'refreshing' as long as it's not the norm, so you'll need lots of ppl to still be beatmixing. that's 1 very small reason why!

― minna (minna), Sunday, 4 May 2003 03:52 (twenty-two years ago)

i can understand the anti-beatmixing stance from a sanctity-of-the-song standpoint. but man, just for those couple of bars where the 2 beats intersect equally, so you get a whole new bass thump underneath the beat you've been hearing for the past few minutes, just a beautiful thing when it really works.

― Al (sitcom), Sunday, 4 May 2003 05:48 (twenty-two years ago)

The second part of DJ Shadow's Diminishing Returns consists of a lot of garage rock songs mixed together. It's super. Unfortunately it's sold out, so you should download it somewhere.

― Orange, Sunday, 4 May 2003 18:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Those guys must be really shite djs.

― Ronan (Ronan), Sunday, 4 May 2003 20:56 (twenty-two years ago)

you guys must be complete wankers for discussing..

beatmixing is for pedants...
well doing it well is ;)

just remeber i've been menaing to paractice on the decks at home lately.. but just din';t find the time.

and how is the night LINEAR ????

― Savin All My Love 4 u (Savin 4ll my (heart) 4u), Monday, 5 May 2003 01:11 (twenty-two years ago)

because time is.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 5 May 2003 01:27 (twenty-two years ago)

wedding DJs in temporal rip shockas

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Monday, 5 May 2003 03:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I always figured the chicken dance was a subversive act, guess I was right.

― g--ff c-nn-n (gcannon), Monday, 5 May 2003 03:33 (twenty-two years ago)

If you do it dance hall style, then you'll stop the track wheel back and shout several times, whipping the crowd up into a frenzy before letting it run. Then running it a couple more times to make sure.

― Ed (dali), Monday, 5 May 2003 08:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Haha! Sterling's joke was quite funny.

How is the night linear? Stylistically, it's linear. Can't go off on a tangent so easily - you get locked into a groove and can't get out. M'Lud, I refer you to Jeff Mills Live in Tokyo.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Monday, 5 May 2003 08:12 (twenty-two years ago)

The most famous DJ who doesn't beat mix would be David Mancuso of The Loft in New York. There's a chapter in him in 'Last Night a DJ Saved My Life'. I can't remember exactly what his philosophy was, but it has something to do with an emotional journey, full of changes, in which the spaces between the songs are like pauses for relection or something, and the song itself is sacred, sounds like a spiritual kind of guy... he's also a real hi-fi buff, puts a lot of thought into getting superior sound quality in The Loft. They could use a bit more of that here in Sydney, where all the clubs have sound systems that sound like pus (that's New Zealand for piss).

Reggae and dancehall DJs don't leave gaps between the songs, not the ones I've seen. They kind of fade one track into another quickly, using spinbacks and chat to smooth the transition.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Monday, 5 May 2003 08:27 (twenty-two years ago)

All of the Dancehall dj's i've seen like to leave gaps for shouting.

― Ed (dali), Monday, 5 May 2003 08:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Ed, I stand corrected.

Well then, if what has been said on this thread is true (and I have no doubt that it is), then not only David Mancuso and his protegees, but also all dancehall and reggae DJs, are crap, because they don't beat mix. So that's settled then!

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Monday, 5 May 2003 11:00 (twenty-two years ago)

plenty of sound system selectors mix (juggle)

― Peter M, Tuesday, 6 May 2003 04:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Sean's description of painful indie-guy DJs who think they have to try and beatmix or overlap tracks that have no business going together in that manner to begin with is OTM.

― M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 6 May 2003 05:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, his whole post is on the mark actually.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Tuesday, 6 May 2003 05:24 (twenty-two years ago)

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