djblade311
Site Admin
Joined: Mar 09, 2003
Posts: 84
Location: OC, CA
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 Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2004 6:47 am Post subject: Pitch & Making Sets |
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Ok, so you can beatmatch ! You can match to 16-bar intervals and even do one of those reasonably clever long mixes, where one track ends/hits a break, and another kicks in??.but what is it that many DJ?s miss ?
It?s the all important ?Pitch?.
Without wishing to remind you of compulsory music theory lessons at school, music is written in a key. Certain notes sound good next to each other, and others don?t. The problem is that key is related to pitch, and as soon as you start beat matching, you wind up in the key of Z-flat minor. (Muso joke)! In other words, as you don?t know what key a track started in, and since the pitch slider changes that key anyway (important note: If two tracks sound bad together, one at +1 and the other at +4, they will still sound bad (but faster) at +5 and +6), the only ways around this are:
1. Mix a track (intro/outro) of just beats (No Bline) in/out of the record
2. Learn your set, so you know which tracks go together really well and which are the real clangers
3. Learn your set (x lots) so you always have at least two choices out of a record. This stops you from the DJ equivalent of ?painting yourself into a corner?
All seems fairly basic (and it is), but important nonetheless!
Now how about structuring a set? How does that work?
Well, strange but true ? a good set won?t seem structured at all. You don?t have to plan a set by track, more by ?Group? your of labels. In Rob B?s set this takes the form of: Banging, Trippy, Cheezums, Prog, Trance, Breakbeat, Timeless (= old), and ?haven?t had time to listen properly, but was recommended to me by someone I trust?!
Inside each group are a couple of records that will get you to another ?group?, and at least two ?Paths?, which avoid duplicates and nasty pitch clangers.
Complicated? Well, that?s what makes true DJ-ing the equivalent of a ?conventional? musical instrument!
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DJ Josh Blade
The DJ Groove Team
http://www.thedjgroove.com |
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