One of the Mastermix Producers, Chris Fletcher, has been having a dig around in his attic and found all his back issues of ‘World of Mixing’ and ‘Mixology’ – two magazines that Mastermix used to produce back in the days of turntables and vinyl!
So we thought we’d take a walk down memory lane and share a few of the more relevant articles with you all on here, so you can reminisce about techniques from the olden days of DJing! The first one, from Martin Smith, is a guide to mixing (on turntables) but much of what he says is still relevant today!
Scroll down to read the text of the article!
Here’s what the article says:
In this series we’ll be looking at every aspect of mixing, from turntable trickery to putting a mix together on a reel-to-reel. We’ll explain the techniques and secrets the professionals use to create their masterpieces and what those mysterious black boxes do. If you ever wondered ‘How do they do THAT?’ we’ll be telling you how in these pages! Mastermixer Martin Smith has given DJ workshops and seminars at Salford Musical College and London Olympia and has notched up many a hit in his Megabass guise. In the first installment of this series he gets back to basics…
“RETURN TO ZERO – FIRST STEPS IN MIXING”
In this first installment, we’re covering the very first steps you need to take in mixing. Apologies to mixers out there for whom this will all be familiar, but you should be able to show this article to your grandmother and get her mixing in no time! To start mixing you’ll need some basic equipment – a couple of turntables and a turntable mixer, some records to mix and a pair of headphones. You’ll also need a ’slipmat’ for each turntable. This protects the underside of the record from being scratched by the turntable platter when you are cueing the record, and also protects the turntable motor (or drive belt) from unnecessary wear and tear. Your turntable mixer needn’t be complex – all it needs is a separate fader for each turntable and the ability to let you hear the signal from each record on the headphones. Mixers often also include a ‘crossfade’ fader which gradually fades one signal out and the other in, all in one simple movement. For the basics of mixing this is also not necessary, in this article we’ll deal with just the normal ‘channel’ faders. We’re also assuming here that we’re mixing two records together – we’ll get on to CDs later in the series!
You cannot simply mix any two records together. Records come in a variety of tempoes, some fast, some slow, and to perform a smooth mix you’ll need to mix records whose tempoes are similar. The tempo of a record is given as a BPM which stands for Beats Per Minute. This BPM rating tells you have fast a record is, for example ‘house’ records are generally at 120-125 BPM, ‘hip hop’ records average at 90-105 BPM ‘hardcore’ records range from 130 - 160 BPM and ‘reggae’ can be as slow as 70-85 BPM. If you are to perform a smooth mix you’ll need two records whose BPM ratings are ideally withing 5 or 6 beats of each other. It is much easier, when you are learning how to mix, to select two records of exactly the same BPM rating, or even better still, two copies of the same record. BPM ratings for records can be found in the Music Factory BPM Bible and ratings for the very latest tunes are listed in our monthly BPM Update in the World of Mixing mixletter.
Before you try mixing, you need to master ‘cueing’. This is the art of ‘bringing a record in’ at a certain point, whether it’s at the very start or at some point during the track. Let the record play, and put its channel fader up so you can hear the signal in the room. Stop it on the first drum beat by gently holding the record on its rim with your first and second fingers at the 10 o’clock position around the disc. The turntable platter should continue to spin while the record and slipmat are held in place. By slowly moving the record back and forth, you should be able to hear the drumbeat play forwards and backwards, so you can find out exactly where it starts. Many people use a point of reference on the record label to remember where this point is. You have now ‘cued’ the record at this point. To let the record play on, simply release the rim and the record will play. If on your turntable you hear it slur slightly before getting back up to speed, try giving the record a gentle push as you release it. You may have seen DJs on TV placing most of their hand on the vinyl for cueing and also scratching. While this can help your control of the vinyl when performing fast scratch sequences, it is unneccesary when cueing and it isn’t very kind to your vinyl either! Try finding the starts of drum breaks on various records and stopping the record at that point on the beat, and then releasing it again. When you’re happy with this stage, you can move on to stage two.
Stage two is to mix two records together so that both their drum beats play together, in synchronisation. To start with, select two records of the same BPM or invest in two copies of the same record. Play record 1 with its fader up so the signal can be heard in the room. We’ll refer to this from now on as the ‘outgoing record’. Your headphones should be selected to monitor record 2 so you can play this record but it won’t be heard in the room yet – make sure the fader for this channel is down. This will now be referred to as the ‘incoming record’. As before, find a beat on the incoming record in the headphones and hold it at that point. Listen to the beats on the outgoing record as it plays and try to release the incoming record exactly on one of those beats. If you get this right, they’ll both play with their drum beats beating together.
If they’re not doing this, don’t worry! The incoming record which you have just cued may be slightly behind the outgoing record, in which can you can use your finger to speed it up slightly. Press your finger onto the label and push the record round as it spins, but guide it round a little bit faster for one rotation. You should hear the records get into sync at which time you should release the record and play naturally. Alternatively, it may be slightly ahead of the outgoing record, in which case you’ll need to slow it down slightly. This can be done in one of two ways – decide for yourself which is better for you. You can apply gentle pressure with the tip of your finger to either the rim of the turntable platter or on the record label itself, and the record should slur slightly and with a bit of luck will now be playing in sync with the other record. This may sound simple, but you’ll find it will take some practice to perfect the art. In time you’ll learn to tell ‘by ear’ whether a record is slightly ahead or behind the other. Keep practising until you get it right, and as a further tip, try to keep the incoming record as just a drum break or into, and the outgoing record as a song or instrumental. This makes it easier to pick out which record is ahead of which!
Once you’ve learnt the art of cueing records in beat with each other, you can complete the mix by fading up the fader for the incoming record, and at the same time fading down the fader for the outgoing record. This will provide a smooth transition between the two and you’ll probably need two hands for this job! Alternatively, a crossfader will do this for you in one easy movement. With the outgoing record already playing at a volume of say 8, bring the incoming record quite swiftly to a volume of around 6 or 7 and as you increase it more slowly to 8, ease down the fader for the outgoing record to 6 or 7 and then more swiftly down to zero. This will provide a more smooth sounding mix without the overall volume increasing noticeably during the mix. Keep practising until you’re happy with this procedure.
When you’re happy with the basics of the mix you can move on to stage 3 which is to mix records of different BPMs. To do this you’ll need to use the varispeed on one or both of the turntables. Take two records of say 120 and 124 BPM and play the faster one at normal pitch on the varispeed. To get these two records ‘in beat’ (in synchronisation) you’ll need to speed up the pitch control for the incoming record to about +2.3% as you learn to mix you’ll get a feel for roughly where to set the varispeed but for now set it to around +2% as a starting point. As usual, cue the incoming record in the headphones, and use your finger as described above to nudge the records in sync. The difference now is that they probably won’t stay in sync for very long. You’ll now need to adjust the varispeed faster or slower to account for this. Judging this is an art form in itself that only practice can perfect. Figure out in which direction you think the two records are out, and adjust the varispeed control in that direction slightly, then nudge the record with your finger to get the two in sync. If they settle briefly in sync and then wander out, repeat the procedure until both records stay in sync without you having to adjust anything. If it seemed to make things worse, you moved it in the wrong direction – adjust accordingly and try again! Concentrate on the synchronisation of the records at this stage, and not on the fading, which we can work on later.
If you don’t have access to a pitch contol (varispeed) you can still mix records of differing BPM ratings, but your mix transition will have to be quite swift, as the two records will gradually wander out of sync, and the art is to mix between them before they do! The more skilful mixers will be able to gently nudge the incoming record as the mix takes place and keep them in sync as long as is required, but this takes a lot of practice! Be aware also that on less expensive models of turntable the speeds are not precisely set to 33 and 45 RPM. Two similar turntables, even if they’re part of a budget console (which comes with two turntables built into one unit) may not necessarily play copies of the same record at exactly the same speed! You’ll need to acquire some ‘finger dexterity’ to account for any discrepancies of this kind!
While you will now have grasped the basics of getting two records in beat with each other, the chances are the mix transitions are still not ideal. The records will be ‘in beat’ but not necessarily ‘in bar’ – I’ll explain how this will make your mixes sound even better in part two. It’s also possible the two records are not ‘in key’ with each other, which could result in a dreadful row. We’ll discuss this in a later article too, but put simply it is when there is a musical clash between the two tunes. It’s also possible you’re mixing the records at a point where they both have vocals which again will result in a bit of a row! To avoid this, cue the incoming record at the start of a drum beat or instrumental section and mix it out of a similar non-vocal section, which will minimise the chances of such a clash of vocals. We’ll cover the do’s and don’ts of mixing in a later article, but for now concentrate on getting those records in beat!
In part two we’ll look at how a knowledge of musical structure (bars and beats) can improve your mixes, with some practical examples. Until then, practice long and hard at synchronising beats. It doesn’t come overnight, but as with any skill, practice makes perfect! You’ll be Mastermixing in no time!
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