How to mix Songs - DJ mixing theory with examples

In this chapter we will try to give you some theory tips on how to mix music or rather how to mix songs because dj mixing is rather about mixing songs than producing music.

1. Choosing the right songs - style, version and tempo.

Song Style

You cannot mix trance with house or electro etc. Of course it can be done, but you're not here to read about what's possible or not. You want to learn how to do it the right way!  Similarly, mixing a sweet and lovely track with a heavy one is not a good idea neither. In fact, starting a mix (or a set, when live) with a hard techno or house, and then going into some melodious vocal is simply pathetic.

Song Version

For the mix we choose only extended versions, available in most cases only on the singles. Such versions are often described as "club version", "Long mix" or simply "extended version". Stay away from all of the "Radio edit", "Short version" ones. Of course, it's best to check if a track has an introduction and/or ending, which is not beginning (or ending) suddenly, but rather develops  gradually and softly, cause this makes the track easy to mix smoothly with the other.

Song Tempo

Regardless of the fact, that DJ's equipment and computer DJ players both have the ability to control the tempo, you must not underestimate the importance of making the right choice of tracks in terms of the tempo they're made in. Sure, DJ players often have the "master tempo" function, which means you can adjust the tempo without altering the tone, but there are some limits.

It's best to hold on to the rule that says "mix only the tracks that differ by not more than 3 beats per minute (BPM) " For example: if I play something that's in 130BPM, then I don't speed it up to 136BPM. We'll explain how to make such mixes a little later, if someone needs to mix such tracks anyway.
If you have some time and possibility to prepare the set in advance - It's good to start from the slower songs and then build up the atmosphere not only by using better tracks but also by the right use of the tempo.

Here's a simple example that shows that if music genre is similar, plus bass and treble "fits", then it's possible to make a good music mixing without much of a technical struggle. It's a mix of Kristine’s W - "The Wonder of It All" with a Stellar Project's - "Get Up Stand Up". The entering of the second track is marked with a "beep" sound.

2. Setting the start point (Cue point)

We've got to make a start point in a track, which we'll be entering the mix with. When DJ mixing is live, then we have to accurately aim with the first track's beat into the second's one -in an appropriate phrase or bar. To gain the control (and the comfort when trying) we have to find the first beat of a chosen phrase, which we think is right to start the mix with, and position ourselves right before the beat. Depending on the player, we save this as our Cue. From this time we can start the song exactly from the beat we want and exactly in time of pressing PLAY. "You've got to have the beat under your finger to feel it."

Sometimes we can use some help from a function called "auto-cue" found in today’s players, which will find the first beat for us by positioning just before the first bass kick (ignoring the silence and/or vocal). Depending on function similarly we can also find further phrases, not just the very first beat, but it's better to keep everything under control and trust ourselves, rather than machines ;-).

3. Finding and adjusting the tempo

To make things simple, let's say that we must match the tempo of two songs used in the music mix. We can often use not only the slowing or speed up of the song by the use of "pitch", but also by using the "master tempo" - which stands for changing the tempo without altering the tone of the song.

How can DJ know the tempo of the song?

Today’s mixers or DJ players can automatically determine the tempo in the track, and the info is showed in BPMs on the build-in display.  This "tempo finding" functions works by scanning the song in search of distinct accents such as bass kicks, and then calculating the beat amount in relation to the time -determining the "beats per minute" value. Some of this DJ gear has the additional tap button that can be used to determine the tempo more manually - by evenly tapping the button. The taps are counted, compared to the overall taping time, and BPM value is set accordingly.  There are also special discs for DJs, which have the BPM value written on the cover.

Live adjusting the tempo

Really good DJs, especially those of them who use vinyls, adjust the tempo of their mixes live, letting in the first track onto the second one. We're doing it by listening to the headphones. When we find that they start going off beat, we increase or decrease the tempo of the first track by a little. The biggest trick in it is to listen so intently to the mix, so you can know if a given track needs a slightly increase or decrease of the tempo. Beginning DJ will quickly find out that even if he altered the tempo to the right side, the change is insufficient or he exaggerated and now the beats are going all over the place...
So, how to make it right?
When we hear that it starts going off beat for the first time, then we change the tempo (move the slider) more than we think is needed. We do it until the beats are in sync again. Then we quickly withdraw the last tempo adjustment and we set it just a little higher. It often takes a few seconds and requires a lot of tries, and a good feeling of the gear we use. We repeat the whole track adjusting process until we notice that the mix is not going out of sync during several seconds. Then - we have a success :) - we adjusted the tempo without any "helping devices".

4. Frequency adjustments - bass and treble

Another matter is adjusting the bass, midds and treble levels in the mix on our mixer/equalizer. We need to do it if we don't want to damage the hearing of our listeners by serving a loud bass kicks of two overlapped beats or to annoy them with chirping treble from the two tracks. It's true that most DJs don't care, but we're talking about really proper mixing. Also interesting thing is that - believe me or not - if you don't adjust bass levels your bass kick can even disappear.

5. Finding the best spot for the entering of the second track

The basics of entering into the phrase.

You cannot optionally enter on the beat of the second track. You have to point yourself on the first beat of the metrical unit, called a phrase.
A phrase is a conventional term and determines most often 8, 16 or 32 beats.  Here is some music part to listen for you. With the beep we marked exemplary phrase beginnings which are good spots to bring the second track in. In this songs, it's convenient to define a phrase every 8 beats:

Generally you can say that the smallest, inviolable metrical unit is a bar, but metrical distribution can be different in different songs. However most dance music genres (house, techno, euro dance) are very simple in the metrical aspect. In practice the bar is defined by 4 beats. The inviolable limit is two beat bar. Why absolutely inviolable? 90% of club songs has an accent on every second beat (in the form of clap, mostly). So, entering the second beat, starting from a second beat we would give a quite annoying "clap after clap" on every beat.

Let's hear an example for this music mix done wrong:

Admittedly the beat enters the beat properly, but it sounds wrong. If we continued to mix like this, things could get really awful.

Here is an example of a proper entering into the smallest metrical unit:

Planning the best place for the cross fade.

Of course, the reason why producers, remixers are giving us the extended versions is to make use of it, to allow us to gradually blend two songs track after track. The diagram below shows this in simplification. Let's assume that black lines are the gradually entering tracks of a song such as beat, base line, treble and finally vocal and melodic line.

Song Mixing scheme

We rarely play a track that we completely don't know or playing for the first time. Usually we know -for example - that the track entering is long, develops for about 1,5 minutes or that there is quite a big hole in the middle of it, which is the part of a song where we've got only the base beat and some treble etc.)  Such information will help us plan (more or less) where to enter. If you have the possibility to prepare to the ideal set, then you can write on the piece of paper for example: "I enter with the track at +/- 1min 40sec. before the end of a main one).

What is the best point for mixing? (Main cross fade point)

The best spots for the cross fade, for a main theme are of course the places in the first track where the main leading theme is going off and in the very moment, the second theme is going in. Knowing this points we can estimate how long before we've got to bring the second track in, so that it's lead theme (i.e.: vocal) goes in right when in the first track, such theme is going off. So much for boring theory - let's advance to the example of such music mixing.
Having the going off track by Freeform Five - "No More Conversation ", we'll mix in widely known ATB - "The Summer (radio edit):

The excerpt above illustrates a rule described earlier about themes exchanging in the mix. Of course it's a much generalized rule, because the tune construction is often more complicated. What it boils down to is this: it's really nice when in one song the first track is entering, and the second track is going off at the same time. If we consider that tracks of the songs are coming in and out by phrases, then we've got the main reason why it's worth to enter "phrase in phrase" - we have much bigger chance, that entering track and fading out track will nicely exchange each other in one point. And what if they won't? It will be a little worse. Here’s an example of mixing the same songs. It's a try to enter before and after the main theme is going off.

Both attempts aren't too good. They enter into a beat correctly and they even theoretically enter into the phrase right. What's not working is that in a first attempt both main themes from two songs are overlapping, which is clearly not right and the audience doesn't know to which it should dance to.  The second attempt is a "fail" ;) - the DJ has slept a little and was a little late. In practice, the second option is always better than the first, because you should rather serve the people the dry fading out beat, than two main themes fighting with each other.

6. Before we start the mix.

  • We've got our favourite part of a song spinning in the player.
  • We've got the first beat of a phrase in second song under our fingers.
  • We match the tempo of them both.

We should never rely on the information about the tempo given by a CD cover or even a BPM value on the display. It's just always wise to check if the songs match like they should.  We put on the headphones, and using appropriate mode of our player (audio monitoring) we listen while entering with the beat into another one. We're trying to hit the spot and if we properly set a cue point then we should succeed in maximum 3 attempts. If the songs are rolling "beat into beat" for about several seconds, it means they have the tempo similar enough to mix them.

Examining the bass & treble levels in both songs.

We have to focus on how the bass and treble behave in both songs. Are the bass parts similar or maybe in one of the songs they are more definite and deep? We listen intently to the treble and ask ourselves: isn't it going into annoying hiss when treble from both songs are overlapping. If something's wrong then we consider it and either:

  • Immediately we correct the bass and treble amounts in a song, which will be entering
  • We correct the bass and treble amounts in a song we're playing now (not recommended, but if we need to do it, then let's make it slowly, so the listeners won't spot the difference.
  • OR we bear in mind that during a mix there will be some differences and we'll have to control it live.

7.  Song mixing

  • We've got our favourite part of a song spinning in the player. (song1)
  • In a second player, we've got the first beat of any phrase in second song under our fingers. (song2)
  • We checked using the headphones, so both songs match in tempo.

We know that song2, which we will be entering with is developing for about 40 seconds i.e.:  by beat and treble only, until the vocal or main theme is going in.
So we let out this song relatively early. We don't wait until the ending of the song1 and dry beats, cause in this case we would mix only the beats or treble of song1 with just beats and treble of song2 - and that would give a boring 40-second banging. So we enter with the song2 when in a first we still have a last chorus rolling happily. Just as it was in the first example in this text.

Bringing songs into mix LIVE or safely?

"Live enter" means an attempt to enter "loudly", or entering into the beat publicly (and not on the headphones), which means in a way mostly heard for the audience on the floor.
We make a "live enter" when we're very confident in our skills or we're playing short tunes or cross fades that don't give us the possibility to make an attempt using the headphones, or when we want to enter with some theme (or a vocal) spectacularly. Headphones are used when we have the time, we're mixing long songs or we want to make a really smooth, invisible entering or.. we are scared (or the respect for the audience) of something going wrong.

No matter how we entered, we still have millions of ways to lead our cross fade.

In most cases it works like this: the first tune plays, for example, on the left side, and tune2 on the right side is silenced - which means we have a cross fader slider positioned on the left (we hear it only in our headphones).

The example below shows some attempts to enter into a beat:

We're trying to hit a beat in phrases, every 4 beats. We succeed in 5th attempt. Considering that we still do it on the headphones, so we don't serve the audience some nasty beat chaos with beats all over the place;) If we don't want to try and rather want to enter in the exact moment, then if we failed to catch the point, we do a little correction to the appropriate tune.  Depending on your DJ gear, there are different ways to do it. Generally it's all about a temporal slow down or speed up of the tune, so it moves in time -let say -20 milliseconds.

The example below illustrates an attempt to enter into the beat in one try, in exact moment, with a correction afterwards.  (I'll try to enter exactly into first phrase after the vocal.)

As you can hear the attempt is quite a mess with beats going all over the place. It's because the fade out (with a vocal) and two bass hits before a phrase is quite misleading - even if we're tapping with our foots to sync with the rhythm. Anyway, the goal is achieved: after several seconds we managed to do it and started the mix exactly with the phrase we wanted.

OK, beats are in sync, so we slowly make the actual mix and turning up the volume of the tune which goes in by gently moving the cross fader to the middle. And the final result goes like this:

We will continue to update this page to give you more new and interesting song mixing techniques and information.

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How to mix Songs, DJ Song Mixing Theory Lessons Tips & examples in USA, UK, Ireland, England, Scotland, Australia, Canada and rest of the World.
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