Ableton Forum

Tarekith wrote:I DJ a lot of downtempo stuff that uses weird keys and scales that don't fit well in western theory. And, well... they stand out a lot of times. Sometimes you get lucky and there's enough of a pitch center that things will mix well. But a lot of the weirder stuff just doesn't blend well tonally with other songs we're used to. Not saying you can't use them, but as mentioned you need to get creative with the transitions to try and limit that as much as possible.

Yeah, I have a ge collection of downtempo/trip hop/instrumental hip hop, and it is by far some of the hardest music to mix in my collection.

Part of that is that the arrangements are not often built with the DJ in mind, and the other part is that you will get frequent key clashes when trying longer mixes. (And generally clutter from too many elements).

Tends to be something that almost forces you to use quick, efficient mixes, and remember a lot of good track combinations or 'set pieces'.

Any other tips for djing downtempo Tarekith?

That's one reason I love DJing the chill stuff, it's often not written to be mixed by DJs, forcing you to get really creative to make it work sometimes.

As for tips, that's a hard one since I often find myself doing all sorts of things to make tracks work (and failing sometimes too). Creative effetcs useage can be helpful, using rhythmic based effects like gaters and pulsing modulation to try and take the emphasis away from the tonality. Sometimes you just need to not mix it like a house DJ and go for the obvious blend the ambient intro with the ambient ending of the previous song too.

Can you guys post examples of mixes that show tracks w/ scales that don't work well together (mixed out of key)...Maybe even by posting remixes with different keys mixed into the same track?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3wR3aIQ23w
Sorry, I only had the patience for this thread to post one example. Try mixing it with anything and report back to us.

I have no gameboy sorry.
More examples please.... Or does it depend on the musicstyle as well?

RE: pitch lock...

Pitch lock is handy when you are mixing two tracks of the same key but with different tempos. However, depending on the tracks, it's also helpful to disable the pitch lock to bring two tracks into the same key. Obviously this doesn't work perfectly all the time, but it's a good trick to use to get two tracks into complimentary keys.

Like, if track 1 is in Am and track 2 is in Bm, and track 2 is a few %'s faster than track 1, you can disable the pitch lock on track 2, and mix it in up do like %4, the tracks will both be in roughly the same key.

(If that makes any sense at all from my terrible explanation which is probably a little off anyway. )