How can I make my mix transitions be smoother?

[Scyence]

Hey,

I have been making trance mixes on Ableton Live for some time now, but I still feel that what kills my mixes is the way the tracks do not transition from one another smoothly as in professional trance mixes or any other mix for that matter. How can I line up the beats and bass of each track to make them flow into one another or remove the bass from an outro of one, keeping only a vocal melody going into the next track, which bass has already morphed into the outro of the past track fluidly? I use the crossfader from the Master track to crossfade between two tracks, one located on Audio 1 and the other on Audio 2 and continue onwards, weaving all the tracks into one, long mix with in my case, under-developed transitions.

Any effects I should take in mind, as well?

Any other tips on how to improve a mix would be very much appreciated.

Thank you,

Scyence

[Der_Makrophag]

I think (and I am not even a semi-professional DJ), the selection of the tracks is the first step. Then it is important when you make the transitions. As you already wrote, you will want to morph the track into each other. That is, the actual playing parts have to fit each other.
Then you should first start using an EQ (EQ3 will do the Job quite good, I think), so you can kill certain frequencies. For example, if you are mixing to tracks wich are playing only beats with kick snare (and so on), you will want to remove the bass on one of these tracks, as long as the transition goes. Just to clean it up, because having two kicks (and bassline maybe) can really sound muddy. Just play around to see what works best in your ears. Xou can start with the new tracks bass removed, then in the middle of the transition switch it on (and the bass of the old track off) in a short break or something. Just be creative.
And of course, feel free to use other effects. Most simple one, is the normal filter. But also delays can help to smooth too fast transitions.
And do not forget, Live lets you loop certain parts of the tracks. So you can loop a part, that you find best for transitions for example.

[Scyence]

Thanks a lot. Now with the EQ (I'm using the EQ Eight), would I just enable that to be on on the part of the outro of Audio 1 (just in this case) and then enable an EQ8 for the part in the intro or where ever I have placed the beginning of my Audio 2 track. Or simply EQ'ing the last entire segment of sound for Audio 1 and beginning of the Audio 2? Would all of this apply to filters and delays as well?

[pencilrocket]

Symphony transit smoothly. Why? I think it's musically morphed. It is well arranged when what how instruments and notes are played or stopped.

[Scyence]

Symphony transit smoothly. Why? I think it's musically morphed. It is well arranged when what how instruments and notes are played or stopped.

Could you elaborate on symphony transit?

[Der_Makrophag]

Thanks a lot. Now with the EQ (I'm using the EQ Eight), would I just enable that to be on on the part of the outro of Audio 1 (just in this case) and then enable an EQ8 for the part in the intro or where ever I have placed the beginning of my Audio 2 track. Or simply EQ'ing the last entire segment of sound for Audio 1 and beginning of the Audio 2? Would all of this apply to filters and delays as well?

It depends on your taste. I think you would not want a delay to give an echo to the whole song? So you can tweak the send know just in places where it is necessary.
The EQ can be used also to adjust the overall frequency response of a track, so it does not sound harsh in comparison to the next song or something. For my personal (unprofessional) mixes, I use the EQ only at the transitions, as I described above.
I found its nice to have only the mids of the new song (kill Hi and Lo), fade it in with the crossfader while at the same time slightly reduce the mids of the current ("old") song. Then I fade in the Hi of the new song and maybe damp Mids further and/or Hi of the old song. Then at a good point, bass is switched off in the old and on in the new song. If there is still some rest of the old song at this stage, you can simply fade it out with the crossfader.
This is just an example of a transition that often works for long morphing passages. This is no rule, it really depends on the style of the music and on the individual songs, how transitions are best done.

Another two things I think are important:
1. Did you know, you can change the crossfader curve?
2. Use the transistions, that are already in the songs (for example Intro into Break or Break into Mainpart and so on...). This will support your "artificial" transition and make it more "natural".

I am not sure what "symphony transit" means?

[102455]

Could you elaborate on symphony transit?

He probably means harmonic mixing. Make sure your mixes are in key.

As for smoother mix transitions, it's just part of learning to DJ.

The more you do it, the more natural it becomes.

[Scyence]

Thanks a lot guys. I've started to incorporate a Compressor and EQ Three to help the transitions, and already a noticeable difference. I have managed to tweak only track volumes and make them correlate with the Master Crossfader and still edging out some nice transitions, along with some adequate placements of my audio tracks. Having voice-over work in my mixes also helps with hiding some transitions.

[mharris]

You should go back to basics and forget about all the fancy effects for now.

Just focus on the bare essentials that DJ's have been using for the last 40 years - two channel faders and an EQ3 on each channel.

Practice with this until you can make a mix sound good simply because it is well mixed. Rather than because of all the effects and tricks you've layered over the top.

Smooth mixing is all about the timing of the mix, getting the new elements to come in as the old elements drop out. This is where the EQ comes in.. If you mess up the timing you can EQ out the frequency of an element until you are ready to drop it back in.

The EQ is also important for controlling levels. You'll rarely (if ever) want two tracks slamming away at full volume because this will overload your output. To manage this, use the low freq of the EQ3. Start with the low freq turned right down on your incoming track. Once you have your new track fader all the way up, work to swap the basses over, gradually reduce the low freq of your outgoing track while at the same time increasing the low freq of the new track. The speed of this transition will depend on what type of mix your trying to do. It may be a swift changeover in one go as a bassline drops, or it may be a longer progression.

When your using the EQ3 and channel faders, keep an eye on your master output. If it is already at 0db, then you'll need to reduce some EQ frequency a little on your outgoing track before you make the opposite increase on your incoming track. Managing levels like this will remove the need for a compressor and it also helps to smooth out mixes because what you're cutting from one track, you're immediately adding with the other.

[andydes]

Yep. The last thing you want is to have 2 tracks playing together and as the main riff of track 2 comes in and you drop the first one out to get a big drop in energy level. Reducing clashing frequencies is a producer way of looking at eq. Think of it in terms of which parts of each track you want playing together.

Also, know you tracks. In the old days budding DJs would start with like 10 records and get to know them inside out. You probably have hundreds. So pick a few to always come back to whenever you practice.

I'm sure you know this already, but make sure the phrasing of the tracks is in sync. In dance music everything is in blocks of 8 or 16 bars. Probably almost always 16 for trance. You want that little drum fill at the end of a phrase on one track to be just before a new element comes in on the new one. Something I've done when playing my own stuff is to set a 16 bar loop at the start of the arrange page. This makes no difference to session view, except for showing a handy little counter at the top of the screen so you know where to change if you're not paying attention.

Quick movements. Just because you want a smooth mix, doesn't mean everything has to be a gradual fade. When you know the meat of a track is coming in, don't be afraid to bang it in quick.

[Scyence]

Thanks Andydes, I did just that for my mix. I know the tracks, I've definitely been creative with how I transition them, and overall I've made a nice mix of trance, progressive, and uplifting.