Thursday, November 5, 2015

How I Program Music for a live event and for a recorded mix set

I was contacted last on my Facebook artist page from a long time follower.  He has, throughout the years, been supportive of my mixes and mashups that I post online.   He himself is working towards becoming a DJ and he tells me at times that I inspire him.  How cool is that?  Thank you Marin, this post is dedicated to you.

So anyway, he contacts me and tells me that he's now about to be mentored by a working DJ and now he's set up to actually play for a crowd.  Although he has plenty of songs and remixes/mashups, he is not sure how to structure the set.  He asked if I could give him some tips on how he could approach picking out songs that compliment each other and reflect the current atmosphere of the room.  This inspired me to think about sharing what I know that has worked for me, and could work for him and anybody else that struggles with this puzzle.  

So let's begin.

I'll first qualify this article by stating that I don't consider my approach the most correct or better than another's.  There are many ways to create a great set and there are many ways to fail at it.  My approach is based on my research, trial and error, and studying and breaking down sets I feel work within the context of DJing at a night club.  

Picking music to play during the night is really a combination of a few things.  Our music tastes, what we think the room needs or wants, what's the energy of the room at the moment, and what type of event/audience are we actually performing for.  

Because this topic can be so lengthy, exhaustive, and cover so many areas, I'm only going to focus on how I pick music when DJing at a nightclub or bar that has a dancefloor.  I'll also talk a bit on how I program music when recording a mix set, for comparison purposes.

I'm an open format DJ.  That's means to say that I can pretty much play every type of music that people generally dance too.  It also means that I am challenged with figuring out how these different types of songs (genres and eras) work together to make my set sound good to both the dancers and the bystanders.   If the club requires Deep House or Nu Disco that is not explosive and is meant as a background for the guests buying their expensive Champagne, it's not a problem.  If the club or bar wants a party DJ to get the crowd dancing and drinking, but no Hip-Hop or Reggaeton, no problem.  And if it's a venue that wants the crowd to enjoy themselves, but also keep them as long as possible so they can make more money at the bar, then there is a way to play in order to accomplish that.  Sets can be tailored according to the club's format or crowd response.  

What I generally tend to do is:  

1.  Select music that has a rhythm pattern (drum pattern) that compliments one another.
2.  Select music that have complimentary keys (harmonic).

RHYTHMIC PATTERNS

Most music have a certain drum pattern.   Finding another song with a similar drum pattern and mixing them together will result in a very seamless transition.  As if the drummer did not have to change his way of drumming on the track from one song to the next.  

For example, Queen - We Will Rock You has a very distinct drum pattern that goes like this.




The following track by J-Kwon - Tipsy also has a drum pattern that is similar.



Big Boi - Shutterbug shares a similar pattern to the two tracks above.



Who can forget this 80s classic by Tears for Fears.



And lastly, we can include another 80s classic.



If we were to mix all these tracks together, it could sound like this.  Pay attention to the drum beats.



The cool thing to note is that these songs are of differing genres.  "We Will Rock You" is Rock, "Shout" and "Rock Me Amadeus" are New Wave, and "Shutterbug" and "Tipsy" are both Hip-Hop tracks.  These songs can mix with each other nicely because the drum beats compliment each other, regardless of genre or era they were made in.

So when it comes to programming music, drum beats (rhythmic pattern) in music plays a big role.  

Here is an example of two songs with non-complimentary drum rhythms mixed together.



 As you can hear, the drum beats are synced, but the drum patterns don't compliment each other.  Both drum beats are doing different things and although they are matched up, it's clashing.  It's a rhythmic clash.

Does this mean that "Freak of the Week" can't mix well with "Tipsy"?  No, not in that particulr way that I demonstrated.  But there are methods for making the mix work well so that you eliminate the clash between the drum rhythms.  This is an area that I plan to talk more about later.   

When it comes to House music that uses a 4/4 (Four to the Floor) rhythm pattern, the challenge of mixing House tracks with other House tracks becomes less challenging.  Most extended versions of House tracks contain a drum intro and drum outro, allowing the songs to mix without a rhythmic drum clash.  There are some exceptions, but in general, these 4/4 style songs tend to mix well when you consider ONLY the drum rhythm.  There are also other factors that come into play when I select songs to mix in a set.  The second  factor involves the song's key signature.  For me, this becomes very important when wanting to achieve a good flow in my set.  

MUSIC KEYS (HARMONIC MIXING)

When I play out, I tend to mix harmonically.  I don't do it 100% of the time because programming a set for a live crowd requires me to be able to switch things up as I judge necessary.  I need to have the flexibility to make changes in my programming to suit the needs of the dancefloor/crowd.  It's possible to do both, but if I can't, then I will ignore the Harmonics of the two songs in favor of reading the dancefloor.

Why mix harmonically?  

For one reason, it sounds good.  We all have ears and we all have a sense of what sounds good and what doesn't.  There is a reason why songs that are key compatible sound better than if they were not.  The most obvious reason is that there is a tonal relationship between the two songs that is in harmony.  

Let's break this down further to discuss the parts of a song.  If a music producer is composing a song, he is going to want the instruments being used to be in the same key.  This is generally accepted.  The song's lead guitar, bass, strings, synth leads, synth pads, saxaphone, lead and background vocals, etc. are all going to be in the same key.   Let's use the following track as an example:  

Robin Schulz - Sugar (Bass, Lead Vocal, Electric Guitar) in key A#m



In the above example, I'm only using three song elements.  The bass guitar, electric guitar, and lead vocal.  Each element in this mixdown are in the key A#m.  

What would this sound like if the electric guitar was suddenly in C minor while the rest remained in A#m?

This is what it would sound like:

As you can hear, the electric guitar is in a different key than the rest of the elements (bass guitar, lead vocal).  Even though it's synced, and follows a similar chord progression, the "mix" sounds dissonant because the keys are not compatible.  



Let's take this example even further by making all the song elements different in key.  The electric guitar will be in C minor, the lead vocal in G#m, and the bass in A#mThis is how the "mix" will sound.



The mix sounds even more dissonant because none of the elements are harmonic, even though they actually are synced up.  This dissonance is something that most people can detect and inherently know as wrong.  It just doesn't sound right to the ear.

Now, take a step back and apply this idea to a DJ set.  How can we make our mix sound harmonic so as it's pleasing to the ear and still be flexible in adapting our set "ad hoc"?

 

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Thursday, January 8, 2015

WE LOVE THE 90S MEGAMIX




WE LOVE THE 90S MEGAMIX


Approach and Methodology


My approach to this megamix was to look at it as a mix production and not a mix set.  When the organizer explained that he wanted us to provide "self produced megamix", I understood immediately that he was thinking of a megamix production that was reminiscent of the era and style when DJs would create megamixes using reel to reel machines or multi-track digital recorders.  In essence, it would be a medley of many songs in just a short span of time.  There are a few ways of creating megamixes, such as using a primary beat throughout the mix and arrange and layer the samples in a way that sounds good.  In this example, I did not use a primary beat and instead used traditional methods such as beatmatching (8, 12, 16 measures)  and in some cases beat switching.  I also used my knowledge of mashing up songs to add an extra element to this mix by creating new compositions using acapellas, instrumentals, and samples from the 90s.  

I'm not an expert in creating megamixes and some pros that are may argue that this megamix is more of a quick mix, since a true megamix may contain significantly more samples such as 100 tracks in just fifteen minutes, where I used around 37 tracks. 

The mix contest had some important guidelines.  It had to be between 10 - 15 minutes long and it had to include hit songs from artists that are performing at WLT90s2015.  The following artist had to be in this mix:

  1. Shaggy (US)
  2. Scooter (DE)
  3. 2 Unlimited (NL)
  4. E-type (SE)
  5. Safri Duo (DK)
  6. Lou Bega (DE)
  7. Rednex (SE)
  8. Alice DeeJay (NL)
  9. Solid Base (SE) Twenty 4 Seven (NL)
This proved to be challenging since I had to make sure that the songs I chose by the required artists would work well with each other.  Also, I wanted to be able to include other hit songs from the 90s to fill out the mix.  It would have been cool if I could have just used material from each artists' discography, but that would have been another limitation in addition to the contest's requirements.  So I took the path of least resistance and decided to include other hit's from the 90s and mix them with songs from the required artists, with focus on the main artists.  I got approval from the contest organizer first before proceeding with this plan.

The first step in creating this mix was to sit and with a pen and paper, sketch out a plan for arranging the tracks together.  This gave me an idea of what tracks I would definetely use from the main artists (i.e. "No Limit", "Angels Crying").  I also created a rough draft of other 90s music I could include in this mix to fill out the mix and bridge the required songs together.  

The first challenge I noted was that it would be difficult mixing Shaggy and Lou Bega in this mix, which would mostly consist of uptempo Euro Dance music.  Shaggy and Lou Bega's hits were mostly low tempo tracks (80-95 BPM Hip-Hop, Reggae, SynthPop).  In addition, there were no uptempo remixes of those artists from that era that I could take advantage of for this project.    There was however, an acapella of Shaggy's "It Wasn't Me" and I decided that an uptempo mashup would be my starting point for this megamix.  After auditioning a few samples, I decided on using the instrumental of Marky Mark's "Good Vibrations".  

Now there were two issues with this track.  First, an official instrumental of the album version was never released.  I actually went on www.discogs.com to purchase the 12", which contained a tracked called  Good Vibrations (Boomin' Beats For Marky's Jeep - Instrumental Dub).  

http://www.discogs.com/Marky-Mark-The-Funky-Bunch-Good-Vibrations/release/199574
 
However, after  purchasing the vinyl and listening to that track, I realized that it was not the actual album instrumental, but more of a remix dub.  I actually wanted to use the familiar beat from the actual album version, so I compromised and purchased a karaoke version of the instrumental.  

The second issue was that the song's key was in G#m and the vocal from "it wasn't me" was in G minor.   What I did was alter the key of the instrumental one semitone so that it would fit the singing vocal much better.  I also time-stretched the acapella to 128 bpm from it's original bpm of 96.   

This method allowed me to mashup Shaggy with a beat that I could  now fit with the overall sound of the mix.  

The next required artist that I would use in this mix would be 2 Unlimited.  However, I did not find that mixing any of their songs into the beat of "Good Vibrations" sounded good.  Therefore, I used a "transitional" song to get me from "Good Vibrations" to "Twilight Zone".  This was Reel 2 Reel "I like to Move it".  To make the transitional song sound interesting during the segment and mask the transition I mashed it up with vocal elements from Technotronic, Mighty Dub Katz, Mr. Lee, 20 Fingers, Tag-Team, and C&C Music Factory.  Even when I finally was in the song "Twilight Zone", I still kept a vocal bit from "I like to move it" to give it some reference to the previous track that was used.  These techniques are used to trick the listener so that they think they are still in song A but are really in song B. 

I would use these techniques thought the mix to bridge the songs from the required artists, fill out the mix, and provide some ear candy to the listener.  I tried not to stay too long on a song (8 / 16 measures).  I would also sample melodies on some minimal beats to help transition to the next segment of the megamix.  In this case, sampling the melody of Snap "Rhythm is a Dancer" under the beat of 2 Unlimited "No Limit", during the chorus of "No Limit".  I then used that melody from "Rhythm is a Dancer" to transition to the actual album version and sample the vocal from the required artist/song, Rednex "Cotton Eye Joe".

If I felt an original song from a required artist would not work within the mix, I would then see if it was possible to remix the vocal with an instrumental from the 90s that would work.  I did this for tracks such as "Cotton Eye Joe" and "It wasn't me".  Using the beat from "Rhythm is a Dancer" allowed me to transition to Safri Duo "Played Alive" from 2 Unlimited "No Limit".

While I wanted this megamix to play the songs short (8 - 16 measures), there were some areas where I decided to play them longer because of the nature of the vocal I was mashing it up with.  One example was Alice Deejay "Better Off Alone" remixed with the vocal from Everything But the Girl "Missing".  I felt the vocal harmonized well with the beat and wanted the listener to enjoy it for the duration of the verse and chorus.  

It's also worth noting that I tried to make this mix, with all the tracks involved, key compatible.  I relied on tweaking the root key of some tracks to make them work with other songs.  For example, I changed the key of Alice Deejay "Better off Alone" from G#m to Am so that it would work with the vocal from Everything But the Girl "Missing".  I altered the keys of "Magic Carpet Ride", "Slave to the Music", "Rhythm is a Dancer", "This is how we do it", Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, and "Better off alone".

 All the mashups that were used in this mix were created specifically for this project.  In other words, I had not produced those mashups previously.


Although the 90s is not an era I work with primarily as a DJ, I did have a mix-show for many years on Radio 1075 (Stockholm) where I would mix 90s music on-air during their lunch hour.  I've also had extensive experience mixing daily for The Voice and NRJ Radio.  I think having that background helped in shaping my ideas for this mix.  My experience in producing mashups/edits also contributed to how this mix sounded overall.  


There were some challenges I had in making this mix.  One main issue was that I did not have all the music available in the studio.  I did alot of research on www.discogs.com to find out what original or remix versions were released during the 90s, as well as dub, instrumental, and acapella tracks.  I wanted to make the mix using actual tracks from that era.  If I could not find the track on any one of my music sources, I would then go and purchase the CD Maxi or 12" at www.discogs.com.  It took a while to get all the source tracks in the studio.  I also want to thank Vladislav Chavine for being kind enough to help me rip some of the vinyl tracks to digital.


The second challenge was that I was not able to get an authentic instrumental to Marky Mark's "Good Vibration" and authentic acapella to "Missing" by Everything But The Girl.  There never was a release of these two tracks officially and there were no leaks on the Internet.  To solve this I used a cover version.  I wasn't 100% pleased with this but after listening to the mix a few times I got used to the cover tracks.

The third challenge was including Lou Bega - Mambo No 5 into this mix.  The song was the outlier of the project.  It just didn't fit in with the Euro House style of the rest of the artists/tracks.  There was no 90s era remix that worked well and there was no acapella available.  As a result I ended the high energy set with Scooter and proceeded to make my own little mashup of two of Lou Bega's popular songs, which sounded very similar to one another.

I spent quite a bit of time thinking up the structure of the mix, procuring the music, auditioning the samples, arranging the tracks, and recording the mix.  When I was not working in the studio preparing for my gigs or being a full time dad, I would spend few hours in the night time working on this project.  Total time was around 12 hours from thought to execution.

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