6:02
Phrase mixing deep house
On YouTube this video is called Intermediate DJ Lesson Mixing Deep House Phrase Mixing
What this lesson teaches
Billed as intermediate, and the thing it teaches is not a technique but a freedom.
The two attempts
He finds a definite change near the end of the outgoing track and mixes there. Then he rewinds and finds an earlier, subtler change and mixes there instead.
Both work. They sound different. Neither is the right one.
Definite changes and subtle ones
The distinction is useful.
A definite change is unmistakable - the bassline arrives, the drums drop, something obvious happens. Easy to find, easy to hit, and the mix lands with a clear seam that the room will notice.
A subtle change is what he describes in the second attempt: a low-to-mid bassline feel joined by a slightly higher sound. Harder to hear, harder to count to - and the resulting mix is smoother, because the join coincides with something the listener barely registers.
Both are legitimate. The first announces the transition; the second hides it.
Different EQ on each
He treats the two attempts differently on purpose.
First time: bass reduced on the incoming track and a little filter, then bass out of the outgoing one and the filter swept up.
Second time: everything left at twelve o'clock, the two allowed to build together, then bass out of the outgoing track and the filter up quickly.
And then he says the thing the lesson exists for: he could have used bass, mid, treble or filter in any combination he liked. It is entirely up to you.
Why that matters
Because up to this point the curriculum has been full of rules - count in fours, set the trim to 0 dB, never boost the EQ to maximum - and rules are what a beginner needs.
This is the lesson where that changes. The structural work is still arithmetic, but what you do during the overlap is a set of choices with no correct answer, and two DJs with the same records will make different ones.
That is where a style comes from, and it starts by noticing that you had options.
Contents of the video
0:01 We're going to do a bit of a deep house mix for you
Right, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to do a bit of a deep house mix for you. Two tunes we have is Grant Nelson Instrumental. It's the Random Soul track entitled Forbidden Love. And over here we have Ste, which is STE featuring Erica. Track entitled Never Gonna. It's the original mix. If you're familiar with bars and phrases, then you should pretty much get this. We're going to do the mix twice. We're going to splice it together like that. Then we'll splice it together like that. Really. That's the track that's finishing. That's the track that we're bringing in. Like that. Then we're going to bring it in like that. So we're going to move it forward a little bit. So first of all, let's go forward. By the way, this is an intermediate DJ lesson. So let's go forward slightly.
1:48 Just take out a tiny bit of the bass
Two are pretty much the last couple of phrases. I need to find a very definite change. Yeah, there. Have a listen. Again. So you've got that definite change there at that point. So that's where I'm going to start to mix. And headphones are there. So bring it back. What I'm going to do here... What I'm going to do here is I'm going to reduce the bass on the one that's coming in. Also going to add a little bit of filter. Just take out a tiny bit of the bass. So let's give this a go. Check levels. Bring the bass up. Bass out. Track going out. Filter it up. Okay, we'll do exactly the same mix. This time we're going to wang that one back a little bit. So we had a break. We had a break sort of here. There. What I need to do...
3:43 Let's have a listen to that part again
I need to listen back and find another definite break before that change. So you've got that. Right, it's a very subtle change there because we had that sort of low to mid kind of feel by baseline. But then we had a nice subtle higher sound as well. Let's have a listen to that part again. There. There. You see? That's the other thing. see have a listen again there now that's the point where I'm going to bring the track in again so let's go back a bit this time just leave all of the EQ 12 o'clock building up together nicely bass out on the one that's going out this time I'm gonna filter up quite fast okay we did two mixes but I could have done I could have used the filter the bass mid treble in any way shape or form
It's entirely up to you so I hope that's been a help practice and enjoy
Boom
This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.
