'Not bad' was my thought about halfway through this mix.
It started off wrong - about a mix in I canned the recording, took a step back and started again. I guess I was trying too hard. I was trying to shoehorn something together that was 'intellectually smart' but musically just not going to work.
I started again. Let the first track decide what the second track needed to be, and went from there.
I am focusing more and more on getting out of the headphones and doing as much work as possible in the monitors. Remembering that I am still manually beatmatching - so it's sometimes a case of some rather aggressive pitch fader riding to get things in quickly and keep them there.
It's interesting, but noticeable, that once you get into the monitors, listening, not looking at waveforms, not overthinking 'how' things should sound - that they often sound better. Our human senses do seem to work better than digital replacements sometimes. It might not be as 'digitally perfect' but its more pleasing, at least to my sensibility.
I am aware that there must be a generation of DJs out there, and likely listeners that would pull a sour face at the first sign of a mix going out of time/step. But to me, that's still the human element of mixing. All the great mixes I still listen to, have an aspect of hearing the actual person behind the decks/mixer/system. Otherwise, it might as well just have been crafted in Ableton, perfect in every way. I like to hear a unique performance. Otherwise, I might as well do it myself.
Follow me over on my site - kerry.co.nz - more mixes, thoughts, brain farts.
Mixed on a pair of 1200 mk5, with a Rane TTM57SL, Serato Scratch Live and recorded onto a Zoom F4.
Generally one take - if it goes truly pair shaped, I just take a step back then start again.
#turntables #djmix #housemusic
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