Man I'm old school 1210's era from the 90's when we only JUST started getting EQ splits and kills on the high mid and bass on the mixers. I see the kids dancing around on the dials these days and I don't. I am into it sometimes but you are bang on that if you leave them dials all at 12 o' clock and play with the upfaders and levels along with the timing of the mix, the EQ dancers will get a different and pleasantly surprising cross fade mix in. Nice post man.

Yep. Did this for years in the late 80's when using a mixer with no channel EQ 7 nights a week at Kings Cross Australia. You get by with what you have.

I think you're right! The keyword you mentioned for me is "rotary!" On a rotary mixer with no eq on the channels like a Urei or Bozak it "feels" more natural, especially with vinyl! Mixing on a Urei also forces you to be really selective as to what you mix because you don't have individual eq to "save the day!" Also you have less distractions (the blinking lights etc.)! For me less is more! Great video! Peace!

I always start by teaching students the drop bass/bring in/swap bass/fade out method as a good practice, explaining why they should avoid clashing basslines. Then at some point they inevitably come across a mix that sounds off with that method, and that's when we can start looking at EQing as situational. Great video!

Great way to piss off the sound engineer when your bass becomes incredibly phased

KNOW YOUR TRACKS. EQing every track works for certain genres (techno, instrumental dub house) and the Xone 92 encourages it with its cueing system. However, the mixer can't compensate for DJ laziness. Get to know your tracks and their idiosyncrasies. The rotary mixer he mentioned was used for disco and a lot of early house, which usually had a 32 bar drum intro. Those tracks made it easy to go without knowing your tracks but you still had to remember to pull out the first track before vocals or bass kicked in. Software today will even tell you what tracks are harmonically matched, so there is no excuse for not knowing at least where the vocal or bass comes in. It takes just a little time to know your tracks. And hey, you are supposed to like listening to the music you have, so listen to it on your own before you DJ it.

When I started mixing in 91” all I had was a 2 channel n cross fader mixer, no eq. It was all about input, output levels for each channel & knowing your tracks. I got satisfaction from making people jump. Now days mixing prog house I wouldn’t mix without eq, would give me no satisfaction. Constantly creating your own tracks off what people have produced. Floats my boat.

I started mixing thirty five plus years ago. You had to know your songs. Where the break points were. Percussion and drum breaks where at. Giving the crowd a chance enjoy the music. Learn how and when it was time to transition to the next song and how to move into it. No two mixes were the same. I started with some cheap brand of mixers with a five band EQ for over all sound. I bought a GLI PMX 7000 mixer it had the same five band EQ on top. The problem with GLI was the drop off in sound in side to side crossfader mixing. To over come that. I learned how to what is called Hamster mix. Leaving the crossfader in the center. Using the vert. line channel slides to mix. I still had to know the points in the song but in using the slide I could ease off the bass some to mix in the new song. Poor mans version of a Isolator and Rotary mixer. In those days you learned how to Finesse your mixes. I was what was called a DJ mixer. Technical with song transitioning. Some guys were quick mix wham bam style. Finnes mixing made it sound like one long song. Todays DJ's most don't have a smooth touch. The new Dj mixers allow you to cheat your way thru. Forcing two songs to work together. Very few dedicate time to the craft. You can hear it. I like to listen to the old school vets. Humpheres, Pettibone, Daryl James and Ron Hardy.. Sounds from The Loft, The Garage, Zanzabar and The Underground. Those were prime examples of talent and great venues. Peace and Love.

Honestly I've never understood why DJ's dial back the low end on the inbound track. I love having both at full frequency, especially when the kicks are similar and I can get them to phase cancel (or just prior to phase cancellation you can get a unique chirpy sound.) In the early 90's when everyone was using the stock 909 kick, the phasing happened quite a bit on my blends and I used it as a guide - when I heard that "chirp" I knew the beat matching was perfectly lined up.

Is no one gonna mention the Three Wolf Moon shirt........... k

I use rotary mixer, and I’m 100% with you on this, mixes def do sound better without using eq and just using slow smooth fades, with gentle volume curves etc,

Early 2021 and I've just come across this video...Strangely I've been doing this quite naturally, I play deep house, melodic techno and some prog and I've been playing with faders doing long mixes and running into's and the outro together (where complimentary) and finding this adds more depth & definition to my mixing...so thanx for the confirmation 5 years down the track!

After recording your mixes, it's helps to look at the waveform where your transitions are. At first mine really spiked. That's when I realized I was doing it all wrong! :))

Some of the best transitions I've ever heard was DJs mixing eurobeat music back in the 80s, to this day I still can't replicate how good they were but I'm improving!

You're so right! It all depends on the tracks. Sometimes it seemed like I couldn't get a transition done, but when leaving the EQ's at twelve and even out the faders more then usual, it worked! Most of the times I swap out the lows and use some filter to smooth it out. But it just doesn't work with every track.

I just thought id drop a comment to say thank you very much for your very straightforward and informative videos. Ive been mixing for some time now and only last night after watching one of your videos did I learn the difference between hot cues and the standard 10 memory bank (came from vinyl and found it a bit of a faff, ive been skimming through to cue's as if its a record for years because I never really understood the memory function). Also, after watching your video on levels my xone 92 is much happier and the sound I'm sure is better. Also, I just tried mixing without the standard go to eq mix or VCF filter mixes I regularly do and it sounded really nice, big thick sound and no clashes at all when keeping a nice control on the up faders. You're a legend, a lot of DJ's can learn from some nice straight basic advice regardless of how long they've been mixing. Much respect.

I dont think it has to do with mixing style. From my experience not all mixers are the same in particular the crossfader. A pioneer 909 has a completely different curve setting than say a Rane 62. On the 909 you can actually set it to a super deep curve where you get no spike in db with 2 tracks playing, crossfader in middle, no eq. All it is is that some mixers have wider, smoother, longer, deeper curve settings. The rotary mixers are like that.

Three years too late running into this but better late than never. Lol I have actually always done the same but with opposite tracks; i lower the lows on the track playing as i am bringing in the new track; do it simultaneously. Lately though i have started using the highs as well to mix with tracks that have allot going on per beat like EDM from watching a Laidback Luke in my mind mix videos. I've noticed the transitions are better because it doesn't sound like a giant cluster of sounds. But with hip hop or tracks that are in the 80-110 range i dont mess with all the eqs or lower the lows all the way. Just a tiny bit depending on how i think it sounds. I have been mixing allot with my cross fader instead of my channel fader; im going to switch back for awhile see if i notice a difference.

Yes, always use EQs. And for blending vocals, add a bit of reverb on both channels to make the vocals fill more space and so they both blend together properly.

I've spun for over 33 years and only in the last 5 or so have I been a digital DJ, you mentioned the Urei 1620 how about the old Bozak's... that's where I learned to mix, ride the pitch controls on the 1200's and learn to mix in key before that was even a thing that someone was able to use to make money on. Now that I have EQ's I try to diddle with them on a few mixes and they sound like drek... it was simple to just mix not put on a show!

I found that up for my self also a few months ago, when i was listening to new york house (and chicago). It does feels different, maybe better, but as you have said, you have to work a lot on faders and the timing when to bring the next track in and you have to know your music better. It also depends on the music you are spinning.

I grew up on rotary, so I only use EQ to play with the track - not blend. It's always been about mixing with the level faders or knobs. Faders just take some learning and can be as accurate pretty sounding as a Urei with some work.

This works with house but leave the bass up on both channels when your mixing Jungle/DNB and the bad things will happen

great tutorial, i would say the low end freq is the most noticeable on a great sound system.

EQ 100% of the time, I take out the bass and some mid of the incoming track to keep things clean. I tend to adjust the mid before swapping the bass. However, when I started 15 years ago, there was no EQ on my mixer, so I would work the faders a bit more to smooth out the overall level

That's funny you said that. I started using just the faders when I mix. I'm still learning to use the EQs.

Never ever use crossfaders, but I do find myself hovering the EQ's. Would've liked an example of good blending without EQ versus with, but I'll definitely be thinking about it next time at the mixer

interesting point with the rotary experience!!! Gonna try out using just the line faders... but like you said,,, coming from the turntablism background the crossfader is heavily in use even for house mixing... adjust the curve from fast to smooth and the crossfader will do an excellent job for transitions. I always feel kinda sorry for the ever since unused crossfaders of new house djs who only use the linefaders for mixing leaving the crossfader untouched like an abandoned child ;) use all you got, try it our, ecperiment! peace happy spinning!

I use a bit of both honestly. It highly HIGHLY depends on the tracks being mixed. Each transition is different and should be treated as such, DJs please learn one transition technique is -not- enough to do for every single transition in a set, just a word of advice! Nice video!

I use to do that to. But now I do it on a as need basis. It all comes down to choosing the right cross over curve from your software that made using the eq during a mix not as necessary as it use to be.

I agree I get good results sometimes without using EQs. When I mixed on vinyl i never used Eq

Such a great video and i agree completely. When i mix using a controller or dj software such as traktor i always find my blends are far more rigid and i robotically use the EQs and it can sound quite dull. But when I mix use vinyl only i tend to spend less of my time focussing on the EQs and will fade the next song is sometimes without touching the EQ at all, and it sounds great!

Wow!! Just seeing this now in 2018!! I've always belived in this. If you watch your levels you don't need to take out the bass of the incoming track. I've never done it and NOBODY has ever told me that the mixes sound bad (even the most tight-ass sound engineers that I've worked with). You just have to KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING and watch your levels! Your ears are your friend!

Nice tip. Will definitely try this out. I always by default swap out the bass, and sometimes even the mid and treble( have these at around 10:00 for incoming track). I do a lot of harmonic mixing and the reason I've always done that with my EQs is because I like to ride my transitions quite a bit as opposed to cutting into the next track. Will def give this a bash.

In the example above you're lowering the bass of the channel you're mixing next into, and then subtly increasing it, as you decrease the bass of the channel you're mixing out of. In addition to this, another way is to keep full bass of the new channel you're mixing into and subtly drop the bass of the channel you're mixing out of. I also use the infamous Filter effect to cut out EQs from a channel I'm mixing into, but only a little. This is quite handy as the Filter will drop out alot of sounds including some bass and let you mix in the channel without too many sounds clashing

MO Great prestation like always I keep everything in middle and treble at 1 O'clock when I come in and back to middle. I hope that made sense. Bless you🙏🏿🤛🏿👊🏿🤜🏿

Back in the day, before all this digital stuff, we never touched EQ unless the track itself was lacking. 11 years behind 1200s and a mixer, I maybe EQed a few times a night.

I think it's all situational. Some songs lend themselves better to EQ mixing, and some songs you don't need it. I made a mix not too long ago that uses both methods (KZfaq won't let me upload it because it has Beastie Boys). That is the art of the craft though. That's what makes DJing fun, being able to learn different techniques and methods and learning to apply them. Good vid, Mojaxx.

great video man. looking forward to the next one

My blends are as smooth on my mixer as any rotary and I don't use the line faders at all. I set my crossover curve so that when my faders dead center both tracks are playing at equal volume. While I'm fading to the middle I'm lowering the bass on the out going track at the same time. By the time I get to the middle the bass on the out going track is at around 9 o'clock. As I move the fader to 3 quarters of the way across I've already dropped the bass of the out going track completely. And all this is done in 16 beat counts. This is when I'm blending long when I'm playing house music. When I'm doing hip hop, r&b and other genre's I'm always doing different kinds of blends depending on the tracks I'm playing together. This style works for me and my transitions are as smooth as anyones with less eq work.

Good video. I have been thinking the same thing myself and have consciously been trying to use the up faders in the same way as a rotary, playing more with the volume then the eq. I am close to biting the bullet and getting a Condesa Carmen, I like simplicity. I am debating between getting the model with inbuilt isolator or the model with the eq section. A part of me feels though, that per channel eq is taking away the essence of what a rotary is, but at the same time it gives you that flexibility to cut the bass if you really need to or want to ... I think I need to get my hands on one first. I wish they put out some demo units at stores and took orders from them.

I think it all comes to the genre and style of mixing as well... for example you have Xone mixers who most techno DJs seem to love due to the fact you have 4 band EQs. But again if you are mixing 4 techno tracks at the same time, EQ is probably the only way to keep the mix level reasonable, without rocketing due to the 4 decks sounding at the same time. The problem is taking that as a universal truth for ALL transitions. Sometimes you just need to listen carefully to the music and how it works with each individual track or situation. And by the way, I love clashing drums when perfect beatmatching, that muzzed sound is almost announcing a new track is coming!!

unless I have to I don't use eq very much unless I have when I first started we only had realistic mixers which only had volume controls and had to mix with that

I know where you coming from I did this at a gig where I used a Allen & Heath mixer in place of a pioneer where i m used to the EQ's and volume controls and my default mixing style kicked in after a while I adapted to the mixer and the set sounded alot better with the mixing and blending of each tracks to cutting up

I learned to mix on a made to fade gm25....... Best ashtray I ever had !!!!!!

Love all your videos. I want to see how you transfer your mix over to Ableton,and what Eqs,limiters,and your process of post production to get the best sound for playback when uploading and listening from Soundcloud. ✌️

To me, I feel it's how your body arms and hands move organically with the music using rotary pots as opposed to a un-natural linear movement listening to music and blending using the channel/crossfader.

I just can’t bring myself to not cut the bass on the incoming track

old school for me,, Fader, but i have been using the eq s a lot latey

While I practice for an upcoming gig, I did use a combo of EQ and fader. On some transitions, I would use just the faders. In addition, I starting to slowing bring a track in and not slam in when I reach 7 to 10. It made a huge difference and the blended sound much smoother. As DJs, we should switch things up.

the reason why rotary mixers are that much better at blending/mixing is real simple, it would be like having 10" faders thus having much more seamless control over the volume.

I've always mixed using the crossfader! All I do is set the Contour of the crossfader.

I personally only use the EQ's to keep the songs from running over each other but other than that I like going between EQ mixing and FX mixing

I've never took the bass out to transition? Not once. So, thanks for the tip in reverse, I shall try messing with the eq for a transition.

The issue for me is i am one of those guys who use the crossfader.. not the upfader.. so its gonna be a little bit more trickier for me.. but i haven't been doing the bass cutting thing that often until i switch to controllers for some reason..

sometimes it does depend on the track and how its mastered, every track is different. i do use mid alot for mixing soul tracks

Thans what I also thought About iT and now I stil think go on I Will folow you keep up Your positieve power thanx mate

i like to mix withouth the eq sometimes because i like to ride the basslines in the songs this is well for me as my style is a kinda hip hop smoothed over rnb with some techno and edm

Ofcourse you do, bass is very important when you are playing 2 songs at the same time. Lower the bass on the outgoing track, if not the volume would be doubled. Same counts for your mid and high if there are a lot of hi hats or snaredrums.

I use EQ on all mixes and of course my strategy on lows are the same. However, the incoming track I do sometimes lower the mids and highs depending on vocals etc. Which track do I want to rule the mids and highs. but a lot of time these are micro adjustments just to give one an edge of the other.

Love this post. Fuck yeah.

Back years and years ago, when I started spinning, only high end clubs used mixers with channel eq. Many used the Rodec MX180 and a few others like it or better there was channel eq available. But a lot of places used high quality stuff, but without channel eq. That was just how stuff were and people need to realize that for the best result, you need to preset a source output as close to the original as possible. Another interesting thing to talk about, when it comes to whether or not using eq, and why it often sounds so bad when done, is comb filtering and phase issues. You can use the eq to deal with the former, but not the latter. What I do is to do a normal basic tempo match, end then run the beats 100% together, Then, if I'm on vinyl, I'll just touch the platter side ever so slightly or give the pitch bend the slightest little tap, thus creating a time delay of only about 100-150ms. This will remove a lot of the phasing issues and all of the comb filtering. Then the last thing is to NOT run your channels in exactly the same level. Turn down both, but keep one 0.5 db lower than the other, Then you'll get a very clean combined signal out. If you really want to get anal, use the channel eq, but with a very fine hand. take ALL the controls on one channel and adjust them about an 8th. to 4th. of a db, no more. Bingo, ALL phasing and comb filtering gone. All of this takes a sensitive steady hand and just as sensitive of an approach. Being a good DJ is just like being a good pianist or guitar player, you need to hone your skills. Problem is that since you do not need to do anything to get the music to play in the first place, everybody thinks they can do it. Imagine a world where everybody went to nightclubs with a guitar and a mic and started to perform with no practice. That's how 75% or more clubs works these days. It's idiotic. Would be wonderful if there was a way to be registered as a "Certified" or "Licensed" dj. Had a bit of a laugh on behalf of another dj some time ago. I was supposed to supply a complete desk for a mid sized venue. Put together a desk with three CDJ2000 machines and a Formula FF4000. When he arrived, I told him our machines were set up not to accept MP3 files. The look on his face was priceless. Needless to say his set sucked and so did the quality of his material. I hate people who think being a dj or sound engineer is something you do for fun like some kind of "playing".

Sometimes the crowd doesn't know that there's a mix happening until you mess with the EQ's, especially the base.

I definitely mix everything with EQ. High, Mid, and Lows on 3-4 decks at the same time. 2 decks I just do half mid, full low.

This won't sound good on a lot of cheap mixers such as the DJM-600 etc. Those old Urei's and Bozak's, the way they sum the signals sounds superb and on top have extremely high headroom thanks to their beefy PSU rails. Most people won't understand what you're saying unless they've played a mixer of that kind.

I use the EQ's for almost every transition. (Obviously excluding when I just drop it on the one.) I'll have to give this a try. Maybe not take the bass down quite so much. Maybe just not the Basin to the negative a few points.

mojaxx you the man!

I do this more with House music but fall into the habit of doing it with other genres

With waveforms so common place now. Whether your laptop or CDJ you can match baselines so tight that the EQ on my mixer never gets touched. I only use it to thin out the midrange if it gets a bit crowded.

depends really. if you're mixing house, and blending a lot with slow transitions I'd say yes

Fuckin great video mate! For myself, I often change it up depending on the tracks. Some tracks lend themselves to transition well with the faders - whereas others are better for eq mixing. If I'm mixing out of key I'll jump from track a to track b with no transition period, but if the tracks are in key I'll take advantage of this by using the eqs to balance the melodies and have both playing together harmonically.

What about the kick drums canceling each other, that was the main reason to use the base eq

excellent..........your%100.....thank you the BRONX NY

Well... most use it because it can add "make up" when loosing the beat. With an UREI 1620 or a Bozak you can't do that.

EQ is really useful!

i tend to just leave bass lines at 12 and when its time to mix i slowly take bass out of one song as i move the fade to middle line and on the last few beats i hit each out and i am on to next song

I have a problem with a djm600, when I play my turntables it sometimes go quiet then loud, also beatmatcher doesn't work, what's happening? HElp somebody it's doing my head in.

is that a Numark V7 on the lower right shelf? I love that unit.

rewatch this vid. and yes it can sound better but do you know what sounds even better bass to 11 oclock and then fader mix

i prefer to ude the high-pass filter to my blends.

I remember us chatting online all night about this perticular concept mo. I only just seen the vid. Top work Bro 👍

Do you guys actually make your own brand of dj gear??? Because it said djcity on the mixer if so where can I buy the gear?

Well, yes, I would, but mixing in key is difficult with traditional vinyl...any tips for that?

record what you mix and you will eventually feel how you use your eq

make your transition...

When i use mid on Hip Hop ?

Not every transition. Depends on the mood ect.

depends on the track

what are the tracks you are playing here?

So the high's and mid's stay stationary through the whole set?

Sup with the sound? Does this vid sound really muddy or is it just me?

So true, that's me! LOL

as a hardcore makina dj i rape the ups and downs cuting never blending slowly wouldnt work with hardcore

I knew it

what tracks are those ? sound dope as fk.. damn

I want a white x1

All depends on the tracks some have more bass some have more terrible then others

i eq the song before i bring it in, that's it

Spin back..often..

if i buy that color il bite and lick my mixer and controller all the time in my sets