Dj'ing breakcore

[Higgins Profile]

So since we last talked I graduated from mixing shitty trance....but just trying and thinking about it...what is the best method for mixing breakcore?

[fap* Profile Website]

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drunk!

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[.dD! Profile]

Very, very true.

[Higgins Profile]

alright, awsome....time to get fucked up

[darwinarmy Profile]

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drunk!

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jajajajaja

[Alan_ Profile]

I like using cdj's or a midi controller, as you can cut tunes up and extend sections, lay samples over tracks, get creative with layering sound effects...indispensable for mixing songs that are only a couple minutes long.

[somebedroomdj Profile Website]

Here's my view on it.

I think breakcore is the hardest genre to mix because it's so varied and also because being somewhat "unpolished" is part of what makes it great. Because of this, the sonic textures you have to work with can easily stick out like a sore thumb from one another. It really needs to be done aggressively, imo.

Best to focus on the kicks for getting it beatmatched. Then focus on the common thread, which would be the frantic breaks in many cases, for making the tracks flow into one another. Lots of cutting back and forth and such. If you have a couple of really intricate snare rushes, you can play them off one another and then cut to the incoming track at just the right moment when next drop hits.

And finally, don't overlook the impact that a properly placed "hot mix" style cut can have. Just don't get too comfortable doing this.

One advantage that you'll have using Torq is that you can see the waveforms and know when something is going to change in the track. Another is that you can easily loop anything you want. This means that you can stretch out any little snippet you want and mix with just that part. Maybe the track is very cut up and changes direction a lot. Well, you can extend the part of it that you really like for as long as you need to to set up your transition.

I would point to Mark N's "Under Sufferance" mix as a shining example of how breakcore can be mixed smoothly. Also check out any of the mix cds that Baseck has released. "Instructions How To Draw Godzilla" is my favorite out of those.

[hue-e Profile Website]

if you're going from trance to breakcore... good luck.

I might try getting used to mixing some drumfunk, jungle or just about anything with a bit of edited drums. going from a 4 on the floor right into the fire that is breakcore will totally fuck you up and probably give you a bit of a challenge when it comes to beatmatching and trying to figure out where your "1, 2, 3, 4" is.

either way, I don't recommend trying this on turntables, breakcore/leftfield music tends to be all over the place when it comes to tempo and regular turntables usually only have +/- 8% pitch... in my experience, that's not enough if you want to beatmatch, unless you find a bunch of tunes with similar tempos.

like alan said, CDJs or some sort of midi controller running serato, torq, traktor, etc will work best. unless you just wanna use ableton, in which case, you dont really need to worry about beatmatching.

[PEPCORE]

Thanks for the info everybody, i wanna learn to dj brk to, i use ableton but i hate it, id ont seem to get what i need, what kind of sound card, midi controller etc to get started.

And i think you are right it is very hard to go from standard 4 step beat to breakcore, i have that also alot with producing, i made hardcore first, and its very hard to learn to make breakcore like beats, when i try to make breakcore song that 4 step beat always comes back to haunt me

I really wanna get into tha mixing, but really dont know how to start, maybe a couple of years further and i will understand.

[hue-e Profile Website]

also keep in mind that mixing breakcore is a bit more like mixing hiphop, you get a little bit of time to play around and actually mix, but it's not much. Whereas with trance you can mix for as long as you want, and all the songs basically sound the same, with the same tempo etc. it's kind of mindless really.

the way alan and I mix breakcore is usually pretty fast, and in a lot of cases, we end up using hot cues and looping to buy us even more mixing time.

[Higgins Profile]

well thats why I settled on a midi controller, traktor is nice but I already want to upgrade to the full version from the LE version which i currently have. So taking everyones advice I am trying a little jungle at the moment. The other thing I have to deal with is that I need to start buying more fucking music haha.

[hue-e Profile Website]

what kind of controller are you using with traktor?

[Higgins Profile]

BCD3000, its nice but its a budget item. I was gonna get the xponent but I don't have $700.

[pimperteen Profile Website]

any idea how to mix two tracks with different time signatures? :s

[Higgins Profile]

Im sure you could with a little effort in counting, might not sound esspecially nice but it's do able.