Unless you’re a club or mix-show deejay, you probably don’t spend much time beatmixing. It’s honestly not a priority skill for a great commercial or imaging producer. But, every now and then you get a spot that just cries out for a bit of song blending, so I want to offer up a quick video about how I deal with it. This month’s video will give you the basics.
Beatmixing most definitely leans to the art side of what we do. The basics I’m giving you are, strictly speaking, pure science. You have to be able to count out a bar of music accurately, be precise in your placement of files and reliably interpret the waveforms to use these basics. I’m confident that regular readers/viewers can do all of that. The art side, where most of this activity lives, is a bit more demanding. You’ll have to hear the harmonics of the two (or more) songs you’ll be working with and you definitely have to have a solid grasp of musical phrasing. If you’ve not spent much time beatmixing, your first few attempts will doubtless be less than stellar performances, but don’t get discouraged. I can almost guarantee you that the first mixes by (insert name of famous club deejay) were less than amazing, but they kept after it. It’s part of the learning curve. Again, it’s not a terribly important skill for a commercial or imaging producer to have, because it just doesn’t come up often. When it does though, you’ll be grateful you at least know the basics.
It’s not terribly long, so just click play and enjoy!