mixing dub music with CD

daniele · Post by **daniele** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 9:15 am

greetings to each and everyone. people has been asking me to DJ for them; it just uppened that my flatmate has a CD mixer, with 2 CD decks, so I was thinking of starting playing my CD collection to the masses... can enyone give me some advices on how to get started? considering that I've never mixed even with vinyls... another thing: does anyone know where people like aba shanty or jah shaka get their records? I'm looking for the most cutting edge UK dub, but it's so hard to find! One Love daniele piano b: contemporary conscious music <A HREF="http://www.piano-b.com" TARGET="_top">http://www.piano-b.com</A>

Post by **interruptor** » Wed Nov 17, 2004 1:49 pm

i think it really depends in which direction you are heading with your sets. since you mention shaka and aba shanti i assume you wouldn't want to beatmatch the tunes to create a never ending tune like techno dj's do. most cd players make it more difficult to match the beats than standard vinyl turntables, but this might not be an issue for you anyway. shaka and aba shanti both play on one turntable only as you surely know. what they actually do is play dubs, chant over them and add sound effects. the result is not really a dub dj set but rather a live reggae session. is this what you have in mind? if yes, just go ahead with your cd players. beatmatching is no issue then. a problem could be that not all the cutting edge tunes are available on cd.. if you are not following the shaka/aba shanti route i'd suggest to rather go for a lounge or ambient setting since it's hardly possible to make people dance with dub tunes alone as I experienced. finally here are four hints for starting djs: 1. selection: the music is most important. if the music sucks no dj skills will help you to keep an audience interrested. 2. sequence: if you play a slower tune after a faster one your set will seem to loose energy. it's better to start slow and then get faster gradually. 3. don't mix up the controls. (a classical one: opening the door of the wrong cd-player / picking up the needle on the wrong turn table) if you are nervous think twice before you touch any control 4. levels: make sure the volume of your set does not differ drastically from one tune to the next. don't thrust the vu-meters on your mixer, use your ears while fading to the next tune.

daniele · Post by **daniele** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 10:43 am

thanks interruptor; I would love to make a set live like aba or shaka, but I don't think I have their "charisma". so I was actually thinking of making people dance! for this reason and because my personal taste is driving me there, I have started collecting a style of dub that is more danceble: your tune on roots of dub f4 for example it's very danceble. I'm also talking about dub of people like dubdadda, zion train, shanti ites, etc. but it's very true what you say about finding records on CD! but I'm going to go for CD because that is more of an hobby, as you know my main activity is producing, and it happened that I have the CD players at my house. so do you think that getting the tunes on the same tempo and fade smoothly one to another is not an issue at all? One Love daniele

Post by **interruptor** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 2:39 pm

i see.. if you want to make people dance with dub then beatmatching can be helpful to carry over the energy from one track to the next. but you'll need a cd player with dj-features: instant start without delay, pitch control, a monitoring function to search and pause at a meaningful startpoint. if your player does not have such features there is no hope beatmatching will work.. but you can still come up with pleasing results by bringing your tracks in a good sequence: group tunes with similar bpm count(beats per minute) and groove together. most dubs have a nice intro with a drum roll so people will not be put off dancing if a similar beat goes on after the intro.

pckrn · Post by **pckrn** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 11:18 am

My advice: use a laptop! Ive been DJing with CDs for about 3 years now, and am quite confident at beatmatching. But mixing dub or reggae is an entirely different matter (because of the 'scruffy' rhythms, it very rarely stays in sync for longer than about 5 or 6 seconds!!) A lot of DJs mixing dub often go for the more modern stuff because it is often backed by a drum machine, and it tends to be quite tight and steady. So if you were actually mixing the tracks, I would suggest focusing on the dancier, more electronic sounding stuff. (even if it is quite chilled out) But if you just wanna play tracks (one after another), without actually blending the beats, I would suggest setting up all your tracks in iTunes on a laptop, and just adding them to a constant playlist as you go along. I say this because it will allow you to add loads of tracks at a time so you dont actually have to be doing it all of the time. Just see where the mood is going, and 'sculpt' your playlist accordingly!! Once that playlist is running, all you have to do is pick out tracks from your library. iTunes lets you add comments and ratings, so it wont be hard to keep it organised! Hope that's good advice!! As for selection - I like to stick to some sort of pattern when selecting my tracks. Usually it will be a song with vocals every 2 tracks, with some sorta king tubby style instrumentals to fill the gaps!! The great thing about this kinda music is that it really can suit any vibe you need it to, cos let's face it - Who doesnt like reggae?!! =p=

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