Become a Home DJ Now 2 - Mixing House Tracks

Last time we covered some basic gyaan on the concept of mixing tracks and being a DJ, in the comfort of our own home. We recommended free software, one of which we will use today to further our discussion. Today we will still be sitting in chairs and aim to get a little slick in the mix, by checking out a few simple mixing tips. The genre of the tracks I have chosen is basic 4/4 House music, something which all of us have heard and danced to. It is comparatively easier to start mixing house tracks, and loads of fun.

The House music genre
Originating in the 1970s, this style of music is the crown jewel of dance music today. Everybody has heard or danced to it, in our country too, it fares very well at clubs. House is the mother term these days, there are numerous subgenres like tech house, acid house, progressive house and what not. But lets not get into that, as they highly overlap (every genre has its overlapping subgenres), plus in the end it's music, and what matters is that it sounds good.

The genre is mainly electronically produced, with programmed beats falling on 4 beats to a bar, or musically termed as 4/4. Each bar then consists of 4 beats, so count 1-2-3-4 and the next bar starts. Now how fast you count 1-2-3-4 is the BPM (beats per minute) of the song. Getting it? You can define a bar of music as one single time unit, of a song. A song will have many repetitive bars, especially dance music has long loops of the beats going on again and again, with other stuff over it.�

Terms like 'bars' and 'BPMs' should be familiarized with as this is the scope of the DJ. It's explained in part one, so read that up if this is all new to you. After beats we have sound synthesizers of all kinds, which create the melody and bass lines, harmony etc. Of course, topping off we have innovative vocal lines and maybe sound samples of various instruments like guitar and bass instruments. But one thing is for sure in House music: there is an intro to the song, the main choruses, a few breakdowns and finally an outro. The BPMs range from, but is not limited to, 115 -135 BPM. The DJ can mix in his next track at the outros or breakdown areas of the previous track. Remember what is the most important thing to achieve this mix? Match the BPMs.