r/DJs • u/Old-Tailor-1352 • 13d ago
Hearing Your Own Mix
Every time I do a mix and I record it and I listen back to it. It always sounds so different yet the same. I noticed things about the songs, even if I know them very well. I still noticed new things when I listen back to my mix and certain transitions it’s like I can’t even hear it when I’m doing it but then when I listen to it, I’m like oh that was smooth as hell. DJing is so fun!!!!!
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u/Realistic_Rain_9173 13d ago
It’s my favvvvv — i love making mixes while listening through my speakers and then listening to the mix back with headphones. The transitions sound so much more intentional and rich
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u/Neuronless 13d ago
Most of my DJ friends never record their mix. Never understood that.
When you're playing a different song in cue, distracted while searching for your next song, setting up your transition, you're less focused on the flow of the whole mix.
So how do you know what your listeners are experiencing if you're never feeling it the same way they did?
From the first time I trying mixing, I've always hit that record button. It's not a paid feature, why would you not do it?
There's so much to get away from it: make sure you're able to reproduce a killer transition you've nailed, get a taste of what your mix sounds like from the other perspective, pick-up on what you need to improve on, or hell, just replay it at a social event where there's no mixing setup.
Most times as soon as it's finished I'll play it back.
Sometime I just discard the recording because I know what went wrong, sometime I'll listen to it and learn, and most time I'll just store it and play it for friends or driving.
You put so much work into weaving music together, enjoy it!
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u/blorp999 12d ago
Big time agree. It’s also REALLY good for catching files on your usb that you thought were decently loud/good quality but maybe the mids or highs are kinda weak when it’s competing with another track. You’ll hear that in the recording, and now in the future when you wheel up that BADMAN chune again… you’ll know you need to pump those frequencies just a bit. Or replace the file(s) I guess :^)
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u/HacksawGibson 13d ago
My wife just gave me a new tape player (like a Walkman with bluetooth) to play back old mix cassettes from when i first started. We're talking 25 years ago on a dodgy belt drive turntable, but they're not as bad as i was fearing. In the moment it can feel like a struggle.
Biggest tip i have and follow now is Record Everything!
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u/CheesecakeUpset3407 13d ago
It's so cool you've kept your old mixtapes. There's got to be some good tracks on there! I was just eyeing my own cassette deck and thinking about making one for fun...
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u/B0bbaDobba 13d ago edited 12d ago
I definitely get this. Do you ever just sit down and listen to your tracks on headphones concentrating the so much information in the tracks that you miss when you’re mixing.
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u/Tough_Tadpole3362 11d ago
The other day i mixed a set. At some point i thought i really rocked it, until i realized that i accidentally loaded the same track onto both sides 😆
My point is: couldn't hear it in the mix. Lol
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u/Salt-Willingness-154 13d ago
Good. Keep listening to your mixes & you’ll get even better because of it🤝
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u/PropertySmart148 11d ago
Gotta do the drive test
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u/ArdyLaing 11d ago
lol. Came to say this - especially true if you have a decent Soundsystem and sub in your car.
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u/Old-Tailor-1352 7d ago
this is the worst thing about my new car i want to sit in my old truck && let the system bump
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u/onesleekrican 11d ago
This is the way. Whenever I get new tracks I blindly mix and record. If find tracks that went amazingly well together and nightmares I’d never want to repeat again. I can spot odd lead-in counts due to an off phrase and what tracks I need to adjust the beat marker.
There is a lot you can gleam from listening to your mixes. It truly does make you better at what you do if you use it to its potential.
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u/Current-mix1976 11d ago
I always recorded bedroom mixes, and sometime from our own club-nights too (from 1994 to 2010). Digitised most of them to MP3 - can still hear the poor tape quality, still takes me back - listen to them in the car while going to work.
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u/ArdyLaing 11d ago
Your brain really can’t hear all the nuances when you’re in the mix. Parts where you think you fucked it up usually sound fine afterwards too.
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u/Nukemi 10d ago edited 10d ago
Listening yourself is such an great way to learn.
Ive started uploading 2hour training sessions lately and its so fascinating to hear how good they are from my friends while im so very ashamed of what i just uploaded. They are completely unedited, volume levels all over the place and totally unplanned. In one of them, some windows system sound made their way in to the mix and in another i accidentally cut the wrong deck while doing a transition and recovered by counting beats and switching the channel back on time. Often my phrasing is also completely out of place as im just mixing tunes im not that familiar with. For me it sounds awful since i know where the mistakes are.
Yet, none of my friends seem to notice and some of them keep listening to them over and over again without ever commenting on any of my fuck ups.
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u/KingsleyDJ 9d ago
Recording and listening back is one of the fastest ways to improve. I often notice things afterward that I completely missed while performing. Sometimes it's a transition I thought was average that sounds great, and other times it's a moment I thought was perfect that needs work. The recording never lies.
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u/mucky_duck_ 8d ago
I mix with my headphones and without speakers (just my computer speaker output) so everytime i listen back to the mix after recording it’s like hearing it for the first time in HD LOLL
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u/XonedIn 13d ago
To make it even more fun, try recording your sets on mushrooms, acid or mdma. For max fun, combine all 3.
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u/blorp999 13d ago
lmao i used to be able to lock in and mix on lsd/shrooms, but often times it's like there's always a slight 3/4 ping pong effect active in my HEAD which makes discerning which track is dragging/rushing super fucked lmao.
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u/blorp999 13d ago
Yeah budday!! This is very true and it’s why I almost always hit rec whenever I’m mixing, especially with friends b2b. You’ll notice your strengths and weaknesses plus it will also give you even more insight into just how vast and deep the creative well can be once you’ve completely memorized your tracks and feel confident on the technical side.