Edited Ned944: @tonyg0499 Dude I was gonna give you a pass in the other thread. But Not Here.

Your behavior here is Unacceptable.​

I would like to create a list with the most difficult Disco songs to mix you have encountered. My list is very small. In no particular order, I have:

1) Viola Wills "Gonna Get Along Without You Now"

2) Machine - "There but for the Grace of God"

3) Karen Young " Hot Shot"

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jul 3, 2017

Can you please be more specific by what you mean "difficult to mix" - transition, sound, vinyl/turntable feel,... or just beatmatching..?

Note: I'm leaving this thread to die ;) as far as I'm concerned as the OP seems to have trouble with the other one that he/she opened simultaneously..

 

Last edited: Jul 2, 2017

Yeah, mixing salsa can be a biatch! However, the only thing that really cuts it is top notch musicians. If the brasses can play in tune with high quality instruments, recording them as a single stereo section makes life a lot easier. Because of their live playing training, they know how to sync and level their volume at playing. Otherwise, a salsa mixdown is a mess. If space allows, recordings congas and bongos as an ensemble works well if the bleed among mics is used judiciously, adding natural 3D imaging, like a drumkit. With a tight performance in recording, the mix gets easier.

I know nothing in particular about mixing disco. Sorry.

 

37 years of experience, seriously I'm laughing right now

How long would expect the transition to last? These songs, unless you have the 12" versions with DJ-friendly segments, they all have melodies straight from bar 1 and will clash instantly. You can either find the key of each song and make a melodic mix, or simply overlap them over the last 8 bars, they will clash but it's going to be bearable.

So for the fellow readers on this thread, in another thread our OP here says "I am proud to say that during the Disco era I was a top Dj in the US, playing in the biggest clubs."

So we have a big DJ 30 years ago, that used to mix these tracks with no problems 30 years ago (otherwise would not have been big, isn't it?) that can't mix the songs that make him big 30 years later.

@tonyg0499 Man, don't know what you're smoking but I'd like some

 

I really admire professional salsa performers. Percussionists are just crazy..;) They say - if you have one (good) drummer you're ok.. but there are congas, bongos, cabasa, guiro, timbales,... and of course the clave that you must listen as is the "key". But if a song is in 2-3 clave it starts on the second beat - so yeah a biatch to mix. But if you are a salsa "DJ", especially with good ol' masterpieces, I think you should just leave it alone to finish as it was supposed to..

@jayxflash agree, there must be some strong stuff around LOL

 

Whatever the OP is smoking I must've caught passive-smoking fumes from reading, because now I realize I responded from a mixing engineering perspective, not a DJ's. Wrong forum.

 

Here:

+

Using basic logic, you didn't managed to make them slightly easier to mix in 30 years. I can go FMSelf thank you very much, because I definitely hate people that started Dj-ing last weekend.

 

Yeah, seems we are getting there - stoned over net protocol (like VOIP). But when I was fast reading your comment it made sense... because when mixing salsa brass many times really saves your ass - like, there are brass stabs on the 1st downbeat.. LOL

 

Becomes an accomplished DJ...

30 years later...

 

Any dj thats worth a damn can mix anything as long as they know their material well enough. From eq blends/fades, to fader tricks, or a complete table brake or back spin. I dont get it? You line up the intro-outros and try match the breakdowns and dj away. This pretty much goes for any genre.

 

Last edited: Jul 2, 2017

True. I don't DJ, but if I were to mix songs, I'd first take the downbeat on percussion, which as you promptly say, is mostly syncopated. (Side note, one of the biggest musical challenges in my musical life has been playing bass for salsa -cold sweat challenging). The brass tends to be the most down-to-the-beat part of the arrangement. It acts like the framework to the different sections. Piano montunos have little variation and if you can't tell chords apart (which are usually 4 to 5 notes per chord), it's very hard to decide where to logically break down the sections. Add to it the fact that many orchestras and ensembles play to feel, not to the BPM, and you got a DJ's nightmare.

Edit: Modern age Cuban salsa called Timba (Think Charanga Habanera) is a lot easier because it has stronger and better pulsing beats.