Mixing on 4 decks

[crime]

sorry, I've just been round to guy's and got pissed as a cunt..
I'll ave the lot of ya now, outside, yer wankers... hic.....hic

[Traxx]

:lol:

[dirty_bass]

Sod it, let`s just have fight.

[serox]

lol

[crime]

oooaaaghghhh... not too bad a hangover thank god ;)

I've always thought that though, all this talk of final scratch, efx, 4 deck, whatever, if you're going to go to that much trouble, you might as well drag your studio out and play live... I mean, you'd have to write EVERYTHING yourself.. maybe that's what people find daunting, I don't know... I do think the multi deck thing has been done to death, but I quite like the idea of 2 djs on 4 decks at once though, you get an interesting interaction going on...

[serox]

me and a friend tried to do 2decks each. but not together :) we did a live stream as he lives in holland and me london. was fun, but would get confusing not being able to see and only hear what the other was doing etc. we set a plan of how we would do it so that was cool, but he kept leaing the channels up to high when i needed them faded out

[anx]

mixing with locked grooves on 4 decks sounds like it could be fun

[thetonewrecka]

oooaaaghghhh... not too bad a hangover thank god ;)
I quite like the idea of 2 djs on 4 decks at once though, you get an interesting interaction going on...

Tony Rohr and I did a double live pa set up like the game "battleship" with our gear in the middle of the table and us sitting on either side across from each other facing in. We could see each other to give nods or headshakes, but just let it flow. We had a sync for clock tempo and then routed all our gear to the mixer for us to get our own separate things going and work the parts. It was a blast and the crowd really seemed to enjoy the candlelit setting.

Boom! YOU SANK MY BATTLESHIP!

[Dustin Zahn]

Tony Rohr and I did a double live pa set up like the game "battleship" with our gear in the middle of the table and us sitting on either side across from each other facing in. We could see each other to give nods or headshakes, but just let it flow. We had a sync for clock tempo and then routed all our gear to the mixer for us to get our own separate things going and work the parts. It was a blast and the crowd really seemed to enjoy the candlelit setting.

Boom! YOU SANK MY BATTLESHIP!

That was a funny night!


As for the 4 decks thing. I did a 4 deck with Ian a couple of times and one with another local DJ on a night we brought Bryan Zentz in. For the most part I thought it worked out rather well and over the course of the 1.5-2hr set we played...we only ****ed up a few times which is good considering it's 4 decks. I think people think that since there is 4 decks there has to be 4 records playing. This isn't true. We were throwing down old DJ Slip on top of Heiko Laux to Kanzleramt to Ben Sims-y shit and it flowed rather fine. You just have to realize when enough is enough and you'll just add to the clutter. A lot of people also think that you need to drop nothing but drum tools with 4 decks, I think that is a huge mistake. We were dropping a lot of bangin' minimal tracks to build layers and recreate songs on the fly instead of just layering drum tracks over drum tracks. I guess this same idea could be applied to 3 decks.

We also used a bunch of "tools" such as ambient tracks, pads, samples, and more to make the 3rd or 4th table an instrument rather than just a turntable. There is a ton of possibilites behind 4 decks but it's rarely explored. I will say that sitting in the studio practicing the 4 decks thing, just jammin' out was some of the most fun I've had behind the decks in a long time. Immediately, the whole Dj thing changes and it feels more "band-related" to rock out with a friend and rely on other new variables. I recommend trying it at home with some friends if you can hold some decks down...but don't try it for a first time at the club...I've seen that happen before unfortunately.

[Ritzi Lee]

Hell!

I never saw a DJ really play 4 decks at the same time.
I even saw 2 Dj's on 4 decks and 2 mixers. And guess what.
Also these guys didn't do 4 decks at the same time.

But I know it's possible.
I once played a 4 deck set with a good DJ friend.
We are both quick kinda DJ's with similar mixing styles.

We did the following.
He threw in a record.
Than I threw in a record, and after some 10 / 20 swconds an other record.
While the bass of the first record is still playing, it's just a mather of keeping the speed of the other 2 records similar with the first one.
After some while you can even throw in a 4th record.

So actually it is comnstantly mixing 3 records at the same time, and mixing in a 4th record.

[davethedrummer]

i like dustins point about people thinking that to play on 4dex you have to have 4 records playing all the time.

that's what most people think i reckon, but if you can play a balanced set using 4 dex here and there and then just put a bigg tune on for a bit then get back to some full on mixing on three dex etc etc i reckon that'd be a good way to crack it without just being anal or boring about it.
i've played 4 dex with chris a couple of times and we always have a laugh but you got to get on to it first before you can start being jeff mills about it.
if you get too flash too early you in for some nasty mistake action.
personally though you just can't beat 2 records being mixed really well together , everything else is the equivalent of a dj guitar solo.
and we all know how boring brian may is eh kids?

[MARKEG]

personally, i've not really taken the time out to listen to a set played on '4 decks'. if anyone has any link, i'd love to hear. i do appreciate a good 3 deck mixer (really enjoy ben sims) but i just think four decks is just getting a bit stupid. i'm without a doubt one of those people that would prefer to put an album on, rather than a dj mix and bearing that in mind, you can see why four decks would just not enable me to 'hear' the tracks properly. i appreciate what a dj could do with four of someone elses pre recorded records but why not just still sixteen to thirty two of them together in a true live set or record of your own???

'oh i can beat match with my mind using four decks and six cd's'.. big deal.

i'd rather use 32 of my own sequences and craft my own sounds in a sequencer thank you very much. surely 20 million times more creative?? ;)

[Evil G]

two good dj's on 4 decks can often pull of what one aweseom dj can do on 3 decks, so when there are none of the later around, i don't mind a 2x4.

but one dj on 4 decks does seem like the equivalent of the guitar hero doing the tap-on harmonic solo.

[thetonewrecka]

i'd rather use 32 of my own sequences and craft my own sounds in a sequencer thank you very much. surely 20 million times more creative?? ;)

I don't know Mark...20 million? I'll give you 19.99 million, but not anything over that.

[MangaFish]

isnt the record for most decks in a mix held by carl cox. not sure the number but i have a feeling it was double figures