Over To You: Mixing Drum & Bass, Electro & Dubstep

Digital DJ Tips reader Max writes: “Hope you can help me with a programming issue. I have to perform a quick half hour set to get a crowd pumped up for a rock show. I want to throw in some dubstep and drum & bass with my electro tracks to mix things up, but obviously it is impossible to sync the tracks, because the genres have highly varying BPMs. So my question is, how do I get around this?”

Digital DJ Tips says:

Glad to see you’re picking the music first then worrying about the mixing second – the right way around! OK, drum & bass and dubstep often mix into each other OK (drum & bass 160+. dubstep 140BPM or 70BPM depending how you count it) so it’s not too difficult to match, which is an intriguing possibility. You could always try using drum loops for transitions. With the rest I’d just do a cut (ie straight from one to the other immediately), right on time at the start of a musical phrase, either at a beatless section (intro/break), or a very, very recognisable section of the new tune, so people notice the tune first, and the change in BPM second.

As you’re playing in the gaps between a band, you won’t be playing to a crowd expecting seamless club mixing anyway, so I wouldn’t see this as a problem. Frankly I wouldn’t see it as a problem in a club set either, if done at the right time for the right reason.

Over to you: Can you add some advice to mine for Max? Do you play sets where mixing isn’t important? Have you ever warmed up for a band and got some tips you’d like to share? Please share your experiences below.