Making a tight DJ Dance Mix in LPX

[vanhaze]

For all of you that want to make a (non live but produced) DJ dance mix in LPX, instead of Ableton Live, here you go:

 

- Find the tempo of all the dancetracks that you want to use for your DJ Mix.

You can do that with for example an app called MixedInKey (paid) or the free app Mixmeister BPM analyzer.

 

http://www.mixmeister.com/download-bpmanalyzer.php

http://mixedinkey.com/?gclid=CPK78saLsrkCFcdZ3godB1wAJA

 

9 out of 10, dancetracks have a steady bpm, rounded to integer, like 127 bpm or 135 bpm.

 

Remember the analyzed BPM's of all the tracks, for example, put them in the name of the tracks.

This BTW is a standard feature of Mixedinkey.

 

- Import all the dancetracks in LPX, next to each other on 1 audiotrack.

 

- Cut all the beginnings of the tracks so they all begin dead-on on a downbeat.

I do this in the Track editor, at almost sample level, just to be accurate in my cuts.

 

- Now line up all the tracks on the grid to the beginning of a bar, so that every track starts at a bar.

 

- Now open up the Tempo Track and draw in a tempo event at the beginning of each track, with as value the BPM value of the corresponding rack, lying under the Tempo Track.

 

- Now activate FLEX mode on the audio track on which all the dancetracks are, i always choose SpeedFX mode for keeping best soundquality, but you can also try Complex mode.

 

Now, all the dance tracks are perfectly aligned to the grid and will follow tempo changes.

You can now make 1 more audio track for putting on your dance tracks, so you can put tracks on top of each other to mix them.

Use Snap to Bar to always be sure that the tracks will stay on grid.

 

Side note:

 

If only LPX could read the tempo tag of mp3 files, things would be alot easier, even easier than lining up tracks in Ableton Live.

I use Mixedinkey for analyzing BPMs of dancetracks in mp3 format and MIK can store the BPM value in the tempotag of the mp3.

 

So if LPX could read that tag during import, it would know the tempo of the track right away.

 

I hope this post will help people !

 

Rob.