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View Full Version : Battle Voting DJF Trance Tourney 2012 (ROUND 1): Nutty vs JackStalk !



Rek_Aviles
09-04-2012, 05:11 PM
http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm286/Ellissentials/DJFTranceTourny2012.jpg
ROUND 1

FILE 1 (http://djfbattles.com/battles/TranceTourney2012/DJFTrance Tournament 2012 - Nutty-vs-JackStalk-1.mp3)

FILE 2 (http://djfbattles.com/battles/TranceTourney2012/DJFTrance Tournament 2012 - Nutty-vs-JackStalk-2.mp3)





RULES:
30 minute mark. The final track of each mix must have started by the end minute mark listed below.
it is recommended that contestants use Mainstream Trance (Progressive, Vocal, Tech, Acid, Melodic, Epic) – however if you want to play harder GOA/Psy.-Trance you are more than welcome
Ghost votes do not count in the final score. In order for a vote to count, there must be a comment made by the voter and he/she must have over 50 confirmed posts on DJForums.com.




MORE DETAILS CAN BE FOUND HERE:
http://www.djforums.com/forums/showthread.php?11940-Djf-2012-trance-tournament-rules-amp-entry-thread






**Will display users who voted, and what choice they voted for.**

M!TCH
09-04-2012, 10:53 PM
File #1: Very interesting intro. Really enjoying this first tune. I like Gregorian Chant style vocals in trance. Excellent mix. All very smooth transitions and I loved the ambiance throughout.

File #2: I've listened to the mix. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Both of you had a very similar style mix.

I will have to listen to mix #2 again tomorrow. I'm busy working atm and want to give some more detailed feedback.

Listened to #2 again. My vote goes for #1 but it was definitely close. Once again, sorry for lack of super detailed responses :( School has had me slammed and it is only week 2. FML.

Era 7
09-05-2012, 02:47 PM
Mix #1

excellent mixing. nice flow. good trackselection and nice switchup with the breaks at the beginning. liked the vocals. mixing was smooth. can't find any gripe.


Mix #2

pretty much the same as critics i would give mix #1 thought the mixes are not as seemless as in mix #1 but that's probably just me being picky. also i'm not too big of a fan of the vocals on the track around the 20-21 minute mark.

enjoyed both mixes and it was close. gotta give it to mix #1. the tracks were just meeting my taste a little more.

Ohmega
09-05-2012, 03:49 PM
Mix 1:
• Intro: Love the build-up
• Track 1: Well it is safe to say that this is Progressive Breaks, feels Trance’ish though. You are taking your sweet time with the transition point. For the battles we tend to push a routine with multiple tunes as it showcases mixing skill vs tune selection.
• Track 2: Transient hit points are out of alignment. 1/3 through the mix and only 1 transition.
• Track 3: Long blend, good use of the vocals, tune plays forever!
• Track 4: Transition out of Run Away was not the right key it was very dissonant and there was some flaws in the beatmatch.
• Track 5: Getting messy with the mixing now but good tune overall.
• Track 6: Not sure if I heard one or not
• Outro: Ending was alright but nothing to write home about.

Overall I feel like the mix lacked drive and the mixing was _______. It just floated around and did nothing that would inspire any type of reaction. I feel like you played it safe on the tune selection too.

Mix 2:
• Intro: I like the feel of the intro, the thunder and piano was a nice touch.
• Track 1: Good build up and BPM delivery on the fade in. Great first tune, very deep and melodic.
• Track 2: Clean transition, I hear a little bit of the new kick pattern but it sits well under the alpha track. The rise out gets a little noticeable, but it resolved well. Nice 303 bassline with some melodic tops. Good tune selection to follow up your leading track.
• Track 3: Transition root key stands out, but nothing relating to a key clash. Props for making changes that require musical movement. I’ve always noticed people playing 4ths or 5ths which sits perfect in the pocket. Classic tune! The Hea (Heaven) clip is a bit strange, not sure if this is you with a loop or the artist did not put a proper tail on the sample shot. I seem to be getting glitches on the playback?
• Track 4: Solid mix, however you let the tune wind down quite a bit before you make your transition. It works beautifully, but feels a little relaxed as far as set drive. Another solid tune!
• Track 5: Not sure if I heard a transition here or not, but the mix is flowing well.
• Outro: Nice wind down on the outro, closes the set of well. Sounds like a classic Couldharbour tune.

Overall the mix was similar to Mix 1 in respect to the genre. Mixing was much tighter and the song selection seemed to fit better. I am going with Mix 2 on this one.

Thanks for sharing!

Sedna
09-06-2012, 11:48 AM
Just gave these a listen on my commute. Good mixes from both DJs.

Mix 1 -

Opened with Airwave - Chiricahua... amazing track, love it. First mix is good, I always love the transition from low-BPM breaks to a progressive track with 4 on the floor. The next mix I feel looses a bit of energy, but the tune selection so far is great. I hear 00db - Melatron coming in... amazing track! I feel like the mixing is a little bit rushed, but the last track is a good song too. Can't remember the name. Overall some great tracks selected here, but I feel like after the first couple tracks the mix lost its direction, which is sad because during the first half I thought it had great direction.

Mix 2 -

Really liked your mix through-and-through. Recognized a few tracks but I can't put names to them, so if the DJ could send me a T/L I'd appreciate it XD. Intro was excellent. Mixing throughout the set is smooth and the track selection flowed very well; I really enjoyed the journey this mix took me on. The song with the 303 kicked it into gear quick, and when that one techy breakdown in the middle hit I was definitely car-dancing. Good job overall. One or two of the mixes I felt you let breathe a little bit too much, but nothing major at all.


Overall I'm going with Mix 2. I feel like there was more of a journey and direction, even though mix 1 had some of my favorite tracks.

Delta V
09-07-2012, 09:00 PM
Mix 1: Nice intro, fits amazingly well with the desert rain here right now, gonna be hard to remain unbiased about the perfect mood your setting. Oh some breaks, I'm all about that! Mix out of the break to 4x4 sounded good, like Sedna said going between the two always sounds cool. Getting a bit techier here with the third tune. Next transition works well but I think were losing direction after the first two tracks. Last tracks are pretty good though, just the first two didn't mesh well with the rest I think.

Mix 2: Another neat intro, and great starting tune. Mix into the second tune sounded weird on the bass for me, feels a little weaker or less punchy than than the first track. Very cool tune though. Again mix out sounded a little weird. Oh wow Flesh, I have not heard this in a long long time. It sounds sort of like the tilt remix turned into that modern prog psy sound. I like it but I don't think it flows with the first several tracks, it's like your tunes are getting softer instead of ramping up energy.

I'm voting for mix 1, I think the beatmatching and DJ skill was a bit better and it tended to flow a bit better, Mix 2 I felt just decreased it's energy with each song. Both had great tunes and thanks for spinning guys!

RikkiGTR
09-08-2012, 03:55 AM
Mix 1
Interesting dreamy intro. Waiting for a bass drop.... I don't think it's gonna come. I like this, but well past 5 minutes and still doesn't sound like trance (not as I understand the definition anyway).
Over 7 minutes now and still this intro seems to keep going :D
8 minutes now. Umm... 9 minutes, I'm sensing the next track building up now or is this part of the same track? Sounds good now at 10:00 though, you kept me waiting.
11:30 I like that bass line. Still very light and harmonic but it's nice. Up around 13:00 now and if there's been any transitions I haven't heard them (I don't recognise the track(s)), so that must be a good thing.
15:00 nice transition, very smooth. I don't like the track itself, it's far-removed from what I would play.
Can hear the next track building. 22:10 or so, again another smooth mix. This track sounds almost like Agnelli & Nelson, I quite like it.
Next mix around the 28 minute mark or so, nice smooth mixing again. Actually really really good mixing as far as I'm concerned. Another track I don't recognise though.

Overall - I thought the intro was way too long, and it actually started the frustrate me after a while. I guess a 30-min time limit doesn't offer much flexibility.
The mixing was flawless for me, can't complain. I didn't like the style though, but thanks for sharing!


Mix 2
Another very dreamy and creamy intro. Not quite as long, this one. I like this beat. Hmmm... I expected something more at 3:33 after that tense build-up :/
Dunno what it is, but I like this at 4:40+ and at 6:10 that pounding bassline gets my juices going. Maybe PM with a track ID please?
8:55 the track definitely started to change, but sounds very similar to the previous so I'm kinda left wondering if it really did. Into 11:00, don't really like this track at all. Very unusual.
The lead melody has changed dynamic by 12:00 though and I'm enjoying it more. I dunno if that filter is on the track or being added by yourself but it sounds out of place and unnecessary for me.
Mix coming in at around 15:00, nice and smooth, a pleasant vocally track in the middle of this mix.
21:00 minutes (give or take), another nice and smooth mix. Definitely like this track. Not exactly what I would play myself, but has a punchy bass so far that I can rock out to.
I don't know when the last track came in, so it must've been as smooth and slick as Teflon. Unless that was it starting at 21:00? No idea.

Overall - Nice brief intro, straight into a beat. Style of Trance was, again, not what I would play, but the transitions were smooth as far as I could hear, and the tracks blended well. Thanks for sharing!


Vote - my vote goes with mix 2.
Neither mix was completely enjoyable on a personal level. They weren't in a style I like, nor did I recognise a single track.
Both were very well done, well mixed with only one or two little flaws that stood out. It's a close call because neither mix was much better or worse than the other. Mix 2 just had a few more "yes that's nice" moments.

Rek_Aviles
09-10-2012, 03:37 PM
Heard mix 1.. will listen to mix 2 tonight. :tup:

Rek_Aviles
09-10-2012, 10:47 PM
Had to hear mix 1 again...
___________________________________--


Mix 1
Had no idea where this was going, with that first track. Mixing was good, EQing could've used some work. Set had a good uphill flow.

Mix 2
Starts strong. Did not like that first mix or cut but you made up for it on the next. Good mixing and EQ work in this one.


Really tough call here. Mixing was good on both, but Mix 2 is a bit better. I like the programming in set 1, but Mix 2 had a good flow


Going with Mix 2. #1 had a better programmed set but overall #2 takes it by a hair.


Good battle guys.

Complex.ity
09-11-2012, 01:22 AM
Mix #1:

Interesting intro and is quite long as well..
Wow that was about 9 min for the transition to the next song. Well it did set the mood but would've liked the intro to be a lot shorter honestly.
First transition was great, well beat-matched and phased. Very clean and smooth.
Alright your next track was beat-matched well and all but I honestly think you could've brought it in a lot sooner and more aggressive on the EQ's to try and build up more energy because these tracks are quite mellow.
~21:25: The beats could've been a little tighter but overall a lot better phased and this is one of your better transitions in terms of holding the energy. This next track is sounding a lot harder with that really nice rolling bass line so we're building. I'll say right away this mix flows very well, just not exactly the type of trance I spin normally. This sounds like Chill-Out to me.
~24:37: Alright! I'm really liking this synth line. Sad part is that I'm really starting to feel it already towards the end. ~25:22: Massive man! Loving it! Was looking for this a bit earlier!
~27:50: Noticing another track coming in and ~ 27:07: you cut a lot of the track currently playing's frequencies out a bit. There wasn't much going on for the incoming track at the time. Overall though, good transition; well beat-matched and phased.
~30:17: Ooh! I like! Huge sub bass! Alright this track is quite nice and enjoying it!

You took a way different approach to a quick mix of especially trance. You had like a 9 min intro and let the tracks play out quite a bit, thus leaving you with only just a few tracks. The transitions were clean and smooth for the most part. The tracks did flow quite well together too but like I said, not really too familiar with this quite mellow trance. The last 2 tracks really did it for me though! They were quite nice! I just kind of wished you would've dropped it a bit sooner because that's what really got me engaged, unfortunately it was at 24 minutes. Great mix though! Very smooth! Now Mix #2, let me see what you got bud.

Mix #2:

Quite a deep and sad intro and loving that piano though! Alright very nice and short intro. This mix for sure is progressing a lot quicker than the last one.
~9:10: Nice transition. Held the energy very well. I've noticed strange vocals in the back of this track. Like hiccups or something.
On the transition around 15 minutes, the beats could've been a little tighter. Needs a little bit of a nudge and the cut could've been a little bit smoother as well. Seemed just a little bit abrupt because it went almost dead silent.
~17:48: From here on really confused me. I take it this is a new track?
~20:10: Here, a little bit before and after is kind of dead energy. Just subtle sounds going and a kick going. Before there was a huge bass and feel like you lost a lot of energy here.
~21:16: The sounds coming from the next track could've been very useful for maintaining that energy for sure and keeping it flowing. I'm liking this track a lot man! Really nice lead going on!
This transition right here is the best one throughout the mix! Really holds the energy well! Although ~26:22, seems like the kicks weren't aligned but okay later on you nudged it back. Still a solid transition and in my opinion your best one. I'm really liking this track right here! Very nice closing track for sure.

This mix progressed way faster in terms of energy. Thing is, it had a lot of points where it's just up and down. Technically, it was pretty solid. Beat-matching for the most part was spot on. There were some points where it could've been a little tighter but I'd say it was well done for the most part. I enjoyed the tracks also more than Mix #1 for the most part. Although, that one track at around 24-25 minutes from Mix #1 I really liked.

Both mixes were unique in their own way and flowed very well! Both felt like really relaxing mixes and unfortunately I'm judging these mixes during a break from producing (Lol.... A little frustrated at the moment. Not going to lie. Sorry!) They were definitely nice mixes and you guys did well as far as technical aspect. Beat-matching and all were well done. Now for the hard part.. I feel Mix #1 flowed overall better than Mix #2 but Mix #2 progressed a lot quicker (Also the fact that Mix #1 had a 9 minute intro.). I am actually going to go with Mix #1 though in terms of flow. I felt Mix #2 was up and down with a bit of dead energy. At around 18 minutes of Mix #2, there was quite a bit track going on then it just started to got very mellow. There was a very constant progression in Mix #1, therefore I'm going with that. I really wanted to go with Mix #2 because I felt I enjoyed it more but there were places later on in the mix that needed to be filled.

login
09-11-2012, 02:59 AM
Mix 2

First two tracks were solid and build up energy, but on the third it kind of went out of the way. Transitions were pretty good, mostly smooth. The 4th track was very anti climatic, and the last one also went down in energy. The problem with this mix is that opens and nuilds up tension but never reaches a full blown out moment.

• Intro: 3
• Track Selection: 2
• Mixing/Transitions: 4
• Gain/Eq/FX: 3
• Outro: 2

Still listening to mix 1

Ellissentials
09-11-2012, 06:56 AM
This is the last one I have to vote in, should get it out before the end time. (6:00 pm today)

tekno_violet
09-11-2012, 02:07 PM
Last one! I was supposed to get this done last night but failed.

Not sure if im gonna miss the deadline but i'll be reviewing while stuck in traffic and will post it up in 10hours from now.

tekno_violet
09-11-2012, 02:45 PM
Last one! I was supposed to get this done last night but failed.


mix1

First track is building nicley, vibe is kept throughout mix..dont see any problems with mixing.
Not my style of trance but still thought it was ok. tracks seemed to played out at almost full length and seemed like there was only 5 tracks in this mix..?
Fade out at end didn't fit.
I think you accomplished what you set out to do with this mix which is good.


mix2

Mixing was pretty spot on from what i gathered, selection was good, second half of mix was alot better than first half imo.
liked some of the tunes.

I think mix 1 sounded slightly better but I think mix 2 tried a little harder and took more risks with track selection so I gotta go with mix 2.

Round 1 voting is complete for me.

n0ah
09-11-2012, 03:53 PM
Mix 1: Sweet Intro so far, love the nature sounds. 3 mins in and this still feels like an intro... I feel like the mix should be moving faster for a 30 min mix. 6 mins in and I'm still hearing some tribal intro sounds. 9 minutes in and I think I'm starting to here a transition. Transition came through solid. Not really feeling these tracks at all so far. Very slow and mellow stuff, not my style or anything I have really heard before, but I'm trying to judge based on the transitions. 21 mins in, fairly bored, but I could see this kinda of music being for someone :P 21 mins, next transition came in solid (other then a slight key clash, but that could just be my ears). Phrasing sounded good on it. 28 mins, great transition, and finally a track I know and love! Love love love this track, and it really did fit well as an ending track to this mix. Interesting mix overall, just not much energy.

Mix 2: Starting off with an intro. Nice piano and rain. Another mellowish mix, similar to mix one, but it defiantly is moving a little faster. Transition a 9mins was def a bit of a key clash. 15 mins, next transition was a little bit of loss of energy, I think I would have mixed them a little tighter, but it works. I feel like the mix was "reset" with this mix. Vocals seem alright. 18 mins, I'm feelin this! Next transition was solid as well. 25 mins and I'm grooving to this, like it.

I felt like both of these mixes were very similiar in style, but I'm going to have to go with mix 2

Ellissentials
09-11-2012, 04:24 PM
http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm286/Ellissentials/EllissentialsReview-1.jpg
http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm286/Ellissentials/EllissentialsReview-1.jpg

Mix 1: ◄PLAY► Very percussive intro, and then some uplifting pads.. loving this progressive intro. 1:00 in and I'm extremely in love. Man, these sounds... there's even frogs croaking in the background! 2:30, it built up to drop 1 bass hit then build more. Love it :tup: 2:44 .. whoa... BREAKS! Well everyone knows I'm a sucker for breaks, so we'll see how this all works into this Trance set. 4:20, I'm just floating along to this very euphoric Breaks track. I'm at 6:30 and still floating along. I assume a Trance track should be poking in soon ;) 7:11 I believe next track has been in for a few moments.. very long blend yes? 8:13, I notice it starting to take over a bit more. 8:25, very decent drop into next incoming...this is holding a pretty good flow. I can tell you're slightly fighting with it, but holding it together. 9:24, nearly full take over of next track.. this was a heck of a long blend. Very well done. 15:09, new percs, blend is done well.. little bit of a loss of energy from that last track. Not too shabby of a vocal here... pretty nice. 20:48.. new track is in, sounding good. 21:06, new track starts brings in some bass end to share space with outgoing bass. Great transition so far. 21:45, a little bit of key clash, but it was very much a "momentary" thing. Love when the bass of new track drops in. Wonderful blend from last track to this. Loved that track, good one. 27:40.. new track is in. 27:58 the new track takes over and takes off. Not a bad transition. 28:28 seemed a very tad bit "jumbled" but overall the transition is quite good. 30:45, wow there's a lot going on in this production eh? hah. Track plays out and was quite good, but man there was another part just like 30:45 where the producer really got out of hand lol. :) Quite a good mixset overall.

Mix 2: ◄PLAY► Wonderfully drawn out intro with beautiful piano bits, into a KILLER bass hit when it drops. Wooo This is a powerful track! Yes, digging this track. 4:00, new track have been in, and blending along very well. 4:34.. this is a drop into the break of the next track yes? This was done very very well. I enjoyed it. 8:56, new track is in, the low end slightly clashes with the outgoing bassline. Slow fade out was noticeable, but nothing very distracting. Nice subtle filtering on various spots in this track. 14:41, new track is certainly in... seems to blend extremely well with outgoing! 15:13, I would've liked you to "echo out" the outgoing a bit so there wasn't such a loss when it winds down on that last crash hit (hard to explain what I'm trying to suggest, but it's a minimal suggestion lol). Either way, excellent transition. Neat vocal, great texture to this breakdown...vocal harmonization was lovely in this break. 19:19, new track is introduced very nicely. 19:46, still blending it in, I'm enjoying this. Yes, very good transition here. 21:00 and a bit on, seems to lose energy, but it does burst right back up on the drop, for sure, but did notice a loss of motion. 23:05, very much digging this build and the drop is euphoric. This track is smooooth. Drop @ 24:52... I go bananas in my seat. :tup: 25:51, new track is in... @26:06ish there's a loss of low end and I hear the "cut" low end of incoming in background. 26:26, when it comes in fully, it all lines up quite well. Very good tracklist for this one. I enjoyed all of these.

Very close battle, this one, but I'm going to pick Mix 2. Felt I enjoyed it just a slight bit more, but this one I could almost flip a coin on!

login
09-11-2012, 08:12 PM
mix 1

The intro is misterious don't know what to expect really. First transition is long and the track os more groovy, it build up nicely. 2nd transition is also smooth but the new track is quite mellow, 3rd trasition is smooth but it felt kind of forced mixing this songs, and the new track is more danceable goes in a different direction but breaks a little bit with all the previous tracks. 4th transition is more fast and builds up the energy with a more heavy bassline. This track is nice with epic melodies and build ups. Last transition is nice also, but the last track goes again in to the territory of the first half of the mix loosing a bit of energy.

• Intro: 4
• Track Selection: 3
• Mixing/Transitions: 3
• Eq/FX: 4
• Outro: 2

My vote goes to mix 1

ChrisHynds
09-15-2012, 07:01 AM
Mix 1 -

Intro - Nice dreamy opener, heads bobbing away to this breakbeat, oh wait, this is a Trance tourney :P nah really loving this intro track man, I would love to get the track ID on this one, scratch that I see Senda has already called it :) This really is a sick track, it may be the mood Im in right now but this track is really doing it for me, Im praying this set continues like this.

Mix 1 - Comes in nicely and carrying the nice deep prog vibe well, really diggin this sound, love the track selection so far.

Mix 2 - Everything is lined up nicely here, good clean mixing, taking a techy approach on this one, all that atmosphere you created with the first two tracks is changing on this track, not a bad thing, just noticeable, still got that deep prog sound tho, Im really diggin this set.

Mix 3 - Clean and Tidy again, solid mixing so far,

Mix 4 - Good meaty transition here, plenty of bass on this incoming track, hold up I have this track, Raneem - Airglow with Basil O"Glue on the Remix duties :) killer track, btw how fucking awesome is Basil O'Glue, very underrated Coldharbour genuis - this set seems to be progressing nicely but your running out of time :(

Wrapping up

I really really enjoyed this set, track selection was awesome, very deep prog, Im all over that shit, mixing was pretty good throughout. My main draw back on this set is that it sounded like you were the opening Dj on a big night, which is fine, you started off real slow and built steadily to the end, which again is fine but the set started getting good towards the end, I felt like you hadnt quite finished, this set needed another 30mins to reach its peak and then cool down again, it seemed to stop on an upward build leaving me feeling a little upset that its over, I feel like I need to hear the rest of the set now. In all great work with this mate I would love to hear this as a 60min set.

Ok Mix 2 -

Intro - Another Nice intro here, I can tell by the opening few bars of this track that this set is going to have a similar feel,

Mix 1 - Im not sure if I missed a transition somewhere in the beginning or if this first track is just playing for ages? also how the hell are you guys time stamping? My player is a little shitty grey bar with a play/pause button, no timer? Ok Ive got a background track coming in, rumbling bassline and haunting vocal sample, nice eq switch, not as much punch on the kicks of this track which is noticeable, but its well mixed. Very dreamy track, a nice remix on the classic ......... god damn it Ive got this track somewhere but I cant get the name which is really buggin me now, lol.

Mix 2 - Mixing in sounds good to me, nice work, Oh bonus points for Jan Johnson - Flesh, havent heard this remix before, kinda flat on the drop, was expecting more tbh,

Mix 3 - You really let Flesh breakdown to its bare bones, what happened there, was this intentional? really kills the vibe, although this track is sick, another one I have in my library but cant think of the name, the little vocal sample is sick, Your gonna have to ID this track after the battle its buggin the shit outta me.

Mix 4 - Mix comes in well again, everything is lined up well, nice and tidy

Closing track flows really well with the previous one which is still buggin me thinking about the ID, I must have replayed it about 5 times now, lol

Anyways -

Im going to go with Mix 2 on this, Mix 1 had an awesome track selection but I felt it was lacking the finish, almost like foreplay without the sex at the end :P Mix 2 had a solid build and direction, the mix out of Flesh felt weird, Im gonna assume its a hard track to mix out of, I dont understand why you let it breakdown so much? Both sets where mixed well, and had a great tracklist so great work to both Dj's.

P.S. mmwaahahahaha Tempo Gusto - Velvet Kiss mother fucker!!!!! I knew Id get it :)

JackStalk
09-15-2012, 12:54 PM
^Did Shazam tell you that? Cheater :P

g-sep
09-15-2012, 07:10 PM
Alright heres my vote.

Mix 2

I got these both earlier and listened to them on my bike ride through the woods. Mix 2 just matched me more in what I was looking for in a mix. They were both done very well though.

Mix 2 gets my vote

JackStalk
09-16-2012, 12:20 PM
My mix was mix 2. I did very little EQ work throughout the mix (maybe a little bass cutting but the tracks are mostly as you hear them). It was mostly upfader balancing. I did the entire mix on the very first take because I was really short on time that week and rushing to get it in by the deadline. I had a major messup which most of you caught, but it didn't sound as bad as I had thought.

Tracklist & Comments:

1 - Trancecrafter - Hope Will Come Again 00:00-4:30 (Original Mix)
This guy is really underground, he's the same guy who made a bunch of those "how to make trance in fruityloops" from like 3 years ago. Awesome dude, really down to earth, this is my favorite track by him. I'm surprised he's unsigned.

2 - Crimson - Definition of a Dreamstate 4:30-9:10ish (Original Mix)
This guy is awesome, really underground but another track that I absolutely love and think is one of the epitome tracks of trance. I did a solid cutover from the first track to this at 4:30 which is why you didn't hear any beatmatching or anything prior. I literally did the easiest transition in the book: cue up the breakdown, press play, swap upfaders, done. No real technical work, but I believed it was the cleanest transition possible between the two tracks.

3 - Addictive Glance - Blue Lights 9:00ish-15:00
Normal upfader mix into this track, easing in on track 2's outro. I love this guy, he's another underground guy from the Ukraine(I think). He puts out really awesome trippy tracks with gorgeous highs and psy-style lows. I bought his whole album last month and most of the tracks are relatively the same, but it's definitely my style of trance.

4 - Jan Johnston meets Tenishia - Flesh (Markus Schulz Big Room Reconstruction) 15:00-21:15
This was the part of the mix that I thought was definitely going to lose me the competition. I was so pissed but I didn't have enough time to do a second take so I let it go. The mix into this track at 15:00 I thought was really crappy because the gain on the incoming track was a little too low. Great track, I like the original and all of the remixes but I wanted to throw in a little-known version for you guys:tup:
Basically I mixed the Flesh track twice into itself, which was completely my fault. I burned two CDs with the identical 6 tracks on them to stick into each CDJ. I cued up track 4 on CDJ#2 instead of track 5 so I essentially mixed the playing track (flesh) back into the same exact track (flesh#2). You can really hear it from 19:40-20:20. It doesn't sound that bad and it isn't really noticeable, but you can tell it's the same exact track and it just seems like a super long outtro. I was SCRAMBLING to cue up track 5 at this point and slam it in around 21:15 which is why the energy completely drops out and I have to adjust it back up to volume for track #5. Again, probably the stupidest thing I've ever done on a mix in my life, and probably the first time it's ever happened unintentionally.

5 - Tempo Giusto pres ToneArts - Velvet Kiss (Original Mix) 21:10-26:22
Again, I was rushing to get this track in so I didn't have a 10 minute long double-version of Flesh. Epic track, I had it in my podcast when it first came out (The only song from one of my weekly podcasts that I used in the mix). Really enjoy this track, one of my favorite instrumentals of the year, possibly in general. The highs on the intro of song 6 can be heard as early as 25:30 but the actual EQcut and switchoff came at 26:22.

6 - Addictive Glance - Comely Yet Passing (Original Mix) 26:22-end
The incoming track was at full EQ, about halfway on the upfader when the beat from track#5 drops into a mini breakdown in 26:13. I was slowly cutting the bass EQ on track#5 as track #6 was approaching full volume, and then it was just a fade out on track #5. I originally didn't want to go with two Addictive Glance tracks (even though he's awesome) but I decided that the key-match was sonically perfect and you can barely tell the difference between the two tracks. If I had another 10 minutes, I would have cued up a 7th track by Addictive Glance that has an even better keymatch and wouldve sounded awesome.


So at the end of the day, I did this on the very first take without any editing whatsoever. I was able to turn a major track-selecting error into a minor energy drop and save the mix. I'll be sure to never do that again. I went into as much depth about every transition I used and how it works, hopefully to help out the forum lurkers who are looking to improve their craft. No secrets here, we're all peers and I believe we should share our mixing methods and tricks. Thanks for listening guys!

DJ Nutty
09-16-2012, 05:20 PM
Congrats Jack, Finally back off my Barcelona holiday catching up on comments. I was also pressed for time that week, and wasn't really happy with it, but c'est la vie!
One of these years, I'm just gonna screw trying to do normal trance and bang out a psy trance mix which is what I'm into.

Bryan Durel
09-17-2012, 02:25 AM
Definitely File 1. They were a bit similar but I think File 1 wins by a hair.

JackStalk
09-18-2012, 02:06 PM
Thanks Nutty, you did well too! I'll admit this mix wasnt exactly in my comfort zone. Next round I'm going to stay true to myself and play what I love.