MIixng songs with beatless intros

[Connor]

When mixing a song that has ambiance in the beginning (i.e. progressive breaks) with nothing to beatmatch to, after I get the track beatmatched when I mix the song in should I leave my cue point on the first "real" beat, should I start with the intro ambiance or does it really matter per genre?

[DJ Highline]

That is a matter of creativity...only you can decide that....sometimes it works...sometimes it doesn't.

[DJArmani]

you can always put the beat over it, then as the intro continues echo out/or just lower the mids and bass little by little.

[nolimitz]

If you listen closely, you'll find that rhythm of the beatless intro falls in time with the rest of the songs beat.

For instance, skip to the rest of the song with a beat, tap to it and then go to the intro, the notes will still follow that tempo. All you gotta do is recognize the note that falls on the quarter beat and beat match from there. No matter if there is no audible beat or bass, everything falls in time, every part of the song will somehow follow the respective bpm rhythm.

Catch my drift?

[Connor]

If you listen closely, you'll find that rhythm of the beatless intro falls in time with the rest of the songs beat.

For instance, skip to the rest of the song with a beat, tap to it and then go to the intro, the notes will still follow that tempo. All you gotta do is recognize the note that falls on the quarter beat and beat match from there. No matter if there is no audible beat or bass, everything falls in time, every part of the song will somehow follow the respective bpm rhythm.

Catch my drift?

I see, so even though the intro has no beat it's still following standard measure layout and stuff, I understand. Thank you.

EDIT: just tried it out and it worked fine.

[DJ STU-C]

tracks are still normally mapped to some kind of set bpm, most ambient pieces still have the points where the music is in time to a beat, eg groove armada-superstylin

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[J5k]

I may fail completely at explaining this, but I've done this before with vinyl/timecode and it works pretty well to get you in the ballpark of where the one is. Start on the first real noticeable beat. Let it go from there and notice how many times the record spins for one bar. Now go back to that first beat. Rewind the record as many bars as you think the intro is long. So if one bar takes 1 revolution of the record, you know you need to go back as many revolutions as there are bars in the into. If the intro starts on a beat other than one, you can still go back x number of bars (even into silence) and release on the one of the live track. From here it's up to your ears to determine of you hit it or not.

[DJRelyt]

That is a matter of creativity...only you can decide that....sometimes it works...sometimes it doesn't.

^This!! Its a matter if you are going to use the whole song or not, how it feels in your mix, and how it works with the song before it. You can put it pretty much anywhere you like. Just practice with the track a bit and see where it works and where it doesn't.

[bobbyd]

You can just go into the song where there is a definite beat to match up the tempos - and then you most likely will be able to find where the 1 starts in the ambient section and start it from there.