Breakdowns are getting way too long and ubiquitous again

[efinque]

He puts the track into Ableton and reorganizes the structure. He basically chops it up, moves parts of it around, adds a few things, extends some parts and shortens others. None of the stuff he plays is off the shelf. He puts the track together the way he wants to in order to play the way he want's to play.

The amount of preparation needed for that is ridiculous.

I'd say roughly by the time you get a solid 1 hour set done with a bit of variation too you'd have produced an original track..

[steveryan]

The amount of preparation needed for that is ridiculous.

I'd say roughly by the time you get a solid 1 hour set done with a bit of variation too you'd have produced an original track..

He said that it was suggested to him by DJ Dan who's been using Ableton in this way for years. I'm sure it does take a lot of work, but you could put some awesome sets together when you structure the songs the way you want.

The issue I run into is these long breakdowns right towards the beginning of the track. So, I either have to mix the track from the beginning and just let the breakdown play, or set a cue point at the beginning or end of it and mix from there to avoid it.

Looping the outgoing track and using it to cover up the breakdown sounds like a cool idea, but I'd rather just remove it and fill the space with beats from another part of the song.

[Hygro]

Yeah if you're headlining a circuit it would make sense to spend some time making your tracks right.

[djshire]

A proper breakdown should only last as long as necessary....for everyones raised arms to fall off.

[steveryan]

........The issue I run into is these long breakdowns right towards the beginning of the track. So, I either have to mix the track from the beginning and just let the breakdown play, or set a cue point at the beginning or end of it and mix from there to avoid it.

Just wanted to mention that I found a better work-around for this issue.

Usually, at the end of the first breakdown, the producers main idea or theme drops with it. So I decided to just set a hot cue 128 beats before the drop. So now this breakdown just plays underneath the current track. I also find a good mix-point to get it started which is usually near the end of the track 128 beats before the first sign of an outro.

Since it's a breakdown, I turn the bass to flat when it starts (Cautiously if there's a heavy bassline in there). As it drops, I touch the HP filter a little bit on the outgoing track to reduce it's bass kick, which allows the incoming bass kick to take over on the drop. From there, I slowly take the level down bit by bit on the outgoing track while doing minor reductions to the bass, mids and LP filter. Helps to do these little adjustments near the first beat of a bar but not totally necessary. The HP filter is actually pretty sweet when you use it as a tool rather than an effect.

That's one way (The main way for me) of doing it and it seems to work well.

[Era 7]

A proper breakdown should only last as long as necessary....for everyones raised arms to fall off.

You're not a real DJ, if your crowd can still raise their arms above shoulder level by the time you finish your set. Change my mind.

[Cybotron]

i threw a chapstick in the DJ booth in Matter during Sven Vaths set because the breakdown was so long and it did my head in. I wasnt aiming for the decks in particular but it made the record skip.

True story