The Doobie Brothers Medley

[Panotaker]

The Doobie Brothers are a Rock Band from San Jose California. They have sold more than 40 million Albums, with their biggest success in the 1970's. This mix features most of their hits beat mixed back to back, and they had a bunch of them. https://www.house-mixes.com/profile/...rothers-medley

[Dix]

As always, enjoyed this. Takes me back to my days of a teenager & ****** in the '70's. If we could go back in time.

Thanks for all the memories you provide through your mixes!

[shoot summ]

Very cool, my time as well.

And there is a reason they called themselves the "Doobie Brothers"...

Now going to be listening to the Doobies in the office today.

Did seem like the tempo is different from the original on several of the tracks?

Thanks

[Panotaker]

Thanks. I used the original songs off of their Greatest Hits CD. I had to change the tempo on all the songs a little because there are only 10 songs in the mix, and they are all different BPM's. The first song is 75 BPM, and the last song is 121 BPM. So I have to slowly increase the speed of each song in order to go from 75 BPM, to 121 BPM in only 20 minutes. When you do a one artist medley, you don't have that many songs to choose from, so you pretty much have to change the tempo, I try to do it gradually if at all possible. I do most of my mixes in Ableton Live, so with Ableton, it is pretty easy to change the tempo, since all I have to do is move a couple of markers. For example, the first song is 75 BPM, the second song is 82 BPM. So I put a tempo marker at the beginning of the second song. So the first song starts off at 75 BPM, and by the time it gets to the second song, it is going 82 BPM, but since it does it gradually, it is hard to tell. I do that over and over again until I get to the last song. But some times I have to increase the BPM a lot, because there are not enough songs to choose from, and I have no choice. So every once in a while, it is obvious that I changed the tempo, but it is because there are no songs to stick in between. Here is how I put most of these one artist medleys together. I buy the greatest hit CD. I figure out which songs I am going to put in the mix, I only use the big hits. I then figure out the Beats Per Minute (BPM) of each song. I put the songs in order from the slowest to the fastest in BPM order, and then mix them in that order, from the slowest, to the fastest. The hard part is figuring out where to mix them, especially since they are not dance songs, and have no break. But almost all songs have an instrumental section, where the lead singer is not singing, and that usually happens about half way through the song. So that is where I do the mix, in that instrumental section, and since I phrase match, they just flow together. It's really pretty simple. I don't know why more people don't put together one artist medley. I have done a medley on just about every major artist out there from my generation. The only major artist I haven't done yet is a Madonna Medley, and that is because there are a bunch of them out there already. I'll eventually do one, it just has to be different from everybody else, and I haven't got around to it yet. Classic Rock groups like The Doobie Brothers or Chicago, are a little tough to do because first of all, it's rock, and second of all the don't have that many songs to choose from. But if you Phrase match, and change the tempo, you can pretty much mix anything together.

[shoot summ]

Thanks. I used the original songs off of their Greatest Hits CD. I had to change the tempo on all the songs a little because there are only 10 songs in the mix, and they are all different BPM's. The first song is 75 BPM, and the last song is 121 BPM. So I have to slowly increase the speed of each song in order to go from 75 BPM, to 121 BPM in only 20 minutes. When you do a one artist medley, you don't have that many songs to choose from, so you pretty much have to change the tempo, I try to do it gradually if at all possible. I do most of my mixes in Ableton Live, so with Ableton, it is pretty easy to change the tempo, since all I have to do is move a couple of markers. For example, the first song is 75 BPM, the second song is 82 BPM. So I put a tempo marker at the beginning of the second song. So the first song starts off at 75 BPM, and by the time it gets to the second song, it is going 82 BPM, but since it does it gradually, it is hard to tell. I do that over and over again until I get to the last song. But some times I have to increase the BPM a lot, because there are not enough songs to choose from, and I have no choice. So every once in a while, it is obvious that I changed the tempo, but it is because there are no songs to stick in between. Here is how I put most of these one artist medleys together. I buy the greatest hit CD. I figure out which songs I am going to put in the mix, I only use the big hits. I then figure out the Beats Per Minute (BPM) of each song. I put the songs in order from the slowest to the fastest in BPM order, and then mix them in that order, from the slowest, to the fastest. The hard part is figuring out where to mix them, especially since they are not dance songs, and have no break. But almost all songs have an instrumental section, where the lead singer is not singing, and that usually happens about half way through the song. So that is where I do the mix, in that instrumental section, and since I phrase match, they just flow together. It's really pretty simple. I don't know why more people don't put together one artist medley. I have done a medley on just about every major artist out there from my generation. The only major artist I haven't done yet is a Madonna Medley, and that is because there are a bunch of them out there already. I'll eventually do one, it just has to be different from everybody else, and I haven't got around to it yet. Classic Rock groups like The Doobie Brothers or Chicago, are a little tough to do because first of all, it's rock, and second of all the don't have that many songs to choose from. But if you Phrase match, and change the tempo, you can pretty much mix anything together.

The Doobie's actually had a lot of hits, and some really good songs that weren't.

I get the reason for the tempo change, I've heard those songs so many times though that was the first thing that hit me. I think with classics you have to be careful, while I liked the mix, as soon as it was apparent the tempo was off it wasn't as enjoyable for me. Not criticizing your work in any way, you did a fantastic job, just have to be careful messing with classics...

[Dix]

Since we're discussing BPMs & tempo changes, I have a question for you guys who mix. As most of you know, I am an old school (mobile wedding) DJ & I blend my music.. I do not mix.

My question is, since its just a mix for listening, do all the songs need to be the same BPM. I understand that in a club they need to but just for listening, Im just curious if it technically supposed to be the same BPM for all songs.

I haven't thought about this until now. I understand that it needs to be within a certain BPM to keep the dance energy going. Just curious about mixes just for listening. Is it about the technique? The art of mixing requires it to be the same or near the same BPM to mix correctly or whats the reason?

Teach me something here

[Panotaker]

Everybody has a different idea of what a mix should sound like. I could only speak for myself, and what I like. My idea of a good mix might be somebody else idea of a crappy mix. I don't know what you like. Plus I may not be the right person to ask. I worked in discos in the 70's. Back then i beat matched, phrase matched, and mixed in key whenever possible. I would start the night at one BPM, and keep mixing songs about the same BPM, but slowly increase the BPM to keep increasing the energy in the club. I don't know how they do it in clubs now, but I bet that formula still works. For listening mixes, I play the big hits, and use the same formula, beat match, phrase match, and mix in key when ever possible. Anybody can beat match, and anybody can mix in key, the thing to me that determines a good mix from a bad mix is the phrase matching, that is the hardest part. If you can't figure out phrase matching, you will always be a mediocre DJ. At least for the type of old music I play. Yeah I know, what is phrase matching?