I am a heavy user of automix feature, especially when I am in the mood to both drink and dj (less hands use, more music}. Last night I did 3 sets totalling 6 hours flawlessly on automix
So here below are the tricks I use to ensure automix is running perfect and no on in club know I am running it. Share your tricks too
Trick #1
Have a playlist that’s well arranged (sorted) in the order you love them to play. You can even just have your best tracks for the day in a folder and just sort them by bpm before loading the first one on deck and hitting “automix” button.
Trick #2
Babysit the automix!
You really need to stand/sit there and observe what it loads next, where it puts the intro/outro points, etc. Sometimes I find I have to eject away the next song and swap it for another, or I have to hit my own intro cue point. Many times I decide when to outro out of a song too (this I do in real time (hit next)). Overal, sitting there in person stops people from thinking you’re playing a nonstop mix - because, seriously speaking, automix, if well planned, sounds like a hot nonstop from a topnotch dj!
Most importantly:
While sitting there, watch out for your beatgrids and downbeats! I have experienced the latest djay 5.5.2 and maybe 5.5.1 shifted the downbeats of some library tracks from beat 1 to beat 2 or 3 - so you must re-adjust it prior to transition. @Slak_Jaw I hope this bug was reported (i think). The shifted downbeat messes up the phrasing of the transition, so you might end up with a clash, because automix by default will sync a bar starting from the downbeat, irrespective of sync setting 9which is good)
Trick #3
Choose your best transition style according to the tracks on deck
Sometimes I leave it at automatic, but I have found NM Melody Sustain to be really smooth for tracks with similar drums/instruments. it actually does mild echo out/dissolve FX on the vocal too! fter a while of using one CFX, I change to something subtle, like a simple EQ.
Just make a proper list and leave it there to do it’s thing, you won’t be disappointed whatsoever. If you decide to leave your transition setting to “Automatic”, watch out for the NM Echo Out - there are many times it has echoed out to a complete silence on me…that’s why I enjoy the Harmonic sustain better
Actually, Automix was one of the main reasons I switched from RB to Djay. For my specific needs, RB’s Automix is just terrible. Price was also a factor… I could have gone with VirtualDJ, but I find Algoriddim’s GUI much cleaner, and it has exactly what I need.
But I digress… I use Automix a lot. I currently work at a club playing Salsa, Bachata, and Zouk. In that scene, dancers don’t like beatmatching or blending songs; they want a clear start and finish. Djay covers this need 100%. Plus, it allows me to set up the Automix and go out to the dancefloor myself!
I can’t offer much more advice than what has already been shared here, but my setup is simple: I use an Echo Outtransition triggered 3 seconds before the end. And yes, I manually mark the Start and End points for every track, thanks to what I learned on this forum (I didn’t even know that feature existed before!)
I have been using djay Pro now for about a year. By far the best Auto-mix of any program I have used, I was given some great information on improving my mixes when utilizing Auto-mix on this forum. The mix ins are on point for the most part. Saves me a lot of time. However where Auto-mix decides to mix out to the next track is in major need of improvement, unless I am missing something. My music collection is mostly 12” versions of 70’s disco and 80’s and 90’s popular dance music. These versions have very distinct breaks. Even if I don’t know the track, I can see by the waveform where the break is and just understanding music tells me where a good mix out point is. 95% of the time the program misses these distinct breaks and some are 2 to 4 measures long. It seems like something AI could easily pick up on. Especially since it is so good at finding the best place to mix in. I know, I should not be depending on Auto-mix for everything. I still spin vinyl on the original 1200’s I bought in the 80’s from time to time, so I know how to mix. I find my self using Auto-mix for the mix in point and then mixing out on my own, but then Auto-mix doesn’t set the next mix point unless it chooses the next song in the mix. I wish there was a feature to find the mix-in point automatically even when mixing without Auto-mix. It would be a huge time saver. Just my thoughts on possible small improvements to a great program.
