How To Balance Your Mix For The Dance Floor

WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES PEOPLE DANCE TO MUSIC? HERE ARE SOME TIPS TO MAKE YOUR MIX DANCE FLOOR FRIENDLY.

HOW TO BALANCE YOUR MIX FOR THE DANCE FLOOR

What applies to normal mixes for pop, rock, or other popular styles of music doesn’t necessary apply to the club. What happens in the club stays in the club 🙂 But you have to make sure your mix kicks the club’s ass.

1 – WHAT’S DRIVING A DANCE SONG?

This is an easy one: it’s the rhythm. However, the rhythm is nothing without a vocal line or some kind of hook. This means that in normal situation where you have four-on-the-floor kick drum and maybe a snare drum and a hi-hat, you still need something lead to swing on top of it, in order for the groove to make sense. Balancing the rhythm with the “hook” of the song is the single most important aspect of mixing dance music.

2 – DOWNBEAT & BACKBEAT RELATIONS

On a typical house track the main rhythmic movement is provided by the kick and the hi-hat. These two elements must be in balance to one another. If the kick is too loud then you only feel the downbeat of the movement. If the hi-hat is too loud then the rhythm won’t roll. Same thing goes for the clap and the snare – if they are not balanced to the kick drum, then you won’t get an efficient downbeat/backbeat relation. The combination of kick drum, hi-hat and claps/snare is what drives house music. So when you mix them, make sure they are at the right level!

3 – CHOOSING THE BPM

The BPM (Beats Per Minute) indicates how fast your tempo is. Between 115 BPM and 119 BPM you’re still in the region of Disco. From around 119-120 BPM you are already in House music territory, and around 126-127 BPM you can call it fast house music. Then you get Techno & EDM from 128-130 BPM and up. After 131-132 BPM dance music starts to become a little bit funny, but if you manage to find a good rhythmic subdivision you can still get away with it. As you touch 140 BPM you are now in the territory of Trap, Drum’n Bass, Jungle, Dubstep and faster tempos are common in Hardstyle, Gabber/Hardcore etc. These rules are not written in stone and you can certainly experiment with BPM… as long as you make people dance!

4 – LOW END IMPLICATIONS

Clubs are supposed to have a big system that can really hit you with low frequencies. This is your cue: you should pay attention to what you put down in the low end of your mix. One thing that’s important is that your track has a low frequency pulse whether that comes from the bass or from the kick drum. If you want your music to be effective in the club, then you have to make sure that you’ve got some “air” moving. This can only happen if your mix delivers enough low end in the 40 to 80 Hz region.

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