Mixmeister - is there an alternative?

OK, here's where I'm at.

Like everyone else, I'm bored at home. I've been warned off of Facebook live under the threat of going to Facebook jail (I can't risk that), Twitch and the rest are starting to move in the same direction, and I can't just stand in the spare bedroom and play with myself. Oh sorry.....play TO myself :o

So, I've started to create mixes that I can put onto a MixCloud stream and direct people to from my website (this way, they don't have to see my ugly mug and I don't have to smile for the duration...). I've started playing with MixMeister which out of the box, seems like a decent bit of software.

It's also very buggy (on a Mac at least), and seems to be, well.....a bit limited (this is the studio version by the way).
I like what it sets out to do, but is there anything out there which does a similar thing but better that anyone knows of?

Yes, I know I can record direct from my controller to an audio file and that's free, but it's not without its challenges when you're trying to produce a polished mix without the :Censored::Censored::Censored::Censored:-ups that invariably creep in after a couple of glasses of cheap Australian plonk.

I'm also aware that there's such as thing as Adobe Audition, but at £20 a month when I'm not earning anything....that's a no-go at the moment.
I don't want to go down the route of Audacity either (and I've done some good stuff on that in the past), at least until they sort out something to match BPM's that doesn't require a slide rule!

So, is my only option MixMeister and work around the limitations, or is there anything else out there?

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Originally Posted by Imagine

It's also very buggy (on a Mac at least), and seems to be, well.....a bit limited (this is the studio version by the way).

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This was quite well hidden on their website...

Important macOS Information:
We are working with Apple to complete a 64-bit version of MixMeister, and hope have an update to share soon. In the meantime, please note that Mixmeister will not work on macOS Catalina. If you wish to continue using this software/app, please continue to do so on macOS Mojave. Your licence will also work at no extra cost on Windows and our software will work with all popular Virtual Machine software such as Parallels or VMware.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Imagine

I'm also aware that there's such as thing as Adobe Audition, but at £20 a month when I'm not earning anything....that's a no-go at the moment.

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I've used Adobe Audition since it was originally Cool Edit Pro - fantastic for audio production, but not ideal for creating beat matched mixes.

I'm with you on the love for Mixmeister mixed with the anguish of lousy compatibility with Mac. I'd dearly love to use it again, but I'm now fully MacBook'd up....however, your thread here has inspired me to visit my lock-up and dig out the Vista (yes, Vista) PC that's buried in there, with the full Mixmeister Fusion software onboard. I ensured that the PC was disconnected from the web when I last used it about seven years ago, so I'll now just use it for mixing up tunes! Thank you for reminding me of some more old tat that I can muck around with!

I've been using some of my furlough time for producing more DJ edits to make life at gigs easier (not to mention more fun). I use Ableton Live exclusively for this - I bought version 9 aeons ago & it does everything I need.

For non destructive real-time audio editing on a Mac, on the cheap (free!) - maybe try Ardour ? Many folk advocate using Audacity but beyond making simple recordings from analogue sources & trimming/levelling them I find it a royal pig to use, especially since it's incapable of applying any real-time effects - not to mention its stark lack of any automation. Ardour seems a very featureful, capable program well worth taking for a drive. Ardour supports real time effects & everything you'd expect from a decent audio program including the ability to timestretch & warp tracks too.

For a while I've thought it might be interesting to post about how I make my special edits & mashes but due to er.. where you have to go to find the bits you might need for them (ie going to certain russian sites etc) it's probably a grey area with regard to forum rules.. hmmm.

The kind of things I've done recently: I took Walk The Moon - Shut Up & Dance & made the last section after the guitar break, acapella. I found the multitrack stems, which got me the whole track broken down into groups (drums, bass, keys, vocal).. I mixed out a section with only drums & vocals, then stitched that onto the original in the right place - meaning.. when I play it, I can mix out of it & use it as kind of a live mashup. For a giggle I posted a screen recording on facebook of me going from Shut Up & Dance to Sweet Child Of Mine. I don't really like either track much but OMG it sounded so SWEEEEET I ended up making an edit of Sweet Child Of Mine too. I didn't change the instrumentation of the GnR track at all but I quantised it so mixing it & keeping it in time is effortless.

Another one just off the production line - Miley Cyrus - Party in The USA. I did a similar thing there, making the ending acapella for mixing. Smash Mouth's All Star got the same kind of treatment too - then I just happened to notice All Star is the same key as Spice Girls' Wannabe - so Wannabe an Allstar became a thing. It's SO wrong it's completely right :rofl:

Sometimes it's actually impossible to source instrumentals or clean acapellas - so for Sclub7's Bring It All Back I resorted to using the very nasty ISSE to isolate the vocal to get my precious acapella ending :muppet:

The payoffs to all this effort I see as follows: 1. You can cram more into a set. 2. Teaming the right tracks together you'll appear to be way above the level of countless DJs. 3. in the right circumstances you can turn a crowd from touching the roof to tearing the place a new one.

Here's a little video I just boshed together showing some of the uses I might have for my recent edits.. You can buy a lot of styles of edits on various DJ pools etc but I find it fun to make my own & they suit my style better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCSI...ature=youtu.be

Yeah yeah, DJs who don't/won't/can't mix - you could just slap one on after another but I firmly believe it just wouldn't have the same effect. See also, putting paid to one of the myths I've heard some non-mixing DJs tell customers - mixing actually lets you get through tunes FASTER (I mean, really - one tale related to me by a DJ friend the customer said a DJ told them where DJs mix they take forever to get from song to song :rofl: )

I'm not entirely opposed to DJs playing premixes - short montages of tracks - except where Mastermix is involved. I have premixes I sometimes use & they're all MINE (one I've used a fair bit is a mashup of We Found Love & When Love Takes Over). A good amount of mashes I've heard other DJs using (think the Whitney Houston I Wanna Dance With Somebody / Calvin Harris & Rihanna We Found Love for example) work well but the arrangements are 'off'.. I don't aim to take credit - just the kernel of the idea & improve on it. So why use premixes? If nothing else, to free you up to do other things - obviously not like getting the next 9 pints in or watching a football match on your phone - think more like interacting, taking photos & video etc!

Something you could try, Wayne: record a mix from your controller as usual - but if you erm.. gunk something up just skip the last track back a bit & try again.. then edit it later. Audacity lets you do this, but as I've already said I find it a pain in the wossnames - but the aforementioned Ardour will fit the bill just fine - and no £20 a month fee either. The problem I have making edits in Audacity is it all the cuts seem final - to make a bit longer I think you have to undo, try the new length & rearrange.. whereas in other software (non destructive types) you just click & drag to shorten or elongate sections.

For what it's worth I used to do mix CDs this way - record a mix live, then re-record any mistakes & edit them out later. I even did this for my funky house radio show & added voiceover later (with automated ducking thanks to a funky plugin whose name escapes me). As time goes by you'll make fewer mistakes but you might still want to re-do bits because you suddenly realise there's a better way to go ;)