"Modular" Mixes

I have this idea for a way to combine the “power/finesse” of DJ studio with “performance-time” set flexibility of the kinds of tools you use when doing a live performance.

What I want from DJ Studio:

• DJ studio gives me the ability to create extremely smooth & nuanced transitions between tracks, much nicer than I could achieve with a “live” tool.

• It also allows me to create mashups, which are essentially like small “modules” of a larger mix.

What I want from live performance tools:

• The ability to change up my set as I’m playing by responding to the crowds’ energy/vibe etc.

So, my idea is something like this:

• Imagine if you could take a mashup A, and then define the transition from that mashup into say 3 other mashups (B, C, D) and then save those transitions inside DJ Studio.

• You’d re-do this for each of your mashups, so Mashup B has 3 predefined transitions into C, D, E; C into D, E, F etc, etc.

• This essentially gives you “mega-blocks” of mashups that can be combined together to create a larger set.

• The important thing though is, because you have multiple “out” transitions defined per mashup, you essentially have the ability to have a “branching” set-list that you can “redirect” at performance time in reaction to the crowd without having to manually do those transitions in real-time.

  • You would want it to work so that within a set, each mashup/Modules can only be played one time, so you’d need to add validation that looks over the possible “outbound” transitions from each playing mashup/module, and removes any that lead to modules that have already been played.

  • For the nerds reading this - I’m basically saying you want to be able to create a

    Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) of mashups that you can rearrange in real-time during a performance using pre-defined “out/in” transition blocks between mashups.

• It means that you can create all your transitions “in advance”, getting them absolutely perfect and,

• It means that, during a performance, you can maintain flexibility, but focus more on the crowd and selecting the right music, rather than trying to manage transitions.

If this kind of feature was available as a native part of DJ studio, I personally believe it would make DJ Studio an AMAZING tool for doing actual shows live, not just creating mixes in advance.

See diagrams below for visualisation of the workflow.