Beat Match City

Made with Logic Pro at 102 bpm If my lazier side had its way, I would've just used the first loop (Me & U instrumental + Liberian Girl instrumental) and the last one (Liberian Girl + What's Love Got To Do With It), copy-pasted over and over, and called it a day. Because those beats go together really well. But that would've been boring after about 45 seconds. So we fleshed it out, and added the vocals plus the hook from Me & U for a little variation and buildup. No question the vocals/hook combo from Liberian Girl or What's Love Got To Do... would've hit harder. But the chords/tone from either one never quite fit with the other instrumentals, so I went a little more conservative. Still turned out ok. Here's the playlist we used , in case you need some inspiration for your own project.

Made with Logic Pro at 125 bpm Simple recipe for this one - take loops from the songs in chase and backstab like the wind and mix them over J. Cole's Middle Child. Just between you and me, I think I might like this one a little better. More of a contemporary feel. Try messing playing around with the Dj Cheat Sheet playlist I used and see what you can come up with.

Made with Logic Pro at 118 bpm Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53 - Bizarrap, Shakira [122 bpm] Lost - Frank Ocean Hung Up - Madonna Alive - Empire of the Sun I was actually sitting on this for about 3 weeks, had the basic framework and song selection, kept getting hung up on whether to bring in Hung Up or Alive first (among some other things), then it finally clicked at the eleventh hour. My favorite part may be at the end where it's just Lost and Hung Up, and Hung Up is building up into the drop - just learned today that it's a sample from this ABBA song (about 19 seconds in) . As always, got all the music off my own djcheatsheet.com 120 to 125 bpm playlist, although the final version clocked in at 118 bpm. Why? My mind was probably just on auto-pilot, but everything sounded ok in the end.

tempo: 133 bpm the DJ's take: I think this youtube comment summarizes the vibe (and demographic) pretty nicely: If you're staying key-compatible, maybe double-time over songs in this playlist , or find some music in this playlist that's in the 127-130 bpm range. Probably best dropped at a middle or high school dance. download or stream Boy's a liar Pt. 2: amazon

tempo: 122 bpm the DJ's take: Would've been nice if this little ditty had a name, but it is what it is. Clean, full and straighforward - probably sounds pretty good through a big set of speakers. For remix/mashup purposes, I'd probably loop the section from 0:07-0:15. Definitely some California Gurls vibes; could also sound interesting with Alive - Empire of the Sun , Hung Up - Madonna , and Lost - Frank Ocean . Also kind of similar to Felix Jaehn's Book of Love with the drum-less female vocal intros. More key- and tempo-compatible options here . download or stream Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53: amazon

tempo: 118 bpm the DJ's take: Strong future as a go-to karaoke song for early twenty-something women. This one reminds me of the first half of Lovefool by The Cardigans , only a bit faster and more disco-oriented. Take the instrumental-only first four seconds of Lovefool, speed it up to about 115-116 bpm, lay it over Flowers, and that could be the start of something interesting. Try mixing with some of the singles in this playlist and see what you can come up with. download or stream Flowers: amazon

Made with Logic Pro at 85 bpm STAY - The Kid Laroi, Justin Bieber Guess Who's Back - Scarface, Jay-Z, Beanie Sigel Heartless - Kanye West Aston Martin Music - Rick Ross, Chrisette Michelle I Like Dat - T-Pain, Kehlani In terms of matching tones note-for-note with multiple songs, this is one of my better efforts. The drum-less intro to STAY is the constant, and we stacked / subtracted layers as we went along. The hardest part of making these mashups / mini-mixes is having a lot of ideas, trying them out in the software, and ultimately realizing the best thing to do is keep it simple. Maybe we can build this into something bigger in the future. Key- and bpm-compatible playlist: 85 to 90 bpm

Made with Logic Pro at 72 bpm My favorite part of this little clip - when you hear the string of low-pitched 'yeah's in Pony, and then travis scott chimes in at the end with a little 'yeah' of his own. Always fun when you can make the lyrics/vocals from two different songs line up into something interesting. Further confirmation that Pony can fit in with just about anything on this playlist . Listen to the full episode here: mix #56

Made with Logic Pro at 93 bpm Songs used: Out of Time - The Weeknd Creep - TLC ...Baby One More Time - Britney Spears Fancy - Iggy Azalea, Charli XCX I Feel It Coming - The Weeknd, Daft Punk First 40 seconds or so are a compressed version of an 8-10 minute mix that should get a crowd going at a wedding or a college bar on a pop night. Then we switch out Fancy for Out of Time as we settle in; sounds a little uneven, like someone slowly navigating a narrow sidewalk after some late-night libations. But that's just the natural vibe of Out of Time contrasting with the tighter percussion in the other two songs. I Feel It Coming was a natural choice to close out on a high note. Mix #78 offers a much more extended version of this, and if you feel like making your own thing, here's the full playlist I used.

tempo: 58-59 bpm the DJ's take: Two notable sections if you're using this for a mashup: first ~16 seconds for a drum-free instrumental, and 1:05-1:22 for an instrumental with percussion. Take either of them, turn into a loop for as long as needed, and that's a fun ingredient for something bigger. Could sound interesting with Never Be Like You - Flume, Kai , Pursuit of Happiness - Kid Cudi, MGMT, Ratatat , Señorita - Camila Cabello, Shawn Mendes or Everything We Need - Kanye West, Ty Dolla $ign, Ant Clemons [58-59 bpm] , off the top of my head. Full playlist is here , so try it out and see what other combinations you come up with. download or stream Under the Influence: amazon

Made with Logic Pro at 66 bpm Songs used: Unholy - Sam Smith, Kim Petras N 2 Deep - Drake, Future First I wanted to mix this with M.I.A.'s Bad Girls , but that's been done. Then I thought of Ginuwine's Pony , but apparently that's been done too. So we settled on a specific loop in N 2 Deep that worked well enough with the key of Unholy (which has a good instrumental-only section at the end, starting around 2:19). Obviously not a finished product, but you repeat a few times, and it's the start of something, right? Maybe we'll build this out a little more in the future.

Made with Logic Pro at 97 bpm Songs used: Anti-Hero - Taylor Swift Juicy - The Notorious B.I.G. Roses - The Chainsmokers, ROZES I'll be honest; bought Anti-Hero on amazon by accident (was trying to post the link on djcheatsheet.com and totally butchered it), figured I should do something with my new download. Juicy's my favorite song among the three, so we made that the base, and alternated loops of Anti-Hero and Roses over it. Came out ok I think - the shuffling drums in Juicy can be tricky to beatmatch, so it took a little listening and experimentation to find the right sections for mixing. Here's the playlist of key and bpm-compatible dance tracks we used, in case you feel like making your own version - or something completely different.

tempo: 65-66 bpm the DJ's take: This one makes me think of M.I.A.'s Bad Girls (~72 bpm) with the Far/Middle Eastern chord progression. I haven't tried it yet, but put both of them at ~69 bpm and that could be an interesting mashup possibility. Try mixing with songs in these playlists: 60 to 65 bpm , 65 to 70 , and 70 to 75 f (for songs are in the low 70s). download or stream Unholy: amazon

Made with Logic Pro at 87 bpm Not exactly how the transition went in mix #77 ; had to edit the Genie in a Bottle intro a little to cut out Christina Aguilera's vocals and make it more loop-able. A nice pairing - Gold has vocals and minimal percussion, and fits nicely over the Genie in a Bottle instrumental. Another good candidate for a full-on mashup or remix for someone who wants to dig in a little more. Key- and bpm-compatible playlist

Made with Logic Pro at 113 bpm Clip from mix #76 - the drums for You Owe Me and Down Hill were surprisingly tricky to get an exact beatmatch for. Cycled through a number of tracks from this playlist before we settled on The Weeknd's After Hours , using the opening instrumental about 2:12 to 2:29 into the song. I especially liked how it sounded over Down Hill; that could be an interesting mashup to make in the future. Key- and bpm-compatible playlist

Made with Logic Pro at 87 bpm 16:18 of hiphop and pop music Check out some more mixes here . This episode was made using this playlist . Tracklist (start times in parentheses): 1. Bad Habit - Steve Lacy 2. Karma - Lloyd Banks ft. Avant (1:19) 3. Hey Ma - Cam'ron ft. Juelz Santana (3:53) 4. Gold - Kiiara (4:27) 5. Genie in a Bottle - Christina Aguilera (6:28) 6. Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik - Outkast (8:46) 7. Who's Gonna Save My Soul - Gnarls Barkley (11:26) 8. Good For You - Selena Gomez ft. A$AP Rocky (14:33)

Made with Logic Pro at 87 bpm Blending Bad Habit with Hey Ma worked out well, and we brought up the possibility of mixing Bad Habit with Lloyd Banks' Karma , so I bit the bullet yet again and gave another $1.29 to Tim Cook in the name of science. Jackpot. This was an easy one - if you watch the video and see what I did in Logic Pro, it was pretty simple. Looks like we're about 30% into episode 77 of the sterling mercury show . Stay tuned. Key- and bpm-compatible playlist

Made with Logic Pro at 87 bpm So I openly wondered how Bad Habit would sound with Hey Ma , and then the concept became too interesting to leave alone. So I dropped a couple bucks on itunes, threw the two into Logic Pro, and let me tell you - the expression 'fits like a hand in glove' is an understatement. These two were meant to be together. In this case, we looped the Hey Ma instrumental section (starting 3:11 into the song) and did a simple beatmatch for ~100 seconds. Now imagine if someone did a proper mashup. At a bare minimum, that's a cool transition for your next pop/hiphop mix. Key- and bpm-compatible playlist

tempo: 85 bpm the DJ's take: This one could sound interesting with Cam'ron's Hey Ma (instrumental-only starting at 3:11), or maybe even the intro to Karma . Good number of possibilities from 80 to 85 bpm and 85 to 90 . An earworm for sure. And also the anti-workout song - makes you want to take a lazy stroll to nowhere in particular. download or stream Bad Habit: amazon

Made with Logic Pro at 113 bpm For a hiphop song that probably got blasted a lot in clubs ~2000, You Owe Me is quiet. Speaks to how production has changed in the past 20-30 years; everything gets cranked up a couple orders of magnitude these days ( After Hours is a good example). So in the video, that's why you see the volume way up on one and a little lower on the other. A little behind the scenes: it was a bit of a challenge finding a track that sounded like a perfect beatmatch with You Owe Me. There's some shuffling and variation in the drums, so I was looking for something simpler and more straightforward to pair with it. Took a few tries, but as you can see below, After Hours fit the bill (yellow bars mark the beats): From mix #76 ft. Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill Key- and bpm-compatible playlist