Mix moves
Quick mixing
Quick mixing plays a short section of each record, often thirty to ninety seconds, before moving to the next. It is a style of set rather than a transition, and it depends on knowing which section matters.
In practice
Play the part that matters and leave. Quick mixing lives or dies on cue points set before you arrive.
Set two hot cues on every record — the point you come in and the point you want to be out by — and keep them consistent so the workflow is the same on every track. Thirty to ninety seconds is the working range; below that a crowd cannot settle into anything, above that you have stopped quick mixing. Cut and slam transitions suit the pace better than long blends, and the energy comes from the rate of change rather than from any single record.
30–90 s
Per record
2
Cue points per track
Cuts
The transition that fits
Where these come from: Working conventions for quick-mix and open-format sets — practice, not catalog figures. For what we can measure, see the preparation it depends on.
Why it matters
It is the format of hip-hop, party and open-format sets, and it works because the interesting part of most records is short. Playing a full six-minute house track to a crowd who came for hooks is not generosity, it is a lull, and quick mixing removes the lull entirely.
The cost is preparation. A set at that pace needs cue points set on the exact bar you want, a running order that already knows what follows what, and enough familiarity that you are choosing rather than searching. Improvised quick mixing is mostly panic.
Frequently asked
How long should each track be in a quick mix set?+
Thirty to ninety seconds is the usual range. Shorter and the crowd cannot settle; longer and you are no longer quick mixing, you are mixing.
Does quick mixing work in a house or techno set?+
Rarely. Those genres build over minutes and the payoff depends on the build, so cutting away at ninety seconds removes the thing people came for.
What preparation does quick mixing need?+
Cue points on every record and real familiarity with what comes next. At that pace there is no time to search, so anything not decided beforehand is decided badly.
Related terms
Chop mix
A chop mix alternates rapidly between two playing tracks using the crossfader, taking a bar or a phrase from each in turn so the two records trade the floor rather than blending into one another.
Cut
A cut swaps one record for another on a single beat, with no overlap. It is the fastest transition there is and the only one that works between two records with nothing in common.
Hot cue
A hot cue is a saved position in a track that plays from that point the instant you press its pad. Most players store eight per track, and they are stored with the file rather than with the session.
Tease
Teasing plays a brief, recognisable fragment of a record — a few bars of a hook or a vocal — then takes it away without mixing it in. The record itself arrives later, or sometimes not at all.
Explore: Transition techniques · Cut · Hot cue · All DJ terms