DJ Mixing

DJ mixing gives participants a chance to create a musical experience while learning how music is put together.

DropMix

DropMix is a music-mixing card game. Each card contains a musical track from a popular song, such as a vocal, a melody, a rhythm, or a bass. When you drop a card onto the gaming board, that track is played. Place multiple cards down and they are mixed seamlessly with the other tracks. The best part? None of the cards have to be from the same song... or the same genre, or the same key or tempo. DropMix automatically reshapes the sound so that it all fits together. Individual sessions can be saved and played at a later date and time on the app. You can record the audio from your phone or tablet as an input to another device.

Required Items

Software

• DropMix app (free)
  • Google Play
  • App Store

Consumables

Cards

The full list of cards and the ones we have is available at this link.

There are three basic types of card: regular, wild, and FX. Regular cards are the most common in a pack and can be placed according to color. Wild cards are the least common, but they can be placed in any spot on the board. FX cards can also be placed anywhere, add simple melodies, but are primarily for Clash mode.

In the top left, you will find a color-coded indicator for the type of track.

• Yellow -- leading melody
• Red -- looping melody
• Blue -- beat or rhythm
• Green -- bass or harmony
• Rainbow -- multipurpose
• White -- effect

This indicator also shows you the card's power level, which is a 3-tier measure of how prominently this track will be featured in the mix. When playing in a mode other than Freestyle, a card can only cover a card with equal or less power.

In the bottom left of the card, you will find the instrument for the card. For example, this could be:

• vocals
• keyboards
• drums
• DJ
• guitar
• strings

FX cards are an essential element to Clash mode. They are used to keep the game balanced. The icons in the bottom left corner describe what the card will do when played.

Deck Building

To keep the game challenging, there are a few suggested rules for building a deck from the available cards:

• a deck must contain 15 cards
• the maximum cumulative power level is 40
  • 1 for each power level in regular cards
  • 4 points for each wild and FX card
• no duplicate cards are allowed

Board

The DropMix board has five places for cards to be placed. Yellow cards can be placed on the left pad. Red cards can be placed on the three pads on the left. Blue cards can be placed on the three pads on the right. Green cards can be placed on the right pad. Cards can be stacked on top of each other up to a certain height. The card that is on top will be played.

Play-Mode: Freestyle

This is the simplest mode for those times when you just want to jam. Ignore those color codes, because you can really mix 5 vocals if you want to. The tempo and key can be controlled manually, and you can even adjust the power level of the card by sliding the bar on the app.

Play-Mode: Party

Party mode is your chance to work with your friends to meet the requests of an "audience". A request for a card with a color, power level, or instrument will appear on the screen, and you can place a card to match this request. Place the cards as fast as possible to increase your score.

Play-Mode: Clash

Play against a rival to see whose style is stronger. You can play 1 v 1 or team v team. Each side play cards from their own rival decks.

To start, opposing players/teams place a card face down onto the board. On the app, the card on the yellow/red pad will be on the left while the green/blue pad will be on the right. The playlist for that first card will be used to represent that side. Each player/team shuffles their cards (don't bend them!), then places their deck face down onto the table. Each side draws 5 cards from their deck and hides them from their opponent.

The game begins with a spinner on the app that decides who goes first. In each turn, the player has two moves. Either move can be one of these actions:

• A card is placed onto a pad. Regular cards must be placed on the pad corresponding to its color. These cards can be placed on empty pads or on top of cards that have an equal or lower power level.
• The DropMix button is pressed. This will trigger a spinner that decides which opponent cards to remove from the board, thus lowering their score. This could be power 1 cards, power 2 cards, power 3 cards, or all cards. Remove all cards from the pad, including all cards under your opponent's card. These are discarded from the game until all in-play cards are exhausted.

Scoring is determined by the following system:

• If a card is placed on a pad, 1 point is awarded.
• If the second move adds a new color to the mix, 1 additional point is awarded.
• If a move results in the player covering the entire board with their cards, 1 additional point is awarded.
• If the opponent does not have any cards on the board, pressing the DropMix button has a chance of awarding a point to them.
• FX cards may remove points based on the cards in play.

After two moves, the player/team draws two more cards from their deck. The number of cards in-hand may vary, so tapping the playlist icon on the app will display the number of cards that each player/team should have. If there are no more cards for a player/team to draw, all discarded and played cards (excluding those on the top of a stack on the board) can be reshuffled into their deck.

The end of the game occurs when a goal of 15 or 21 points is reached by either player/team. A timer can be set for 15, 30, or 60 seconds to force a player/team to place a card or forfeit their turn.

Ideas for Lesson Plans and Programming

Background Tracks

Setting: public event, 30+ people

Duration: 1-2 hours

Items Needed:

How often have you hosted an event and thought it could be better with music? Paying a starving artist is always a good option, but it's not as fun as getting your guests to create their own music. No prior music experience is required.

Start your event as normal but tell your guests that the music will be provided by everyone present. Assure them that all they have to do is pass by the demo and drop a card onto the board. Run the DropMix demo in Freestyle mode.

Suggestion: Position the DropMix board at the start of the line for the buffet. An instructor can handle the cards and ask guests randomly to "pick a card, any card". Briefly describe how the board works and ask them where they would like to place a card.

Quiz Game

Setting: classroom, 10-30 students

Duration: 30 minutes - 1 hour

Items to Provide:

You have been teaching to a group of people for a while, but how do you make the review fun? Reward them with music that they can create, of course.

Make a list of questions that you want to ask. Separate and arrange them by four difficulties. Use the lowest three difficulties as questions that are to be answered by a single student. Use the highest difficulty as class discussions. Separate the DropMix cards by power level and discard the FX cards. Use DropMix in Freestyle mode.

Explain your reward/punishment system:

• For a correct answer to a lower difficulty -- The student selects and places a regular card on the board with a power level that is consistent with the difficulty of the question.
• For a correct answer to a high difficulty -- The class picks a wild card and chooses where to place the card on the board.
• For an incorrect answer -- Remove all cards from one of the five pads on the board.

DJ Leaderboard

Setting: individual activity

Duration: 5 minutes per activity, indefinite total

Items to Provide:

Who has wowed the crowd the most? Rack up the highest score and your name will be enshrined for all to see.

Announce a DJ competition and create an empty leaderboard. Describe the DropMix and its Party mode in a flyer for the competition. Decide on a prize for 1st place, 2nd place, most active, etc.

Use the DropMix in Party mode. Make all cards available to the participant and give them a short time to organize them however they want. Allow the participant to complete the challenge and record their score. Add them to the leaderboard and post results regularly. At the end of the competition period, announce the winners and give them their prizes.

DJ Tournament

Setting: meeting space, 16, 32, or 64 participants; 1v1 competitions, audience entertainment

Duration: 10-15 minutes per match, 1-2 hours total

Items to Provide:

Who is the master of the mix? DropMix has a competitive mode

Create a competition bracket with a rubric to determine the rankings. Each match will be run in Clash mode.

Before each match, have players draw their 15 cards (alternating) from a shuffled mix of all cards (don't bend the cards!):

• 12 regular cards
• 1 wild card
• 2 FX cards