DJing Tips

Having trawled the net for days to try and summarise and show you guys some of the best clips, blogs and websites to cover from the basics to the most advance DJing skills, I am generally quite disappointed. Most websites have huge amounts of text with little visual to help reinforce the pages of text, plus for the non academic learner its a mountain of words that need translating into actions.

However this one covers the basics for beat matching, similarly the full DJing for dummies guide is also worth a look/purchase/download from a torrent.



Also worth checking out Sonic academy's you tube page here. Make sure you check all 8 lessons as they are good to reinforce most of the teaching points we have covered in lessons.

As you get better and want to experiment with some scratches then there are some good clips on you tube put up by Q-Bert and Scratch Perverts which covers the scratching basics.

However I strongly recommend that you spend time learning the beat matching skills and listening to your mixing to improve how you actually sound to the listener before going crazy on learning scratches. I found the best way is to keep recording yourself and listening back analysing what worked and what didn't and why. The hardest part about DJing and DJing well, is to establish what will contribute to the best mixing out of the speakers and not the headphones. For my beginners years, I was convinced I was doing amazing and having a great time in the headphones, but what was actually playing was the complete opposite and definitely not a crowd pleasing performance. So spend time recording yourself and learning how to correct your mixing skills. In my eyes, a good DJ only uses their headphones to cue, correct mixing mistakes at the beginning to then drop a tune and for the occasional reference during their mix.

Once you have learnt how to beat match/mix then look at some scratches, they have loads of variations and names, because scratching is basically an artform and used to demonstrate your 'style' and originally for battling, which is where turntablism, (the art and use of two turntables to create new forms of music and tricks with the equipment) derived from.

Check the clips below for some of the basic scratches:






There are loads of home made, learn DJing clips on you tube so feel free to search away, but none that I feel really break it down clearly and can be reinforced and easily learnt from other than the DJing for dummies guide, qberts how to scratch lessons and for the advanced learner the scratch perverts. As a result I have decided to give you some tips and a few links for the mean time, however we will also make some clips in the near future and put them on you tube with tips as well.

So for the mean time lets cover the basics:

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Turntable set up - RIGHT NOW MAKE A SOUND

Remembering this short little phrase will help you to understand how sound starts and travels through your set up, and also can be used to check and identify any areas along the way that is preventing sound from being heard.

Sound will start cut as a groove on your record which is then picked up by the needle, the needle takes the vibrations down the tone arm and progresses towards the mixer. At the mixer, provided that it is wired correctly, the sound will be fed into a channel strip and able to be controlled with either the gain, upfader and crossfader. The sound is then fed out from the mixer from a master output and an be fed to an amplifier. The amplifier will in turn make the sound louder which can then be fed to the speakers which finally turn the signal into an audible format which can be taken in by the human ear. Whilst this may appear simple, always checking this sound path will allow you to identify any errors and pin point where your sound will travel and be heard. You will be surprised with how simple errors will occur regularly along this path unless you check all five points regularly, especially before and after a mix.

RECORD - Right - Always check that the record is on the turntable the right way and that its turning at the correct speed (33, 45) with grooves available to be picked up by the stylus/needle.

NEEDLE - Now - Ensure that the needle isn't covered with dust, is still functioning and is ideally a diamond cut needle that can take being moved forwards and backwards. Also double check the obvious that its in the right place and on a vinyl that have grooves to be picked up.

MIXER - Make - Double check that you have connected the turntables/cdj's in the right ports (Turntables use phono inputs and CDJ's use the line inputs). Check that you have sufficient but not overloaded or peaking gain for each channel strip. Upfaders are used to control the volume of each channel during your mix. They are the DJ's mixing and fading tools and are used for fading sound in and out of the mix and can also be used for chopping between the two sources playing. The last area and one of the most important to check is the crossfader, always remember that the crossfader will play the sound that it ponits too. It is also the last part of the mixer that should be worked with to ensure that you have all the other areas sounding or cued correctly.

AMPLIFIER - A - This is the last point to check for power and levels. Try not to over amplify your sound either as this will blow your speakers if you are not careful. The last simple one to check is that your amplifier is turned on as well. Sounds obvious but is an easy one to forget.

SPEAKERS - Sound - Finally check your speakers are correctly plugged into your amp and are not blown. You will know if your speakers are blown as they will sound muffled and poor quality especially with certain frequencies.


LEARNING TO BEAT MATCH

I recommend using two identical tunes on vinyl if possible at the same tempo and practice looking for the 1 (the first beat on the record). Practice dropping the 1, once cued in the headphones, in time with the first beat of a bar on the record playing.

The next part is going to be the be all and end all of where you learn to understand and compute the beat matching element. You need to listen carefully to the cued mix in the headphones and determine whether you dropped it in time, correcting the beats so they play identically together. A simple key to follow is usually the snare drum, which can be heard if it plays early or late and then you will need to use either speeding (pushing the record forwards) or slowing (tapping or gently stopping the record) to help get both records back in time again.

Once you have got the basics of this, you need to then experiment with varied tempos to then use the pitch control to get the hang of applying speeding and slowing effectively. The following link is quite good both in terms of text and visually to help explain what you are doing physically and practically when you with the playing record. The main thing to process is that without touching on music production too much music is made at varying tempos. Stick to mixing identical genres to start off with.

Taking all this into consideration, when we mix, we need to create a universal tempo for both records to play at, in order to allow you the to play them both at the same time in time. The key to this is developing an 'ear' to hear which record is fast or slow and learning how to use your DJing equipment to help correct the errors. The pitch control affects the speed at which the record plays at, so this is the main tool that can be used to help match tempos of the two records, based on whether you are speeding or slowing.

There are hundreds of theories and practices that speculate how to master the pitch control quickly, however, probably the fairest statement to make is that you should move the pitch control according to how much you have to keep correcting the record with speeding and slowing. I use the principle that if the beat falls out in less than half a bar, I move at least 4 notches on the pitch control accordingly. If it falls out in a bar, then I move 2 notches and anything up to 4 bars then 1 notch, however this isn't a proven legend, it's just what works for me. It is important to keep finding the 1 again and dropping it in time to ensure that you can hear the changes and make adjustments accordingly with the pitch again.


MIXING SKILLS

Fade cuts - Probably the simplest cut to use when mixing is the fading of the old record out whilst the new record plays. Once beat matched, bring the new tune in using the cross fader and when you feel appropriate begin fading the previous record out using the upfader over a minimum of 2 bars.

Stop Cut - Really simple, whilst playing both records together, press the stop button on the record that you no longer wish to play on a 1. For the more advanced sound, use either the crossfader or the upfader to capture the stop and then chop back to the mix.

Spin back - The spin back is one of the trademark DJ sounds. Its simple to pull off, but requires concise actions with your equipment otherwise you'll end up with a mess of sound playing. Again once both tunes are mixed and beat matched and playing together simply throw the record that you no longer want to hear backwards and then cut with the cross fader to the remaining tune. Be sure to get this right otherwise you will end up playing a record that you don't want to hear or begin playing aloud a no longer wanted and non beat matched mix. However when pulled off correctly sounds great!

Chop mixing - The chop mix can be used to tease the crowd with whats in store and works really well with faster dance music. Again once cued and beat matched use either the cross fader or the up faders to chop between the two

Drop mixing - Drop mixing is the DJ's essential cut to change from one music genre to another, similarly it can be used effectively if you are struggling to beat match and need to change to another tune to the begin beat matching a new mix. Simply cue your new tune using your headphones and place the cross fader in the middle and press stop button on the tune that you no longer want to play, letting go of the new record to start the new tune playing.

EQ mixing - The EQ buttons on the mixer can be used for capturing different frequencies in a tune. Typically you should have a hi, mid and low frequency to play with which can be used to boost (increase) or cut (remove) these frequencies. When used correctly you can use these to boost the bass line on record A and the hi's and mid's on record B. If done correctly then you should create a new sounding mix with the two tunes. It will be useful to know both tunes well and plan how you wish to use what elements of each tunes to boost or kill.

I will continue to drop more hints and tips over the next few months but this should suffice for the mean time.

Catch you soon