Basic Mixing

Working the cue

You can't start mixing without starting the tune. Whatever format you use, you need to find the exact place you want to start from (the cue point), and then be able to start playback at that exact moment. Finding the cue point is the easy part — starting it precisely takes a bit more practice.

Finding the cue

First, set up your mixer: channel faders for both inputs to full, crossfader in the middle, gain and EQ controls matched on both channels.

Whether you're on vinyl, CD or MP3, the goal is an exact cue point — usually a bass drum, either the very first beat of the tune or the first beat of a phrase in the intro (see Better Mixing for more on phrases).

With vinyl: put the needle down at the start, press play, and when you hear the first bass beat, stop and wind the record back until you hit silence. Wind forward slightly until you can just hear the beat begin, then stop — the needle is now cued at the first bass beat.

With CD decks that emulate vinyl (like the CDJ-1000), you can wind the platter back the same way. Find the beat, press CUE to store it (some decks use PLAY instead — check the manual). If your deck doesn't have vinyl emulation and pausing just loops the same frame, use the frame-skip controls to step back until the stutter stops, nudge forward one more frame to land right on the beat, then store the cue point.

Starting the beat

On CD, starting is simple: press play.

On vinyl, starting in time with another beat takes more practice. Hold the cued record still with your hand and start the turntable — with a decent deck and slipmat, it'll spin freely underneath the stationary record. Practise rocking the record back and forth to a boom-woomp rhythm, then let go on the beat. It'll take off playing. Repeat this solo a few times to get used to starting precisely, before trying it against another tune already playing.

Starting in time with another tune

It helps a lot to have two copies of the same tune while you practise. On CD, just burn a second copy; on vinyl, it's worth the extra cost. Pick something with a clean, solid bass drum that holds steady for a good stretch.

CD

Set both pitch controls to 0, cue both to the very first bass beat, and press play on one. With the crossfader centred and both channel faders up, you'll hear it playing. Go to the other deck, listen and get a feel for the timing, then press play when you're ready — for now, you're only matching the beats, not the full arrangement, that comes later.

If it's off, you'll hear a heartbeat-like double thud from the two bass drums. Return to the cue point and try again. Keep practising, concentrating on the beat each time.

Vinyl

Trickier, but the rocking practice from earlier pays off here. Set both pitch controls to 0, cue both records to the first beat, start one turntable playing, then hold the other stopped while rocking it in time with the live beat. When you're confident, let go. If it's off, lift the needle, re-find the cue point, and try again.

If you consistently start a beat too slowly, it might be the turntable's motor rather than your timing — try giving the record a small extra push as you let go.

Keep practising both formats. Even a 70% hit rate is fine at this stage — the next section covers correcting the beats once they're already running slightly out of time, so you won't always need to go back to the cue point.

Error correcting

Correcting with vinyl

If a record started too late and needs to catch up, a few options:

• Push the label round gently with a finger — my preferred method
• Pinch the centre spindle and use that to speed it up (also builds finger strength)
• Nudge the pitch control up temporarily, then return it once the beats line up — my least favourite, since it's hard to be sure you've returned to exactly the original pitch

If it started too early, slow it down — either dip the pitch control briefly, or (my preference) lightly touch the side of the platter to add friction, releasing once the beats match.

Correcting with CDs

Less manual control here. On decks without a jog dial, you'll rely on a pitch-bend control, usually a pair of buttons that speed up or slow down playback while held, returning to the set pitch on release. With a jog dial, a small nudge left or right does the same job, with the effect scaling with how far you turn it. Decks with a full rotating platter (rather than a sprung jog wheel) behave much more like a turntable — push to speed up, add finger friction to slow down.

Too fast or too slow?

This is arguably the most complicated part of DJing — the book covers it in more depth, and there's a video lecture on this site that walks through it with examples. If the explanation below doesn't quite land, those are worth checking out.

B'loom and l'Boom

The easiest way to tell whether a tune is running fast or slow is to introduce a volume difference between the two, similar to what you'd hear using headphone mix: keep the crossfader centred, but set the channel fader of the tune you're leaving alone to around 50–75% of the one you're trying to start in time.

Now the cued track's beats land louder, as a Boom, and the live track's beats land softer, as a loom. Listen for the order:

• B'loom — the Boom lands before the loom
• l'Boom — the loom lands before the Boom

It takes a few attempts to train your ear to catch this reliably, but once it clicks, it tends to stay clicked — a bit like the moment a Magic Eye picture resolves.

It also helps to know the character of each tune's bass drum in advance — some producers use a very distinctive kick, which makes it much easier to tell which one you're hearing first.

No headphone mix? No problem

Without headphone mix, cue both tunes at the same headphone volume and listen for the character of each bass drum to tell which is ahead. You could temporarily raise the gain on the incoming track to fake the volume offset, but it's easy to forget to reset it before the mix proper begins, so I wouldn't recommend it.

Alternatively, start the mix and listen through the main speakers as the crossfader moves — by around a quarter of the way across, you'll start to hear B'loom or l'Boom if the tunes are out of time. Through the speakers, the Boom comes from the live track and the loom from the quieter, cued track — the opposite of the headphone version, since what matters is loud versus quiet, not which track is "cued" versus "live".

Matching beats — beatmatching, properly

Using your two copies of the same tune again: set one to around 4% pitch and start it playing. With the other at 0 pitch, cue the first beat and start it too. The beats will drift out of time quickly, since the two tunes are running at different speeds. That drift, and correcting for it, is beatmatching.

Take it in chunks

You could just read the other pitch control and match it directly — but to actually build the skill, go back to the cue point instead. When the beats drift, speed the tune up using your chosen method, then boost the pitch control by about 2%. The drift will slow but not stop; boost another 1%, same result; get to around 4% and the beats should hold for roughly 20 seconds before drifting again. Use your B'loom/l'Boom skills to tell which direction it's drifting, nudge the speed, and adjust the pitch control to match — usually only by a couple of millimetres by this point.

Once that feels comfortable, try it without being able to see the pitch control — cover it with a piece of paper and just increase it by feel. Use large adjustments first, narrowing down as you get closer, listening the whole way. It takes longer, but as long as you're concentrating on the beat, you'll get there.

Doing this quickly, consistently and easily is the real skill in beatmatching. It'll take time to master, but once you have it, it stays with you.

New tunes, at last

The final step is doing all of the above with two different tunes, rather than two copies of the same one. Same approach, except you can no longer cheat by reading the matching pitch control — just listen, judge the direction of drift, and adjust. Time and concentration remain the key ingredients.