Better Mixing

The foundations of a better mix

Once you've got the basics of beatmatching down, there are a handful of fundamentals worth working through one by one to improve your mixing. This doesn't touch on creative extras like scratching, effects or samplers — it's purely about how you move from one tune to the next.

In most cases, this comes down to your equipment being up to the job. If your mixer lacks EQs, gain controls (with a way to monitor input level), or headphone mix, it's worth saving for something better.

All of this is covered in fuller detail in DJing for Dummies.

The areas worth addressing, in no particular order

• Matching the input level of your tunes
• Checking the output level of your mix
• EQ control
• Using channel faders instead of the crossfader
• Mix placement and phrase matching
• Harmonic mixing
• Driving rhythms

Matching input levels

This is where a gain control and an incoming-signal display matter. On a mixer with per-channel LED meters, use the gain control on the next tune so its LEDs match the one currently playing. With EQs left at their normal playout position, a channel-fader mix (both faders at matching positions) shouldn't produce a volume drop or spike.

Some mixers require pressing a button to switch the master display to show incoming level — check your manual.

Checking the output level of the mix

Sometimes a crossfader mix seems to dip in volume around the halfway point. Watch the output meter during the same mix and you may find it's actually a boost just before the midpoint, not a dip. That can mean the gain is set slightly high on the incoming tune, so both tunes briefly overlap at full strength before dropping off — though EQ handling and crossfader technique (below) are the more common culprits.

EQ control

EQ does two jobs: shaping the overall sound, and smoothing the mix itself.

Sound control

If two tunes play at full volume with bass EQ maxed on both, you'll get far more bass than you want. Beyond the mix itself, use EQ generally to sweeten what you're playing — boost the highs if hi-hats and vocals feel dull, cut the mids if vocals feel shrill, boost the bass if a tune feels thin. You'll get a feel for this over time — some tunes need more bass and less mid, others the opposite.

EQs helping the mix

There's no fixed rule here, just a foundation to build on: reduce the bass EQ on the incoming tune as you bring it in, then swap — cut the bass on the outgoing tune as you raise it on the incoming one. As a rough example, assuming a bass "kill point" around 9 o'clock on a rotary control, and 12 o'clock for normal playout:

• Set the bass EQ on the incoming tune (Tune B) to 9 o'clock
• Move the crossfader to the middle
• Reduce the bass EQ on the outgoing tune (Tune A) to 9 o'clock
• Increase the bass EQ on Tune B at the same time
• Move the crossfader fully across to Tune B

This hides Tune B's bass until you swap it in, though since both tunes are at full volume by the crossfader's midpoint, it can still sound a little messy. Experimenting with mid and high EQ as well, and with exactly where in the crossfader's travel you make the swap, usually gives a cleaner result — slightly after the midpoint tends to sound tidier than exactly at it. This is tune-dependent, so experiment.

No matter how the EQ is set, relying purely on the crossfader always has a point where both tunes play at full strength together, which can sound messy. That's where the next point comes in.

Using channel faders instead of the crossfader

A crossfader follows a fixed "curve" for bringing one tune in while taking another out. Even with a curve control, there's limited room to adjust mid-mix if something starts to sound off.

Turning the crossfader off (or leaving it centred) and mixing purely with the channel (vertical) faders gives you full, independent control over both tunes — you can pull back the incoming or outgoing tune without affecting the other, which a crossfader can't do. Combined with EQ control, this is the most reliable way to keep a mix sounding smooth with no dips or spikes.

Mix placement and phrase matching

Once the sound of the mix is right, the next piece is making sure you're mixing the right parts of two tunes together. See the Beat Structures page for more on how beats and bars build into phrases — it's essential background for proper placement.

Tunes typically break down into sections: intros, verses, choruses, breakdowns, outros. Good mix placement means matching not just individual beats, but whole sections — so as one tune moves from chorus to outro, the other moves from intro to verse.

As an example, if two tunes share an identical structure (intro, verse, chorus, breakdown, verse, chorus, breakdown, verse, chorus, chorus, outro) with matching section lengths, the simplest mix starts Tune B's intro at the start of Tune A's final chorus — so as Tune A moves into its outro, Tune B moves into its first verse. This happens automatically as long as the very first bass beat of Tune B's intro lands on the very first bass beat of Tune A's final chorus.

It sounds more complicated than it is once you know your tunes well. Listening enough lets you hear how a tune is built, and pick up on the "end of phrase" markers — drum rolls, cymbal crashes, a one-bar drop, a vocal sample, a riser — that signal a section is about to change.

As a quick refresher on structure: four beats make a bar, four bars make a phrase, and phrases combine into sections. A section isn't always four phrases — it might be one, two, four, eight or more, depending entirely on how the track was written, but it'll almost always be a multiple of four (aside from occasional one- or two-phrase sections).

Refining mix placement so both tunes change section together is one of the biggest advanced improvements you can make once beatmatching is solid. It takes analysis, practice and patience, especially with tunes that don't share identical structures — but it transforms how a mix feels.

Do read the Beat Structures page alongside this, and if it's still unclear, get in touch.

Harmonic mixing

Harmonic mixing means matching the musical key of the tunes you're playing. Two tunes can sound great back to back, and then a third sounds off simply because it clashes key-wise with what's already playing.

The simplest approach is software (I use MixedInKey) to work out each tune's key, then use the Camelot Easymix wheel to find compatible keys. MixedInKey labels keys like 6A or 3B (A for major, B for minor); the Camelot wheel arranges them like hours on a clock, so 6B mixes well with 5B or 7B either side, or with 6A.

Two things complicate this in practice. First, adjusting the pitch control to beatmatch also shifts the actual key — a large pitch change can move a tune several places around the wheel, so the "key" you calculated at rest may not be the key it's actually playing at. Second, a good key match on paper doesn't always sound right, and an apparent clash sometimes works anyway — particularly when you're mixing beats-only sections with nothing musical to clash.

The most important thing: don't get too hung up on it. If two tunes genuinely sound bad together, that's worth listening to — but a calculation shouldn't be the deciding factor on its own. Use your ears and experience over a readout. I don't key my own tunes and still get clean-sounding mixes.

Driving rhythms

Driving rhythms are the elements beyond the bass drum that carry a tune forward — hi-hat patterns, bass melodies, the main hook. Matching them (or deliberately contrasting them) between two tunes can be powerful, but it's easier to hear than to describe in text, so the Lectures page has a video that walks through it properly.

Broadly, there are a handful of driving rhythms worth listening for: ta, ta-te, ta-te-ta, ta-fe-te-te, plus an "offbeat ta" that falls between beats. Each lands on one of the four beats in a bar. Where beatmatching only needs one beat to line up (with some margin for error), a mismatch in a complex driving rhythm — hi-hats out of sync by even a fraction of a second — will sound like a mess.

Putting it together

These are foundation points to check every time you approach a mix: how does it sound, how do the tunes interact, what are the driving rhythms doing? Work through them deliberately and your mixing will improve.