DJ Mixing Tips

DJ Beat Mixing Tips for Beginners

DJs will usually listen and follow the drum beat of the song. Most dance music tracks have an intro to the song, made up of repeating loops usually without any vocals. Tracks also have a break and/or an outro (where you mix out of it). A DJ can smoothly mix out of a song at both the break or the outro if they want to. A break is usually somewhere in the middle of the track, where the drum pattern ceases or changes. A song can have more than one break, but will have only one outro.

First you will have to cue up a point on your record or CD. We will use the slip-cue method.

A. First thing to do is remove the rubber mat that comes with your turntable and replace it with a dj slipmat. Don't have a slipmat yet? Find some Cool DJ Slipmats here. You can even create your own custom designs!

B. Listen to the song you want to cue up through your headphones only. The volume fader should be in the down position, so that the the song is only playing into your headphones, not through the speakers. Start the turntable and using your hand, spin the record around until you find the first drum note or downbeat. You should not be pushing down on the record so hard that the platter stops moving. The platter should freely move underneath the slipmat. The slipmat will allow the turntable to continue rotating as you hold the record. This is one reason you should own a direct drive turntable, not a belt drive. Belt drive turntables will get damaged when you push down too hard on the platter. Direct drive turntables are more resilient.

C. Be sure your dj needle and tone arm are adjusted correctly. Follow the instructions that came with your dj needles, or check out our section on How to Balance a Tonearm. Before Ortofons or Shures, DJ's glued or taped pennies on the cartridge shell to ensure that the needle stayed in place. But too much weight can damage the needles and wear out the vinyl (sometimes called "cue burn").

D. When you are ready to start the track, just release the vinyl at the first drum beat. While you do that, move the volume fader on your DJ Mixer to the up position in a fast smooth motion. As you get better at this, you will notice that if you slightly push the vinyl as you release it, you can drop the beat very accurately. To beat mix correctly, you must drop the first beat exactly on the beat of the song that's ending and then adjust the speed with the turntable's pitch adjustment fader (and bring the cross-fader over gradually).

Beats Per Minute (BPM)

Many of today's DJ mixers and some DJ CD players can calculate a track's BPM for you on a digital readout. If you don't have equipment that does that for you, an easy way to find the BPM of a song is as follows:

Starting with the first drum beat, start a stopwatch and count the numbers of bass drum beats that occur in one minute. If you counted 120 beats in one minute, there you go. The BMP of the track is 120. You should write this number on your record label or cd for quick reference. As a rule, most hip hop songs are under 115, most house songs are over 115, and most trance and techno songs are over 130 BPM. Drum-n-Bass and Jungle tends to be twice the BPM of hip hop tracks (160 to 200+ bpm).

Mixing Two Tracks

While you are playing one track out through the speakers, get the next track ready to mix into Track #A by cueing it up through your headphones. When Track #A goes into it's break, before the outro, release the beginning beat of Track #B in time to Track #A. As you match the drum beats, place your hand on the turntable or CD player's pitch adjust to gradually adjust the speed. As one hand adjusts speed, place the other hand on the mixer and gradually slide the crossfader so that Track #A's volume declines and Track #B's volume increases. When the mix is finished and Track #B is now the only song playing through the main speakers, be sure that the new song's volume is exactly at the volume of the previous song.

When choosing songs to mix into each other, try and find tracks that have a BPM (beats per minute) value that are similar. Like within 5 BPM of each other. For an example, that's like a 120 BPM track and a 125 BPM track. As you get better at beatmatching, you can experiment with a larger difference in BPMs.

EQing Techniques

Once you get good at beatmatching, you can start to work on some EQing techniques to make your mixes sound as smooth as possible. One technique is to turn both your mid and low EQ knobs on your mixer all the way down on the track you are mixing in (Track #B). When you bring the volume of Track #B up, only the high frequencies of the song will come through, like high hats. Bring down the high end EQ on Track #A (the song that is finishing) and many times you will get a great effect. Let the two songs "ride" the mix for a while (with the crossfader right in the middle). Then when you are ready to mix out, bring the crossfader over all the way (slowly) as you bring up the mid and low EQ for the track you are mixing in (Track #B). Play around and experiment with the EQ, with practice you can produce some great mixes.

Harmonic Mixing

Every song is created in a certain musical key (C-sharp, A-flat, etc.). Some DJ's only mix songs into each other if their keys compliment each other. Certain keys do not merge well with others. The technique of only mixing together tracks whose key's compliment each other is called Harmonic Mixing. We have a page dedicated to explaining Harmonic Mixing more in depth. Learn Harmonic Mixing Here .

Breakdown of a Typical Song

Perhaps the most important thing to know about mixing is the basic construction of songs (see chart below). You should know everything about the song(s) you are playing, such as when the song begins, when the vocals start, when the song breaks down, how long the outro will be, etc.

Other Ways to Learn Beat Mixing

Nighclubs and parties that feature live DJs is a great place to learn. If you can get into clubs that have great DJs, get close to the booth and watch what they do. Another good place is record stores. Many times the stores will have equipment set up for people to use. Watch people practice, and ask questions. Most DJ's love to teach others about what they do. It's an ego thing.

You could try getting a job as a mobile DJ. Depending on where you live, these companies are often eager to hire and train new DJ's. If you choose this route, be sure to work at a company that teaches beat mixing and formatting. You could also get a job as a nightclub light-jock. While the pay is relatively low, a light jock is in the best position to watch a DJ's success and failure at getting a dance floor. You may also have the opportunity to practice during the off hours, like during the day.

There are some great DJ instructional movies out there, and some that are not so great. I have a list of which I think are the best. Check out my list of recommended Learn To DJ Videos .