How To be a good Dj ... Tips for a good mix

You might think that your work as a DJ starts with buying equipment to practice different mixing techniques, but wait ...
Before being at the controls you must understand that everything begins and ends with the musical selection, each DJ invests most of his time in search of that gem that will light the dance floor and make everyone dance like crazy.

How and where to look
There are many pages which depending on the style of your liking can be your secret weapon, but if you are an initiate in this it is best to search the lists of different DJs.If you like a particular dj, you will like the music that he usually plays and you can find these lists on sites like YouTube, Spotify, etc.You can also search inbuzz charts, sales list, reviews of specialized websites in the style of your preference, parties, recommendations and even the radio.

now if we can go to the store for our machines ,depending on whether you like to play with vinyl or mp3, you can find machines that have each turntable and mixer together or separately and with having 2 turntables, a mixer and some headphones you will already have the equipment to start practicing and start your way towards one. track full of people dancing to the beat of the music you mix.Among the most prominent brands we find Denon, Allen & Heath, Gemini, Numark, Technicks, among others.

The mixer you buy will depend a lot on your style, since if you are a hiphop dj you will be interested in a mixer with crossfaders designed for scratching, or maybe one that has a midi controller if you are an electronic music DJ.
The music player as we discussed before will depend on whether you want to play with vinyl or mp3.

How to start

-The first thing you need to do is listen to one of your favorite songs, in this exercise you should try to separate the different musical elements in the song such as drums, bass, guitar, etc.
-take each of the elements listen to where it begins, where it ends, where it does something different, while you try to ignore the other sounds
-play with the equalization, bass, mid and treble controls ... it will help you distinguish the different elements
-choose songs with clear and simple drum patterns, where the kick is the first sound of the song.

The basic elements

• Kickdrum : sounds like BOOM, BOOM,BOOM,it is the largest percussive element, in most house music it sounds at each beat, while in other styles such as funk or rap, it will sound in the first, varying in the others
• snare :A CHIP CHIP sounds, a hard, fast, lively and energetic hit that makes the rhythm more complex, often marking the counter time.
• HiHats :when you hear a TSSS, TSSS. in reality, it is about two cymbals that hit each other, usually they also mark the setback
• more percusive instruments .... you have taam-tam , congas , bells ,etc to make more interesting the song
• Bass :The bass is an element that feels as much as it is heard and that is why it is one of the most important elements together with the drums since they are generally the ones that will mark the groove (repetitive rhythm)
• melody : it is the part that you whistle or hum, it can be a keyboard, a guitar, a saxophone or maybe a sample.
• voice :It is one of the most notorious parts in the song, we can consider it a type of melody, however since there are people singing the voice has an added emotional power.
  

how to pre-listen
pre-listening is hearing the next song through the headphones while listening to something else on the track and setting the right place for the new song to come in.

How do I listen to two things at the same time?

• play two songs with the crossfader positioned so that you can hear one of them through the loudspeakers
• use the mixer's pre-listen controls to listen to the same song in your headphones as the one playing in the room
• change the pre-listen controls so that you can listen to the other song in the headphones (one disc in the room and the other in the headphones).
• now hold the headphones so that they cover one ear, at this point you will be listening to a different disc in each ear.
• adjusts the volume levels so that both sound at the same intensity
• listen and try to separate the two discs in your head, you will have to try and practice many times.

timely entry

Is the foundation of everything, start the reproduction of the song exactly on timewhether you work with turntables or mp3 players, you must place a strong and clear bass drum in the song.

balancing the times

beat matching ... getting two songs to sound with the same rhythm is a necessary skill for almost any mix, and it involves detecting which song is faster and adjusting it until they match.
Your goal is to synchronize these two cuts so that their rhythms sit aesthetically with each other.

in this example the song 1 its too fast in compare with the second one

here they go at the same time but the stroke is outdated
in this last example both songs are synchronized in time and rhythm.

you already have all the basic elements to be a good dj, you just need to apply them in practice.

I hope the information has been to your liking and if you are interested in knowing more about dj mixing, music production leave me a comment to do more in the future.

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