How to DJ

Being a great DJ requires a lot of skills and practice. You have to be good at beatmatching, choosing the right tracks, reading the crowd, being creative with the music, knowing your equipment, scratching and a whole lot of other things. A lot of you are ready and eager to learn all these things, but where do you find direction? That’s why you’re here.

I try hard to explain how to DJ in my tutorials but the truth is that you need more than that. If you want to really be a great DJ, you need to do more than just read my tutorials. You have to watch videos. Reading tutorials will only get you so far – to really learn effectively you need to actually see what I’m talking about, see how to apply these techniques.

Now, you know I have always tried my best to help you learn how to DJ as much as I could. So I got together with some other experienced DJs and we made some videos for you. OVER 7 HOURS OF VIDEOS!

These videos will show you the PROVEN SECRETS of DJing THAT WE HAVE BEEN USING FOR YEARS!

If you are really serious about being an awesome DJ, get this book. Here’s what you will learn:

• Learn the 3 main mistakes that prevent beginner DJs from developing into Great DJs
• Learn the basic scratching technique from which all other scratches are derived
• Learn how to beatmatch – mix 2 tracks using 2 copies of the same record
• Learn how to mix ANY songs together and have it come out sounding awesome
• Learn the art of beat juggling, also called doubling
• And a LOT more!
  

I’m really serious about this. You can’t find these videos anywhere else online. They are top quality tutorial videos that are guaranteed to turn you into an amazing DJ. And you know what? New videos are being added on a regular basis!

You will get FREE access to a membership site where you can watch new videos as soon as they’re made!

Here are a few new videos that were recently added:

• A complete Serato Scratch Live tutorial – over 90 minutes long!
  
• How to get women dancing on the dance floor
• How to prepare your mixes
• How to avoid technical issues
  

Since this is new and so far only available to my website visitors and a few other people, there are also a few bonus items you’ll get for free. But this is ONLY FOR A LIMITED TIME, so GET THE VIDEOS TODAY!

THERE IS NO EASIER WAY TO LEARN HOW TO DJ!

GET THE VIDEOS WHILE THEY ARE STILL AVAILABLE

Serato Scratch Live setup

As you can see, the setup comes with software that goes on your laptop and an audio interface, which is more or less a 2-channel sound card, that connects to your turntables and mixer with RCA cables and to your laptop via USB or FireWire. You could also use your microphone with it. Your DJ headphones stay plugged into your mixer.

A summary of how it works:

• Serato plugs into your turntables or CD players to receive the audio signal coming from the record or CD.
• Serato picks up the signal coming from your laptop, which is where your music is actually stored.
• Serato then sends that audio to your mixer, and you hear the music through the speakers.

It’s pretty straight forward because when you’re actually using it, the experience is the same as if you were playing regular CDs or records. But here’s the trick – you’re not playing regular CDs or records. You are playing special Serato CDs or Serato vinyl records. They have a special timecode, which tells the Serato interface and software exactly where you are in the track. It’s like a time signature, so if you’re on 1:23 of the track Serato knows to play 1:23 of the audio file on your computer. If you spin the track back, the software knows exactly where to pick up in the audio file. And so on.

Here is what the Serato Scratch Live software looks like:

Serato Scratch Live software

This may look confusing at first but you’ll learn how to use it pretty quickly. You can browse through your entire music library and select whichever songs you want to play.

Beatmatching is easy with Serato Scratch Live

The middle section shows you a visual representation of the waveform of your audio track, so you could see where the different audio frequencies fall. This lets you easily see where the bass and treble hit, thus making it easy to beatmatch. (You do know how to beatmatch, don’t you?) All you have to do is line up the beats on both tracks and make sure they’re playing at the same speed. Which is also easy because Serato tells you the current BPM of the audible tracks. To make it even easier, the bar at the top shows little lines to represent where the size of the measures in both tracks, so you can be sure to line them up precisely. Honestly, it’s really easy to beatmatch with Serato.

You control everything from your hardware

Even though the actual audio is stored on your computer, you control everything from your turntables and your mixer, just like you would normally. Of course, you now have your laptop as an extra tool to help you beatmatch and make some cool effects (I’ll get to that in a bit) but for the most part the DJ experience is the same so you don’t have to learn anything new. It comes pretty naturally.

Special features

Of course, the software has extra features that you may not normally have with your turntables or CD players. For example, you can set cue points. You can see those in the image above under “Markers.” Cue points let you return to that exact point instantly anytime you want. The reason they’re called markers and not cue points is because the audio plays instantly from that point instead of cueing the track at that point. It’s the same as the Memory function on the CDJ-1000, so if you’re familiar with that CD player you know what I’m talking about. This feature can be very useful, especially if you like beat juggling. I’ve seen this used most commonly to mark the beginning of where you want the track to play from. So you can skip an intro if you don’t want to use it in your mix. If you set the marker right at the first beat, you can always return to that beat with confidence. Oh by the way, these markers get saved in memory, so you don’t have to make new ones every time you use the software.

Easy looping

It’s extremely easy to make seamless loops in Serato. There is a loop feature that lets you loop at any interval from a fraction of a beat to 32 beats, or maybe more, I don’t remember off the top of my head. Regardless, it’s really easy to loop and you can just from one loop interval to another. So say you are looping a 1/4 beat loop and you want to let the loop go but you don’t want to get too far into the track yet, so you can change it from 1/4 beat to 16 beats. There’s a variety of effects you could create if you get creative just with the loop feature.

Lots of other useful features

This is just a basic overview of some of the most commonly used features. I’ll go into more depth on how to mix with Serato Scratch Live in a later post.

You will love Serato Scratch Live

Honestly, if you’re serious about DJing and you want to learn how to DJ with Serato Scratch Live DJ software, you should just get it and play around with it until you master all the features and all the things you could do with it. But it won’t even take you that long to see that it’s worth the investment. It’s no coincidence that you see DJs all around the world displaying stickers like this one:

I Love My Serato Scratch Live!

Did you find this informative? Do you have any questions about Serato Scratch Live? Leave me a comment below!

Let’s look at a realistic situation. You’re playing a track on Deck A and somewhere in the middle of it you want to blend into a new track on Deck B. So, while track A is playing you start cueing up track B in your headphones. You use the technique from How to Beatmatch (Part 2) and find the moment right before a beat hits at a part of Track B that you want to blend in.

As you’re previewing the Track B in your headphones, you notice that it’s starting to get out of sync with Track A. This is where you’ll find that it’s crucial to really know your music. At this moment you have to figure out which beat is coming from which track. The only way to do this is to know what that track sounds like and how the beat sounds different from the beat of the other track. You can figure this out by trying to focus on just one of the tracks and getting a feel for the timing, or you can quickly switch back and forth between the tracks in your headphones. Another good way is to check the meters on your mixer. You’ll see which bar is late in bouncing up, and that’s the track you need to speed up. Use the tempo slider in conjunction with the jog wheel (or the actual record) to do this.

This process takes a lot of practice and you’ll be doing a lot of trial and error. Don’t worry about it, this is the whole point of practicing. Once you master this technique, you can safely say that you have learned how to beatmatch. And you’ll be well on your way to learning all the other aspects of mixing music.

Now you have the basics of learning how to beatmatch. The most important thing is that you have fun DJing. As long as you keep it fun, you will stay interested in it and won’t mind practicing. The key to being a good DJ is practice practice practice, just like with anything else. So have fun, practice a lot, and you’ll start seeing results pretty quickly!

-Mixing DJ

You are now familiar with the basic concept of how to beatmatch and what beatmatching is. But in How to Beatmatch (Part 1) I only talked about beatmatching 2 copies of the same song, and the result didn’t sound that good anyway. Let’s get a little more advanced in Part 2 of How to Beatmatch.

Just like in Part 1, take a duplicate track and put it on both of your decks. On Deck A, cue up the track right before the beat hits. What I mean by this is as follows:

On your CD player there is a Cue button. It lets you pause the track wherever you want and resume it later with the play button. When you are playing a track and you hit the play button to pause it, you hear a stuttering sound. This moment in the track is called a frame and it is a fraction of a second of sound. You can turn the jog wheel to advance or reverse frame by frame. Play around with this so that you get familiar with how to identify what you’re actually hearing by listening to these frames. You should be able to notice the way a drum beat sounds when you hear it in frames. Once you get the hang of it, what you need to do is position the track at the frame right before a drum beat starts to hit. Then press the Cue button and the track will be paused there.

If you are using records, the process is similar. Just stop the record with your hand and move it back and forth to identify the sound of a drum beat hitting. You won’t be able to pause the record there, but keep your hand on it at the point right before the beat hits.

Make sure that your crossfader is in the middle position.

Now, with your other hand, press play on the other deck. Get a feel for the timing of the beat. Tap your free hand to the beat if you want, many DJs find that helpful. When you’re ready, press the play button (or release the track that you had paused with your hand) at the exact moment that a beat is about to hit on the track that is currently playing.

If you did this perfectly, the beats on both tracks should be synchronized and you have pulled off a successful beatmatch. But that’s what happens in a perfect world. In reality you were actually a little off and you’re hearing the galloping I had mentioned in Part 1. No problem, just use the jog wheel (or touch the record) to speed it up a bit and get the beats to match up. Wasn’t that easy?

There you go, you have just learned one of the techniques of how to beatmatch. But you will not often be trying to beatmatch two tracks that are exactly the same speed. In Part 3 of How to Beatmatch I’ll talk about how to beatmatch when your tracks are different speeds, or have different BPMs.

-Mixing DJ

So, let’s learn how to beatmatch.

The most basic thing you could do when starting to learn how to beatmatch is to put the same song on both of your decks. So, depending on if you’re using CD or vinyl, make duplicate CDs or get 2 copies of a record. If you can get one without a lot of vocals and with a clear beat, that will help. Start playing the track on one deck, let’s call it Deck A. Make sure the crossfader on your mixer is in the middle position, or turned off if you have that option. Now, start playing the same track on Deck B. Right away, you will hear that the drum beats are not synchronized. This results in a sound that DJs call a gallop.

Since you are playing the same track on both decks, they should be playing at the same speed. Make sure that the tempo adjustments on your decks are in the same position. Now, speed up or slow down the track on Deck B slightly. Don’t use the tempo slider for this, instead use the actual jog wheel on the CD player, or slow down your record with your finger if you’re using vinyl. Keep doing this until you no longer hear the gallop. At this point your tracks should be synchronized and sound blended together. Since they are playing at the same speed, they should continue to be synchronized for the rest of the time they’re playing. Don’t worry if the actual music sounds bad right now from all of the sounds in the tracks, for now we are just focusing on matching the beats.

Most mixers have a meter that visually shows the level of output on each channel. This is represented in a light bar that jumps up and down with the beat. You could use this to help you make sure that you have pulled off a good beatmatch by checking that the meters on both tracks are jumping at the same time.
Congratulations, you just learned the very basic steps of how to beatmatch. Learn more in my next post, How to Beatmatch (Part 2).

-Mixing DJ

Bonus: The output levels on the mixer are called the Pre-Fade Leveles (PFL). Video explanation of PFL here:
Pre-Fade Levels (PFL) Explained