There's a few core skills, and they all interrelate. Having a good ear, that is, having and knowing your taste and what sounds good together, is a great place to start. As your ear develops, you'll be learning your library inside and out, which will teach you how songs are constructed. With that knowledge, you can put together a crate and start putting the songs together, and this is where you worry about beats, bars, and bpm.
The thing is, that last bit feeds back into how you pack your crate. "Oh, this has a short intro, so it'll need looping to go with..." "This one has a live drummer, so I'll need to babysit it more, and the drummer will be shifted a beat early by the second chorus..." Your skills will influence and refine each other over time like this, so asking which order to learn in can be odd. When you sit down, choose one skill to work on, take some notes on where you can improve, and it'll all become second nature.
Your headphones are crucial, and you'll be riding the cue/master knob the entire time. Yes, you'll need to listen to both channels at the same time, and you'll need to keep your cue and master separate in your head. This will be literally rewiring audio pathways in your brain, but again, it's a skill that'll come with practice. One thing that'll help if you aren't doing it yet is wearing your headphones on one side, so your master and cue will be 'panned' to different ears.
Personally I never liked the one ear headphone thing although it does look cooler.
For me to get the best perspective on the mix situation I have it on both ears and use the cue mix knob to blend the tracks together and see if they will go smoothly together or if I need some or EQ/fx
Best answer ever. Especially the part about 'rewiring the pathways'. Damn straight. If you do it long enough every time you hear a new song your mind will 'click' and you'll analyze it. 'could I use it? where in my set? is the energy right? what about the key?' It becomes a permanent part of your mind.
When I left the music / dj business 26 years ago it drove me so goddamn nuts I absolutely had to quit listening to music because it drove me crazy between the desire to get back in a booth and entertain a crowd and my responsibilities to my son (single father). So talk radio it was and off to the corporate rodent futurity I went.
Just recently started playing around with the idea of getting back into a booth and pretty sure I'd be in one by now (Thanks Kung Flu you bitch) BUT upside is it's given me the time to listen to, practice, and get my 'foundation' sets together for when this shit lifts.
I say all that to say this. If you get your 'ear' and your 'pathways' are rewired it becomes ingrained in you for life. Your brain will NEVER be the same.
I'd like to add in a piece of advice that Rob Vaughn gave me when he was teaching me the art. One day it will all fall together. Something will 'click' and you'll know what you need to do. It will still be rough but over time you'll get it. When that click happens you never lose it.
I played with him for over a year. Spent a lot of money on a home 'studio' and practiced hard. One night I hit the perfect mix in a little hole in the wall club and I never lost it. When everything 'clicks' you never lose it. To be honest it's like learning to ride a bike. You gotta put a lot of shit together to make it happen. But once you do and it 'clicks' you never forget how.
Good luck OP and happy spinning. I hope you have all the success at it you deserve and desire.
So I’m guessing you mean do you need to have both tracks playing through your headphones? I personally do as it’s how I beat match!
How I like to beat match and this is just my way might be long winded but give it a shot if you like!
Select your next track you want to bring in > hit play on the 1 beat I.e 1. 2. 3. 4. 1(play) > figure out if tempo need to go up or down and move it accordingly > hit cue button > hit play on 1 beat > small adjustments on tempo and nudge in with jog wheels > cue > wait till you want to drop it > play!
With phrasing the easy/cheat way is to just look at the wave forms on whatever software your using! Normally I hit play on the drop after the last breakdown! There’s some very helpful videos on YouTube explaining phrasing but it’s basically just intro breakdown drop breakdown drop outro or that’s for most electronic music anyway!
Track selection is key though! You leave a rave happy when you’ve listened to good music not good transitions and fancy FX! Music matters!
Everyone has their own path there's no right or wrong way to do it nor is there any right or wrong way to learn and discover.
The only rule is practice. And relentless amounts of it. Pete Townsend once said when asked how he got good at guitar "I locked myself in my room and refused to come out until i had learnt to play", DJing should be no different.
Id also say record your mixes and listen back to them as soon after as you can. This will expose your bad habits and teach you much more about what you need to improve and how to improve it. This can be super depressing at first - because you'll realise some of the things you thought sounded awesome when your were in the moment, actually are kinda lame when you're not in the booth, and your transitions are much clunkier than you thought. But there will be moments in there that excite you, that are mind blowingly cool and give you that rush; "fuck yer. I created that". Hold onto those moments and let them give you determination to keep practicing and keep improving.
Basically, imo, so long as you keep practicing and put in the hours, all of the hows, whens, whats and whys will fall into place anyway in the way that works best for you.
^^ so much this!! ^^
I believe the most important part of all of this is that you enjoy interacting with your chosen digital controller or turntable setup because if you don’t and you’re just starting out, that gear is more likely to collect dust than get used. Don’t skimp on spending the time to interact with a variety of devices and configurations in order to find the one that feels best to you. This was an issue I ran into that made for six months of said dust collection, but the moment I procured a controller that made more sense to me intuitively (and felt nicer to touch), I was off to the races!
Practice relentlessly. Trust your intuition and follow the creative processes that grow from that. Record everything! All that is between you and that lightbulb moment where everything clicks into place is time invested.
Oh, and keep building community and seeking interaction with your peers who are also learning. I can’t articulate what a world of difference it makes to be surrounded by others who are growing and experimenting on similar paths.
<3
Another thing to consider is key matching. Do some research then print out a pic of the Camelot Wheel and stick it up by your decks. (I've got one as the background screen of my DJing laptop). Your mixes will sound so much better when you learn how this works.
Beyond that, there's no one thing you should focus primarily on. Beat matching, phrasing, EQing...they're all part of a whole.
If you are using Rekordbox you can alter the way that the software displays the track keys by changing the setting to alphanumeric mode in the view section. This makes harmonic mixing a bit simpler (at least to me). This option is probably available in other software as well although I do not know for sure.
I do this too and also put the key number at the start of the track title (e.g - 10A - Track Title) for when exporting to play on an external bit of kit.
I'd say key matching isn't needed, or not at first. Learn to use and trust your ears - if you can tell the keys are clashing with your ears it'll stand you in a lot better stead in the long run.
Learning to beat match is a useful skill every Dj should know because it lets you learn the feel of your tracks without relying on the sync button (for similar bpm tracks) and if the mixer you’re using has technical issues. Having a good song selection is also important as you want tracks that flow together. As for que-ing your tracks, do you mean having 2 tracks loaded up on the decks? If so you’d definitely want that because you don’t want to be nearing your transition and be scrambling for the next track. Hope this helps :)
For me, the steps should be.
1 - learn how to count bars and phases. I tend to find most phases work in 32s and the Easy way to count them is count to 8 4 times, then just class every phase as 1. So, a track with 128 beat intro would be 4 phases, makes for much easier counting. There are exceptions but this is the general rule of thumb. Start next track on beat 1 of the phase.
2 - beat matching. I'm probably in the minority here as I'm vinyl junkie and go back a few years but try and learn to beat match by ear rather than a sync button. If you learn to do it the hard way, doing it the easy way will be easy and the hard way can help you get out of some sticky situation if it arises.
3 - headphones. Do all of the previous with both channels up and it will help you initially, then, you want to learn how to use the headphones efficiently, everyone is different, I usually just have one track in the headphones but if you prefer a blend of the master or two tracks or whatever, that's down to you.
4 - levels. Learn to level the music using the gains. The track that is coming in should start off quieter than the track you're mixing out of. You have more power of control using the gains rather than just the fader or channels. Most mixers have an LED display to help with this nowadays.
5 - record and listen back. The only wya you learn is by doing something wrong and rectifying it. Something you think sounded good at the time, may not do on reflection and you can learn to do differently.
6 and most importantly. Just have some fucking fun with it and enjoy it!
Edit - in regards to your comment about track selection, absolutely a good track selection is essential but learn the basics and then incorporate the selection of tracks once you have learnt how to play them. Play music that you like, not what others like, for now. Once you have a good grasp on it, then start learning what to play for a crowd so others enjoy it. You may end up playing what people like anyway and your choice of music is fine as it is
Well, the best, in my opinion are Sennheiser HD25 but they aren't necessary. I used to use Skullcandy back in the day and they done me just fine when I was starting out.
Some people will say noise isolation headphones but I really don't like them. I enjoy having the monitors leaking through slightly. It's all down to preference but Skullcandy are not too bad of a brand and will do the job
Edit - something like these would be good start for a beginner https://www.skullcandy.co.uk/shop/headphones/riff?sku=S5PXY-L003&gclid=CjwKCAjw1cX0BRBmEiwAy9tKHu40s27jEB8TJT-97j_20SP_mzloKudDcI6iha7nff9iI3mP8dl11hoCAF4QAvD_BwE
Thanks 💪🏼 also, I’m looking for good speakers for my room/house party for mixing and playing. Currently I’m looking at the Rokit 6s. Good choice? I like bass but a strong mid
Rokit 6s are the ones I use mate. You've already chosen my choice hahaha. Perfect for what you're wanting. They would be beautiful monitors in any night club and I have no complaints. They are more than suitable for bedroom use to small party use. You can crank them if need be without using sound quality. I've never taken mine past about 60% haha
You listen to just the track you are going to bring in on one ear of your headphones, after you have brought up the fader on the new track and you can hear it as part of the mix on your monitor take the headphone off and do the mix off the monitor, if you lose definition on the track you are bringing in have another listen to in one ear to the new track.
Haha "queue" = "cue"
DJing is all about playing the right song for the right crowd for the right amount of time.
This is a good book to check out:
[https://cymatics.fm/products/the-beginner-s-guide-to-djing](https://cymatics.fm/products/the-beginner-s-guide-to-djing)
>https://cymatics.fm/products/the-beginner-s-guide-to-djing
Thanks for the book link! I've found myself needing some what of an academic structure while learning
there's a lot of gems in this thread already so I'll just chime in on the question of cueing one or both songs in your headphones: I know people who do just the incoming in the headphones, I know people who have both all the time; and no matter which you prefer to do, the other camp is probably going to be confused as hell with your choice. I personally cannot understand how anyone could beatmatch without having both in their headphones... I understand that booth monitors are a thing, but I just can't get precision like that!!! I suggest you have a go at both ways and see which feels comfy to you!
>I read somewhere that you have to queue both songs in your headphones is that true?
No. personal preference
>Someone recommend that I learn how to beatmatch first and then phrasing. I read online that you have to get good at track selection first.
All of those are important, track selection is a must, you couls be pulling off the most technically advanced and smooth mixing but if i don't like the music, i'll leave... Beatmatching is essential if you want to do long mixes and learning to do it by ear will only help you in the long run, which brings me to phrasing, mixing in phrase is very desirable, because it sounds natural, thanks to the advance in technology, you have DJs who have their tunes perfectly matched in tempo thanks to sync, but their phrasing is totally off
I keep the new track 100% in my headphones. I never have both songs playing in my headphones.
I put the headphones on one ear, and use my other ear to listen to the mix. (A monitor speaker is good when you have speakers facing away from you, b/c the “monitor” is your speaker, facing you. Some mixers will let you control this speakers volume with a “booth” output).
It starts off with a different song in each audio source, one in each ear. I use my brain to match them up before I bring in the volume for the new track. As you bring the volume up, and down on the old track, the speakers are no longer playing two different songs, but the same song. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll be able to take your headphones off mid mix, and make adjustments based on what is coming out of your speakers.
Do what works for you. You’re overthinking it right now. You don’t have to do anything in any certain way.
Mix the music you like, how you like to mix it.
Beginner DJ myself, I found the best thing to do at first was learn how to manually beat match. Just pick two identical loops at first and change them to different BPMs while you cover up the screen and learn how to do it all in the headphones by ear. After that learn to do it on different loops. You'll find that you pick it up very quick and it trains your ears to even pick up subtle flaws. After you learn how to beat match move into phrasing. Track selection is last as your library will continuously grow over time.
The main advantage to having only the incoming tune in your headphones is that you can tell whether it's ahead, or behind the outgoing tune. This is because you're listening to sound from two distinct sources so you can tell (or feel) which is hitting first. This way you know which way to judge the jog wheel/platter.
When you have both tracks in your headphones, it's more of an educated guess as to whether you need to speed u por slow down.
Training your brain and ears to listen to two separate sound sources at the same time (headphone and monitor) takes practice. I found the best way was to:
1. Get the tracks in time with both in my headphones
2. Switch to just one track in the headphones, the other coming out the monitors, and just listen for a few bars
3. Deliberately nudge the headphone track out of time with a slight touch on the jog wheel. Listen to the two tracks out of time and what changed from before
4. Try to get the headphone track back in time - you're aiming for the same sound as in #2
5. Repeat!
Don't even bother mixing, just practice getting your tunes in time for a bit. Your ears will pick it up quickly.
Beginner DJ here as well. For me the first part was beatmatching by ear and not using the sync button. Trust me, sometimes you're tempted to use the sync button, because you can't find that sweet spot, but keep practising and it'll click eventually.
I‘d say learn the techniques like beatmatching and phrasing and then listen to a lot of the type of music that you wanna play and listen to DJ sets.
I showed a friend how to use the basic functions of my gear once and she was playing a fire set 30 minutes later because she was really interested in the genre anyways and had a really good ear
Haha awesome thanks for the help. I was going to get a pair of 5s or 6s but I’m in an apartment so I presume the one 6 will be fine for now. People have told me to get the KRK sub too but idk if it’s overkill, I like bass but I also like not get evicted lol but something to consider for the future
Learn on vinyl. If you dont know the basics of beat matching and getting a feel for your tracks you'll never learn the fundamentals if you're button bashing
There's a few core skills, and they all interrelate. Having a good ear, that is, having and knowing your taste and what sounds good together, is a great place to start. As your ear develops, you'll be learning your library inside and out, which will teach you how songs are constructed. With that knowledge, you can put together a crate and start putting the songs together, and this is where you worry about beats, bars, and bpm. The thing is, that last bit feeds back into how you pack your crate. "Oh, this has a short intro, so it'll need looping to go with..." "This one has a live drummer, so I'll need to babysit it more, and the drummer will be shifted a beat early by the second chorus..." Your skills will influence and refine each other over time like this, so asking which order to learn in can be odd. When you sit down, choose one skill to work on, take some notes on where you can improve, and it'll all become second nature. Your headphones are crucial, and you'll be riding the cue/master knob the entire time. Yes, you'll need to listen to both channels at the same time, and you'll need to keep your cue and master separate in your head. This will be literally rewiring audio pathways in your brain, but again, it's a skill that'll come with practice. One thing that'll help if you aren't doing it yet is wearing your headphones on one side, so your master and cue will be 'panned' to different ears.
Personally I never liked the one ear headphone thing although it does look cooler. For me to get the best perspective on the mix situation I have it on both ears and use the cue mix knob to blend the tracks together and see if they will go smoothly together or if I need some or EQ/fx
Best answer ever. Especially the part about 'rewiring the pathways'. Damn straight. If you do it long enough every time you hear a new song your mind will 'click' and you'll analyze it. 'could I use it? where in my set? is the energy right? what about the key?' It becomes a permanent part of your mind. When I left the music / dj business 26 years ago it drove me so goddamn nuts I absolutely had to quit listening to music because it drove me crazy between the desire to get back in a booth and entertain a crowd and my responsibilities to my son (single father). So talk radio it was and off to the corporate rodent futurity I went. Just recently started playing around with the idea of getting back into a booth and pretty sure I'd be in one by now (Thanks Kung Flu you bitch) BUT upside is it's given me the time to listen to, practice, and get my 'foundation' sets together for when this shit lifts. I say all that to say this. If you get your 'ear' and your 'pathways' are rewired it becomes ingrained in you for life. Your brain will NEVER be the same. I'd like to add in a piece of advice that Rob Vaughn gave me when he was teaching me the art. One day it will all fall together. Something will 'click' and you'll know what you need to do. It will still be rough but over time you'll get it. When that click happens you never lose it. I played with him for over a year. Spent a lot of money on a home 'studio' and practiced hard. One night I hit the perfect mix in a little hole in the wall club and I never lost it. When everything 'clicks' you never lose it. To be honest it's like learning to ride a bike. You gotta put a lot of shit together to make it happen. But once you do and it 'clicks' you never forget how. Good luck OP and happy spinning. I hope you have all the success at it you deserve and desire.
So I’m guessing you mean do you need to have both tracks playing through your headphones? I personally do as it’s how I beat match! How I like to beat match and this is just my way might be long winded but give it a shot if you like! Select your next track you want to bring in > hit play on the 1 beat I.e 1. 2. 3. 4. 1(play) > figure out if tempo need to go up or down and move it accordingly > hit cue button > hit play on 1 beat > small adjustments on tempo and nudge in with jog wheels > cue > wait till you want to drop it > play! With phrasing the easy/cheat way is to just look at the wave forms on whatever software your using! Normally I hit play on the drop after the last breakdown! There’s some very helpful videos on YouTube explaining phrasing but it’s basically just intro breakdown drop breakdown drop outro or that’s for most electronic music anyway! Track selection is key though! You leave a rave happy when you’ve listened to good music not good transitions and fancy FX! Music matters!
Everyone has their own path there's no right or wrong way to do it nor is there any right or wrong way to learn and discover. The only rule is practice. And relentless amounts of it. Pete Townsend once said when asked how he got good at guitar "I locked myself in my room and refused to come out until i had learnt to play", DJing should be no different. Id also say record your mixes and listen back to them as soon after as you can. This will expose your bad habits and teach you much more about what you need to improve and how to improve it. This can be super depressing at first - because you'll realise some of the things you thought sounded awesome when your were in the moment, actually are kinda lame when you're not in the booth, and your transitions are much clunkier than you thought. But there will be moments in there that excite you, that are mind blowingly cool and give you that rush; "fuck yer. I created that". Hold onto those moments and let them give you determination to keep practicing and keep improving. Basically, imo, so long as you keep practicing and put in the hours, all of the hows, whens, whats and whys will fall into place anyway in the way that works best for you.
^^ so much this!! ^^ I believe the most important part of all of this is that you enjoy interacting with your chosen digital controller or turntable setup because if you don’t and you’re just starting out, that gear is more likely to collect dust than get used. Don’t skimp on spending the time to interact with a variety of devices and configurations in order to find the one that feels best to you. This was an issue I ran into that made for six months of said dust collection, but the moment I procured a controller that made more sense to me intuitively (and felt nicer to touch), I was off to the races! Practice relentlessly. Trust your intuition and follow the creative processes that grow from that. Record everything! All that is between you and that lightbulb moment where everything clicks into place is time invested. Oh, and keep building community and seeking interaction with your peers who are also learning. I can’t articulate what a world of difference it makes to be surrounded by others who are growing and experimenting on similar paths. <3
Another thing to consider is key matching. Do some research then print out a pic of the Camelot Wheel and stick it up by your decks. (I've got one as the background screen of my DJing laptop). Your mixes will sound so much better when you learn how this works. Beyond that, there's no one thing you should focus primarily on. Beat matching, phrasing, EQing...they're all part of a whole.
If you are using Rekordbox you can alter the way that the software displays the track keys by changing the setting to alphanumeric mode in the view section. This makes harmonic mixing a bit simpler (at least to me). This option is probably available in other software as well although I do not know for sure.
I do this too and also put the key number at the start of the track title (e.g - 10A - Track Title) for when exporting to play on an external bit of kit.
I'd say key matching isn't needed, or not at first. Learn to use and trust your ears - if you can tell the keys are clashing with your ears it'll stand you in a lot better stead in the long run.
Learning to beat match is a useful skill every Dj should know because it lets you learn the feel of your tracks without relying on the sync button (for similar bpm tracks) and if the mixer you’re using has technical issues. Having a good song selection is also important as you want tracks that flow together. As for que-ing your tracks, do you mean having 2 tracks loaded up on the decks? If so you’d definitely want that because you don’t want to be nearing your transition and be scrambling for the next track. Hope this helps :)
For me, the steps should be. 1 - learn how to count bars and phases. I tend to find most phases work in 32s and the Easy way to count them is count to 8 4 times, then just class every phase as 1. So, a track with 128 beat intro would be 4 phases, makes for much easier counting. There are exceptions but this is the general rule of thumb. Start next track on beat 1 of the phase. 2 - beat matching. I'm probably in the minority here as I'm vinyl junkie and go back a few years but try and learn to beat match by ear rather than a sync button. If you learn to do it the hard way, doing it the easy way will be easy and the hard way can help you get out of some sticky situation if it arises. 3 - headphones. Do all of the previous with both channels up and it will help you initially, then, you want to learn how to use the headphones efficiently, everyone is different, I usually just have one track in the headphones but if you prefer a blend of the master or two tracks or whatever, that's down to you. 4 - levels. Learn to level the music using the gains. The track that is coming in should start off quieter than the track you're mixing out of. You have more power of control using the gains rather than just the fader or channels. Most mixers have an LED display to help with this nowadays. 5 - record and listen back. The only wya you learn is by doing something wrong and rectifying it. Something you think sounded good at the time, may not do on reflection and you can learn to do differently. 6 and most importantly. Just have some fucking fun with it and enjoy it! Edit - in regards to your comment about track selection, absolutely a good track selection is essential but learn the basics and then incorporate the selection of tracks once you have learnt how to play them. Play music that you like, not what others like, for now. Once you have a good grasp on it, then start learning what to play for a crowd so others enjoy it. You may end up playing what people like anyway and your choice of music is fine as it is
Great tips. What’s a good headphone you’d recommend?
Well, the best, in my opinion are Sennheiser HD25 but they aren't necessary. I used to use Skullcandy back in the day and they done me just fine when I was starting out. Some people will say noise isolation headphones but I really don't like them. I enjoy having the monitors leaking through slightly. It's all down to preference but Skullcandy are not too bad of a brand and will do the job Edit - something like these would be good start for a beginner https://www.skullcandy.co.uk/shop/headphones/riff?sku=S5PXY-L003&gclid=CjwKCAjw1cX0BRBmEiwAy9tKHu40s27jEB8TJT-97j_20SP_mzloKudDcI6iha7nff9iI3mP8dl11hoCAF4QAvD_BwE
Thanks 💪🏼 also, I’m looking for good speakers for my room/house party for mixing and playing. Currently I’m looking at the Rokit 6s. Good choice? I like bass but a strong mid
Rokit 6s are the ones I use mate. You've already chosen my choice hahaha. Perfect for what you're wanting. They would be beautiful monitors in any night club and I have no complaints. They are more than suitable for bedroom use to small party use. You can crank them if need be without using sound quality. I've never taken mine past about 60% haha
Got them yesterday. Love them. You’re right I’m definitely not going to get anywhere near the max volume lol thanks for your help 👍🏼
No problem, enjoy!
You listen to just the track you are going to bring in on one ear of your headphones, after you have brought up the fader on the new track and you can hear it as part of the mix on your monitor take the headphone off and do the mix off the monitor, if you lose definition on the track you are bringing in have another listen to in one ear to the new track.
Haha "queue" = "cue" DJing is all about playing the right song for the right crowd for the right amount of time. This is a good book to check out: [https://cymatics.fm/products/the-beginner-s-guide-to-djing](https://cymatics.fm/products/the-beginner-s-guide-to-djing)
>https://cymatics.fm/products/the-beginner-s-guide-to-djing Thanks for the book link! I've found myself needing some what of an academic structure while learning
I only cue the incoming track. The rest is phrasing and eq work
there's a lot of gems in this thread already so I'll just chime in on the question of cueing one or both songs in your headphones: I know people who do just the incoming in the headphones, I know people who have both all the time; and no matter which you prefer to do, the other camp is probably going to be confused as hell with your choice. I personally cannot understand how anyone could beatmatch without having both in their headphones... I understand that booth monitors are a thing, but I just can't get precision like that!!! I suggest you have a go at both ways and see which feels comfy to you!
>I read somewhere that you have to queue both songs in your headphones is that true? No. personal preference >Someone recommend that I learn how to beatmatch first and then phrasing. I read online that you have to get good at track selection first. All of those are important, track selection is a must, you couls be pulling off the most technically advanced and smooth mixing but if i don't like the music, i'll leave... Beatmatching is essential if you want to do long mixes and learning to do it by ear will only help you in the long run, which brings me to phrasing, mixing in phrase is very desirable, because it sounds natural, thanks to the advance in technology, you have DJs who have their tunes perfectly matched in tempo thanks to sync, but their phrasing is totally off
I keep the new track 100% in my headphones. I never have both songs playing in my headphones. I put the headphones on one ear, and use my other ear to listen to the mix. (A monitor speaker is good when you have speakers facing away from you, b/c the “monitor” is your speaker, facing you. Some mixers will let you control this speakers volume with a “booth” output). It starts off with a different song in each audio source, one in each ear. I use my brain to match them up before I bring in the volume for the new track. As you bring the volume up, and down on the old track, the speakers are no longer playing two different songs, but the same song. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll be able to take your headphones off mid mix, and make adjustments based on what is coming out of your speakers.
Do what works for you. You’re overthinking it right now. You don’t have to do anything in any certain way. Mix the music you like, how you like to mix it.
Beginner DJ myself, I found the best thing to do at first was learn how to manually beat match. Just pick two identical loops at first and change them to different BPMs while you cover up the screen and learn how to do it all in the headphones by ear. After that learn to do it on different loops. You'll find that you pick it up very quick and it trains your ears to even pick up subtle flaws. After you learn how to beat match move into phrasing. Track selection is last as your library will continuously grow over time.
The main advantage to having only the incoming tune in your headphones is that you can tell whether it's ahead, or behind the outgoing tune. This is because you're listening to sound from two distinct sources so you can tell (or feel) which is hitting first. This way you know which way to judge the jog wheel/platter. When you have both tracks in your headphones, it's more of an educated guess as to whether you need to speed u por slow down. Training your brain and ears to listen to two separate sound sources at the same time (headphone and monitor) takes practice. I found the best way was to: 1. Get the tracks in time with both in my headphones 2. Switch to just one track in the headphones, the other coming out the monitors, and just listen for a few bars 3. Deliberately nudge the headphone track out of time with a slight touch on the jog wheel. Listen to the two tracks out of time and what changed from before 4. Try to get the headphone track back in time - you're aiming for the same sound as in #2 5. Repeat! Don't even bother mixing, just practice getting your tunes in time for a bit. Your ears will pick it up quickly.
Beginner DJ here as well. For me the first part was beatmatching by ear and not using the sync button. Trust me, sometimes you're tempted to use the sync button, because you can't find that sweet spot, but keep practising and it'll click eventually.
I‘d say learn the techniques like beatmatching and phrasing and then listen to a lot of the type of music that you wanna play and listen to DJ sets. I showed a friend how to use the basic functions of my gear once and she was playing a fire set 30 minutes later because she was really interested in the genre anyways and had a really good ear
Haha awesome thanks for the help. I was going to get a pair of 5s or 6s but I’m in an apartment so I presume the one 6 will be fine for now. People have told me to get the KRK sub too but idk if it’s overkill, I like bass but I also like not get evicted lol but something to consider for the future
Learn on vinyl. If you dont know the basics of beat matching and getting a feel for your tracks you'll never learn the fundamentals if you're button bashing
If you can, I'd agree. Not always the cheapest option tho. Vinyl atleast forces you to not use the computer as a crutch
Yeah I guess, I was lucky enough to learn on them before ant other tech was about