The Complete DJ Course for Beginners: A Full Step-by-Step Guide To DJing

1. Welcome To The Course!: Hi, and welcome to the complete J course for beginners here on skill share. This J course is perfect for complete beginners who want a simple step by step guide on how to deja from start to finish. You don't need any prior knowledge to take this Deja course. You just need some basic Deja equipment such as a deja controller, a laptop, some headphones, and a keen interest to learn. And by the end of this course, you'll be putting together your very own professional sounding DJ mixes. My name is Off the Rat Jack and I am a professional International deja. I have over 15 years experience and deje all around the world, including places such as Thailand, Australia, France, Greece, and the UK. In these places, I have dejayed across a wide range of venues including clubs, bars, boat parties, pool parties, and festivals. I have a huge range of DJ experience and in this course, I will share with you all of my DJ techniques, tips and tricks that I've learnt over the years. So you two can start your own DJ journey. What is unique about this DJ course, and one reason why it's so successful for my students is that all the music that is used in this course to demonstrate all the DJ techniques and mixes is also included in the course. For you to download 43 in the course resources. This means that you can then practice along with the guided video tutorials in real time and do the exact same deja mixes and techniques as I do in the course. This makes learning how to deja with this course a whole lot easier and a lot more fun. It also doesn't matter what deg controller that you have as all the deja techniques taught in this course can be applied to any deja equipment. This is because all deg equipment have the same basic functions to deja with. They just might look slightly different and have the buttons and dials in slightly different places. That is all. They will all still have the same basic functions, buttons and dials to deja. With this deja course is broken down for you into five sections. The first section is where you will learn all about how music is structured, learning all about the different sections of a track, and how to count your beats in terms of dejaying. In the second section, you will learn how to beat, match two tracks together. You will learn how to get the speeds and beats of two tracks in time with each other so that they sound good together and are ready to mix with. Section three is when you'll learn basic mixing techniques and start the guided mixed tutorials. You will learn how to time two tracks together perfectly and learn how to transition between them smoothly by using the cross fader and volume faders. In section four, you will step things up a little and learn intermediate mixing techniques. You will learn how to use the equalizers and filter dials to help mix in different sections of the tracks and blend your mixes even more smoothly. Section five is when you'll learn advanced mixing techniques. You will learn how to use the hot cues, loops, and sound effects to add some extra creativity and uniqueness to your deja mixing. So by the end of this course, I am very confident you'll have the skills and knowledge to be able to put your very own deja mixes together with your very own tracks. In the next video, I've put together for you a quick sample mixed tutorial that you can watch to give you an insight of what you can expect from the course. It explains to you one of the key principles of Jay that every beginner DJ needs to know. And it also explains two common mistakes that beginner jays can make and how you can avoid them. So feel free to watch that sample mixed tutorial next after this video. I'm super excited for you to get started and start your very own DJ journey with me today. Thank you for watching and I'll see you on the course. 2. Sample Mix Tutorial - The Rule Of 32: Welcome to this example video. I'm going to explain to you one core principle of deejaying that every beginner DJ needs to know, and also show you two common mistakes that begin to DJs make and how to avoid them. You don't need any DJ equipment to gain some value out of this video. You can just watch the video and still learn the key points from the demonstration. But if you do have your DJ equipment setup and you also have the free music part that comes with this course, both these tracks that I'm using now are included in the free music pack that you get with the course. On the left-hand side here on deck 1, I have the track Give It Up, and on the right-hand side on deck 2, I have the track Calabria. In this example, we're going to imagine the track, Give It Up, is playing to the audience. When it starts to get to the end of the track, we are going to mix out of the truck Give It Up, and mix in the start of the next track, Calabria. The first thing that we're going to do, which is really easy, is turn both sync buttons on on your DJ controller. What this is going to do is simply put both tracks at the same speed as each other. You can see here now that they've both gone to 130 beats per minute. So now both tracks are at the same speed. Even though the sync button has made life as a DJ a whole lot easier, there is still a lot more that goes into deejaying and mixing two tracks together than just getting the beats in time with each other. Now what I'm going to do is show you a basic timing technique that is taken from our basic mixing section of the course. Firstly, one mistake beginner DJs can make is that when one track is coming to an end, there will always press play on the next track on the drop of the chorus. The drop is the first beat of the chorus, and the chorus is the most energetic part of the track. For example, on the track here, Give It Up, [MUSIC] that is the chorus where all the sounds come together and the drop is the very first beat, which is here. [MUSIC] Let's have a listen to that mix and see what it sounds like. I'm going to press play on the track, Calabria, on the drop of Give It Up. Let's have a listen to that. [MUSIC] Now as you can hear, the tracks were clashing a lot and it didn't sound too great as a mix. That is not one option that we want to use every time. The second mistake beginner DJs can make is that when a track is coming to an end, they will always press play on the outro beats. For example, on the track here, Give It Up, when the energy goes away, [MUSIC] you are left with just some basic beats at the end of the track, and these are the outro beats. Let's have a listen to that mix and see how that sounds when we press play on the track, Calabria, at the start of the outro beats. [MUSIC] Now that doesn't sound too bad and still not a bad mix, but it does sound a little flat. With just some basic beats playing, it doesn't sound too great in the middle of the mix. What I'm going to teach you now is what I call the rule of 32. Modern-day music is mainly made up of blocks of 32 beats. These blocks of 32 beats are like building blocks that make up the main structure of the track. You will generally find that significant changes in a track where sounds are added or taken away will happen at the start of these 32 beat blocks. For example, I'm going to play the start of this track, Give It Up. What I want to do is count along with me 32 beats and listen to see if you can hear any changes in the track at that point. I'm going to press play on the track, Give It Up, here, count 32 beats. I want to count along with me and listen for any changes. [MUSIC] 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,7, 8, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32. As you can hear then, in that track, there was a change in the track every 32 beats. Now in all tracks have a change every time there's a new 32 beat block, but the changes do generally happen at the start of a 32 beat block. These 32 beat blocks are called phrases. What we can do now with this information is use it to time our tracks correctly when deejaying. This time I'm going to mix these two tracks again between the end of the track, Give It Up, and the start of the track, Calabria. But this time I'm going to count 32 beats from the drop of the track, Give It Up, and then press play on the track, Calabria, and see how that sounds. Let's have a listen to that mix. [MUSIC] You can count along with me if you like. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,12,15,16,17, 18,19, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30. As you can here then, that makes his time perfectly and would have sounded great to an audience. Now this is just one basic example of timing two tracks together and an example of how you would time these two particular tracks together. Not all two tracks are the same and different tracks will have different structures and would need different timings. In this course, I teach you exactly how to do that. In this course, there are over 30 different guided mixed tutorials where you can practice along with real examples just like this one with the trucks that are given to you in the course. They will teach you many different ways in which you can mix two tracks together from beginner techniques using basic timing, just like this example, to intermediate techniques using the equalizers and filter dials, all the way up to advanced techniques using hot cues, loops, and effects. I hope you've gained some great value from this video, and there's a lot more to offer in the course. I hope you're as excited as I am to get started and I hope to see you on the course. Thank you for watching. 3. Download Free Music From Resources: In this video, I'm going to show you how to download the music for the course. You should be on a screen similar to this right now. If you scroll down under the video and find the tab for projects and resources, you should see on the right-hand side of the screen, all the tracks that we'll be using in the course. All you need to do is click on each track to start downloading it to your laptop. It's as simple as that. All the tracks that are in the resources will be used at some point in the course where you can mix along with me and do all the same DJ techniques that I do in the course in real time. When you have gone ahead and downloaded all the tracks in the resources, we need to find where they have downloaded to on our laptop. This will generally be in the downloads folder. So from here I've gone to the downloads folder on my laptop and all the tracks are here that I've just downloaded from the resources. What we need to do is place all these music files in one folder on our laptop that is easy to find and access, and we also need to put the folder in a place where we won't have to move the folder again in the future and we can leave the folder where it is throughout the course. So I'm going to open up a new tab on my laptop here and open up the music folder on my laptop. From here I'm going to create a new folder and name this folder DJ Course Music Pack. You can name the folder whatever you want, that's completely up to you as long as it's easy to find and you know where it is on your laptop. Then we're going to transfer all the music that we have downloaded from the resources over to that new folder that we've just created specifically for the DJ course. Now if I go to music on my laptop into the DJ Course Music Pack, all the music for the course will be in this folder. Now we should be ready to go to our DJ software and get the music from our laptop onto the DJ software. So after this video, there are two separate videos on setting up your DJ software and music library ready for the course. One is for rekordbox and one is for Serato. You only need to watch the set up video that corresponds to your DJ software. After that, all the DJ techniques in this course can be applied to any DJ equipment that you're using. Because no matter what DJ equipment you are using, all the DJ equipment will have the same basic functions to DJ with. But if there are any big differences in settings between rekordbox and Serato that needs highlighting, I will do separate videos for them. So you can follow along no matter what DJ equipment or DJ software you are using. Let's move on to the next videos and get your DJ software setup and ready for the course. 4. Quick Set Up - Rekordbox: In this video, we're going to look at how to set up your DJ software and music library in Rekordbox, so we have everything in place to move forward with the course. The first thing we're going to do is go over to the top left hand corner of the screen and make sure we have Performance mode selected. I'm going to click the drop-down here in the top left and select "Performance", and then just to the right of this, we have another drop-down and we've got to make sure that we have 2Deck Horizontal mode selected. Once this is done, we're going to find our music that we've saved in our laptop. The DJ Course Music Pack that we've downloaded. I'm going to head over to the left of the library over here. To access the files that we have in our laptop, we're just going to select this tab called "Explorer". I'm just going to click the little arrow to the left of it, and this is where we can access the files and folders in our laptop. What I need you to do now is find your DJ Course Music Pack in your laptop. I found mine here. For best-practice, what we're going to do is mirror and copy what we have on our laptop over into the playlist on the DJ software. I'm going to go to the top of the list here on the left and go to Playlist. I'm going to click this and there's a little plus icon just on the right of it here. I'm going to click that and it'll create me a new playlist. I'm just going to rename this the same as the folder on the laptop DJ Course Music Pack. Once that's done, I'm going to get all the files from my laptop in this folder here and move them over to the playlist that I've just created in the DJ software. I'm just going to click this folder here, DJ Course Music Pack, and there's not much information that comes up on the tracks, if any, for some. That's fine. We're going to get all the information very shortly. I'm going to select everything in this folder by using Command A or Control A, and then drag and drop them over to the playlist that I've just created called DJ Course Music Pack. I'm just going to drag and drop them into that new playlist. What they should do is analyze all the music files that I have dragged over into that playlist from my laptop folder. When you drag over your files, you may see a box pop up just like this one, and that's fine. All you need to do is tick the box that says Key and press "Okay". If this box doesn't come up, you can go into the settings cog, up on the top hand right hand side here, go to Analysis, and then from here it'll say Track Analysis, and the only two that we want to change right now, and make sure we've got ticked the BPM/Grid and the Key. When bringing tracks over into Rekordbox from your laptop, your DJ software will need to analyze your tracks before it can play them. By analyzing your tracks, what the DJ software is doing is getting all the information it needs about the track, such as the speed of it, the key, the wave form, and the beat grid of the tracks. This is so that is able to use the tracks to DJ with effectively. We'll go over what all of these mean and how to use them in more detail later in the course. Now, we've done that. We've dragged and dropped all the music from our DJ Course Music Pack on the laptop from explorer, orienting their new playlist that we've just created, we can go ahead and close the explorer tab. We ideally want to be working within the playlist in the DJ software throughout the course and when DJ and in general for that matter, rather than within the files on the laptop through explorer. We will go over later in the course some best practices that I've learned over the years for organizing your music and setting up your playlist to help you when DJing when you do start to grow your library. But for now, we just need all the tracks in one playlist to make it easy for us going forward with the course. What I'd like you to do now is just drag any track of these up over onto the left deck. Once it's loaded, you can see here now three different waveforms. The wave form is a visual representation of the track using lines and waves. So we have the extended wave form at the top, the full waveform here on the left-hand side, and then each waveform of each track in the library. As you can see, they're all set to a blue color. What we're going to do now is change it to three different colors, which is red, green, and blue. I need to go back up to that settings cog in the top right hand corner, select that, and then go all the way over to the left to View and scroll down until you find Waveform. Once you've done that, we need to change the color over to RGB, which stands for red, green, and blue, and then just under that, the full preview waveform want to change to Full Waveform, and then just exit settings. Now, you can see it's changed all the waveforms to three different colors, which is red, green, and blue. This library is looking a lot more colorful now. Having the waveform set to three different colors as red, green, and blue will make it easier for us to visually see the different types of sounds in each track, rather than just having the offset as all one color of blue. This will make it a lot easier for us to learn how to DJ later on. Now, we're going to have a look at the different information that we can see of each track in the library. A lot of it can be unnecessary and quite confusing. What we're going to do is just change what we can see in the columns of the library. What you can do is right-click one of the titles of the columns on the library just here at the top, and it'll give us a list of different options that we can see in the library and in the columns. For now, all we need to do is select five of these. We need preview, track title, BPM, key, and comments. Everything else, all the other options in the columns can be de-selected. You can drag across these different columns to make them shorter or longer up to your preference, but now your library should look a lot neater with a lot less information and only the key information we need for the course. Now, as standard Rekordbox's font can be quite small. If you wanted to, you can go ahead and change, just open the settings. Go on to View, and then one of the first boxes here, you can see the font size. You can make that larger or smaller up to you. Now, just over on the left here, you can see a little arrow and you can just check this and it's going to show you a plus and a minus magnifying glass. What this does is zooms out of the extended waveform at the top or in. So you can zoom all the way in and all the way out. For this course, I would recommend zooming all the way out. This is because the waveform moves slower across the screen and you can see more of what's coming up next in the track making it easier for you to watch and get your timings right. The last thing in this video I'm going to show you is called Tooltips. It's a great little handy tool to help us out if we are a beginner to this software. We're just going to go over to the settings cog again, go over to the left and select View, and then scroll down until you see a tab called Tool Tips. Another way to do is just to select this and tick this box and then exit settings. What tool tips does is when you hold the most cursor over a function on the DJ software, it'll explain exactly what that function does. For example, if I hold the mouse cursor over this, it says auto beat loop, create a loop with a specified length. This is a brilliant tool to use, and if you're ever unsure of what a function does and need some extra help, you can use this tool tips. But I will be explaining what everything does and showing you exactly how to use all the functions throughout the course. Now, we should have our library setup and our music analyzed, ready in playlist to start using the tracks for the course. Any further settings are changes that we will need to make we will go over when we need to know them. This is so then I can explain in more detail what they mean and they'll be more relevant to know what we're doing with them. 5. Quick Set Up - Serato: In this video, we're going to look at how to set up your DJ Software and Music Library in Serato so we have everything in place to move forward with the course. The first thing we're going to do is select up here in the top-left, the number 2. We want the two deck horizontal mode. So we've got the two lines going across the middle of the screen here. Now I'm going to show you where you can find your music from your laptop through the DJ software. We're going to go over to this tab here called Files. We want to select that and this is going to give you access to your laptop folders. As I mentioned, I put my DJ course music pack in the music folder. So just on the left here, I'm going to select music. As you can see there, DJ Course music pack. Ideally for best practice, we want to be using the DJ software to access our music rather than the files on the laptop. So what I'm going to do is come over to the left here and create what's called a Crate. So there's two boxes here with a plus sign next to them. We're just going to click the orangey looking one. That should create a Crate at the bottom here called Crate 1. What I'm going to do is just rename this the same as the file here, DJ Course Music Pack. Once that's done, I'm going to select the DJ course music pack in the files tab. That should open up all the tracks in this folder. We're going to select all these files by using Command A or Control A. Then drag and drop them over into the new crates that we have just created. Then you can see them all load up into this crate here. Once that's done, we can go ahead and just close the files tab. Now when bringing tracks over to Serato from your laptop, your DJ software will need to analyze your tracks before you can play them. By analyzing your tracks, what the DJ software is doing is getting all the information it needs about the track to DJ with effectively, such as the speed, the key, the waveform, and the beat grid off the tracks. We'll go over what all these mean and how to use them in more detail later in the course. But for now, what you'll need to do is in this new crate that you've just created, select all the tracks in there. Then select this box here just above the tracks called Analyze files and click that. What's that's going to do is analyze all your files so they're ready to DJ with. We ideally want to be working within the crates in the DJ software throughout the course and when DJ and in general, for that matter, rather than just within the files on the laptop through the files tab. Once the tracks are analyzed, you want to avoid moving your tracks around on your laptop and do all your editing and movement of your tracks within the crates of the DJ software. We will go over later in the course some best practices that I have learned over the years for organizing your music and setting up crates to help you when you're deejaying and when you start to grow your music library. But for now, we just need all the tracks in one crate to make it easier for us to go forward with the course. Now when first using your music library and loading trucks into your crates, there may be a lot of different information available of the tracks in your library. What we can do is change and select what information we see through changing the columns. Up here at the top of our library, you can see loads of different columns. We're only going to need four to move forward with this course to make it easier for us to see our tracks and the information that we need. So what you can do is right-click one of the top of these columns where the titles are. It'll give you a drop-down list of all the options you can have as the columns. The only four that we will need are song, BPM, key and comments. Everything else can be de-selected to make it easier for us to move forward. As you can see here now, should be a lot easier to view your library and the details that we need. You can stretch out these columns as well, making them shorter or longer to your preference. Now what I'd like to do is just drag any track up onto the left deck. This will load up two different waveforms. The waveforms are visual representations of the tracks using lines and waves. Across the middle here is the extended waveform, and upon the top-left here is the full waveform of the track. Now we can zoom in and zoom out of this extended waveform in the middle using the plus and minus keys on your keyboard. It's down to each individual DJs preference on how zoomed in and you want your waveform. But for this course, I'd recommend zooming completely out on Serato and then zooming back in just for one. I find this view the easiest to learn with over time. This is because the wave form moves slower across the screen, being more zoomed out, and you can see more of what's coming up next in the track, making it easier to watch and get your timings right when deejaying. But you can also see the beats a little better than if you're zoomed out to all of the way. The last thing we're going to look at in this video is a handy little setting called Tooltips. If you go to the top right here and click Help, and then click Show Tooltips. What tool tips does is when you hold the mouse cursor over a function on the DJ software, it will explain exactly what that function does. For example here, it shows you the track display and explains what the track display is. The main waveform display, and all the information about the credit track list. This is a brilliant tool to use if you're ever unsure of what a function does, and need some extra help. But when you're first starting out, it can all be a little overwhelming and you may not know what some of the DJ terms mean. This is why I'll be explaining what everything does and showing you exactly how to use all the functions throughout the course. We should now have our library setup and our music analyzed ready in the crates to start using the tracks folder DJ course. If there are any further settings are changes that we need to make, we will go over them when we need to do them. This is so then I can explain them in more detail of what they mean when they are more relevant to what we're doing. 6. Intro - The Structure Of Music: Welcome to the first section of the course, the structure of music. In this section, we are going to go over everything you need to know about how music is structured. Without knowing how music is structured, it is not possible to learn how to DJ effectively. In this section, you will learn what beats, bars, and phrases are, how to identify the different frequencies and sounds of a track, how to identify the different sections of a track, and how to count the number of phrases in each section of the track. This section of the course will give you the foundation and knowledge that you need to be able to learn to DJ effectively and move forward with the course. Let's get straight into it and I'll see you in the next video. 7. Beats Bars And Phrases: In this video, I'm going to explain to you what beats, bars, and phrases are in music. The first thing we're going to do is just go back into our playlist that we've created on the left-hand side here. I'm going to drag two different tracks up, one on the left, one on the right. What I've done here in the library, I've just clicked the BPM logo at the top of the column. What this does is it arranges the library in order, ascending or descending of the BPM. The track that we want on the left side, on deck 1, is this track here called Calabria. We're going to drag this one over on the left-hand side, and then the track on the right-hand side on deck 2, we want as Shook. Drag that onto the right-hand side. The first thing we're going to go over is a beat. Now, a beat is a measurement of time. The beats are represented by the white lines up here on the extended waveform. Each white line is the start of a new beat, and the beat is the distance between the two white lines. A beat is not a kick drum. A kick drum is an actual sound that can come at any time. You can also see the white lines which represent the beats, but there isn't a kick drum on every beat. Let's have a listen to this track. [MUSIC] For that, I just wanted to highlight that a beat is a measurement of time and not a kick drum. Now, you can have shorter beats or longer beats, depending on what track it is and what style of music you're working with. But for each track, the beat doesn't change. The beat stays the same and consistent throughout the track. That is also how you can measure the speed of the track. You measure the speed of the track by how many beats there are in one minute. This is called beats per minute, or BPM for short. The BPM numbers on the software here are the numbers inside these circles. The track here on the left is 126 BPM, so there's 126 beats in one minute. The track here on the left is 90 BPM, which is 90 beats in one minute. This also means that the higher the BPM, the faster the track is, and the lower the BPM, the slower the track is. Then the next thing we're going to go over is a bar. Four beats equals one bar. As you can see on the extended waveform here at the top, that every four beats, so every four white lines there is a red marker, and each red marker is the start of a new bar. You can also see the numbers here in the center. Once you press play, these numbers will count up in the bars. I'll press play on the track on the left. [MUSIC] As you can see there, it counts up with the number of bars. Every red marker it goes past, will go up one. You can often hear minor changes in melodies or vocals within a bar. This truck on the left here, I'm just going to click forward onto the green section. Now, if you listen to this part of the track, you should be able to hear slight changes in the melody of the track every four beats. If you have a listen. [MUSIC] Now, we'll go over what a phrase is. Thirty-two beats equals one phrase. At the start of a phrase is when significant changes happens in a track. A significant change can be an addition or a subtraction of a sound. Now, this won't necessarily happen every phrase, but the tracks do generally change on the start of a new phrase. On this track on the left here, what I'm going to do is press play, and together we're going to count the phrases. As we do, listen out for the changes in the track every 32 beats. Three, 2, 1, [MUSIC] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24. As you can see there if you were counting along, every 32 beats, which is one phrase, there was a significant change in the track. There was an addition or subtraction of a sound in the track. What I did also, as we were counting along, I just highlighted the start of each new phrase. Phrases are essentially the building blocks of a track, and we're going to come across these a lot throughout this course. One other thing is, also sometimes they can have a 16-beat phrase. This is rare and less common in the 32-beat phrase, but it is worth knowing. You just have to be more aware and prepared if a track does have a 16-beat phrase in. This is where a significant change happens on a 16-beat instead of 32-beat. To just quickly summarize, a beat is a measurement of time, not a kick drum. Four beats equals one bar, and 32 beats equals a phrase. This is where the significant changes happens in a track at the start of a new phrase, which is an addition or subtraction of a sound. We're going to go over the different types of sounds we find in a track and how to identify them in the next video. 8. Frequencies And Sounds: In this video, I'm going to explain to you what the different colors of red, green, and blue represent on the waveforms and how you can identify the different sounds of a track from it. On the left deck here, we need the track. Stardust, music sounds better. Now, RGB format breaks down the tracks waveform into different colors that represent different frequencies and sounds. The blue color represents high-frequency sounds. The green color represents middle frequency sounds, and the red color represents low-frequency sounds. The blue color that represents high-frequency sounds consists of mainly hi hats and claps. At this track here on the left, we can see a blue line in the middle of the beat just here. Now, this is going to be a hi hat. So what I'm going to do is just isolate the same for you. This is what a hi hat sounds like. Hi hats can be off beat and as we're just seeing though is in the middle of the beat. Claps are generally on the beat every two beats. So on the next one, that is a clap. I'm just going to highlight and isolate this one for you. This is generally combinated with a kick drum as well. But if you listen to this track now and every two beats, listen to the difference and you should hear the clap sound. [MUSIC] Now the green color that represents middle frequencies generally consists of vocals and melodies. Vocals being singing, or rapping and the melodies being musical instruments. You can see here the track on the left it has a green section just here. We're going to have a listen to this and can listen to the different sounds it has throughout the track at the green sections. [MUSIC] As you can hear though it consists of melodies, which is the musical notes, and also some vocals as well, which is the singing. The red color that represents low frequencies generally consists of kick drums and bass lines. The kick drum is the thudding sound that people can often mistaken for a beat. I'm just going to mute this track on the left here, slightly forward as you can see this red section, and as you can see that it has a red line on each beat, and that is a kick drum. We're going to have a listen to this now. [MUSIC] Now it's not just kick drums that are red, it's also baselines. What I'm going to do it in this section of the track here is that you have listen now, there's going to be a combination of kick drums and bass lines as well. [MUSIC] We have now identified the three different colors represented in three different frequencies, and each frequency generally consists of two different types of sounds. The blue color represents high frequencies, which consists of hi hats and claps. The green color represents mid-frequencies, which consists of vocals and melodies, and the red color represents low frequencies, which generally consists of kick drums and bass lines. We're now going to also group three of these sounds together in another category, which is going to be percussion sounds. Percussion sounds are sounds that would be found on a drum kit. These would be the high hats, the claps, and the kick drum. These are going to be referred to as the percussion sounds. On the start of the track here on the left, on Deck 1, you can see that there is a mixture and a combination of the percussion sounds. We have the kick drums, which is a slight red marker here, the hi hats, which is the blue ones in the middle of the beat, and then the lighter blue ones, which are the claps on every two beats. If you have listened to the start of this track now, you should be able to identify the three different zones of the percussion sounds. [MUSIC] All the other sounds that we have identified are going to be non-percussion sounds, sounds that are not found on a drum kit, such as the vocals, melodies, or baselines. To summarize, the RGB format breaks down the tracks wave farms into different colors that represent different frequencies and sounds. The blue color represents high-frequency sounds, which consists of hi hats and claps, and these too are also percussion zones. The green color represents mid-frequency sounds, which consists of melodies and vocals, and the red color represents the low-frequency sounds, which consists of the kick drums and the bass lines. The kick drum is also a percussion sound. 9. Sections Of A Dance Track: In this video, I'm going to explain to you what the different sections of a dance track are and how you can identify them. The main sections of a dance track are; intro, breakdown, chorus, and outro. As you may have guessed, the intro and outro make up the start and the end of the track. The breakdown and chorus make up the main middle sections of the track. Depending on the track, there can be different amounts of breaks and choruses. But on average, there are generally two of each; two breaks and two choruses. Each section has its own purpose within the track and we will go over what these are now and also what they sound and look like. For this video, we want to load up the track Stardust, Music Sounds Better on the left-hand side. Now, as mentioned, the intro is the introduction, which is at the start of the track. This generally starts off with simple percussion sounds, and as we have discussed before, these consist of kick drums, hi-hats, and clubs. The intro starts off basic and simple and it slowly introduces the track and adds more sounds. We can also use this introduction to time with the track already playing. We're just going to have to listen to the start of this track here. [MUSIC] We're just going to flick through slightly as well, just to speed up the process. [MUSIC] As you can see there, the introduction lasts up until this point when the waveform starts to turn blue, and you can see the percussion ends. This is now the start of the breakdown. What I'm going to do is just going to put a marker on the start of the breakdown here and at the end of the introduction. You can do this by putting your hand on the top of the jog wheel and spinning it around, and then just press in one of your hot cues to set a marker if you are joining along. Now, the breakdown of a track mainly consists of melodies or vocals of the track, often on their own. The idea is the track breaks down and then it begins to build back up again towards the chorus. We're just going to have a listen to this section here and flick through it. [MUSIC] This section now is the start of the chorus, so we had the breakdown and builds anticipation towards the chorus. What I'm going to do is just set a marker at the start of the first beat of the chorus. Again, I'm going to do it just by pressing the hot cue and leaving that marker at the start of the chorus there. The very first beat of the chorus is called the drop. The chorus is the most energetic part of the track when all the sounds come together and when you dance and jump around. We're just going to have a quick listen to this chorus and have a flick through. [MUSIC] As mentioned before, dance tracks often have two breaks and two choruses. What we've entered here is the second breakdown. I'm just going to set a marker just at the start of this second breakdown and at the end of the chorus. Again, we know it's the breakdown because the big cushions have ended, the energy has stopped, and it's just going to be the melody and vocals coming in. I'm just going to have a listened to this part of the track. [MUSIC] Now, there are a few percussion here, a few kick drums and high hats, but it's still part of the breakdown. It's still not energetic enough to be a chorus. [MUSIC] Here you can hear the build-up to the next chorus. [MUSIC] Now, we're into Chorus 2. I'm just going to add another marker at the start of Chorus 2. We know it's the chorus because you can hear that it's the most energetic part of the track where you'd want to dance and jump around to. Let's have to listen to this second chorus. [MUSIC] What you can hear here is the tract slowly started to lose its energy. It slowly started to reduce its sounds and gradually fade the track out. [MUSIC] As you can hear there, until it completely gets to some simple percussion. Now, what I'm going to do for now is just place a marker at the start of this simple percussion, which is what we think would be the start of the outro. [MUSIC] The outro is similar to the intro, but opposite. It gradually fades the tracker and reduces the amount of sounds in the track. It will end up with simple percussion at the end of the track, just like we've listened to them. Now, the sections of a dance tracker are usually determined by the different sounds that are included in that part of the track. Because of this, you can sometimes see the different sections of the track just by looking at the waveform, and this is one reason why I've just put the markers through at the start of each section. As we can see here, we have the introduction and you can see the waveform slowly starting to get red, and then it drops down into green. Then for Break 1, you can see that it's got a small waveform. The smaller the waveform means that it's less in volume and the wider the waveform means it's loader in volume. Then after this Break 1, we can see that it's green. You can see the whole of Chorus 1 where the energy is, then into Break 2, which it looks very similar to the Break 1, which is green and low in volume. It does have a bit of percussion in the middle of the Break 2, but it's not got high energy enough for it to be a chorus, and it's still building up to the anticipation of Chorus 2. Then we have Chorus 2 here with the energy, all the signs added together. Then at the end, we have the outro, which is just the simple percussion once again. Over time, you'll get used to seeing these sections and knowing where the sections of a dance track are just by looking at the full waveform, even without these hot cue setup. Now, it's not always that simple. I'm going to introduce you to two new sections that I have made up myself, which have helped me massively when I have been deejaying. These are intro plus and outro plus. Intro plus and outro plus are when you still class that part of the track as the intro or outro, but there are more added sounds than just simple percussion. It can still be seen as the intro and outro, but it also has added sounds to consider. The most common sound would be added would be the base during the intro and outro. Now, I mentioned at the end of this track here, we put a marker at the start of the simple percussion. However, I don't see this as being the outro. If we listen to just 32 beats before this, you can hear the track reduce downside there. [MUSIC] Just that, and that to myself is what I would consider the outro. But because it still has the baseline, I would call it the outro plus. I'm just going to set a marker there instead. For me, the track reduces at this point, too much for it to still be the chorus. But it is not just simple percussion, so this is where I'll class this as outro plus base. Let's have a listen to it one more time. [MUSIC] As you can hear though, the track energy reduces down, and it doesn't carry enough energy with it to still be the chorus. That there is where I class as an outro plus. I'm going to show you a couple more examples of an intro plus and an outro plus in tracks. We're just going to load up on the right-hand side, on deck 2, this track again, Calabria. Now, looking at this track at the full waveform, we should start to be able to pick up where the different sections of the track are. So where the track changes from red to green here, that should be the end of the intro and the start of Break 1. Let's have a listen. [MUSIC] Technically, this whole section here should be the intro. However, it's not just simple percussion all the way through. After one phrase, it does add extra base to it. Let's have a listen. [MUSIC] As you can hear there as well, it also has some melody to it. For me, the start of this track would consist of an intro with just percussion, and then an intro plus base and melody. Then it will break down into the first break. As we should now know that the green section here is the first break, and then it should go into Chorus 1. Let's have a quick listen. [MUSIC] Then this section here should be Chorus 1, and then into Break 2. [MUSIC] Then from the second breakdown, it should build up into Chorus 2. [MUSIC] Now, this is the part of the track we're going to listen to where the Chorus 2 enters the outro. I'm just going to flick it on slightly, and we'll have a listen to this. [MUSIC] Now, this part of the track should technically be the outro. However, it still has quite a lot of base in, and this continues to the end of the track. [MUSIC] As you can hear there, the end of this track doesn't consist of just simple percussion for an outro. This again is what I would class as an outro plus, an outro plus base. I will show you plenty of different ways to mix with all these tracks using intros, outros, intro plus, and even outro plus when we get to the mixing sections of the chorus. It will actually become a lot clearer on how to use them when we start actually mixing. But first, we just need to be aware of these different sections and what they consist of, and their purpose within the tracks. Just to quickly summarize, the main sections of a dance track are the intro, break, chorus, and outro. The intro usually starts with simple percussion by itself and slowly introduces more sounds. The breakdown is the melody of vocals, usually on their own, and then builds up anticipation toward the chorus. The chorus is the most energetic part of the track, where all the sounds come together at once, and the outro slowly fades out the track, reduces down to simple percussion. Then we have the intro plus and outro plus, which are parts of the track within the intro and outro section but have added sounds such as base or melody. Now, one thing to bear in mind when identifying different sections of a track, not all tracks follow the same structure, and it's not always as simple as just intro, break, chorus, outro. Each track is different and can have its own unique structure. It's up to each individual DJ on how they interpret their tracks and to which part of the track means what to them. I'm just giving you a basic understanding of how the tracks are generally made so you can go away and interpret the tracks for yourself. But the main thing to be aware of when identifying the different sections in a track is where the track's key changes are and what sounds are being added or subtracted at that point. But this is also what makes deejaying so fun, this constructing different tracks and being creative with your mixes, which we are going to do plenty of in this course. 10. Counting Phrases: In this video, I'm going to show you how you can count the phrases of each section of a track. We now know how to identify the different sections of a track. We also know that not all two tracks are the same. One of the main jobs of a DJ is to time two tracks together correctly. One One which can help us do this is by counting the number of phrases in each section of a track. The easiest way to do this is by using a function called Beat Jump. Now most controllers should now have Beat Jump function on their performance pads. But if not, you can still use the software just as effectively. Firstly, we need to put a track on Deck 1 on the left-hand side, You're No Good For Me. In record box, just on the left hand side here where it says the tab Hot Cue and we're going to scroll down here until it says Beat Jump and select that. We can move left and right between the values using these arrows here and the one we want is the Number 32. Now, if you're here in Serato, to show the Beat Jump controls, what we need to do is go over to the settings cog in the top right hand corner, click that. We need to go to DJ Preferences and then in this first section here, scroll down until you see the last box, which is Show Beat Jump Controls. I'm going to select this and then go back out of the settings. Now the Beat Jump controls will show here on the second line of these numbers. The numbers above are the loop function, but just below now is the Beat Jump controls. We can move left and right on these using the arrows to the side of the numbers and again, the number that we want is the Number 32. To use this function, all you need to do is press the Number 32 to activate it and then use the arrows here on the side. What Beat Jump does is it allows you to jump forwards or backwards in the track by the amount of beats that you select. Firstly, what we need to do on this new track here on the left is identify the different sections. We're quickly going to do that and we should start now being able to identify where the different sections are just by looking at the full wave form. Here at the start where it goes reddish into green, I assume that's where it's going to go from the intro into the Break 1. But as we've mentioned, there may also be intro plus, where it goes from simple percussion to percussion plus base or melody. As we can see in the middle of the intro here, there's a slight different change in color so I'm just going to have a listen to that transition there as well. [MUSIC] As you can hear though, it went from simple cushion to intro plus. I'm just going to highlight that section as well, [MUSIC] and then go to the end of the intro plus to the first breakdown. [MUSIC] As you can see there, I'm just setting hot Q markers at the start of each section, just so I can see them a bit more clearly. Then we're going to go from Break 1 to Chorus 1, [MUSIC] and then at the end of the Chorus 1 to Break 2. [MUSIC] Now the reason why I'm listening just a few beats before it's just to double-check that it is still the Chorus 1 into Break 2. We can't just fully rely on our eyes for this, we do have to use our ears as well. Then I'm just going to go from the Breakdown 2 to Chorus 2. [MUSIC] From here, from the Chorus 2, I'm going to listen to the track transitions from Chorus 2 to the outro, where Chorus 2 reduces and starts to fade into the outro. Let's have a flick through and listen. [MUSIC] There it is. For me, that's where the Chorus 2 ends and the outro begins. As we can hear though there's base so we're going to call this Outro+ and let's listen to that all the way to the end. [MUSIC] We have our different sections there. We've gone back to the start of the track right onto the first beat. What we're going to do now is use the Beat Jump with the 32 bits, which is one phrase, to count how many phrases there are in each section quickly, so I'm going to jump forward one phrase. As you can see that the first bit of the intro, which is simple percussion is one phrase long, and then we press it again and then the intro plus lasts for one phrase also. Then I'm going to count how many phrases are in Break 1, one, two, so there's two phrases there in Break 1, and then in Chorus 1 we have 1, 2, 3, 4 phrases. Then in Breakdown 2, 1, 2, 3, three phrases in Breakdown 2. In Chorus 2 we have 1, 2, 3, 4, four phrases in Chorus 2 and the outro one, two phrases. As you can see though, we can quickly identify the different sections of a track and quickly count how many phrases there are in each section. This is going to massively help us when it comes to mixing two different tracks. They don't necessarily have to put hot cues on markers at the start of each section, but we're just doing that for this example just to highlight the different sections and make it easier to see. Now sometimes it's not always that simple, so we're going to try another track. We're going to load up on the left deck here, Utopia. What I'm going to do now is highlight each section. You don't need to listen to me do it all again so I'm just going to highlight these sections really quick. I've gone through then, highlighted each section. We have the Intro and then Intro+, Break 1, Chorus 1, Break 2, Chorus 2 and the Outro+. Now what I'm quickly going to do is go through each section and count how many phrases are in each section. In the Intro, we have one phrase and then Intro+ is one phrase and then Break 1 we have one phrase and then Chorus 1, we have 1, 2, 3 phrases, and then Break 2, we have 1, 2, 3 phrases. However, that went past the drop of the Chorus 2. It seems that there is an inconsistency with the phrases and the structure there, so I'm going to jump back to the start of Break 2. Now as I can see here on the top right in the waveform and also in the full wave form here, there seems to be a smaller phrase, a smaller pattern. I'm going to do is try that. I'm going to jump forward 16 beats and then back to the 32, 1, 2. That takes us up right up to the drop. As we can see that the Break 2 on this track is a 16-beat phrase followed by two 32-beat phrases. It's not as a standard structure or as a simple structure to the track as the previous tracks were. But the main things here is that we just need to be aware of where the key changes are in the track, and just by jumping through with the Beat Jump function there, we are aware that this track has a 16 beat phrase at the start of Break 2. Now we're going to continue Chorus 2, 1, 2 phrases and outro plus 1, 2 phrases. Hopefully that you'd be getting used to identifying the different sections of a track and being able to count the different phrases within them sections and spotting any irregularities within the sections. 11. Intro - Beat Matching: Welcome to the next section of the course, beat matching. In this section, you will learn the different ways to beat match two tracks together. Beat matching is when you get both tracks at the same speed as each other and also get the beats of both tracks in time with each other. This is so that the track sound good together for the audience and they are ready to mix with. I will show you how to use the tempo fader and jog wheel to beat match with, how to use your jog wheel to beat juggle your tracks in, how to use the sync button and how to adjust the beat grids on your tracks. In this section, there are some videos for Rekordbox and some videos for Serato. You only need to watch the videos of the DJ software that you are using. Let's get into it and I'll see you in the next video. 12. Decks Walkthrough: In this video, we're going to walk through some of the functions on the DJ controller that we're going to need in the section of the course. We're going to take a look at the play/pause and cue button, the jog wheel, and the tempo fader. For this video, you just need any of the two practice tracks included in the music pack loaded up on either of the decks. For this video, you can see here I have the Track 2 practice track loaded up on Deck 2 on the right-hand side. Now firstly, on the DJ controller, everything on the left-hand side is mirrored and exactly the same as it is on the right-hand side. Deck 1 will be exactly the same as Deck 2. We will start by looking at the play and pause button and the cue button. The play/pause button does exactly that. When you press play, it plays, and when you press it again it pauses and stops the track at that point. [MUSIC] When the waveform passes over the red line in the center, that is this sign you will hear from the track in real time. Now, the cue button just above the play and pause button has a few more functions. If you press the cue button whilst the track is playing, it acts like a reset button and takes the tracked back to the cue point, and it also stops playing the track. I'm just going to press play on this track again. [MUSIC] Press the cue button and it will take me back to the cue point and stop the track. The cue button is represented here on record box by a small triangle underneath the waveform on both the extended waveform and the full waveform. The cue point is generally set on the start at the very first beat of the track. Now, if you press and hold the cue button whilst the track is paused, and at the cue point, the track will play for as long as you hold the cue button down for until you let go. Then when you let go the truck stops and it resets itself and returns back to the cue point. I'm just going to hold down the cue button now. [MUSIC] Then when I let go, it's going to go back to the cue point. You may often see DJs tapping the cue button when deejaying. What they're doing is tapping and listening to the first beat of the track to get the timing right in their headphones with the track that is already playing and then getting ready to press play. Similar to this. [MUSIC] If you press and hold down the cue button but want the track to keep playing and not go back to the start when you let go, you can press the play button at the same time and let go of the cue button and the track will continue playing. If I press and hold down the cue button, [MUSIC] and then press play at the same time, and then take my finger off the cue button, the track will continue playing. You can move the position of the cue point and set it at different places in the track. Whilst the track is paused, you can move the track forwards and backwards with the top of the jog wheel and then press the cue button to set a new cue point. I can move this track forward, [MUSIC] and then press the cue button, and it will set a new cue point. Generally, you always want the cue point on the first beat of the track. But it is good to know because sometimes the software doesn't set the cue point right at the first beat, so you may have to do it yourself. As we've just seen with the jog wheel, it can be used to respond like vinyl where you can do your wiki, wiki sounds and your cool spin bikes. The jog wheel respond like this in play and pause mode. Be careful when deejaying not to catch it by accident. However, the sides of the jog wheel can be used to temporarily speed up and slow down the track by nudging the sides clockwise or anticlockwise without stopping the tracks momentum. Then once you start nudging the sides, the track will continue to play its original speed. For example, if I press play on the track now and then touch the sides of the jog wheel moving it clockwise, [MUSIC] and anticlockwise, [MUSIC] it's going to speed the track up temporarily faster and slower. This way of using the jog wheel can be used to get the beats of one track in time with another, which we will go over exactly how to do this later in the section. Up in the top right-hand corner of the deck is the tempo fader. The tempo fader lets you manually adjust the speed of the track. When the tempo fader is in the middle, at zero, the track is at its original speed. You can move the tempo fader up or down to make the speed of the track faster or slower. As we now know, the speed of the track is measured in beats per minute, or BPM for short. The higher the BPM, the faster the track, the lower the BPM, the slower the track. For example, at the moment we can now see that this track here is 124 beats per minute. Now, if I was to move the tempo fader up and down, you can see it adjust the speed of the track. This is also another way in which we can time the speeds of two tracks together by putting them at the same BPM. One thing to bear in mind when changing the speed of the track is the key of the track may also change. This will mainly affect any vocals or melodies in the track and basically means it can make them sound squeaky or deeper when you move the track faster or slower. This can make the track sound bad or off to the audience especially when it's a well-known track. To show you an example of this I need a track with vocals and melodies. I've got a track here on the left-hand side note, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life. What I'm going to do is just put it to a part of the track, whether it's going to be melodies and vocals. It's going to use Break 2 as an example here. Then I'm going to press play on the left-hand side and speed the truck up and down and have a listen to how it affects the vocals or melodies. [MUSIC] As you can hear there, the track goes squeakier and deeper as I move the track faster and slower with the tempo fader. Now we can avoid this unwanted key change by activating a function called key lock or master tempo it may be called on other DJ controllers and software. Just under my tempo fader here there's a button called master tempo and key lock. If I just turn this on now, and this can also be done in the software here where it says empty. Also in Serato, there is a musical key button that if you click that, that will activate key lock and master tempo. If I press play on the track now and move the tempo fader up and down, you should be able to hear the difference of the track not going squeakier or deeper. [MUSIC] I'm just going to turn it off. [MUSIC] Then back on. [MUSIC] As you can hear there with the master tempo and key lock on, you can still speed the track up and down without the key of the track changing. For this reason, I would suggest to always have this function on to avoid any unwanted squeaky mistakes when deejaying. That is just a quick walk-through of the functions on the DJ controller that we'll be needing throughout this section of the course. Let's move on now to learning how to get those beats in time. 13. Tempo Fader And Jog Wheel: In this video, I'm going to show you how you can beat-match two tracks together by using your tempo fader and jog wheel. For this video, we need the two practice tracks that we have in the music pack. We need practice track 1 on deck 1 on the left-hand side and practice track 2 on the right-hand side on deck 2. These are specific practice tracks that I've made for this course that consists of just simple percussion to make it easier for you to learn how to beat match. When both tracks are at zero on the tempo fader, one track should be at 122 beats per minute and the other tracks should be at 124 beats per minute. Now, on record box, the BPM is shown to two decimal places, giving you more accuracy for when you're adjusting the speeds of your track. However, in Serato, our standard, you only have one decimal place. I'll show you how you can change this quickly now. As you can see here on the BPM display, you only have one decimal point. If you go over to settings, then to library and display, then down to the middle onto the right-hand side, it says two decimal places. If you just select that and then exit settings, you should see now that your BPM display has two decimal places. So firstly, what we need to do is set the key points of each track to the very start of the very first beat. If I press play on track 2 here, then press play on track 1. [MUSIC] You can hear that they're slightly in low and then start to go further and further out. This will continue and this is called double beating and this is what we do not want as a Dj. One way we can get the tracks in time with each other is to simply move the tempo fader on one deck so it matches the BPM of the other deck. For example, on deck number 1 here, I'm just going to adjust the tempo fader to match the track on deck 2. I'm just going to move it up until it gets to 124 BPM. There we go. With the BPMs being the same speed, they will stay consistent with each other, but it doesn't necessarily mean the beats are in time. This is when we have to use the sides of the jog wheel to nudge the track in time with the other by speeding the track up or down. Remember, clockwise speeds to track up and anticlockwise slows the track down. You can use the visual display to help you line the beats up with each other. But it's good to also pay attention and focus with your ears too. Because what you hear is what the audience will hear. You'll need to make sure it still sounds right and doesn't just look right on the display. You should use the lines on the display as a visual aid only to help you, but ultimately your ears will have the final say on how it sounds. As the beats can look in time on the display, but still may not be perfectly in time. When moving the jog wheel, slight nudges are better than big ones at first to get started, and listen out for the subtle changes in the beats getting closer together until they eventually perfectly in time. If you do big nudges on the jog wheel, you may move the track too far in one direction and then have to go back in the opposite direction to correct it. For example, here I'm going to press play on deck 2. [MUSIC] Then we're to press play on track one. [MUSIC] Now you can hear though, that the beats are not in time. What I need to do is slow down the track on deck 1 by nudging the jog wheel anticlockwise. There's going to be slight nudges. Listen for the beats going back in. There we go. The beat should be in time though, and because they're at the same speeds and the same BPM, they should stay consistent and stay in throughout the mix. I'm just going to try that one more time. Press play on deck 2 again. [MUSIC] Then press play on deck 1. [MUSIC] Again, it's a little bit ahead, so I have to slow it down and nudge it backwards. If I was to do this too much, the track would go past and too far. [MUSIC] As you can hear though, it's sounding worse. This time I have to nudge them a little faster by moving the jog wheel clockwise. Slight little nudges. Listen in for the subtle changes. [MUSIC] Now we have them back in again. That is beat matching, getting the beats of two tracks in time with each other. But as we have mentioned, we also want to time the phrases of the two tracks together so that the changes in the tracks happen at the same time. This is called phrase matching. If you look at the waveforms on both tracks, you can see a pattern just like you would do on a normal track. You can see a slight change in color at regular intervals throughout the track. We just have to listen to this part where the changing color is. As you can see though, the kick drum goes out and we should hear a symbol on this track here on the first beat as well. I'll just wind it back slightly. [MUSIC] What you can hear though, is the kick drum going out for four beats and assemble on the start of the first beat of the phrase. Now we're going to have a go at both, beat matching and phrase matching by pressing play on the first beats of the new phrase and using the jog wheel to nudge in the beats in time with each other. I'm going to press play here on the right-hand deck. [MUSIC] What you should see coming up on the waveform is the change in the track. I'm going to press play on the first beat of the start of a new phrase just coming up here. [MUSIC] 1, 2, 3, 4. As you can hear though, the beats are imperfectly, so I'm just going to nudge the jog wheel slowly [MUSIC] until they're in time. You should see the changes of the tracks at the same time. Let's do that again. I'm going to press Q on deck 1, Wait for the new phrase. Try timing in time with the new phrase. [MUSIC] 1, 2, 3, 4. Then nudge the tracks in. [MUSIC] Once again, we can see the track changing at the same time so the phrases are matched. [MUSIC] As a beginner, if it sounds okay to you, it will probably sound okay to the audience. Don't worry about getting them perfect straight away. Over time, you'll pick up on how to get them perfect in time, faster and faster, the more you practice. Now some DJs actually prefer using the tempo fader and jog wheel to deejay with even over the automatic sync button. This is because they feel they have more control over their tracks and what speeds they want their tracks at, especially if they are Djing at different BPMs throughout their sets. Another reason is because you can also deejay using this method with any deejay equipment as pretty much all deejay equipment now have a BPM display and jog wheels. Whereas if you just get used to using only the sync button on your own deejay controller and completely rely on that to deejay with, you may struggle if you use some other deejay equipment. As the sync function can work differently on different deejay controllers and deejay softwares. But if you can use this method of beat matching with the tempo fader and jog wheels, you should be able to deejay anywhere on any equipment. Have a few practices now with one track playing and then trying to get the beats and phrases matched on the other track. If you want to get used to beat matching just a little bit more with your ears, you can do this without looking at the screen. Try and anticipate when the new phrase is going to stop, press "Play" and without looking at the screen try and nudge the beats back in by using just your ears. 14. Beat Juggling: In this video, I'm going to show you the basics of beat juggling your tracking when beat matching. What I want you to do on the track on the right-hand side is press Play and then catch the tracks. So that means putting your hand on top of the jog wheel and starting the track from playing, [MUSIC] and then just winding the track back to the start of that first beat. [MUSIC] So your hand is on top of the jog wheel, stopping the track from playing. If you were to release your hand off the top of the jog wheel, the track should start playing. [MUSIC] So with your hand on top of the jog wheel, at the start of that first beat, what I want you to try is pushing your hand forward and backwards just over that first beat. [MUSIC] Then try and get into a rhythm and count to four and do it at the same time as your count. You don't have to push the track all the way forward, just halfway over the beats or where that sound's good to you. So 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4. So as you bring their hand back, you're bringing it just to the start of that first beat, and then pushing over the beat, and bringing it back. You can use the lines on the software to keep an eye on and you can use your ears, but you can also use a marker on the decks. For example, I could lie my hand up with the Shift button here. [MUSIC] So I'm just going to stop the track at the moment. So just here on my deejay controller, I have the Shift button. What I can do is line my hand up so that the start of the first beat, my hand is at the same position as the Shift button. So I'm just going to catch that first beat again. [MUSIC] Then get it. So my hand is just at the start of the Shift button, just here. What I can do is just watch my hand go forward over the Shift button [MUSIC] and then back to that shift button. [MUSIC] That is one way how you can use a visual aid on your controller to know where to bring your hand back to. If you don't have a visual aid, sometimes you can just use your finger. [MUSIC] If I press Play, catch the beat here, bring it back to there. I can just put my finger at the side and I know that is the start of the first beat. [MUSIC] Now, this time what we're going to do is press Play on the track on Deck 1 and try and do it in time with the beat of the other track. [MUSIC] So I'm going to catch the first beat, line it up with that Shift button, [MUSIC] and then do it to the beat of the truck. 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4, and then this time, release the track on the first beat at the next phase. 1, 2, 3, 4. Then merge it in with the jog wheel, press the Cue button, press Play, catch that first beat again. 1, 2, 3, 4. Nudge the track in with the side of the jog wheel, press the Cue button, press Play, catch that first beat. [MUSIC] That is just the basic way of beat juggling your track in when starting the track. At this time, we're going to make it a little bit harder by doing it at twice the speed. So this time instead of counting 1, 2, 3, 4, you're also going to say the word and in between the numbers and that's going to represent half beat. So I'm just going to catch that first beat again. [MUSIC] Then instead of going 1, 2, 3, 4, I'm going to say that and in the middle, one, and two, and three, and four, and one, and two, and three, and four, and one, and two, and three, and four and. So I'm going to press Play on the track on the left-hand side and we're going to do it to the beat of the track. [MUSIC] I'm going to catch that first beat. [MUSIC] Do it in time with the other track and do it every half beat. One, and two, and three, and four, and one, and two, and three, and four, and one, and two, and three, and four, and [MUSIC]. Get used to touching the track in with the jog wheel, press Cue, catch the first beat. One, and two, and three, and four, and [MUSIC]. One more time. [MUSIC] Now, once you get used to doing it in time with one beat and every half a beat, you can mix these up and add them together and create your own sequences. So do four beats just before the next phrase of the track. So for example, we can do two beats at full beats and then two beats at half beat. [MUSIC] So just like this, 1, 2, 3, and 4, and 1, 2, 3, and 4 and. Or we can do it the other way. We can do two beats at half speed and then two beats at normal speed, just like this. 1 and 2, 3, 4; 1 and 2, 3, 4. Then time it with the phrase on the other track. [MUSIC] So you ready? One and 2, 3, 4. Or try the other way. 1, 2, 3, and 4. [MUSIC] So wow, be able to do them at both speeds. You should be able to make up your own combinations of four-beat juggling. You can combine them and do them eight beats before the start of the new phrase and just have a play around with these ideas using the counts 1, 2, 3, 4, and then the ands in-between for the half beats. 15. Sync - Rekordbox: In this video, I'm going to show you how to use the Sync function on rekordbox. The Sync button basically puts the two tracks at the same speed and can also snap the beats in line with each other. Firstly, we need the two practice tracks up again. On the left-hand side is Track 1 on Deck 1 and on the right-hand side is Track 2 on Deck 2. Now to start off with, both of these are at the original BPM. So both tempo faders should be at zero at the middle and on Track 1 should be 122 beats per minute and Track 2 should be 124 beats per minute. There are two different types of sync that we can have on rekordbox. We'll just go over firstly to the Settings and then to Controller tab at the top, and then to the Deck option on the left. If we scroll down, you should see a section called BEAT/BPM SYNC. What we need to have here as selected is BEAT SYNC. BPM sync only matches the two speeds of the track, just like we would do with a tempo fader manually. If you had BPM SYNC selected, you would still have to touch the beats in with the jog wheels to get the beats matched. However, with BEAT SYNC, this will put the two tracks at the same speed, but also will snap the beats in at the same time as each other. This is the option we want selected. If you're just going to exit the settings, then I'll show you how to use this now. With rekordbox, there's always going to be a master deck. At the moment on Deck 1 is the master deck, and the master deck is generally the track that is playing out to the audience. If I was to press "Play" on Deck 2 now, that should become the master deck. [MUSIC] As you can see, the Deck 2 on the right-hand side has now lit up as the master deck. If I was to press "Play" on the left-hand side again, [MUSIC] that has now become the master deck. Whichever track is the master deck will be in control of the BPM and speed. Generally speaking, the master deck will lead and the other deck will follow the master deck. For example, if I press "Play" on Track 1 on the left-hand side on Deck 1, [MUSIC] and then if I press the both SYNC buttons to sync the tracks up, both tracks will go to the master deck BPM of 122 beats per minute. Also, if I move the tempo fader on Deck 1 as the master deck, both BPMs of the tracks will move at the same time. However, if I was to move the tempo fader on Deck 2 which isn't the master deck, nothing would happen. Now, if I was to change this and stop Track 1 and press Track 1, this one, Track 2 then becomes the master deck. If I was to move this BPM, it would now change. If I move the tempo fader on the left-hand side, nothing would happen. Whichever deck is the master deck will be leading and the other deck will follow the master deck's BPM. That is just a simple way of getting both your tracks at the same speed. All you need to do is press the sync buttons on either deck and they'll sync up with each other. Now with the beat sync setting selected in your settings, what will happen also when I press "Play" on the other track that isn't playing, the beats will snap him with each other and beat match automatically. For example, if I press "Play" on the left-hand side now, [MUSIC] that will become the master deck and if I press "Play" on Track 2, on Deck 2 the beat will snap in to the closest beat. If we just have a listen. There now we're in time. If I was to do that again, you can see the beats snapping with each other. Again and one more time. When I press "Play", the beats will snap to the closest beats. As you could see there, when I press "Play" and they were out of time, the beats would snap in automatically to each other to the closest beat. Now, if you wanted to, you can still touch the jog wheels to adjust the beats. The tracks would stay in the same speed, but the beats will not be snapped in with each other. For example if I press "Play" on Deck 1, then I press "Play" on Deck 2, if I nudge the jog wheel now, it will change the beats. As you can see, they have gone out though. They'll stay at the same speed, but to get them back in, all I need to do is turn the sync off and then turn it back on again and they'll snap back in the same time. With beat sync on, you can also use the beat juggling to start your tracks off and the beats were still snap into the same time. For example this time if I press "Play" on Track 1 again and I catch that firstly on this track and I want to do a bit of beat juggling in before the next phase, I can still do that and the beats will snap in at the same time. [MUSIC] Again, one more time, just going to show you that the beats snap in. This is a very simple and easy way to get both your tracks at the same speed and to snap the beats in at the same time as each other. It can make deejaying a lot of fun and open up a lot more different ways of deejaying with your tracks, being able to snap the beats in straightaway at the same time. However, as I've mentioned, different DJ equipment and different softwares have their sync functions work in different ways, which is why I showed you how to beat match. We're just using the tempo fader and jog wheel in the previous video so that you are prepared if you do ever go and use a different controller and different software. But if you are using rekordbox, this makes it very easy for you to use. This is the setting that we'll be going forward with throughout the course. 16. Sync - Serato: In this video, I'm going to show you the different ways on how you can use the sync function in Serato. We've got our two practice tracks loaded up here. We've got Track 1 on Deck 1 on the left-hand side and Track 2 on Deck 2 on the right-hand side. Don't worry that these say 10 steps to DJ. That was just the previous branding of this course. They're still the right practice tracks that you should have in your music pack. Both these tracks should be at zero on your tempo fader. Track 1 should be at 122 beats per minute and Track 2 should be at 124 beats per minute. There are two different sync settings on Serato. I'm just going to have a look at both of these. Firstly, we're going to go into the settings cog at the top right-hand corner and then select DJ Preferences, and just at the bottom here we have the section that's called sync mode. We have two different options. We have simple sync and smart sync. We're firstly going to have a look at simple sync. For this we need the snap to beat grid box selected, and then we can exit our settings. When the Sync button is activated, it basically puts the two tracks at the same speed and BPM as each other. The track you press sync on first will change its BPM to match the other track's BPM. For example, if I press the Sync button on Deck 1, this track's BPM should change to Deck's 2 BPM. I'm just going to turn this one on. As you can see there, they've both synced up with each other, about 124 beats per minute. If I was to turn these off and press the Sync button on Deck 2, this track's BPM should sync up and match the other track's BPM. Now we have them both at 122 beats per minute. Now to get the beats to snap together automatically when you are playing, you have to press Play first and then press the Sync button again to snap the beats in time with each other. Now I'm not able to run the sound through Serato, but I have set up a speaker and should still be able to hear the beats clearly, but just for this lecture, you may have to bear with me. If I press play on Track 1 on the left-hand side on Deck 1. [MUSIC] Then I want to sync up Track 2, so I'm going to press the Sync button first to get the BPMs the same. Then when I press play on Track 2, it's going to start the track. I'll do it at the start of this phrase. Now you can hear the beats are not in. What I need to do is press the Sync button again to snap them in. Then if I stop Deck 1. I'm going to press play on Deck 1. They're not synced in. I have to press the Sync button to snap them in. Now, one thing to notice is that the beats also snapped to the nearest bar and not the nearest beat. Now as we have mentioned before, the numbers on the extended wave form across the middle, as you can see them going up here as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, these numbers represent a number of bars in the track, not the number of beats. When you press the Sync button, it snaps the beats to the nearest bar, so the numbered lines of each track match up with each other. This time I'm going to press play on the track completely out of time, then press the Sync button and watch the tracks snap to the nearest bar. I'm going to press play on Track 1. [MUSIC] Then when it gets to the near Bar number 5, I'm going to press play on Track 2, and as you can see, they're completely out. If I was to press the Sync button, it's going to snap the numbered lines with each other. It moves ahead two beats there. I'm just going to show you that again on the next phrase. I'm going to phrase match these two tracks now. There I was completely out of time with the phrases, but if I press the Sync button, it'll jump ahead and snap the bars together, and now you can see that both tracks are phrase matched. Simple sync is as simple as that. You press the Sync button when you first load up the track to match the speeds of the two tracks together and then press Play followed by the Sync button again to snap the beats in time with the other track. Now if we go back into the settings cog in the top right-hand corner, so DJ Preferences and down back to Sync Mode. Now we're going to show you how to use the smart sync. I'm going to exit settings. On smart sync, you will have three different colors of the Sync button, which will represent three different ways of using the sync function. You'll have blue, gray, and yellow. First, we will cover the blue and gray colors of the sync functions, the blue color will only show when the track is playing and blue means that beat sync is activated and the track that's coming in next should be able to snap the beats in time with it. The gray color will only be seen if the track is paused. The gray color means the track is armed and when you press play, the beats will automatically snap in time with the other track. When both tracks are blue when they're playing, it means that both tracks are in time with each other. For example, if I press Play on Track 1 on the left-hand side [MUSIC] and then press the Sync button, it's going to go blue. Now this means that beak sync is activated. If I press the Sync button on Track 2 now, it's going to go gray and this means it's armed. This means that when I press play on Track 2, the beat grids will snap in time with each other. I'm just going to wait till the next phrase and show you and I'll press play on Track 2. I'm going to do it slightly out of time so you can see the beat jump in time with each other. However, now you can see that both sync buttons are yellow. If you touch the jog wheel or press the Q button on either track, this will deactivate the beat sync on that track and put the sync button to yellow. For example, if I press the Q button on Track 1 and the Q button on Track 2, this will keep the track on the yellow Sync button. The yellow color means the track is now only in tempo sync and the yellow color means it will keep the track at the same speed and at the BPM of the other track, but it won't snap the beats in together in time. If I press play on Track 1 now, [MUSIC] and then if I press play on Track 2 on the next phrase, you'll see that the beats won't snap in time with each other. Now what I need to do to get these tracks to sync up with each other, I have to activate both beat syncs on both tracks. I'm going to press sync on Track 1. Now it's blue and activated. Then I'm pressing on Track 2, and it'll snap in time. If I was to nudge Track 1 now, so slow it down or speed it up with the jog wheel, you can see that the beat sync goes yellow. Just to get it out of this, you can press the Sync button again. They'll both go blue and snap in time with each other. With both tracks at paused and in yellow, what you can do is just press the Sync buttons to turn them gray again. This means that they're armed and ready to snap in time with each other. As you've seen then, beat sync will only work if both tracks are blue and beat sync is activated. I would recommend that if you are using smart sync to try and keep both tracks as beat sync activated and use the blue and gray sync functions to keep beat sync activated, try and do this by avoiding using the jog wheels or Q button on your DJ controller as these will put the track into the yellow sync, which means the tracks will not snap in time with each other. Now this can take some getting used to the different colors at first and I hope I've made it a little clearer for you of how the sync function works in both the simple sync and smart sync in Serato. The best way to get used to the different beat sync functions is to practice and have a play around with it yourself. You have to practice tracks that you can practice with and all the other tracks as well that I've included in the music pack. You also have tool tips to help you out which will give you a description of what each function does. You can always revisit this video too if needed. This is also why I've shown you the way to beat match without the sync function by using only the tempo fader and jog wheel. If you can imagine getting used to the Serato sync function and then going to a club or venue to do your first DJ set and they have another DJ software where the sync function works differently, you may find it a little hard to adjust, but if you know how to use the jog wheel and tempo fader, you should be able to DJ anywhere. But to start with and whilst learning to DJ with your software, the beat sync is a great tool to use and it is what we will be using going forward with the course. 17. Beat Grid - Rekordbox: In this video, I'm going to show you how you can edit the beat grid of your track. We should now be familiar with the lines on the extended waveform showing goes where the beats and bars are off the track. These lines are what's known as the beat grid. Most of the time the software analyzes the track correctly and puts the beats in the correct place, which as we now know, we need a line at the start of every beat throughout the track and a red line at the very start of the very first beat. This is to make sure that all the bars and phrases are in the correct places throughout the track. However, it is rare, but sometimes the software doesn't analyze the track correctly and can put the beat grid in the wrong place. This can make it a problem for us to DJ with because everything in the software works around the beat rid of the track. I'm going to give you a quick walk through of how you can edit your beat grid if you need to. Just on the far right-hand side of the deck here, there's a box with four squares in. If you select this, that'll take us to our normal display. But just below, you can see a box with four vertical lines in. If you select that, it will open up the edit beat grid section. On the right-hand side here, I have got the track needing you. I'm not going to go through all the buttons in this section as most aren't needed. I'm just going to cover the main ones that we may use. The first button, It's got a half-white and half-red line in it. As it says here on tooltips, it sets the first beat of the bar to the current position, and that current position will be where the play head is. For example, I'm just going to move this track forward slightly. [MUSIC] Now the play head is in-between these two beats here. If I was to press the button with the half-white, half-red lining, is going to set the first beat of the bar that position. As you can see now, the first beat of the bar is set at that position where the play head was. Now, this can be a common mistake that the software makes is by putting the first beat of the bar in the wrong position and not putting it at the very start of the track. All we need to do here is zoom all the way in on the waveform on the first beat. Move the play head to the very start of the first beat of the track. Then press the half-white, half-red button, and it will reset the first beat of the bar at that position. Now if I zoom out, the beat grid is in the correct place with the red line at the very start of the first beat and a line for every beat after that. Using this option, it doesn't change the speed of the track or make the beats any bigger or smaller, it just repositions the first beat of the bar. Next, we will go over the line of the buttons on top here. As this person says, this one will shift the whole beat grid to the right and this one will shift the whole beat grid to the left. The two buttons in the center will shift the whole beat grid slower, and the two buttons on the outside will shift the whole grid faster. For example, if I was to hold this button here, shift the whole beat grid to the right. If you keep an eye on the beat grade, you will see all the beat grid move to the right. Then if I was to do with the shift the whole secret to the left, you will see the whole beat grid move to the left. The line of buttons just below that here, the two on the left-hand side will shrink the beat intervals, which were basically it means that it'll reduce the gap between the beats down shorter. The two buttons on the right will expand the beat intervals, which means it'll stretch and make the gaps between the beats larger. Now, these options will change the BPM on speed of the track as you are making the beats either larger or shorter. If I was to expand the beat intervals, keep an eye on the beat grid and watch it stretch out. Then if I was to shrink the beat intervals, you can see the beat grid compress and get shorter. As you can see that the BPM value changes, the two buttons here at the bottom. This one on the left will double the BPM value has gone up to 235 beats per minute now. This one on the right will have the BPM value back down to 117 BPM. In this box here where the BPM value is, you can also click and type in manually what BPM you want. I'm going to put 125.00. That's changed the beat grid back to 125 beats per minute. To check if the beat credit in the right place, I want to zoom in all the way on that first beat. As we can see, it's not exactly at the very start of the beat. I'm just going to move the play head at the very start of the first beat. Press the half-white, half-red button. Then what I want to do is check that it's consistent throughout the track. I'm going to check the first beats on the first chorus here. I'm going to select the, move it forward. [NOISE] We can see the red marker on the very first beat of the chorus. Then I'm going to check chorus two the first beat of chorus two, move that forward. [NOISE] As we can see that there's a red marker at the very first beat, of course, too as well. If you have a change in a beat grid on a track, you want to make sure and check that it's consistent throughout the track also. Now if you were to change the beat grid, for example, if you want it to stretch it out and then move it to the left. The beat grid is in the completely wrong place at the wrong BPM, you can always just analyze the track again to take it back to its original beat grid. Here we have got the track needed new. I'm just going to right-click. Then click Analyze track. What that'll do is take it back to its original beat grid and analyze the track like it's the first time it's seen it. Now when I did load the music pack up into my record box, I did notice a couple of tracks, it didn't have the beat grid set correctly on them. I'm quickly going to change that now whilst we are recording. I'm just going to drag up on the right-hand side here, the track pump up the bass. This is how recall box analyze this track for me. As you can see, the red marker is not at the very start of the track. [NOISE] If I flick through the track and go to the second drop, I can see here that the red marker is not at the very start of the beat. If I was to beat match this track with needing you. [MUSIC] The big grids are lined up and you can hear that the beats are completely out. What I need to do on this track is zoom all the way into the start of the waveform. [NOISE] Then put the play head at the very start, click the half-white, half-red button. That should set the first beat of the bar to this position. Now I'm going to zoom out. Check the second chorus of the track. Now it seems like there's a red line at the very start of the chorus. I'm just going to beat-match these to check. [MUSIC] As you can hear, that sounds a lot better. As I mentioned, the software does normally do a good job of analyzing the tracks and placing the beat grids in the correct positions of the track. But sometimes it may just get it slightly wrong and you have to go into the track and edit the beat grid yourself. But now we have had a quick walkthrough of how to edit the beat grid of the track. If this does happen to you, you should be able to change it and correct it. 18. Beat Grid - Serato: In this video, I'm going to show you how you can edit the beat grid of your track. We should now be familiar with the lines on the extended waveform showing us where the beats and bars are of the track. These lines are what's known as the beat grid. Most of the time the software analyzes the track correctly and puts the beat grid in the correct place which as we know, there should be a marker at the start of every beat throughout the track and a numbered marker numbered one at the very start of the very first beat of the track. This is to make sure that all the bars and phrases throughout the track are in the correct position. However, it is rare but sometimes the software doesn't analyze the track correctly and can put the beat grid in the wrong place. This could make it a problem for us to DJ with because everything in the software works around the beat grids of the tracks. I'm now going to give you a quick walk-through of how you can edit your beat grid if you need to. The track on the right-hand side here is needing you. Just to the right of the track title you can see a little button that says Edit grid. If you select that, it will open up the edit beat grid section. What the first button here called set does is if I was to move the beat grid just to the left slightly to the next beat and press the button Set, it will change the number one line to this position of the play head. Then if I was to move the wave form back to that first beat and then press the Set button, it should move the number one marker back to that position. Now, if you were to use this, the best thing to do is to zoom all the way in on the waveform and then put the playhead at the very start of the beat to make sure that it's accurate and then press the Set button. This can be used if the number one marker is not right at the start of the first beat of the track. You can change it and put the number one marker in the correct position. Just below this we have the adjust buttons. The two buttons here on the left under the set button will shrink the beat grid down, making the gaps between the beats shorter. The one on the inside will do it more slowly and the one on the outside will do it faster. I'm just going to hold my finger down on this button here, the button that will shrink down the beat grid a little more slowly and just keep an eye on the beat grid and how it reacts to this button. As you can see that the peak grid, it's compressing into world's number one marker. Now, the two buttons on the right will do the opposite. They'll extend the gap between the beats. Again, the one in the middle will do it a little more slowly and the one on the outside will do it a bit faster. I'm just going to hold the one on the outside this time and watch the beat grid extend and the gaps between the beats get larger. When doing this, one thing to bear in mind is it will change the speed and BPM of the track as the distance between the beats are either getting larger or shorter. The line of buttons just underneath this which says slip will basically move the whole beat grid either to the left or to the right without changing the BPM. Again, the ones in the middle will do it slower and the ones on the outside will do it faster. This button here will move the whole beat grid to the left-hand side. If you keep an eye on the beat grid you can see it there slowly moving all of it to the left-hand side. Then using this button here I'm going to move the beat grid all the way to the right-hand side and it should move a little faster this time. As you can see there, the whole beat grid is moving to the right. Once you've adjusted your beat grid, if you do need to change it you can select the Save button here and it will save your edits you've made on the track. However, if you don't want to save the edits that you've done for example like now, we can just click the Cancel button, it'll go back to the way it was before we started editing. As you can see there it's gone back to its original beat grid. Now, if you want it to lock the beat grid so it won't be changed, you can go over to the left-hand side at the library here next to the track title, hold command on your keypad and then click this box here. Then a little padlock will come up. This means that it will lock the beat grid in place and you can't make any edits. This is worth knowing if you get any tracks from DJ record pools. Because sometimes they can set the beat grids on them themselves, when you download the tracks and you're not able to edit the beat grid, all you need to do is hold command, click the lock and it should remove that beat grid lock and then you should be able to edit your beat grid. As I've mentioned, the software normally does a really good job of analyzing the tracks and putting the beat grids in the correct places. However, if it is a rare occasion where it does get it wrong and the tracks don't sound well together when you're trying to beat match, you now know how to go into the edit grid section and correct the beat grid. 19. Intro - Basic Mixing: Welcome to the next section of the course, basic mixing techniques. In this section of the course, I will show you how to do basic mixing by using the correct timing of your tracks. This section includes a total of four guided mix tutorials that you can mix along with and do yourself. I'll also explain to you what significant sounds are, how to use your channel faders and crossfaders, how to make notes of phrases in your tracks, and how to use your headphones when DJing. Let's get into it and I'll see you in the next video. 20. Significant Sounds: In this video, we're going to take a look at what the different significant zones are when we're deejaying. In the frequency and sounds video, we have established there are generally six different types of sounds that we come across when deejaying. These are hi-hats, claps, vocals, melodies, baselines, and kick drums. We have established that three of them are percussion sounds; the high hats, claps, and kick drums. Now, the other three sounds of vocals, melodies, and baselines, we're going to categorize these now as significant sounds. The reason why these three sounds of vocals, melodies, and baselines are significant sounds, is because they are able to hold the attention of the audience. Whereas with the percussion sounds, they are not able to hold the attention of the audience. So for example, the track here on the left, You're No Good For Me, I'm just going to put to the first break up the track. At the start of the break, it's primarily vocals just by themselves. Have a listen to see how these would be able to hold the attention of an audience just as vocals on their own. [MUSIC] Then with the track on the right, I'm just going to put it to the first break as well. At the start of this break, it's primarily just melody by itself. Have a listen to see how this could hold the attention of an audience. [MUSIC] Now I've loaded up a track on the left, Billie Jean, and I'm going to put the track just after the intro here. It's going to introduce just a baseline. Have listen to see if the baseline makes a significant difference and should be able to hold the attention of the audience. [MUSIC] Now, if you're listening to any percussion sounds without at least one of these significant zones, you'll find it's not enough to hold the attention of an audience. So on the track on the left here now, Music Sounds Better, I'm just going to play the intro and I'm going to flick for it where it's just percussion, and have a listen to see if this would hold the attention of the audience. [MUSIC] Then I'm also going to flick the track towards the end, so the autro, so I have baseline now, and the baseline is going to go out and leave it just with percussion. So as you can hear there, the percussion would not be able to hold the attention of the audience like the significant sounds would be able to. Another difference between percussion sounds and significant sounds is that percussion sounds can be played at any time of any parts of the track. But with significant sounds, you can't have two of the same significant sounds playing at the same time. For example, you cannot have two vocals at the same time, or two melodies at the same time, or two baselines at the same time. Because they are significant, if you have two of them playing at the same time, they will clash with each other and sound really bad over the top of each other. So for example, and I have the track on the right here called Right on Time and the track on the left as Calabria. What I'm going to do is play the intro of Right on Time, which is just in percussion sounds over the top of different sections of Calabria where it may have vocals, melodies, or baselines, and just pay attention to that it still doesn't say bad with the extra percussion from Right on Time over the top of the Calabria track. [MUSIC] So I'm just going to put the sync buttons on. So that's over the melody on percussion. Now, it has a bit of vocal as well. But it still doesn't sound about with the intro percussion of Right on Time. I'm just going to do the chorus. As you can hear there, it still doesn't sound bad with the extra percussion of Right on Time over the top of the chorus with the baseline from Calabria. Now, this time, I have two tracks loaded up. The track on the left, Are You with Me, and the track on the right, Video Games. What I'm going to do is just play the breaks of these two tracks at the same time. Now, they both have different melodies and vocals in these sections of the track. I just have a listen to how they clash with each other, and it doesn't sound too good to listen to. [MUSIC] So it's not too bad right now, but listen to when the melodies and the vocals come up at the top of each other. [MUSIC] So as you can hear there, it's not too pleasant to listen to, with a clash of two different vocals and a clash of two different melodies over the top of each other. This goes for the same with baselines as well. Having two different baselines on top of each other doesn't sound great. However, you can have several different significant songs playing at the same time, as long as they are not the same types of sound. For example, you can have a baseline of one track with a vocal of another, or a melody of one track with a vocal of another track. So now, I've loaded up another couple of tracks, and we have Calabria on the left and You're No Good For Me on the right. Now, we've established the start of the first break of Calabria is just mainly melodies and nothing else, and the start the first break on You're No Good For Me is mainly just vocals and nothing else. So if I was to play these two at the same time, it won't sound too bad, and it shouldn't clash too much. So if you have a listen to the difference of this. [MUSIC] So as you can hear there, it's not too bad if you have different significant sounds playing over the top of each other, but just not the same two significant sounds. So we're just going to do a quick recap of what we've gone over in this video. So we have identified that there are six main types of sounds that we are going to come across when deejaying. These are high hats, claps, vocals, melodies, baselines, and kick drums. We have now separated these different sounds into two groups, percussion sounds and significant sounds. The percussion sounds consist of hi-hats, claps, and kick drums. These are the sounds that you can find on a drum kit. They are not able to hold the attention of the audience, and they can be played at anytime over any parts of another track. The significant sounds are vocals, melodies, and baselines. These are sounds that are able to hold the attention of the audience. However, you can't have two of the same type of significant same playing at the same time. So for example, you cannot have a baseline under baseline playing at the same time, or vocals playing on top of the other vocals, or a melody playing on top of another melody. But you can have different significant sounds playing at the same time. For example, like a melody from one track with a vocal from another track or a baseline from one track with the vocal from another track. Now I understand this can be a lot to take in at first, but you don't need to know all of this by heart straight away. It just makes it easier for you to understand the different sounds and what I mean when I refer to the percussion sounds or significant sounds as we go through the mixing sections of the course. Being aware of these different types of sounds and what you can and can't do with them is going to create the foundation for us when it comes to mixing two tracks together. It will become a lot clearer and easier to understand as we progress through the course and put these different types of sounds to use, which is exactly what we're going to do in this section of the course and in the next group of videos. 21. Basic Mix 1 - 'Give It Up Lola': In this video, I'm going to show you how to do the first basic mix of the course. Now, the way I see the whole job of a DJ is to keep the attention of the audience and to keep them entertained. We do this by selecting good tracks to play and making a smooth transition between them tracks. We now know that the significant sounds in a track are what keeps the attention of the audience, the vocals, the melodies and the baselines. What we need to do to make a smooth transition between two tracks is to time when one track significant sounds end and the other tracks significant sounds begin. This way we'll keep the energy high and we will keep the attention of the audience. So for this mix, on the left-hand side, we will need Give it Up on deck 1, and on the right-hand side, Lola's Theme on deck 2. What we're going to do is mix Lola's Theme into Give it Up. So firstly, what we're going to need to do is work out when the significant sounds end on the track on the left, Give it Up. So as we can see with the waveform, this here should be the starts of chorus and by the looks of it, the outro starts just here on the track. So we're going to have a listen to see where the energy changes from high energy to low energy. So I'm just going to flick through the backend of this track just to have a listen. [MUSIC] So this is the start of the chorus 2. So still quite high energy, got the significant sounds. [MUSIC] This sounds like you'd lose the attention of the audience, is basically just a percussion here and the significant sounds have ended. So we've worked out that here is the point where the significant sounds of this track finish. To be able to mix the track, we need to work out how many phrases that is from the start of the chorus. So what I'm going to do is get the play head right on the first beat of the chorus, and then use the beat jump function that we've used previously to count how many phases it is from here to when the significant sounds end and to the end of the track. So I do have the beat jump function on my DJ controller, but just so it's easier to see, I'm just going to use it on the software here. So I'm going to jump forward with 32 beats from here, that's one and two. So that's two phrases from the start of the chorus to where the significant sounds end and then one, two phrases until the end of the track. So this track here will be two phrases for chorus 2 and two phrases for outro. Then what we need to do is work out when the significant sound starts on the track on the right, Lola's Theme. So a similar thing, but this looks like the intro here until break one where it goes green. So it's going to have a flick through and listen to when the significant sounds come in. [MUSIC] So you can hear that's just basic percussion , still basic percussion. It looks like there's some baseline coming in now and a bit of melody as well. We'll flick through this, so in similar right up until the break. Now similar to the track on the left-hand side, we just need to work out how many phrases are in this using the beat jump function. So I'm going to jump ahead 32 beats one, two. So this is two phrases from the start of the track until the significant sounds come in. Then we're going to jump forward again, one, two, and then another two phrases until the break. So for this track on the right, Lola's Theme, we can say that there's two phrases of intro and two phrases of intro plus before the break. Now, I have referred to the very first beat of a track a lot throughout this course when setting Q points and beat grids and so on and also now when we are mixing, but now we're more familiar with DJ terms and we are going to start to be mixing tracks. The very first beat of a track is called the downbeat. So I'm going to refer to the very first beat of a track from now on as the downbeat and also throughout the mixing sections of the chorus, we're going to be referring to the very first beat of a chorus a lot too, which we also know is called the drop. So to make it easier for us going forward, the very first beat of a track is called the downbeat, and the very first beat of the chorus is called the drop. So we have now worked out that the track Give it Up it's significant sounds and two phrases from the drop. We also know that the track on the right, Lola's Theme, significant sounds start two phrases from the downbeat. So if we were to press play on Lola's Theme on the drop of chorus 2 on Give it Up, the two tracks your time perfectly and mix well together and when the significant sounds end on Give it Up, the significant sounds should start on Lola's Theme. As we now know, we can play percussion of any part of any track. So that's not going to be a problem for us playing the percussion of the intros and outros of the tracks over the other track. So I'm just going to put this a few beats before the chorus. I'm going to press Beat Sync on both tracks to make sure the tracks the synced up, and then I'm going to press play on Lola's Theme at the start of chorus 2 of Give it Up right on the drop. [MUSIC] So coming up now which would be where the significant sounds change [MUSIC]. As you can hear that, the mix was timed perfectly. So when the track Give it Up significant sounds ended, the track Lola's Theme significant sounds started, which kept the energy high and we could keep the attention of the audience. The way I see this in my mind when mixing these tracks, I see the intros and the outros of the tracks like Tetris blocks. Each track has its own structure, like a Tetris block does and our jobs as DJs is to fit the Tetris blocks together so that when the significant sounds of one track ends, the significant sounds of another track begins. This time and of two tracks together to keep the attention of the audience throughout your mix is going to be the foundation to how we're going to time our mixes throughout the course. Mixing these two tracks together is fairly easy and simple, and this is a great introduction to mixing, but we are solely going to build up and do some more complex mixes as we now progress throughout the course. 22. Basic Mix 2 - 'Give It Up For Me': In this video, I'm going to show you how to do your second basic mix. In the last video, we mixed two tracks together that had the same amount of phrases in the intros and outros to time the perfect mix. However, as we have mentioned, not all tracks have the same structure. Now we're going to look at different ways of mixing tracks that do not have the same number of phrases in the intros and outros. Let's jump straight into it. On the left-hand side on deck 1, again, we have the same track, Give it Up, but this time on the right-hand side we've got the track, You're No Good For Me on deck 2. As we already know, the track on the left-hand side, Give It Up has two phrases of course and two phrases of atrial beats, which is just simple percussion. What we need to do on the track on the right-hand side on deck 2 is work out where the significant sounds come in and work out how many phrases there is. We're going to have to listen to the start of this track and just have a quick flick through. But as we can see, this looks like the intro here, and then the start to break one. Have a listen to this intro section. [MUSIC] We have basic percussion to start off with. [MUSIC] Then it sounds like we have some intro course here with some baseline coming in, which is obviously a significant sound. [MUSIC] Then to break one. Using the beat jump function again, we're just going to jump across and see how many phrases this is to where the significant sounds come in on this track. As we can see here, this is the point where the significant sounds come in. That's one phrase to the significant sounds. Then one phrase to the break. Now one common mistake that beginner DJs make is they still press play on the drop of course two. We're going to give that a go to see why it's wrong. I'm going to sync the tracks up with pressing the sync buttons with the track Give It Up being the master deck. What I'm going to do is press Play on the track, You're No Good For Me on the drop of Give It Up. [MUSIC] This can be what a lot of beginner DJs do, which is a common mistake, is press Play on the drop of the track regardless. [MUSIC] As you can hear, there's a clash of significant songs of two baselines, so it doesn't sound great. Another common mistake of beginner DJ's is they will press Play at the start of the outro beats just here. Let's have a listen to that to see what that sounds like. [MUSIC] As you can hear though, it's not very energetic. This wouldn't hold the attention of an audience because it's just percussion on top of percussion with no significant sounds. [MUSIC] Then the significant sound of the base comes in after one phrase. But as you can hear there, it goes flat and it wouldn't hold the attention of the audience. As we have mentioned previously, to do a good mix with a smooth transition, you want to time it so that when one track significant sounds end, another track significant sound should begin. What we need to do for this mix is wait one phrase before we press play on the track, You're No Good For Me, then the two tracks should time perfectly. Now what you can do is you can count the beats from the drops. When the track drops, you can count in your head 32 beats from there. Once you get used to DJing and mixing, you'll get used to when the phrases in the track are coming up and when the changes are going to happen, your ears will get used to listening out for them phrases. But what we're going to do just by this example is going to have a listen out and put a marker of where that one phrase is after the drop. Let's listen to this track on the left. [MUSIC] 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 31, 32. That would be one phrase from the drop. What we're going to do is just put a marker here with a hot key. I'm just going to press a hot key, any hot key, and it's just going to put a marker there on that track. If you don't want to set a hot key, what you can do is watch out for the bars on the track. We're going to press Play on bar number 81. Also when that was coming up, you can generally see the changes in the track on the phrases. You can see here, [MUSIC] there is a slight change in color on the track, but sometimes it's not as obvious and it is more subtle. You have a few different ways of timing the track you can count your phrases in your head, or for the purposes of this, you can put a marker there, or just look out for bar number 81. I'm going to wind this back. [MUSIC] We'll have a go at this mix now, pressing Play one phrase after the drop. [MUSIC] I'm just going to stop truck 1 when it gets to the break. [MUSIC] There you have it, another perfectly timed mix. Now you can see why counting phrases and being aware of where the significant sounds start and end in your track is so important when DJing. However, we can't just be pressing play out loud all the time when we are mixing. As you can hear that the truck can come in slightly too strong and it's not as smooth as we'd like it to be straight away. In the next video, we're going to go over how to use the channel faders and crossfaders to control our volume and make our mixing sound even smoother. 23. Volume Faders: In this video, I'm going to show you how to use the channel faders and crossfaders. When we are mixing two tracks together, we don't just want to press play out loud on the track we are bringing in. We were just doing that on the last two videos to practice getting the correct timing of our mixes first. When we are actually mixing, we want to slowly introduce the track coming in and slowly fade out the track that's going to end. This is so that there is not a sudden change of sounds to the audience and it'll make us have a smoother transition between the tracks. Each deck has its own channel that controls the sounds that is played from that deck. Deck 1 has Channel 1 and Deck 2 has Channel 2. At the very top of the channel is a dial that controls the whole volume of that channel. This determines how loud the track is going to be. It can have several names such as the trim, gain, or channel level. Mine on this controller is called the trim. For example, if I press play on Track 2 [MUSIC] the trim here controls the volume of the whole channel. Moving it up and down. On a lot of DJ equipment, you'll also see some level lights. These are lights that indicate how load your tracks are. For example, if I press play on Track 2 again, you can see the level lights come in and you can see green, amber, and red. Now if I was to turn this up, it would go red, which is not good, you really want to stay in the green with your tracks. If you go into the amber or red lights, it means that the track is too loud and this can distort your tracks and make them lose their sound quality and can also potentially damage speakers. You may find that when you start to play in clubs and other venues, the club owner or manager may say to you, watch your levels, which basically means, stay out of the red. Underneath the trim, we have the equalizers, or EQs for short. We're going to cover these in more detail later in the course as we don't need them just yet. Then underneath that, we have the channel fader. The channel fader controls the volume of the channel in relation to the overall volume set by the trim. The channel fader can only go as loud as the trim volume and cannot go any louder than that. This is so that when you are mixing, you know you can fully use the channel fader all the way to the top without it being too loud. For example, if I press Play on Track 2 again, [MUSIC] I can pull the volume all the way out and put it all the way up and it will not go any louder than I have set the trim. Then at the very bottom, we have the crossfader. The crossfader can be used to switch from one channel to the other by using only one fader. When the crossfader is all the way over to the right, you can only hear the right channel and when the crossfader is all the way over to the left, you can only hear the left channel. When the crossfader is in the center, you can hear both tracks equally at full volume. When you move the crossfader from one side to the other, it will slowly blend the track's volumes in and out. For example, if I beat-sync these two practice tracks now and I was to put the channel fader all the way over to the left, press Play. [MUSIC] press Play on the right deck. Now you can only hear the left channel. Now you can only hear the right channel. In the center, you can hear both the tracks equally. Then if it starts on the left side, I can slowly transition over to the right side. You can change how smooth you want the transition from your cross-fader in the settings. If you go into the Settings on record box and then go over to the Controller tab, and then to the Mixer tab, and then go down to Channel Fader Curve and Cross Fader Curve. For the channel fader curve, we want it in the middle one as linear curve, that would be the smoothest transition on the channel faders. Then on the crossfader curve, we want this dial in the center. Again, that will give us the smoothest transition for the cross-fader. Then just exit settings. Now whenever we bring the volume of a track in, we generally want to do it smoothly in time with the tracks that are playing. One way to do this is to time it over one phrase. You want to start bringing the volume in over track at the start of a phrase and have the volume should be fully up at the end of the phrase. It takes you the full phrase to bring the volume fully in. Same with if you are fading a track out. You want to start fading the track out at the start of the phrase and then have the volume fully out at the end of the phrase. Again, it takes you the full phrase to take the volume fully out. This is so the fading in and out of the tracks fits in well with the time of the mix and stays consistent with the timing of the tracks. We're going to give it a go with the two tracks we use previously in the last mix. On the left-hand side here now we have the track Give It Up and on the right-hand side, on Deck 2, we have the track, You're No Good For Me, just the same as the last previous video we did the mix with. I've got both tracks, beats synced up at 130 BPM. We know to perfectly time this mix, we need to wait one phrase from the drop of Give It Up. But this time we're going to start with Deck 2's volume all the way down for the track You're No Good For Me. What I am going to do once I press Play after one phrase of the drop, I'm going to slowly introduce Deck 2 over the time of one phrase, then the volume should be fully up ready for the transition and the switch between the significant sounds. Then I'm going to slowly bring the volume fader down on Deck 1 so it takes me one phrase to fully get the volume out ready for the break on You're No Good For Me. Let's have a listen to this and keep an eye on what I do with the volume faders and give this a go yourself. To start with, I'm going to use the channel faders and then use the crossfader the second time. For this first mix, I want the crossfader in the exact center of the cross-fader and Deck 2's channel all the way down. Let's give it a go. [MUSIC] Remember, we're going to wait 32 beats before I press Play on Track 2. It's coming up now. I'm going to slowly start fading the track in and then slowly start fading Deck 1 out. That's one way to do with the channel faders and this time I want to do with the crossfader. I'm going to have the crossfader all the way over to the left-hand side for Deck 1, then over the first phrase, I'm going to move the crossfader to the center. Then for the second phrase of the mix, I'm going to do the crossfader all the way over to the right. Let's have a listen. [MUSIC] For this to use the crossfader, we want both channel faders up. Ready? Now I'm going to slowly move the crossfader to the center. Now the significant sounds have switched, I'm going to slowly move the crossfader over to the right. That's two ways there that we can mix the tracks using the channel faders and the crossfaders to make a smoother transition. Also, at the top of the software, just here, you have a Mixer tab where you can put the mixer view on the software. If I select this here, it's going to open up in the middle of the two decks on the display the mixer view. Whatever I do on the mixer on the DJ controller, I can see on the display as well. This can help you when mixing. Instead of having to look back at the mixer journey or mix every time, you can just keep your eyes on the display and look at what your channel faders and crossfaders are doing without having to look back at your DJ controller. I'm going to keep this view on to make it easier for us to see what we're doing on the mixer too throughout the course. Now we know how to use the volume faders and crossfader, going forward, we're now also going to use these to do our mixing with. In the demonstrations, I will be mainly using the cross-fader, but it's up to you if you want to use the cross-fader or volume faders. Each DJ has their own preference, give both a try and see which you prefer. But the principles of the mixing is still the same and still applies to both methods. Now we know how to use the channel faders and crossfaders. Let's get into the next mix. 24. Diagram Walkthrough: In this video, I'm going to give you an overview of the diagrams that I'm going to be using going forward in the course to try and help with understanding the mix tutorials and how the mixes are structured. I have also included visual diagrams for each mix tutorial. We have already come across a couple of these diagrams already, such as this one. Sometimes it can help being able to see the mix visually as a diagram, as well as watching and listening to it be performed. As I have previously mentioned, you can potentially see the start and the end of the tracks, light tetris blocks. Mixing two tracks together can be visualized, light fitting two tetris blocks together. As you can see here, that is the inspiration behind the diagrams. As we go through the course, the mixes are going to become a little more complicated and therefore the diagrams may also become a little more complicated. Just to make them easier to understand, I'm going to quickly go through what each part of the diagram means. I'm going to use this diagram of a mix here as an example. At first glance, it can be a lot of information to take in and you may not know where to look or what to pay attention to. I'll quickly go through what everything means on this diagram. Firstly, we're going to take a look at the red blocks. The red blocks generally represent the track that is currently playing and the track that we're going to be mixing out off. At first in the basic mixes, this would generally be the end of the tracks, the last chorus, and the outro of the track. Once we get into more intermediate and advanced mixes, the blocks can represent different parts of the track. As later in the course, we will start to mix out of different parts of the track, not just the very end. In the middle of the blocks, it will say what part of the track it is and how many phrases it is, so you know what it represents. For example here, on this side, it says Chorus 2. This is the second chorus of the track and it consists of four phrases. This part of the track, Chorus 2, will be four phrases long. That is what is represented here by this block and this section of red. Then we have the outro, which consists of two phrases. This section here of the red block will represent the two phrases of the atrial beats of the track and also just to the side here you'll have the track title. You'll know which track the blocks represent. Then the green blocks will generally represent the track that you are bringing in next, the track that you're going to mix into. At first in the basic mixes, this would generally be the start of the tracks, the intros, and the intro pluses of the tracks. But again, once we get into more intermediate and advanced mixes, the blocks can represent different parts of the track. As later in the course, we will start to mix into different parts of the track, not just the very start. Again, in the middle of the blocks, it will say what part of the track it is and how many phrases it is, so you know exactly what it represents. For example, here at the start, this block here represents the intro beats of the track, and this consists of two phrases and then we'll have the intro plus of the track and this consists of three phrases. The first part of the track will be two phrases long of the intro, and the second part of the track, the intro plus will be three phrases long. Also, as you can see at the side, you can see the track title so you know which track the block represents. At the side of the blocks, there will be any extra information that you need to know about the track to help with the mix. For example here, the information tells you where the significant sounds begin and end on the track, with arrows pointing to which part of the track they begin and end. If there is any extra information about the track that you are mixing out of, it will be underneath the blocks next to that track. For example, here, the track that we're mixing out of, this will be Track 1, the red one, just underneath they'll say where the significant sounds end and point to which part of the track it will be representing. As you can see here at the end of Chorus 2 and at the start of the outro is where the significant sounds end. I can see the blocks get slightly smaller as well. If there is any extra information about the track you are mixing in next, it will be above the blocks next to that track. For example here, above the green blocks of the Track 2, you can see that the significant sounds begin and there's an arrow pointing to the part of the track where the significant sounds begin. This here will be at the end of the intro section, and at the start of the intro plus. Also outside of the blocks will be any actions that you need to take to do the mix. Firstly, it will always show you when to press play on the track you want to bring in next. For example here, it will say wait two phrases and then this symbol here represent when you press play on the track. With this block here being red and saying Chorus 2, this very start of the blocks will be the drop of the chorus, when the chorus starts. When you're doing the mix, this will represent you have to wait two phrases from the drop until you press play on the next track coming in. As well as when to press play, it will also show you when to bring the volume of the track in. This is because quite often when you press play on the track and when you actually bring the volume in on the track, it can be at different points in the mix. For example here, it says, wait two phrases from the drop, then press play on the track, but then you're not to bring the volume in until after one phrase of pressing play, which is here. This line here represents the volume and you slowly increase the volume over one phrase and leave it up for the rest of the mix. This will also be the same for when to bring the volume out of the track that is already playing and when to stop that track. For example here, this blue line represents the volume of the track that's already playing and as you can see from the start, it stays high and consistent all the way through the mix until the last phrase of the outro, when you reduce the volume down and then press stop. This is the symbol that we use to stop the track. Sometimes you might come across a block that is slightly lighter than others, for example just like this one on the first phrase of the intro of the green blocks. This means that the volume of that part of the track will not be heard to the audience. This could mean that the volume is down for the part of the track, just like this part here, or the track has already been stopped and the audience won't hear that part of the track. Looking at these diagrams at first glance, it can be quite intimidating. Looking at all the information at the same time, the best way to look at them and read them is from left to right, just like reading a book. This will be the order of events during the mix. For example, on this diagram here, if we start off all the way to the left-hand side, this first part of the track will be at the drop of Chorus 2, and the first instruction is to wait two phrases. Then after two phrases of the Chorus 2, we will then need to press play on the track that's coming in next. After that, we'll wait one more phrase and not do anything. Then after one phrase here, halfway through the intro of the track that you're bringing in next, we will start to increase the volume of this track to full volume over one phrase. Then after that, you should see that the significant sounds begin on the track that you're bringing in next and the significant sounds end on the track that you're mixing out of, but no action is required at this point. Then as you can see, you can wait one phrase and you won't need to do anything as the mix is in play and then during the last phrase of the outro of the track we're mixing out of, we're slowly going to start to reduce the volume out and then stop the track at the very end. Then the track that we've just brought in can just play and continue as normal. Now that we understand this diagram, we are quickly going to look at another example. First, when we see this diagram, we can look at the blocks of the tracks and what they represent. As we know, the red blocks represent the track that's already playing and it has a Chorus 2, which is four phrases long, and then the outro, which is two phrases long. Then the green blocks of the track that we're bringing in next have an intro, which this time is three phrases long, which goes into an intro plus of one phrase and then into break 1. Then we can look at the different actions and extra information from left to right and have a look at how the mix would pan out. If we start all the way over to the left-hand side, this is Chorus 2 here on the red section, so this will be the drop of the chorus. Then from the drop of the chorus, we just have to wait one phrase and then press play on the track that's coming in next. Then after that, we can see that the intro section consists of three phrases in total. It seems as though we have to wait two phrases and then bring the volume on the track that we bring in the next over one phrase. After that, we should see that significant sounds begin on the track that we're bringing in and the significant sounds end on the track that we're mixing out of at the same point. Then this track will go into the intro plus for one phrase and during that phrase, we can see that we've reduced the volume of the track we're mixing out of straight away as soon as the significant sounds switch and then stop the track. At the point where we stop this track here, it should go into the break of the track we're bringing in. That track should continue as normal and play it low to the audience. This section here is light green because this is not being heard by the audience. The volume is not up, but it is playing in the background and this section here is slightly lighter red because it still exists in the track, but we have stopped the track here so the audience won't hear this section of the track. These diagrams have been added only to help support the main mix tutorials, not to be the only thing that will explain the mix to you. Sometimes especially at first, you may not understand the diagrams by itself until you have watched the mix be demonstrated to you practically. That's completely fine and like I say, the diagram is just to support the main mix tutorial and add extra value, not to be the only way you can understand the mix. When watching the tutorials, you can always pause the video to take longer to look at the diagram and you can always go back to the diagram after you've watched the mix be demonstrated to you practically or if you want to, you can even ignore the diagram if you learn better by watching the mix be demonstrated to you, rather than looking at the diagrams. Everybody learns differently and I have added the diagrams to help with the understanding of the mixes in a visual way, as well as watching the demonstrations and listening to the mixes. It can be hard to design some of these diagrams as some mixes can be complicated, but I've tried my best to make them as easy to understand as possible. With them being an addition to the tutorials, as well as the practical demonstrations, I thought they could only help. I hope this video helps you going forward when seeing and reading the diagrams to help you when you're doing the mixes. See you in the next video. 25. Basic Mix 3 - 'Give It Up On Time': In this video, I'm going to show you how to do the third basic mix. On the left-hand side here on Deck 1, we have the track, Give it up again and on the right-hand side this time we have to track Ride on time. Again, we know that the track Give it up on Deck 1 has two phrases, of course, and two phrases of atrial beats. Let's work out when the significant sounds come in on the track Ride on time and how many phrases it consists of. [MUSIC] It's starting off with simple percussion. Let's flick it forward. [MUSIC] Still simple percussion with a beat of both for coming in but not too much. The baseline comes in. Now, I would say that was a significant moment. Lets click it onto, listen to a bit more. Still just baseline. [MUSIC] A little bit of melody. Let's listen to this part. The melody fully comes in now. That's when I would say that the track is fully in its full swing. [MUSIC] We're going to cut them phrases so we can see here that this part here of this waveform is when the significant sounds come in. On this part here is when the track is in full flow and the melody fully comes in. Let's count them phrases. We have 1, 2, 3, 4, so we have four phrases until the significant sounds come in, and then we have 1, 2, 3 until the track fully gets going with the melody fully in. The phrase before this, I would still say is the intro is still not fully picking up. The melody only trickles in a little bit. This is the point where the melody fully comes in and the track is in full flow. We can say here that Ride on time has four phrases of intro beats and then three phrases of intro plus. There is a bit of vocal in there, but not too much to be worried about. It's not too significant and it's going to overwhelm the mix, but it's good to be aware of. Now before we go on to the next part of the video, I want you to pause this video and see if you can work out yourself how you'd mix these two tracks together. They would time right. That when the significant sounds of Give it up ends, the significant sounds of Ride on time stop. Pause the video, give the mix go yourself and see if you can time the tracks correctly. Let's go over it and see if you were to mix the tracks the same way that I would mix these tracks. For me, there's three different ways that you can mix these two tracks together so their time right. As we should know, now, if we press Play on Ride on time, on the drop of Give it up, it's not going to time right. There would just be two phrases of just percussion. There will be no energy and you lose the attention of the audience. Because it takes four phrases for Ride on time to get to its significant sounds and only two phrases for the significant sounds to end on, Give it up. What we can do is press play on Ride on time, two phrases before the drop of Give it up. What I'm going to do is go to the drop of Give it up. Put the play head right at the start of that drop, and then jump back with beat jump two phrases. What we can do is press play on Ride on time at this point, now this will be a long mix, but you could do some channel flicks with the percussion because as we know, you can play percussion over any part of any track. So just at the start of Break 2, I'm going to press play on Ride on time. On this mix, I'm going to use the channel fader on Ride on time to flip the track in and out. Let's have a listen. [MUSIC] The channel fader is all the way down for now. I'm going to press play at the start of a Break two. Now pressing play here. Should actually mean the significant sounds change at the right time. But it can make for long mix. I'm going to use the channel fader to flip the track in. [MUSIC] Then because there's a bit of vocal on Ride on time, I'm going to wait till the second phrase, but the chorus to bring a track in. I'm going to slowly going to start fading the track in. [MUSIC] The significant sounds of switch that. Slowly we are going to start fading, Give it up. [MUSIC] Even though the track Give it up, ended a little early, it was still a good mix and a good smooth transition where the significant sounds switched at the right time. Now, another option we can do is use beat jump to jump forward to phrases on Ride on time and set the cue point there, and then press play on the drop of Give it up. From here I'm just going to put beat jump on, and then jump forward two phrases on Ride on time. Then from here I can press the cue button to set a cue point. Put the track, Give it up just before the drop. Now this time I'm going to put the cross-fader it all the way over to the left-hand side and then press play on the drop with Ride on time. This time I'm going to wait to phrase again, before I move the crossfader across. Now I'm slowly going to start moving into the center of the crossfader, so follow tracks to equal volume. [MUSIC] Wait going to wait one phrase and then slowly start fading out to track Give it up. [MUSIC] Now the last option that we can actually use is to use the beat jump function whereas we are mixing. I'm going to put the cue point on right time back on the downbeat. But I'm still going to press Play on Ride on time, on the drop of, Give it up. But before I start bringing the crossfader across, I'm going to use beat jump to jump forward two phrases so the tracks time right. Then what I'm going to do with the track, Give it up, is jump back one one towards the end of the mix so it times right with the melody coming in. Have a listen to this. I'm going to put the crossfader to all the way over to the left and then press play on Ride on time, on the drop and use beat jump to jump forward two phrases. [MUSIC] From here you cannot hear the track on the right. The crossfader is all the way over to the left. I'm going to jump forward two phrases with beat jump 1, 2. Let's slowly start fading the crossfader across. There we have it timed perfectly again. I'm going to slowly fade give it a slightly but not all the way. Just as it's due to end, I'm going to jump back 32 beats, fade a little more. [MUSIC] As you can see there you can use the beat jump function during a mix whereas bring a track in, or whereas mix in a track out to make sure that your mixes a time perfectly. There you have it. Those three different ways you can mix a track with a longer intro to still time right, and fit with the golden rule of when one track significant sounds end another tracks significant sounds begin. If you mixed it in any one of them three ways. Well done. If you mixed it in a different way that I have not shown on this video, let me know in the comments below the video, and if it works, I'll include it in the video. Onto the next mix. 26. Basic Mix 4 - 'Give It Up Sounds Better': In this video, I'm going to show you how to do the fourth basic mix. Again, on left side, on Deck 1, we have the track, Give It Up, but this time on the right-hand side on Deck 2, we have Music Sounds Better. We know that Give It Up on the left-hand side at the end of the track has two phrases for chorus and two phrases for outro. We need to work out where the significant sounds come in on Music Sounds Better and how many phrases it is. Let's press "Play" on this track and have a listen. [MUSIC] We have simple percussion to start with and then we can see it go red here, so some signs are introduced. Let's see if this is significant or not. There's no baseline though, it's still just simple percussion. What came in was a kick drum. Let's flick it on a little bit more. Still, just simple percussion. Then the melody comes in here. That to me would be the significant sounds coming in. What's different about this track is it doesn't have any intro, plus it goes straight from intro a simple percussion to a breakdown with melody. Let's count how many phrases it is to Break 1, which is the significant sounds. We'll put beat jump on again, jump forward 1, 2, 3, 4. It's actually four phrases of intro with just simple percussion and then to the break. To time it right, it will be the same as the last video and not the last mix, we'll have three different options. We can either press play on Music Sounds Better two phrases before the drop of Give It Up. Or beat jump forward two phrases on Music Sounds Better and set the cue point there or press "Play" on Music Sounds Better on the downbeat and on the drop of Give It Up, and jump forward two phrases during the mix with the beat jump function. However, the difference is with this track is that it's not going to be the same transition between the significant sounds. When they switchover, it's going to be a lot quicker switch. Now you can still bring Music Sounds Better in over one phrase, but on the track Give It Up, we want to stop that track a little quicker so it doesn't run over into Music Sounds Better's break. We have two options. We can stop the track straight away on Give It Up just by pressing stop when the significant sounds switch, or we can quickly fade it out four beats before the switch. I'm going to show you both of them ways to mix these tracks. How I'm going to get the timing right? I'll use beat jump after I press play on the drop and jump forward two phrases to get the timing right, and then I'm just basically going to stop the track Give It Up on the switch and see how that sounds. [MUSIC] I'm going to put the crossfader all the way over to the left-hand side. Press "Play" on Music Sounds Better and jump forward two phrases with the beat jump 1,2. Now this should time right to the significant sound switcher. Then slowly fading, the track Music Sounds Better, and then just stop Give It Up. All I did there was basically just press "Pause" on the track Give It Up as you can see right at the end of the significant sounds. Now, because the break is still expected and travels through to Music Sounds Better it still sounds good. Now, the other option we have is to fade the track Give It Up, just over these four beats here, just over this bar to slowly bring it out to the point where it's completely out of the switch. Let's give that a listen. This time I'm going to jump forward already two phrases and set a cue point on Music Sounds Better just to give you a different way of timing the tracks. I'm going to jump forward 1, 2, set the cue point here. Put the crossfader all the way over to the left-hand side, and let's do the second mix. [MUSIC] This time we have no need to use beat jump because they've already done it before hand. I'm going to wait to the next phrase before I start bringing the track in. Let's start fading Music Sounds Better in. Then from here I'm quickly going to push it across. As you've seen there, let me get it to the end of the significant sounds. As you've seen there, I faded the crossfader across very quickly over the four beats, but still in a smooth transition. It was just a bit faster. That's just a different way of doing it instead of pressing pause. Because it's going into a break anyway of Music Sounds Better it still sounds good to stop the track that quickly. There you have it. Those two different ways to mix a track that goes from intro with simple percussion straight to a break. 27. Making Notes Of Phrases: In this video, I'm going to show you how you can make notes to remember the phrases in your tracks. As you may realize by now, there are lots of numbers to remember that are associated with the phrases of the intros and outros of the tracks. It's not possible to remember all of the phrases off the top of your head and it's also not efficient to keep beat jumping every time you want to play a track, especially if you're mixing live. I'm going to show you two different ways in which you can make notes to remember the phrases in your tracks. The first one is to make notes of them in your comments. You may remember at the start of the course, I asked you to put the comments column on your library just here. We can use this column to make notes of the phrases in the tracks, so when you come to play that track again, you know exactly the number of phrases it has at the start and at the end of the track. Now I'm going to show you my way of how I make notes. But you can interpret your phrases and make notes on them however you want. The main point of the video is just to show you that you can use the comments column to make notes of the phrases so you can remember them. Firstly, we need to know the tracks phrases in the intros and outros. We're going to use the two tracks that we mixed previously in the previous video. On the left-hand side here we've got the track, Give It Up and on the right-hand side we've got the track, Music Sounds Better. I'm just going to listen to the start of the track, Give It Up. As we normally do, listen for when the significant sounds come in and how many phrases it is. [MUSIC] That's just basic precaution, a little bit of vocal but not too much to worry about. That looks like it goes straight into the break here. [MUSIC] That would be our significant moment though where it goes into Break 1. Let's use beat jump. I'm going to put the key point right on the downbeat. [MUSIC] Then beat jump from here and it's just one phrase for the intro. What I'm going to do is go over to the comment section, find the track, Give It Up, I'll just click here. What I'm going to do is just put IN equals. That stands for intro equals. Then I'm just going to put 1P, which for me stands for one phrase of percussion. The next time I look at this I know that the intro equals one percussion. Now we're sure we're pretty familiar with the outro of this track now, but I'm just going to quickly flip through again. We know that it's two phrases chorus and two phrases outro. Well, I'm just going to put the play ahead on that rope and then just jump forward just to double check 1,2. That's the chorus and then we can have a listen. [MUSIC] It's just basic percussion for 1,2. What I'll do now in the comments is I'm just going to put five spaces to create a bit more space, 1,2,3,4,5, and then just put OUT equals. This to me means the outro of the track. Now outro was a collective, so what I'll need to mix out of the track. It can include the chorus as well because we know that that's involved with mixing out of the track. What I'll do is I'll put 2 for two phrases and CH for chorus. Now you can just put C if you want to, but just for chorus I'm going to put CH space and then 2P for two percussion. That would be my notes on this track, so I know that the intro consists of one phrase of percussion and the outro of where I'm mixing out of the track and what that involves will consist of two phrases of chorus and two phrases of percussion. Basically, I put whether it's the start or the end of the track using in or out. Then I'll put the number of phrases followed by the first letter of what's included. Here are just some of my shot and down versions and letters that I use for when I'm making notes of phrases. I would put IN equals to represent the intro of the track, I would put OUT equals to represent the outro or the end of the track, what would it be used to mix out of the track with. Then I could use P for percussion, B for base, V for vocals, M for melody, CH for chorus, and BR for break. If you did want to make notes of what's involved in the breaks and the choruses, you can also put for example, BR1 for Break 1 or CH2 for Chorus 2. I'm just going to do the same now with the track on the right, the track, Music Sounds Better. Let's have a listen to when the significant sounds come in on this track and how many phrases it is. [MUSIC] This starts off with simple percussion and we can see how the waveform here that it changes. Let's see what comes in. [MUSIC] That's still simple percussion. [MUSIC] Then integrate one a melody. Let's quickly count using beat jump how many this is. We've got 1,2,3,4, four phrases of simple percussion until the break and the insignificant sounds. You may remember that from last time we've mixed it but I just wanted to go through again. In here on the notes, what we can do is put IN equals four intro and then put 4 for four phrases and P for percussion. Now next time I look at this track I know the intro equals 4 phrases of percussion. Now let's have a listen to the outro of this track. Let's have a listen to where the significant sounds end, where the track starts to fade out, and how many phrases it is and then how we're going to interpret that as well. [MUSIC] This is the chorus, I got baseline melody and vocals all inside of it. That's why it's the chorus, all the sounds come together, like for the track. [MUSIC] Just have the melody and baseline there no vocals. A little bit, but this is still the chorus. It's still energetic enough to be the chorus. It might wind down here now. [MUSIC] The energy levels drop slightly though, you could still cross this at the outro with the baseline in that [MUSIC] and then to simple percussion. [MUSIC] Why I would actually close the end of these trackers is the chorus up to around this area here. Then I would say is the outro with baseline. The energy drops, so I would say it's the outro and then the simple percussion. Let's count how many phrases that is from the drop of the track. [NOISE] From here is 1,2,3,4,5,6. That actually would be six phrases of chorus. Let's just have a listen to this section. [MUSIC] Yes. That's where I'd say the energy level drops. [NOISE] But there's still some baseline in there. What I would actually do is put that is six phrases of chorus and then let's listen to the baseline 1,2. Two phrases of baseline and two phrases of percussion. That's how I would interpret that track. From here in the comments about five spaces to space them out. Then put out for where I'd mix out of the track equals 6 CH. Then 2B, two for baseline and then 2P, two for percussion. This track here of what I'd use to mix out of wave would be six phrases of chorus, two phrases of baseline, and two phrases of percussion. This is one way where you can make comments on the phrases in the tracks of how you interpret it, so next time you come across this track again in the future, you know how many phrases consist of each part of the track. Now, another way that you can do this is also by setting hot cues on the tracks and using them as visual markers. Now on the decks here where it says beat jump, we can select this and go to hot cue. Or if you're using your DJ controller you have a hot cue setting, we'll find, Give It Up notes comments, which is here. Then what I can do is press the first hot cue pad here on the downbeat, which will set a hot cue, and we can use this as a marker. Because what we can do is change the color of the marker and leave comments on the marker as well. If I right-click this now, I can change the color of it to represent any color that I want. For example for percussion, I could have a light blue color. Then I can also right-click and add a comment, which for me would be 1P. Now I know from this hot cue is one phrase of percussion, and also because it can set different colors if I know the light blue color means percussion, just by looking at the hot cue, I should know that it's percussion from there. Then same with the outro, I can find the drop of the chorus too, set a hot cue marker here. I'm going to use one of the last ones, one of the last two hot cues because it's towards the end of the track. I can just select that hot cue there, it's going to set a marker, I can change the color. For the chorus I might want a bright red color. Whenever there's a red hot cue, I know that it means chorus. I can also right-click the hot cue, click Comments and write 2CH, so I know it's two phrases of chorus until the next section. Then what I can do is set a hot cue marker at the start of the percussion beats, start of the outro beats, and then just hit because it's a percussion again, I can set it as light blue. Right-click again, add comments and put 2P for two percussion. Now, not only does it have the phrases in the comments, in the library, I can also visually look at the track, see where they are, and interpret what the hot key markers mean from the colors and the notes that I've left. I can see at the very start the track is one phrase of percussion because it says 1P at that hot cue marker to the next section where you can even select here. [NOISE] Drag it to the start of the break, set a hot cue marker here, right-click, leave a comment saying BR1, so then you know this is the start of Break 1. Then you know this marker here at the start of the chorus is two phrases of chorus and two phrases of percussion. This is just a couple of ways that you can remember your phrases instead of keep having to beat jump and count them every time you want to use a track. This can help you be able to mix two tracks together that you've never mixed before by just looking at your notes in the comments you will know how many phrases the track consists of, and then you can work out when you should press Play and time your mixes for a smooth transition. For example, here's what I did earlier. The track Calabria, I've gone ahead and put the phrases in the comment section. I'm going to drag this track upon the right-hand side. By looking at the comments I can read that it says intro equals one percussion and one base. Also the mixing note section of the track will include four chorus and two base, so I know what this intro section here. Now, if I was to mix it with, Give It Up to time it right I'd have to wait one phrase from the drop of Give It Up. Let's quickly have a listen to that. Let's beat sync the tracks up. Press Play on, Give It Up. [MUSIC] Put the cross fade all the way over to the left-hand side. From this, I know it's one phrase of percussion until the significant sounds come in. I'm going to wait one phrase, press Play. [MUSIC] Slowly start fading the track across. We can see it here on the center of the screen, the cross fader. [MUSIC] Then I know I've got one phrase until the break. For the slow we start moving across fader across. [MUSIC] That's how you can use your notes in the comments and what phrases the track here consists of on the intros and outros to mix the tracks together without having to listen to them first. I hope this video helps. If you have thoughts of any other ways of making note on phrases, let me know and let everyone else know in the comments below. 28. Headphones: In this video, I'm going to show you how to use your headphones when Djing. The headphones are mainly used to listen to and prepare the track you want to bring in next without the audience being able to hear it. This is so you can get the next track prepared and in time with the track already playing before you start to mix it in. You can also do live mixes in your headphones too and listen to exactly the same as what the audience is listening to. Usually on your mixer section of the DJ controller, you will have a headphones dial. This dial will normally have two settings on it, cue, which is all the way over to the left-hand side, and master, which is all the way over to the right-hand side. To keep it simple, the cue setting is how you would listen to a track in your headphones without the audience being able to hear it. The master setting is how you can listen to exactly the same as what the audience is listening to out of the speakers, but in your headphones. To be able to listen to a track in your headphones without the audience being able to hear it, you have to put the headphones dial all the way over to the left-hand side, which is the cue setting and then press the cue button on whichever channel you want to listen to and activate it. For example, the left channel is activated there and now the right channel is activated. You can listen to one track at a time or both tracks at the same time. When you are on the cue setting with the cue buttons activated, you'll still be able to hear the track, whether the channel faders are up or down, or if the cross fader is on the left side or the right side. When you're on the cue setting, the volume faders do not affect the volume of the tracks in your headphones. So you can still listen to attract, even if it's not being played out loud to the audience and the channel faders down. As long as the dial is all the way over to the left-hand side on the cue setting and the cue button is activated this is how you would prepare the track you want to bring in next and get it beat matched and in time with the other track already playing out loud. When the dial is all the way over to the master setting you'll be able to listen to exactly the same as what the audience is listening to out of the speakers, but in your headphones, this is so you could do a live mixing your headphones if you wanted to, rather than listening out loud to the club speakers. The club of venue that you are playing out may have bad acoustics for the DJ, and you may not be able to hear your music very clearly in the DJ booth. Sometimes the club can have several speakers pointing in different directions so the sounds may be coming at you from different directions, making it hard to hear your beats clearly. This is when you would use your headphones on the master setting to do the mixing your headphones and listen to exactly what the audience is listening to. I'll give you a quick walk-through of a scenario when you may use your headphones when Djing live. [MUSIC] You can imagine I'm playing this track out loud now to the audience, I'm Djing live. I'm listening to this track out loud with the master setting on all the way over to the right-hand side. What I can do is select the next track, load that up on the left-hand side, get the beats matching [inaudible] with the tempo fader. [MUSIC] Then I can put the headphones setting [MUSIC] all the way over to the left-hand side to the cue setting and then press Cue on the right hand side and now you can [inaudible] hear the track on the right-hand side. I can flick through this track now, have a listen to other significant songs come in. Work out how many phrases it is. [inaudible] [MUSIC] Now, I put [inaudible] on the right hand side. There's two phrases for intro portion and two phrases of this. Now what I can do is put this cue button on, on the left-hand side. Now we can hear both tracks at the same time. Because we prepared this track on the left-hand side before, I know that from this blue marker here, it's two phrases of base. I'm just going to wait for that point before I press play on track on the right-hand side. [MUSIC] For this mix, I'm not going to use beat sync. I'm going to put my tracks manually. Again, just to show you how to use the headphones. We get ready to press play on the track. In my headphones now I can hear both tracks at the same time. Going to beat match some with the jog wheel and then put the headphones dial all the way over to the master again. Now I can only hear what's being played out loud. I can move the cross fader slowly across. Listen to exactly what the audience is listening to. [MUSIC] We're slowly going to start fading the tracker on the left. There you have it. That's one example of how you can use your headphones when Djing live. Quickly, just to recap, the cue setting on the headphone dial all the way to the left-hand side combined with the cue buttons on, is how you'd listen to a track in your headphones without the audience being able to hear it. Then the headphones dial all the way over to the right-hand side on the master is how you'd listen to exactly what the audience are listening to out loud on the speakers, but in your headphones. 29. Intro - Intermediate Mixing: Welcome to the next section of the course, intermediate mixing techniques. In this section of the course, I will show you how to do intermediate mixing techniques by using the equalizers and filter dials. This section includes a total of 10 guided mixed tutorials that you can mix along with yourself. I will show you how to use your equalizer and filter dials, how to mix in key with your tracks and how to use your sampler. Let's get into it and I'll see you in the next video. 30. Equalizers And Filters: In this video, I'm going to explain to you what the equalizers on the mixer do. In this section of the course, we're going to start using the equalizers to mix with. The equalizers are the three dials in the middle of the mixer, just under the trim here, that's called high, mid, and low. These dials can separate and isolate different frequencies in the tracks. The high dial controls the high frequencies of the track, the mid dial controls the middle frequencies of the track and the low dial controls the low frequencies of the track. For example, if I was to press ''Play'' on the track on the right-hand side here, [MUSIC] if I was to turn down the high dial completely, you'll hear all the high frequencies cut off, leaving just the low frequencies. If I turned in the mid-frequencies, [MUSIC] you'll hear the middle frequencies of the track get caught on. [MUSIC] The same with the low. If I turn the low frequencies all the way down, you can hear the low frequencies disappear, leaving just the highs. When the equalizers are used, they are only really used to reduce the sounds of a frequency rather than turn them up. The dials very rarely go past 12 o'clock in the right direction. When they're not being used, they're generally just sit in the middle at 12 o'clock. They will only really be used to cut off frequency out of a track when mixing so the frequencies don't clash together. For example, if you have two tracks that both have a baseline playing at the same time, you can turn one track's low-frequency completely down so there's only one low-frequency playing at a time. We can use the equalizers to be more creative with our mixes. They allow us to be able to mix at different places in a track that you wouldn't normally mix in because now you control the different frequencies of the track and decide which frequencies are playing and at what time. Underneath the equalizers, we also have the filter dials. These are another way of controlling the frequencies of the track, but just by using only one dial. If you turn the filter dial all the way to the right-hand side, this is called the high-pass filter. Turning it to the right reduces the low frequencies of the track and leaves just the high frequencies playing. For example, if I press play on the track on the right here, [MUSIC] and I turn the filter dial all the way to the right, it's going to reduce the low frequencies and leave just the high frequencies. [MUSIC] If you turn the filter dial all the way over to the left, this is called the low-pass filter. Turning it back to the left, reduces the high frequencies of the track and leaves just the low frequencies playing. For example, if I were to press ''Play'' on the track on the right again [MUSIC] and then turn the filter dial to the left-hand side, it's going to reduce the high frequencies and leave just the low frequencies. [MUSIC] That's a quick run through of what the equalizer and filter dials do. We will now also be using these to mix with going forward in the course. 31. Intermediate Mix 1 - 'Trick Me Saved My Life': In this video, I'm going to show you how to do the first intermediate mix of the course. The track here on the left-hand side on deck 1 is the track Trick Me and on the right-hand side, on deck 2, we have Last Night A DJ Saved My Life. Now, if we were to mix these two tracks together doing a basic mix, we would have to work out when one track significant sounds end and the other track significant sounds begin. I've already gone ahead and done this with these tracks. From the drop here of Trick Me to when the significant sounds end, it's six phrases of chorus with baseline on vocals, and on the track on the right-hand side, Last Night A DJ Saved My Life, it's two phrases until the baseline comes in. To have these two tracks timed correctly, where I'm doing a basic mix, I would have to wait four phrases from the drop of Trick Me before I press play on Last Night A DJ Saved My Life. Let's have a quick listen to that first. Then we can compare it to how are we going to do the intermediate mix after. I'm going to press Play on the track, Trick Me on the left-hand side. [MUSIC] I'm going to put the crossfader all the way over to the left-hand side, both tracks are synced up by 130 BPM. [MUSIC] For it to time right we have to wait four phrases before we press play on Track 2 on the left-hand side. [MUSIC] This is the fourth phrase now, I'm going to press "Play" after the end of this phrase. Now the track should time right and the significance sound should switch. I'm slowly going to start fading the track on the right-hand side in. [MUSIC] As you can see coming up there at the baseline should switch. [MUSIC] We started fading the track on the left deck. [MUSIC] As you can hear that, that's technically correct on how you would do a basic mix. When Trick Me's significant sounds ended, the track Last Night A DJ Saved My Life significant sounds began. However, personally, I felt like it was a bit too long and drawn out, and there's three phrases of just baseline. As we mentioned, the main job of a deejay is to hold the attention of the audience and keep them entertained. We're going to look for ways now how we can make this a little bit of a better mix. Now we have the equalizers to use, which means we can manipulate the frequencies of the tracks and have some influence on the significant zones of the tracks. The main equalizer deejays use when mixing is the low-frequency dial. This is because it can completely cut out the baseline of the track. The mid-frequency dial can't completely cut out of vocal on melody, but it can reduce the frequency of it, but it cannot completely get rid of the vocals or melody out of a track. But the low-frequency dial can completely cut out a baseline of a track. For example, if I have a listen to the track Trick Me here on the drop. [MUSIC] We can hear the baseline coming though the chorus. If I was to turn the low-frequency dial all the way down, you can hear that the baseline is completely cut out there. If I was to turn the mid-frequency down, [MUSIC] you can hear the mid-frequencies get reduced but you can't completely get rid of the vocals and this is the same melody as well. This is why deejays generally use the low-frequency dial when deejaying because they can carefully to get rid of that baseline. This means now we don't have to wait for track's baseline to end naturally, we can cut it out ourselves, and this is also the main significant sound that would normally clash when mixing is the baseline. Now we can have more control and freedom of a when we want to mix the tracks together by controlling the baselines. Now when doing our intermediate mixes, we need to work out where the different significant sounds are throughout the track rather than just when the significant sounds starts and end in the track. For example here on the left-hand side, Trick Me, we've just got six phrases of chorus until the percussion comes in, but we need to analyze and see what's actually consists of in this chorus. Let's have a quick flip through and listen. At the very start, [MUSIC] we can hear that it's just baseline, there's no vocals or melody here. Then there's some vocals introduced but still no melody. Then the vocals drop out and it's left with just baseline again but still no melody. Then it reduces down to percussion. What we can do here is work out when that vocal comes in and goes out of the track. What I've done here now, just for the purpose of saving time, I've gone ahead and put markers on the chorus of the track here of when the vocal comes in and out of the track. So as you can see here on the hotkeys now it says 1B for one phrase of baseline, then there's three phrases of baseline and vocals, and then there's two phrases have just baseline, and two phrases of percussion. Then we need to have a listen to the start of Last Night A DJ Saved My Life to have a listen to which significant sounds consists of this. [MUSIC] At the very start, it is just percussion, and then the baseline comes in after two phrases. [MUSIC] But it seems like after another phrase, the melody composite for a phrase until it gets to the brake [MUSIC]. On the track on the right-hand side now, I've gone ahead and put down which significant signs are involved in this track. So we have two phrases of percussion, then there's one phrase of baseline, and then there's one phrase of baseline and melody before the break. Now, when we are mixing, the same rules apply as before. We want to avoid any significant sounds clashing with each other. We don't want any baselines on top of a baseline, or vocals on top of another vocals, or melody on top of other melodies. So as we can see here on the track on the left-hand side, it mainly consists of baselines and vocals, and the track on the right-hand side mainly consists of baselines and melodies. So there won't be a clash of vocals or melodies, the only clash would be a baseline. But now, as we know with the equalizes, we can completely cut the baselines out and control them. So what we're going to do this time with the mix is press "Play" on the track on the right-hand side, Last Night A DJ Saved My Life on the drop of Trick Me straight away. But when the baseline is due to come in on the track on the right-hand side Last Night A DJ Saved My Life, I'm going to turn the low-frequency dialed down completely on the track on the left-hand side, Trick Me, so there isn't a clash of baselines. So this means I can mix a lot early in their track if I wanted to which can make for more of an entertaining mix. So let's have a listen to this one now. I'm going to put the crossfader all the way over to the left-hand side, both tracks are being synced up at 130 BPM. I'm going to press "Play" on the truck on the left-hand side and then when the track drops, I'm going to press "Play" also on the track on the right-hand side. Let's have a listen. [MUSIC] So I'm going to start fading the right track in. When the baseline comes in, I'm going to turn it down on the left side. [MUSIC] So now, there's no clashes baselines. [MUSIC] As you can hear though with that mix, there was no clash of melodies, there's no clash of vocals, and with me being able to turn down the low-frequency dial, I could cut the baseline out of that track so there's no clash of baselines. That to me sounded like a lot more interesting mix than the previous one when we had to wait for the baselines to end naturally and wait six phrases of the track. We had a lot more layers to it. There was baseline, melodies, and vocals from different tracks all going on at the same time but without them clashing. So I'm just going to show you how to do that mix one more time without talking over the mix, so you can have a full listen to it. [MUSIC] In the next few mixes, I'm going to show you different ways in which we can use the low-frequency equalizer to mix at different parts of the track and create more interesting mixes just like this one. 32. Intermediate Mix 2 - 'Trick No Good For Me': In this video, I'm going to show you how to do the second intermediate mix. On the left-hand side, we have the track Trick Me on deck 1 again. This time on the right-hand side on deck 2, we have the track You're No Good For Me. As we now know with the intermediate mixing, we want to know where the significant sounds are throughout the track so we can mix the tracks together earlier and avoid any clashes. As with the previous mix, we know the end of the track Trick Me has one phrase of baseline, then goes into three phrases of baseline and vocals, then goes into two phrases of baseline and then two phrases of percussion. In a previous video, we've already analyzed the track You Are No Good For Me, but we're just going to have a quick listen through this again just to double-check. [MUSIC] Just at the start here, here can hear simple percussion, which is what it says 1P, one phrase of percussion, and then you should go into baseline. There's no melodies there, there's no vocals, let's go straight into a baseline. There it looks like break, one comes up here. Let's have a listen to the start of this. That's straight into vocals there. I'm just going to set another hot Q marker there just so we know, and then I was going to say break 1 vocals. We've got BR1 V. Break 1 vocals. Now we know on the left-hand side, the track, Trick Me, consists of mainly baseline and vocals, and the introduction of You're No Good For Me mainly consists of baseline and then the vocals come in after on the break. During the mix, there's not going to be a clash of any melodies or any vocals, there will only be a clash of baselines, which we now know we can control with the low-frequency equalizers. To make this the most interesting mix possible, we could time it so that when the vocals of Trick Me ends, the vocals of You're No Good For Me start at the start of its first break. Then it will go straight from one track's vocals to the other track's vocals, keeping the audience's attention and making it for a more interesting mix, and also avoiding any clashes of significant sounds. To time this right, on the track Trick Me the vocals end after four phrases. On the track You're No Good For Me, the vocals begin after two phrases at the start of the break. To time it right, I'll have to wait two phrases from the drop of Trick Me and then press play on the track You're No Good For Me. Also when the baseline comes in on the track You're No Good For Me, I can cut the baseline on the track Trick Me using the low-frequency equalizer to avoid any baseline clashes. Then there'll only be one baseline playing at a time. For good practice now, we're going to start doing a complete base swap. This is where you start with a low frequency dial of the track that you're bringing in completely down, and then when it's the time to make the base switch, you complete the switch, both low-frequency equalizers at the same time. This will make the mix sound smoother, and on the track that you're bringing in, it won't come in as strong. Let's set these tracks up and give it a listen. I've got both tracks synced up at 130 bpm, crossfader all the way over to the left-hand side. I've got the track on the left ready, Trick Me a few beats before the drop and track You Are No Good For Me ready on the downbeat. Let's have a listen. [MUSIC] To time this right, remember we've got way phrases. [MUSIC] Get ready. Let's turn the bass down on this track so it's not mixing it across, and get ready to switch the bases. I'll play the track there. There you have it. Another intermediate mix, mixing tracks earlier and avoiding any crashes of significant sounds. I hope you would agree that that would be more of an interesting mix and hold the attention of the audience a little bit more than if we were to wait till the right at the end of the track Trick Me and wait for the baseline to naturally end. I'm just going to do that mix one more time for you without talking over it so you can have a listen to the mix properly. [MUSIC] 33. Intermediate Mix 3 - 'Trick The Feeling On': In this video, I'm going to show you how to do the third intermediate mix. On the left-hand side on Deck 1, we have the track, Trick Me and on the right-hand side, this time we've got the track, Push The Feeling On, on Deck 2. Again, with these tracks, we have to work out where the significant sounds are throughout the track to see where we can do the most interesting mix and avoid having any clashes of significant sounds. As we know on the track on the left-hand side from the chorus, we have one phrase of baselines, three phrases of baseline and vocals, two phrases of baseline, and then two phrases of percussion. Now on the track on the right-hand side on Deck 1, Push The Feeling On, I've already gone ahead and put the markers on the track and worked out the phrases and insignificant sounds. But just so you can hear, we're going to have to listen through them together. At the very start, we just have two phrases of percussion and vocals. Then after that, we have three phrases of baseline and vocals, followed by one phrase of percussion and vocals. Then it goes into this Chorus 1, which is everything of baseline vocals and melody comes in. On this track, I wouldn't really say there's a breakdown or break, it goes straight from the intro, intro plus to chorus. Let's have a quick listen. [MUSIC] You can hear at the very start here we've just got percussion with the vocal straight away in. [MUSIC] Such two phrases of percussion on vocals that it comes into the baseline. [MUSIC] As you can hear that, the baseline comes in, there we have baseline and vocals together for three phrases. [MUSIC] This little bit a slight melody though for trickling in. [MUSIC] Then after three phrases of baseline and vocals, the baseline drops out, leaves the vocals, and again, for one phrase and this is what I mean, I wouldn't necessarily call this a breakdown or break and they go straight into the chorus. [MUSIC] We can hear the melody coming up. [MUSIC] On this track here it's two phrases until the baseline comes in, and then a further four phrases until the chorus stars. The track on the left-hand side, Trick Me, as we know, is mainly consists of baseline and vocals for the end of the track, and the track on the right-hand side, Push The Feeling On, also mainly consists of baselines and vocals at the start of the track. It's bailed to do this mix. We know we cannot completely cut out any vocals with the equalizes. To avoid having any vocal clashes we'll have to do that with our timing. We will only be able to start to bring the volume fader in on Push The Feeling On after the vocals have finished on Trick Me. For this first mix, I'm going to wait four phrases from the drop of Trick Me. To start the vocal, I've Push The Feeling On and then the baseline should switch actually as well and we can have a listen to this mix to see how it sounds. What I'm going to do is put the track, Trick Me just a few beats before the vocal comes out, just so we don't have to listen to the full chorus again to do the mix and I'm going to press play on the track, Push The Feeling On as the vocals and on Trick Me. It's having listen to this mix, I have the crossfader all the way over to the left-hand side. I've got both tracks beats synced up at 130 BPM. I'm going to play the track Trick Me just before the vocals drop out. Let's have a listen. [MUSIC] We're going to switch the basis here. [MUSIC] Even though the switch naturally, I just wanted to do that for good practice. [MUSIC] We just want to listen to it to see how long it takes to get to the chorus. [MUSIC] Now that is still a really good mix and technically correct. However, I did feel it did drag on for a while and it felt quite long before the track Push The Feeling On chorus came in and the tract got going and picked up its energy. I think I would have liked to have the chorus of the track Push The Feeling On, come into phrases earlier, just to give it a bit more of an entertaining, and exciting mix. I'm going to do the same mix again, but what I'm going to do is press play on the track, Push The Feeling On two phrases earlier, so the chorus comes in two phrases quicker in the mix, which should hopefully make for a more interesting mix for the audience. Now the good thing about the low-frequency equalizers is not only can we cut the baseline so early on the track, already playing, but we can also decide when we want to bring the baseline in on the track coming in. We can delay when to bring the baseline in and bring it in later in the mix. I'm still going to wait before the vocals end on the track, Trick Me before I start to bring the crossfader across to avoid any vocal clashes. But then I'm going to wait two phrases before I switch the baselines and bring the base and I'm Push The Feeling On. We'll have a listen to this and I'll start the track two phrases earlier this time, and I'll talk you through what I'm doing. I'm going to put the track, Trick Me before the drop this time so we can listen to the full mix, crossfader all the way over to the left-hand side. Both tracks are synced up to at 130 BPM and let's have a listen. [MUSIC] I'm just going to turn the baseline down on the track, Push The Feeling On ready, so its was completely out. [MUSIC] I'm going to start the track on the next phrase. I'm waiting two phrases from the drop on this mix [MUSIC] and I'm still going to wait till after the vocals are finished before I bring the crossfader across. [MUSIC] Now the baseline has started on, Push The Feeling On but I'm not going to switch them over just yet. [MUSIC] I switched the baselines at this point coming up now. [MUSIC] Now you should hear the chorus come in, two phrases earlier than the previous mix. There you have it. There's an example of where you can mix a track in and delay when to bring the baseline in until you are ready. By doing that, it meant that the chorus started two phrases earlier and I hope that you agree that that would have kept the audience's attention a little bit more and be more entertaining for the audience than the previous mix. As another mix where we avoided any vocal clashes and also any baseline clashes, where we mixed the tracks earlier than they should have been but it made far a more entertaining mix with the audience. I'm just going to do that mix one more time for you so you can have a listen to it done properly without me talking over the top of it. [MUSIC] 34. Intermediate Mix 4 - 'You're No Good For Me Lola': In this video, I'm going to show you how to do the fourth intermediate mix. This time the track on the left-hand side on Deck 1 is you're no good for me and the track on the right-hand side on Deck 2 is Lola's theme. These are pretty much two fresh tracks that we haven't analyzed yet. What we have to do first is workout where the significant sounds are at the end of you're not good for me and at the start of Lola's theme. Let's start with the end of you're not good for me and have a listen to this. [MUSIC] Okay, so this first phrase is mainly consisting of baseline. There's no melody there, there's no vocals to the baseline. I know there's a melody in there. This melody lost the three phrases. [MUSIC] Then the melody drops out there and just leaves the baseline left. There wasn't any vocals throughout that. There's a little bit of vocals just before the start of the next phrase. [MUSIC] Just like that but not throughout the phrase enough for it to be significant. There is a baseline all the way to the end of the track. I'm quickly just going to fill out where these are on the track now with the markers. What I've gone ahead and done those, put the markers on the track and explained what's consisting of these markers, so the first one is one phrase of baseline and then we have three phrases of baseline, a melody, and then drops into two phrases of baseline to the end of the track. I'm not being too picky with the colors that I'm choosing for these sections. As I've mentioned, you choose your own different colors that represent different things. The main thing that I'm looking at are the notes on each marker that describe what consists of each section. Every marker could actually be the same color as long as you've got the correct notes written underneath. Let's have a listen to the track on the right-hand side, Lola's theme and work out whether significant concerns are in this track. [MUSIC] Starting off with just basic precaution there, [MUSIC] they'll stay in basic precaution. It looks like we've got a baseline coming in here. [MUSIC] Okay, so there's a baseline there and a bit of melody. [MUSIC] This baseline of melody all the way up until that first break. [MUSIC] It drops back down into the melody. Now, if I remember rightly, this is two phrases up until the baseline and melody and then two phrases of melody and baseline. I'm just going to put the markers on this track volume now. So I've gone ahead and put the markers on this track here, two phrases of precaution at the start and then two phrases of baseline on melody. Now we've worked out the track on the left-hand side and the chorus mainly consists of baseline and melodies with no vocals and the track on the right-hand side also consists of baseline and melodies with no vocals. It's safe to say that there isn't going to be a clash of vocals because there isn't any in these tracks. We also know that we cannot completely cut out the melody with the equalizers, but we can cut out and control the baselines with the equalizes. To try and make the most interesting mix, we can time it so that when you're no good for me's melody ends, Lola's theme melody begins which will mean there will be no clash of melodies and it should still be good enough to keep the attention of the audience and we can do a base swap with the low-frequency equalizers to avoid any clashes of the baselines. At the time this right, it takes four phrases for the melody to end on the track on the left-hand side, you're no good for me from its drop and it takes two phrases for the melody to come in on the track on the right-hand side, Lola's theme. To get the right timing, we would have to wait two phrases from the drop of you are not good for me before we press Play on Lola's theme. Then the melody should switch at the right time and we can also do a base switch at the same time. Let's have a listen to this mix and I'll talk you through it. I want to start the truck on the left-hand side a few beats before the drop, cross-fade it all the way over to the left-hand side. Both tracks are synced about 130 bpm. Let's have a listen. [MUSIC] Okay, so remember we've got to wait two phrases before we press Play. [MUSIC] Now press Play on the next phrase. [MUSIC] I will turn the base down on this just for good practice. [MUSIC] Slowly start mixing another track on the right. [MUSIC] That would be my base switch. [MUSIC] We start fading the track on the left. [MUSIC] There you have it. Another mix optimized to keep the audience's attention using the base swap technique with the low-frequency equalizers to avoid any baseline clashes. I'm going to do that mix one more time for you without talking over it so you can have a listen to the mix done properly. [MUSIC] 35. Intermediate Mix 5 - 'Last Night A Dj Is No Good For Me': In this video I'm going to show you how to do the fifth intermediate mix. This time on the left-hand side on deck 1, we have the track Last Night A DJ Saved My Life and on the right-hand side, on deck 2, we have the track You're No Good For Me. Now I've shown you how to mix tracks in slightly earlier towards the end of the tracks by using the base swap technique with the low-frequency equalizers. In this mix I'm going to show you how to mix in the middle of the track using the base swap technique. On the track on the right-hand side You're No Good For Me, we've already analyzed and looked at the start of this track here and worked out what significant signs consist of an intro. As it says here, it's one phrase of percussion and then one phrase of baseline before it goes onto the break with a vocal. On the track on the left-hand side here Last Night A DJ Saved My Life, instead of working out where the significant sounds are at the end of the track, we're going to work out where the significant signs are in the middle of the track. Let's have a listen to the track here from the drop of chorus 1. [MUSIC] We see here from the drop, we have a melody and a baseline so there's no vocals though, it's just melody and baseline. Again just melody and baseline. There's a little bit of vocal that comes in there, but it's not consistent throughout the track. It's not consistent throughout the phrase, it just comes in a little bit. It's still just mainly melody and baseline. From there we can hear the melody go out, and there is a strong vocal in this phrase of the track. Then it goes into break 2. I'm just going to quickly put the markers on this track here and write the phrases in. What I've gone ahead and done here is just put on that first marker there, that is four phrases of baseline and melody so I've not included the vocal because I don't think it's significant enough. To include as a significant sound in that section of the track it only drips in a little bit. Then I've put this one phrase of baseline melody and vocal and that's when the male voice starts to come in and do the vocals and then it goes into break 2. In the middle of this track, on the left-hand side Last Night A DJ Saved My Life, consists of mainly baseline melodies and then some vocals at the end. On the intro on the track on the right-hand side that we want to bring in next, You're No Good For Me, only has baseline at the start of it. If we were to mix these two tracks together in the middle of the track Last Night A DJ Saved My Life, there would be no clashes of vocals or melody and we'd only have to do a base swap with the low-frequency equalizers to avoid any baseline clashes. To make for the most interesting mix, we could time it so that the baseline of You're Not Good For Me comes in over the vocals at the end of Last Night A DJ Saved My Life on the last phrase. Let's time this right, the vocal in the middle of Last Night A DJ Saved My Life comes in after four phrases from the drop of the chorus and the baseline comes in on You're No Good For Me after one phrase from the down beat at the start of that track so to time that right we'd have to wait three phrases from the drop of chorus 1 on Last Night A DJ Saved My Life before we press "Play" on You're Not Good For Me. Then we want to do a base swap when the baseline comes in on the track You're Not Good For Me. Let's have a listen to this mix, and again I'll talk you through it. We're going to put the crossfader all the way over to the left-hand side. Both tracks of beat synced up at 130 BPM. I'm going to press "Play" on the track on the left-hand side a few beats before the drop and then wait three phrases before I press "Play" on the truck on the right-hand side You're Not Good For Me. Let's have a listen. [MUSIC] Let's turn the low-frequency dial down ready on the truck on the right. I'm going to press "Play" at the start of the next phrase. The low-frequency dial is down. I'm solely mixing it in. I'm going to do the base swaps here, we are going to start this next phrase. Start fading the track on the left. There you have it. An early mix in the middle of a track where we avoided any clashes of vocals, melodies, or baselines by using good timing and the base swap technique. Some people may think why would you want to mix out of the middle of the track? This can be a good option to know because sometimes a track might not be going down very well with the audience, or it might be going on too long and get boring. It's good to know that you can mix out of the track early and keep the momentum on the dance floor and keep the attention of the audience. Sometimes you might not want to fully play a track and only want to play a certain section of it. Being able to do these early mixes can help you do that. You don't have to mix out of every track this early and in the middle of the track, but it's just nice to know you can in case you need to. I'm just going to do that mix one more time for you without talking over it so you can have a listen to the mixed properly. [MUSIC] 36. Intermediate Mix 6 - 'Needin' A DJ Saved My Life': In this video, I'm going to show you how to do the sixth intermediate mix. On the left-hand side on Deck 1 this time we've got the track Needin' U and on the right-hand side, on Deck 2, we have the track, Last Night A DJ Saved My Life. On this track on the right-hand side, we're going to be using the introduction of it, and we already have worked out the phrases of this track. It says it has two phrases of percussion followed by one phrase of baseline and one phrase of baseline plus melody. Let's have a quick listen. [MUSIC]. It should be two phrases of percussion, [MUSIC] one phrase of baseline, and then one phrase of melody and baseline. You can hear the melody slowly start to filter in there. [MUSIC] It doesn't come into heavier and it gets louder and louder throughout the phase, [MUSIC] until the vocal comes in on Break 1 there. We're going to mix this track into the middle of the track Needin' U. Now we need to work out where the significant sounds are in the middle of this track. Let's have a listen to this. [MUSIC] When it first drops though we've got baseline and melody, but there's no vocals. Switch on a bit. [MUSIC] Still baseline and melody. [MUSIC] Then we can hear the vocal coming in as well. Right now we got baseline, melody, and vocal all at the same time. [MUSIC] Seems like the baseline drops out a little bit only for a few beats, [MUSIC] and then we're still going to have baseline, melody, and some vocal. [MUSIC] Then here the baseline is dropped too and the melody and vocal slowly starts to fade out. It gets quieter and quieter throughout the phrase. Then we have the start of break to just there as it builds backup again. I'm just going to quickly put the markers on this track and highlight the different significant sounds in them. What I've done here now is just made a note of the phrases in each section. The first section here has two phrases of baseline on melody, and then followed by that we are going to have three phrases of baseline, melody and vocals. I'm going to include this little section here because it is only a few beats, so it doesn't make up a phrase by itself. This whole section here, I've got us three phrases of baseline, melody and vocals. Then for the last phrase here, I've just written that it's one phrase of melody and vocal, but it fades out. The track on the left-hand side, Needin' U consists of baselines, vocals, and melody throughout that chorus until the last phrase, where the baseline drops out and the vocals or melody start to fade out as well. Then the track on the right-hand side, Last Night A DJ Saved My Life, it consists of baseline, a melody, but the melody starts to fade in on the last phrase. If we can time the mix so that the melody and vocals start to fade out on the track Needin'U, and the melody starts to fade in on the track, Last Night A DJ Saved My Life, it should be a good mix without any real clashes of significant sounds because they'll be fading in and out of the phrase. So to turn this mix right, the melody and vocal starts to fade after five phrases from the drop of Needin'U, and the melody starts to fade in three phrases from the downbeats of Last Night A DJ Saved My Life. To turn this mix correctly, we would have to wait two phrases from the drop of Needin'U before we press ''Play'' on Last Night A DJ Saved My Life. Then we can also do a base swap with the low-frequency equalizers when the baseline comes in on the track Last Night A DJ Saved My Life, so there's no clashes of baselines. Let's give that mix listen and I'll talk you through it. We're going to start the track here Needin'U a few beats before the drop of the chorus, the cross fader all the way over to the left-hand side. Both tracks are beats synced up at 130 BPM. I'm going to wait two phrases from the drop before we press ''Play'' on Last Night A DJ Saved My Life. Let's do it. [MUSIC] I'm going to have just set the low frequency dial down, ready on track 2 [MUSIC], and I'm going to press ''Play'' at the start of this phrase. [MUSIC] [inaudible] bring this track here [MUSIC] and then switch the baselines. Just stay at the start of this phrase. [MUSIC] There you have it. Even though there was some overlap of melodies at the start of the last phrase, because they were fading out and fading in naturally, they didn't clash too much and the mix still sounded good. So there's another way we can mix in, early, in the middle of the track by timing our mixes, so there are no clashes of significant sounds, and using the base swap technique with the low-frequency equalizers. I'm just going to do that mix one more time for you without talking over so you can have a listen to the mix fully. [MUSIC] 37. Intermediate Mix 7 - 'You're No Good Music Sounds Better': In this video, I'm going to show you how to do the seventh intermediate mix. On the track on the left-hand side on Deck 1, we have this time, You're No Good For Me, and on the right-hand side on Deck 2, we have the track, Music Sounds Better. On the track on the right-hand side we've already analyzed the start of the track and highlighted what significant sounds it has at the intro. It says here that it's four phrases of percussion, so we're just going to have a quick listen on this and check it. [MUSIC] That's just simple percussion. It should be two phrases until the kick drum comes in. Still no baseline, still just the kick drum and simple percussion for four phrases all the way up until that first break. We're going to mix this track into the middle of You're No Good For Me. What we need to do now is work out where the significant sounds are in the middle of the track, You're No Good For Me, so let's have listen to the chorus and the drop here. [MUSIC] When it first drops, it's got just the baseline there. Then a bit of melody in those which it's got baseline and melody and that seems consistent all the way through that chorus, so it's just baseline and then free phases of baseline and melody and so it's got a break too. I'm just going to highlight this section here now with the markers and put the phrases in. On the track here on the left, I've just gone ahead and pots that this first marker here is one phrase of baseline and then after one phrase it goes into three phrases of baseline and melody until the end of the chorus and start a break too. Altogether this is four phrases in the middle of the track, one phrase of baseline and three phrases of baseline of melody. With the track on the left-hand side, You're No Good For Me, consists of baseline and melody in the middle, and the track on the right-hand side, Music Sounds Better, consists only of percussion until the first break. There won't be any clashes of significant sounds to worry about throughout the mix and to me this an interesting mix, we can time it so that the chorus ends on You're No Good For Me, and the break starts on the track, Music Sounds Better. As the chorus of You're No Good For Me, consists of four phrases in total and the intro of, Music Sounds Better, consists of four phrases in total as well. To time this mix, right, we just need to press play on the track, Music Sounds Better, on the drop of the chorus of, You're No Good For Me, and the chorus should end on You're No Good For Me at the same time as Music Sounds Better, break starts. As the track coming in is only percussion we also won't need to do a base swap in the mix. We can just let it run until the end of the mix and just stop the track, You're No Good For Me, at the end or fade out quickly over four beats just before the end of the mix, because it is a pretty simple mix, and it's just a case of waiting for the timing to be right. To make it a bit more interesting, we're going to beat juggle the track in and leave the volume fader up throughout the mix and then this mix what I'm going to do is fed the track out quickly over the four beats just before the end of the mix. Let's have a listen to this and we'll talk you through it. Both tracks will sync to about 130 bpm. We've got the track on the left-hand side a few beats before the drop and we're going to have the cross fader in the center this time because we're going to beat juggle the tracking on the right. If you can grab that first beat on this track. [MUSIC] If you're mixing live, you've been doing this in your headphones, getting it ready with the cross fader over to the left. [MUSIC] Getting that first beat ready in your headphones and then we're going to press play on the track on the left-hand side and beat juggle in. [MUSIC] Both volumes are full here. But because it's simple percussion it doesn't have that much of an impact on the track. [MUSIC] Like you wanted to here you could put the base slightly there just so that kick drum doesn't have much of an impact, but it's still just simple percussion. All we need to do now is get ready to move this across four beats before the end for a smooth transition. [MUSIC] That's another way that you can mix in the middle of the track using a track that comes in and goes straight into a break. We also used a little bit of beat juggling to get the tracking and in time at the start of the drop. But throughout the mix there was no clashes of any significant signs. The track coming in was just percussion until that first break, so it's quite a simple mix, but still very effective. I'm just going to do that mix again for you one more time without me talking over it so you can just listen to the mix. [MUSIC] 38. Intermediate Mix 8 - 'Are You Out Of My Mind': In this video, I'm going to show you how to do the eighth intermediate mix. This time over on Deck 1, we have the track, Are You With Me and over on Deck 2, we have the track, Out Of My Mind. We're going to mix the track, Out Of My Mind on Deck 2 into the track, Are You With Me on Deck 1? The interesting thing about the track, Out Of My Mind is it doesn't have any precaution at the start of the track. Let's have a listen and see what it sounds like at the start. [MUSIC] As you can hear there it goes straight into melody at the start of the track. There's no baseline, percussion, vocals, just a melody on its own. [MUSIC] Then it goes into vocals, melody, and baseline altogether as a breakdown ready to build up for the chorus. At the start of this track, I'm just going to put a marker to describe what's at the start of the track, which is basically just going to be one phrase of melody. What I've done there is just put a marker at the start of the track saying one phrase of melody until it goes into the baseline vocals and melody altogether. As we have mentioned previously, not all tracks are made with the same structure and as we can hear, this track is an example of that, as it has no percussion at the start of the track, the track just starts off straight away with melody on its own. Also, as we've previously mentioned, our jobs as a DJ is to keep the attention of the audience and keep them entertained by selecting good tracks to play, and making a smooth transition between them tracks. If this track on the right, Out Of My Mind has no percussion at the start, we have to make do with what we have and try our best to make the smoothest transition possible with this track that will also keep the attention of the audience. What we need to do now is work out where the significant sounds are in the track, Are You With Me to see where the best place is where we can do the mix. I'm quickly going to have a listen to the end of this track here on the left Are You With Me and work out where the significant sounds are in this track. I'm going to put it just before the drop-off Chorus 2. [MUSIC] As you can hear though is baseline and melodies. [MUSIC] That continues. [MUSIC] As you can hear though, the track starts to fade out. The melody gets less significant and, slowly starts to fade out in the track, still with a bit of baseline in there, until the melody has completely faded out. Then the baseline ends up leaving just percussion. That's pretty much all the way to the end of the track. What I'm going to do is quickly work out the phrases of the end of that track and put markers on the track so we can see. What I've done there on the track on the left, I put a marker on the drop, of Chorus 2 which says three phrases of baseline on melody. That's the main parts of the chorus. Then from here on the second marker, it has two phrases of baseline of melody. But the melody fades out. I'll just put there on the marker that it fades out over them two phrases. Then after that there's two phrases of percussion at the end of the track. We now know that the track on the left, Are You With Me mainly consists of baseline a melody at the end of the track, but they also start to fade out after three phrases. The track on the right, Out Of My Mind only consists of melody at the start for one phrase, which means the only significant sounds we have to worry about clashing when mixing is the melodies. We have a couple of options, how we can mix these two tracks together. Neither options are going to be wrong. They will be up to each DJs individual preference on which they think sounds better. You can time it so that when the baseline and melody completely fade out of the track, Are You With Me that the vocals and baseline come in on the track, Out Of My Mind. It's the time that makes right, the baseline and melody completely fades out on the track, Are You With Me, five phrases from the drop. The vocals and baseline come in on the track Out Of My Mind after one phrase from the downbeat. One way to turn this right is we could wait four phrases from the drop of, Are You With Me before we press "Play" on the track Out Of My Mind that even though the track on Deck 2, Out Of My Mind has melody at the start because the melody is fading out on the track on the Deck 1, Are You With Me, they shouldn't clash. Let's have a listen to that mix and see what it sounds like. You have the track on the left, Are You With Me a few beats before the drop. Across fader all the way over to the left-hand side, and both tracks are being synced up at 130 BPM. I want to wait four phrases from the drop, Are You With Me and then press "Play" on the track Out Of My Mind and do the transition. [MUSIC] So far that mix, as you've seen, I didn't use any of the low-frequency equalizers. This is because there wasn't a transition of the baselines or a base swap as the track Out Of My Mind doesn't have any baseline at the start of it and that makes this technically correct. There were no clashes of significant sounds and it would keep the attention of the audience. However, I personally think it could still be improved. I would actually mix it one phrase earlier and press "Play" on the track Out Of My Mind. As soon as the melody starts to fade out and then mix it out from there, if you slowly bring the cross fader across as you are mixing, there shouldn't be too much of a clash between the two melodies as the melody from the track Are You With Me, should start fading out naturally and the mixture still sound good and hold the attention of the audience a little better than the previous mix. This time we're going to do the mix again, but press "Play" on the track, Out Of My Mind, one phrase earlier, as soon as the melody and baseline starts to fade out on the track Are You With Me. Let's have a listen to that mix. [MUSIC] That makes for me that would keep the audience's attention a little better as it transitions from one track to the other a little faster, but still doesn't have any significant sounds clashing. But both ways of fixing them two tracks then are both technically correct and just opt to each DJs preference. Now what I'm going to do is quickly show you two ways where you can mix the start of the track Out Of My Mind into the middle of the track Are You With Me. What we will need to do is work out what are the significant sounds are in the middle of the track, Are You With Me. I'm just going to put the track just before the drop of Chorus 1 and have a listen to this. [MUSIC] Slightly away from the start though, we'll just has melody and baseline. [MUSIC] That's the same all the way up until the end of Chorus 1, where it naturally fades out at the end of Chorus 1. I'm quickly going to put the markers on this track in the middle. What I've done there for Chorus 1 is I've just put my marker at the start. What Chorus 1 consists of is only two phrases of baseline, a melody, and then it drops down and naturally fades out into the break tone, Now the melody is too strong during the course of Are You With Me to play the melody at the start of, Out Of My Mind over the top of it and do a mix that way. Let's quickly have a listen to that. I'm just going to flick it into the middle of the Chorus 1 and play both tracks over each other. You should be able to hear that the melodies clash. [MUSIC] For me that is too much of a clash of melodies and that wouldn't sound good to the audience. It's not at the end of the track where it slowly starts to fade out. The melody is in full force in the middle of that Chorus 1. What I'm going to do now is show you a technique called drop mixing. Drop mixing is simply why you just drop the next track in without really doing a proper transition or mix is basically just pressing play on the track you want to bring in next, and at the same time, simply stopping the track you want to mix out or quickly fading it out. Now this can be a rather common technique to use when a track has no percussion or in the intro, which means you cannot do a normal transition. It's not the most technical mix nor the most fun mix to do, but it can still be effective. If it's the best option to do a smooth transition between the two tracks and keep the audience's attention, it has to be done. With this mix what I'm going to do is when Chorus 1 ends on the track, Are You With Me. The track naturally fades out and I'm basically just going to press "Play" on the track Out Of My Mind at the same time. Let's have a listen to that mix. I'm just going to start the track Are You With Me halfway through Chorus 1. [MUSIC] The chorus fade is going to be in the center. [MUSIC] As you could hear that, I simply just dropped in the track, Out Of My Mind at the end of Chorus 1. Again, it's not the most technical mix, but it can be effective and the best option to use when you have no percussion at the start to mix with, the audience is expecting a breakdown of the track anyway. You effectively just swap in one tracks break down, but then other tracks breakdown. Another option could be to drop mix the vocals and baseline of the track Out Of My Mind straight and after Chorus 1 of Are You With Me. What I'm going to do is set a Q-point at the start of the vocals and baseline of the track, Out Of My Mind. I'm quickly going to jump forward 32 beats from the downbeat. I'll set a Q-point here. This time, press "Play" at that point in the track when Chorus 1 ends on Are You With Me. Let's have a listen to that mix. [MUSIC] There you have it. There are four ways you can mix the track Out Of My Mind that has no percussion at the start of the track. With these types of tracks, we have to try our best to avoid any clashes of significant sounds and to make the smoothest transition possible to best keep the audience's attention. 39. Mixing In Key: In this video, I'm going to show you what mixing in keys and how you can use it when DJing. When we first started the course, I asked you to put the key column on your library, just like this one here and also when you analyze your tracks to have the key box selected also. This is the video where I'm going to explain to you what it is for and how can use the key of a track in record box as standard. The software analyzes the key of the track in classic format, which is what you can see here. But this is not the format we want our key to be in and we need to change this. What we need to do is go over to settings and then go to the top view, and then scroll down until you find the section called key display format. Then from here, from the key display format, we need to change it from classic to alphanumeric and then exit settings. As you can see now, the key format has changed. They should now put your key of your tracks as a number and a letter. In Serato as standard, it should analyze the key of the track in the Camelot format, which is the one we want. Just as you can see this one here, it's in a number and a letter format. If you are using Serato, you shouldn't have to change anything of your settings, but just in case you do or you want to check, you can go to the settings and then over to library and display and just in the bottom left of the section of display here, you'll see short key as and we want the selection of Camelot just hear. These numbers and letters represent the key of the track in a way that makes it easier for us to understand and easier for us to mix tracks together that are in the same or similar key. If you mix two tracks together that are in the same or similar key, they are going to sound a lot better together. This is called harmonic mixing. This was first developed by a company called Mixed In Key and they invented this diagram called the Camelot system or Camelot wheel. You can get this image in the resources of the course to use it for your mixing. But it is a fairly easy system to follow without. How it works is to keep your tracks mixing in the same or similar key and to do harmonic mixing, you can use that one up, one down, one across method. We're going to just use another diagram to show this. For example, if your track is in the key of 8A, so just here A minor, you should be able to go one up to 8B on the scale, or one across from it to either 9A or 7A. This will keep the tracks harmonically sound and keep the tracks mixing in a similar key. By using this method, you can mix through your tracks by working around the Camelot wheel to keep your full DJ set harmonically sound and every mix you do in key. You also don't have to move to another key when you do a mix. You can also stay in the exact same key. For example, you can mix a track with a key of 8A with another track of a key of 8A and there'll be perfectly harmonically sound. To give you an example of how you can use the Camelot wheel or the Camelot system, if you had a track and you started off your set in the key of 1A, the next track you play and mix into, could be of the key of 2A, and that mix will be harmonically sound. Then from 2A, you can go to 2B, and then the next track after that you could go to 3B and then from the track 3B, you can go to 3A and you can even work back again. You can go from 3A back to 2A to 1A to 12A to 12B to 11B across, and then down to 11A and each one of them mixes and each track will be harmonically sound and you'll be mixing in key for each mix. What we can do to make this even easier for us is on the key column on our library, we can arrange our tracks in key order by clicking the key box at the top of the column, just like we can do with the BPM column. If I click this box here where it says key, it's going to arrange my tracks in ascending or descending order according to the key of the track. As you can see that it works from the highest number down to the lowest number. This will make it easier to select tracks of the same or similar key. For example, here the track Video Games is at 11A. The track above and below it is also at 11A. It makes it easier to find and select tracks of the similar key. As well as moving around the Camelot, while enjoying your set, you can arrange your library in key order and just work through your tracks that way. Now in my opinion, mixing in key is great and it does make for some really good sounding mixes. However, I very rarely use this method when I am DJing live. This is because I believe that track selection and the timing of your mixes to keep the audience's attention is more important than actually mixing harmonically in key. I'm not saying you should avoid using the harmonic mixing option. If your tracks are in key, then great. But generally, your audience you are DJing to when you are performing live is not going to notice if your tracks are mixed perfectly, harmonically in key with each other or not. They would generally be more concerned with what tracks you are actually playing. For that reason, I wouldn't let mixing the tracks harmonically in key get in the way of my track selection during my set. But that being said, there are times where I would try and mix my tracks harmonically in key and use the Camelot system. The first one would be when I am doing a recorded mix to post for people to listen to online. The second one would be when I am doing a more advanced mixing techniques such as mashups, which is exactly what we're going to do in the next couple of mixes and why I've left this video to explain about mixing in key until now. Let's move on to the next mixes and use this technique of mixing in key to its full effect. 40. Intermediate Mix 9 - 'Insomnia Jump': In this video, I'm going to show you how to do the ninth intermediate mix. This time on Deck 1, on the left-hand side, we have the track insomnia, and on the right-hand side, on Deck 2, we have the track jump. So the mix that we're going to do with these two tracks is called a drop swap. A drop swap is when you swap the drop of one track with the drop of another track, for example, let's have a listen to the drop of the track insomnia. [MUSIC] So as we know, the drop is the first beat of the chorus. What we're going to do from that drop of that track insomnia, we're going to swap it and played the drop of the track jump, which sounds like this. [MUSIC] This can make for an exciting mix, especially if they are two tracks that are well-known, it can make for a good surprise for the audience and catch them off guard with a different drop and make the mix more exciting for them. They will still be expecting the drop of a track, but I'll just be a slightly different drop. So to be able to do this mix, we don't really have to find it where the significant sounds are in the truck. All we need to do is time the two tracks together so that they are due to drop at the same time. Just before they're going to drop, we switch from one track to the other. Now this is where the mixing and key parts is important and comes into play. If the drop of one track was to replace the drop of the other track and they were in completely different keys, it will be too much of a difference or not. So in grades. So when doing a drop swap mics is best to do it with harmonically soundtracks. So I'm just going to move the screen up here so you can see the library. So as you can see here, the track on the left-hand side, insomnia, is that the key of 10a on the track on the right-hand side jump is at the key of 9a. So according to the commonwealth system, these should be harmonically same because the key of 9a is just below the key of 10a. These two keys are next to each other on the common law system. So one way to time these two tracks together is to set hot cues, one phrase before the drop of each track. So what I'm going to do on the track Insomnia is just put the play head on the drop of the track. Then from here I'm going to use the beat jump function to jump back 32 beats, which is a phrase. Then I'm going to set hot cue marker just here so I know that's one phrase before the drop. And then I'm going to do the same with the track jump. Find the drop of color as one. Use beat, jump to jump 32 beats back, which is one phrase. Then set a hot cue marker just here. So I know that's one phrase before the drop of this track. Then as Insomnia is playing, when it gets to this point, I'm also going to press play on the track jump. So these two tracks time together and the drops of the tracks should happen at the same time. There are two ways in which we can transition between the tracks during the mix. We can do it gradually over the phrase, or we can do it quickly for beats before the drop. Also for this mix, we're going to use the filter dials instead of the cross fader to add more of a filter effect to the mix. So let's have a listen to this mix and I'll talk you through it. So I'm going to put the track insomnia halfway through its break, giving it plenty of time to build up. Then on the track jump, I'm going to have the key point is set at that hot cue. So I know that's one phrase before the drop. Now instead of putting the cross fader all the way over to the left-hand side, I'm going to put the cross fader in the center. I'm going to turn the filter dial all the way over to the right-hand side, to the high pass filter side. So now if I was to press play on the track on the right-hand side, you'll hear that it only has the high frequency sounds and it's eliminated all the low-frequency sounds from the track. [MUSIC] Then as we fade it in, we're going to slowly turn the filter dial up until it's ready to draw. [MUSIC] I'm going to bring the filter dial gradually over the face until the last second, and then swap the cross fader across all the way over to the right-hand side. So let's have a listen to that mix. [MUSIC] So that is one way of doing the drop swap mix. And this time we're going to do it one more time. But this time we're going to bring the filter dial in on the track jump just four beats before the drop. So it's going to be a very quick transition. Let's have a listen to that mix. So let's turn the filter dial down all the way down on the right-hand side to the high pass filter and press, "Play" on the track on insomnia halfway through the break. [MUSIC] So there you have it. That is how you do it drops swap mix. You replace the drop of one track with the drop of another track. You can do this by timing both tracks, one phrase before they are due to drop and switching them at the last second. But remember, when doing a drop swap mix, it's best to make sure the tracks are harmonically sound and are mixing in key using the common law system so that when the other drop comes in, it doesn't sound too different and it still sounds good to the audience. 41. Intermediate Mix 10 - 'Video Utopia': In this video, I'm going to show you how to do the 10th intermediate mix. This time on the track, on the left hand side, we have the track video games and the track on the right hand side on Deck 2, we have the track utopia. For this mix, we're going to do another drop swap mix. As we know for this mix, we don't have to work out where the significant sounds are throughout the track. We just have to work out where one phrase is from the drop of each track and set a hot cue marker there so then both tracks drops at the same time and we also need to make sure that both tracks are harmonically sound according to the Camelot system. We're just going to have a look at the library here. As we can see, the track utopia, which is on the right-hand side, is a key of 11A and the track video games, which is on the left-hand side, is also at the key of 11A. These should be perfectly harmonically sound. You can also check this by looking under the title of the track here, it should say 11A and the same on the other side. We're going to have a listen to the drop of video games and then jump back 32 beats one phrase from the drop and set a hot cue there [MUSIC] That's what the drop of that track sounds like. Let's find the first beat of the chorus. Use the beat jump function to jump back one phrase and then set a hot cue marker there so let's have a listen to the drop of utopia [MUSIC] That's what the drop of utopia sounds like. We're going to find the drop of it. Use the beat jump function to jump back one phrase and set a hot cue marker just here. We can also set the cue point here on this track because this is where we're going to be pressing play. Again, for this mix, we're going to use the high-pass filter on the filter delta to mix him. Firstly, I'm going to gradually fade in the high pass filter over one phrase and then I'm going to do the mix again. I mix the track utopia in four beats before the drop so we're going to start the track video games in the middle of the break. Cross fader is in the center we're going to turn the filter dial all the way over to the high-pass filter side. Both tracks or beats linked up at 130 BPM and let's do the mix [MUSIC] I'm going to do that mix one more time but this time we're going to bring that filter in a lot quicker with four beats before the drop. I'm going to start the track. Video games in the middle of the break, cross fader in the center, filter dial all the way over onto the high-pass filter side. The track utopia is set 32 beats before the drop and let's do it [MUSIC] There you have it. Another drop swap mix, where we replace the drop of one track with a drop of another track. We time the tracks together, one phrase before each drop so they time correctly and we also make sure that both tracks harmonically sound using the Camelot system so there's no difference in key when you do the drop swap mix. 42. Sampler: In this video, I'm going to show you how to setup and use your sampler. The sampler is a place you can put different sound FX or short samples of sound that you can quickly trigger and play over your tracks when you're DJing. This can include things such as a horn sound FX, a siren sound FX, a crush sound FX, or even a sharp vocal sample. In the DJ music pack that you get free with this course, I've included a few sound FX and samples that we can put in our sampler and use. If you arrange the deejay music pack in the library to ascend in BPM order. So if you go to the tab that says BPM, at the top of the library, and click that so it's in ascending order, all the samples will be at zero BPM. This is because they do not have a consistent beat and they are just one-off hits of sound. Now, if we go to the top of record box, there is a tab made up of a lots of small squares. If we click this, it will open up the sampler bank where we can store our samples and sound FX. You can put whichever sound FX you want in whichever sample bank you want. What I'm going to do for this video is put the sample of the Longhorn sound FX in the first sampler bank, then put the siren sound effects in the second sampler bank, and then put the lets go vocal sample in the third sampler bank, and then put the boom fade out sound effects on the last sampler bank. On most DJ controllers, you'll now have a sampler option on your performance parts. When this option is selected and you press the corresponding performance path to the sampler bank, it will play that sound. For example, if I press the first performance pad now, it should play the first sampler bank sound. [MUSIC] That's the same with the second performance part, [MUSIC] and the third, and the fourth. [MUSIC] Most DJ controllers now will also have a sampler volume. This is so you can independently change the volume of the sampler so it doesn't sound too loud or too quiet over the tracks that you are playing. If you do not have a volume control on the sampler on your deejay controller, you can also do it here on the software by increasing or decreasing the volume here. If you do not have a sampler option on the performance pads on your DJ controller, you can still use the sampler bank. You can use the keys on your laptop instead to trigger the sound effects. If you go over to the settings, cog in the top right-hand corner, and then go to the keyboard tab on the top, and then find the option of sampler and click the plus button, here you can assign a key on your keyboard to trigger the sampler bank on the software. As you can see here, it says Playback slot 1, and this is assigned to the X button on the keyboard. You can also change this key if you want to right-click it and click Change, you can change whatever key on the keypad you want to assign to that playback slot. Now, if I leave it as the key X on the keypad and I exit the settings, and now if I press the X on my keyboard, [MUSIC] it's going to trigger that sampler bank. My experience with these kind of side-effects are good and it can help bring more energy to your DJ sets, but using them in the right way is key. I'd recommend not to get over-excited and use them all the time. If you overuse them, it can actually make your set sound worse. Using them sparingly and only ever so often I feel is best. Let's do a mix and use these new samples and see how they sound. So far this mix, we're going to use the same tracks under the same drop mix as the previous video. On the left side, on Deck 1, we have the track video games, and on the right-hand side, on Deck 2, we have the track utopia. I'm going to put the track video games in the middle of the Break 1 and get the track utopia ready 32 beats, one phrase before the drop. [MUSIC] I'm going to beat sink both tracks up. [NOISE] Keep the cross fader in the center and turn the filter dial all the way over to the high-pass filter. Then just before the drops, what happens? I'm going to hit a sound effects and see how it sounds. Let's do it. [MUSIC] There you have it. That's how you can set up your sampler and use it when DJing. 43. Intro - Advanced Mixing: Welcome to the next section of the course, advanced mixing techniques. In this section of the course, I will show you how to do advanced mixes by using the hot cues, loops and effects. This section includes 12 guided mixed tutorials that you can mix along with yourself. I'll also show you how to use the hot cues, loops and sound effects when deejaying. Let's dive into it and I'll see you in the next video. 44. Hot Cues: In this video, I'm going to show you what hot cues are and how they can be used when deejaying. We have already been using the hot cues throughout the course but we have only been using them as visual markers to help us with our phrases when timing our mixes. This isn't actually the main purpose of a hot cue. Hot cues are actually used to set markers at certain points in the track and when the hot cue is triggered, the track will automatically play it from that point. For example, if I press Play on the track on the right. The track on the right I have the track Calabria just for example, I'm going to press Play, [MUSIC] and then I'm going to press hot cues throughout the track. Hot Cue 1, Hot Cue 2, Hot Cue 3, Hot Cue 4. Now if I go back to press Hot Cue 1, it will play the track from that point, same with Hot Cue 2, Hot Cue 3, and Hot Cue 4. So every time I press one of these hot cues the track will start playing from that point. To be able to delete these hot cues you should have a Shift button. If you hold the Shift button down and press the hot cues, it should delete them. But when we are using the hot cues we don't just want to use them randomly, like in that example. We want to use them in a way that goes with the flow of the track and use them in a way that the audience will be already expecting a change in the track. As we know, significant changes happen in a track at the start of a new phrase where songs can be added or subtracted from the track. This is one place in which we can trigger and use the hot cues at the start of a new phrase. We can set hot cues at the start of certain phrases or sections of the track and jump to them when the audience will already be expecting a change in the track. But we can take them to a different section than what was going to play. So for example here, on the track on the right Calabria, I want to set some hot cues throughout the track where we can jump to. I'm going to set a hot cue at the very start of the first break. [MUSIC] Then I'm going to set a hot cue one phrase before the drop of Chorus 1. [MUSIC] Then next I'm going to set a hot cue on the drop of Chorus 2. Then I'm going to set a hot cue after one phrase at the drop of Chorus 1. Then I'm going to set a hot cue at the start of Break 2. Then I'm going to set a hot cue one phrase before the drop of Chorus 2. Then set a hot cue two phrases after the drop of Chorus 2. Then set the last hot cue at the start of the outro. All these hot cues may seem random but what I'm going to do is press each hot cue in order every 32 beats so it jumps throughout the track. Because each one is at the start of a new phrase, it should still fit well with the timing of the track. This is all just for an example, so you don't actually have to go ahead and join along with this. This is not necessarily a way I would use this when deejaying, it's just an example to show you how the hot cues can be used. Now, before we do the example and start using these hot cues to jump throughout the track, we need to make sure we have our quantize set up correctly. Quantize is like beat sync for hot cues and loops. Quantize makes sure that when you are using your hot cues and loops the track still stay in time with the beat grid. Because when we're pressing our hot cues and loops, we'll not always be perfectly in time with the track and what quantize will do will make sure that the track is still in time and doesn't sound out of time. What we'll need to do is go to Settings and then the Controller tab at the top, and then the tab that says Others. From here you'll have the option to edit your quantize function. In each one of these drop-down boxes here, we will want the number one selected which is one beat. Some of these may be set as standard as half a beat or quarter a beat. We want to make sure that each one of these boxes selected is at the number one for one beat and all set to enable. Once that's done you can exit the settings. Now to make sure the quantize is activated, there's a little letter Q on each deck on the software just next to the circle. So there's a letter Q there and a letter Q here. If this is red, this means that the quantize is activated and it will keep the hot cues and loops in time with the beat that you set it to which we have just set to one beat in the settings. This means that no matter how fast or when we press the hot cues, it will always stay in time with the beat. For example, I've just quickly drag the track up on the left-hand side right on time and I'm going to set a hot cue on one of the first beats. [MUSIC] With quantize on, I can press the hot cue as fast as I want and it still won't go any faster than one beat and we'll stay in time with the beat of the track. So let's have a listen. [MUSIC] I'm pressing that as fast as I can. If I was to take quantize off and deactivate it, if I was to press the hot cue as fast as I can, it will go to how fast I press the hot cue. [MUSIC] But once again, if I activate the quantize it will stay in time with the track and in time with the beat grid no matter how fast I press the hot cue button. [MUSIC] Whenever you are using your hot cues and loops it is important to have this activated at all times to keep your tracking time with the beat grid. If you are in Serato, to make sure this is all set up correctly, you can go to your Settings, DJ Preferences, and then to the option where it says Quantize Value and have it set to one beat. To make sure your quantize is activated, over in the top left-hand corner of the screen there should be a button with a Q in it. When it is blue, this means that the quantize is activated. Now we have our quantize set up, we can jump through this track using the hot cues. As I mentioned, I'm going to press each hot cue in order every 32 beats. Let's have a listen to this. [MUSIC] So there you have it. There's a quick example and demonstration of how you can use your hot cues to jump forwards and backwards throughout the track while still keeping it predictable for the audience but playing different sections and phrases of the track at different times. In this section of the course, we are now going to be doing some advanced mixing, I'm going to show you several different ways in which you can use the hot cues effectively to be more creative when mixing and deejaying. 45. Loops: In this video, I'm going to show you what loops are and how to set them when deejaying. Most DJ controllers now, will have an auto beat loop setting. When auto beat loop is activated, it will continuously loop and play the amount of beats you have selected at that point in the track until you deactivate and exit the loop. Some DJ controllers will have the option to use the auto beat loop function on the performance parts and some will have a separate section like on my DJ controller here. If you have the auto beat loop function on your performance pads, each part will generally correspond to the number of beats you want to loop. For example if I go to the performance pads section here on the DJ software and on the drop-down tab, I select ''Beat Loop'', your performance parts may have something similar to this, where the first part we'll set a quarter of a beat loop, the second part we'll set a half beat loop, the third pad we'll set a one beat loop and the fourth part we'll set it two beat loop and so on. If I press "Play" on this track now, [MUSIC] then press the public corresponds with the number two for the two beat loop. The tracker keep looping two beats over and over again until I exit the loop. You can also move through the loops. If I press to the four [inaudible] , it'll loop four beats. Then the eight will do eight beats, [MUSIC] and then the 16, we'll do 16 beats, and 32 will do 32 beats. Then you just have to exit the loop for the track to continue playing. On this DJ controller, I have to select the amount of beats I want to loop beforehand and then activate the beat loop. For example, if I press "Play" on this track now, [MUSIC] I first have to select how many beats I want to loop so I can select four beats. Then when I'm ready, activate the auto beat loop function. The chat will continue to look that amount of beat until I exit it. I can move up and the amount of beats I want to loop to eight or 16, and also down. Using the arrows up and down on my Auto beat Loop section. There is going to exit the beat boot. Each DJ controller can be different to how they're set loops, but each DJ controller will have an auto beat loop function somewhere on it. It may be a good idea to now find out where your auto beat loop function is on your DJ controller and how to use it and then get a little more familiar with it for this next section of the course, as mentioned in the previous video. When using the auto beat loop function, we want to make sure we have quantized activated. This will make sure all of our loops are snapped in time the beat grid when using it. On the DJ software, there should be a little cue next to the circle with a BPMN. When this is red, that means the quantize is activated. For this example, I'm just going to turn quantize off, zoom in slightly so you can see the beats a little better, and then I went to press "Play" on this track. [MUSIC] That's an also beat loop with quantize off. As you can see though, it's not snap the auto beat loop to the beat grid. Now if I was to exit this loop, turn quantize on and do the same thing. [MUSIC] Quantize will automatically snap that loop to the beat grid. This is why it's important when using the auto beat loop function to have the Quantize activated. Along with the auto beat loop, you also have the manual beat loop on your DJ controller. You will have two buttons that say in and out. This is when you can set loops manually to how long you want the loop to be when the track is playing. The In button sets where the start of the loop will be and the Out button will set where the end of the loop will be. For example if I press "Play" on this track, [MUSIC] then I press the "In" button, it will set where the start of the loop will be. Then when I press the "Out" button, it'll set where the end of the loop will be. Now just to exit the loop, just have to deactivate the loop and exit. I very rarely used the manual beat loop. I mainly only use the auto beat loop as I find it easier and faster to use with this same result. Just like with hot cues, we don't want to just be setting loops randomly. That was sewn off to the audience, just like the examples we've been using. Then we want to use the loops in time with the tracks natural timing and structure. For example if I flip forward in this track here slightly, [MUSIC] I'm just going to set auto beat loop randomly. [MUSIC] As you can hear that, that loop is not in time with then tracks natural structure. As you can hear, the loop is set of the start of a new phrase. What we can do is set the loop in time with the tracks natural structure. For example, [MUSIC] and if that loop was to keep playing to the audience, it wouldn't sound too bad to them as it is in time with a tracks natural structure and timing. In this section of the course, where we are now going to do some advanced mixing, I'm going to show you several different ways in which you can use the loops effectively to be more creative when mixing and deejaying. 46. Advanced Mix 1 - 32 Beat Loop Intro : In this video, I'm going to show you how to use a 32 Beat Loop as an intro. This is a mixing technique that I have come up with myself that I use on pretty much all my tracks when I am DJing. It is one of the most practical ways that I have found to use the loop function when mixing two tracks together. It helps me always have perfectly timed mixes, no matter what track I'm mixing in with next. I'm going to give you a few examples now of how to use the 32 beat loop as an intro and how it can always help you time your mixes perfectly. So far this first example, on the left-hand side on Deck 1, we have the track, Last Night A DJ Saved My Life. On the track on the right-hand side, we have Lola's Theme on Deck 2, so just having a quick look at the end of the track Last Night DJ Saved My Life. We have two phrases of bass line and melody and then two phrases of bass line and melody and vocals, and then one phrase of bass line and melody, where the melody slowly starts to fade out, and then one phrase of percussion. So let's just quickly have a listen to that so you understand the end of the track. [MUSIC] So there we just have bass line and melody. I never go into bass line melody and a little bit of vocal. Then after the red marker, we just have one bass line and melody and it slowly starts to fade out at the melody as you can hear there. And then it goes into one phrase and percussion, and the atrial beats. I just wanted to give you a quick listen to the end of that track there. As we're going to see here on the track, Lola's Theme is two phrases of precaution, and then two phrases of bass line and melody it. So we'll just quickly listen to the transition of that where it goes into the bass line and melody. [MUSIC] So it's two phrases percussion and then the bass line and melody comes in. So far this makes the sound good. We can time it saw that when the bass line and melody ends on the track Last Night DJ Saved My Life, the bass line and melody will begin on the track Lola's Theme. So the bass line and melody ends on the track Last Night A DJ Saved My Life after five phrases from the drop and the bass line and melody starts on the track Lola's Theme, two phrases from the downbeat. So it's a time this mixed perfectly. We would have to wait three phrases from the drop of the track Last Night A DJ Saved My Life and then press play on the truck, Lola's Theme. However, instead of having to wait for three phrases to press play and time the mix that way, another way to tie in these two tracks together perfectly is to set a 32 beat loop just before the bass line and melody comes in on the track Lola's Theme and use that loop as the intro of the track. So for example what I'm going to do here on the track Lola's Theme, is delete this first marker that says two phrases or percussion. I'm going to put the play head just at the start of where the bass line and melody comes in. [MUSIC] Then using the beat jump function, I'm going to jump back 32 beats, which is one phrase. Just like we would do on the drops what makes technique? But this time instead of setting a hot Q, I'm going to set a 32 beat loop at this point. As you can see there now the 32 beats are highlighted in orange. What we're going to do, just like how we set a hot Q, I'm going to press the performance parts to save this loop. So now if I was to press that first performance part where the loop is saved, it will start and activate that loop. [MUSIC] As we now know, when activated, a loop will continue to play until we deactivate it. We can make the loop play for 1 phrase, 2 phrases, 3 phrases, 4 phrases, and so on. It is completely up to us because we control how long the loop will play for. So what we have done is we have effectively created an intro in which we can control the length of. This means we can now start the loop on Lola's Theme, straight away from the drop of Last Night A DJ Saved My Life and then just exit the loop when the time is right to do the transition between the two tracks. So I'll do the mix now and show you how this can be used. So I'm going to put the track Last Night DJ Saved My Life a few beats before the drop. Put the crossfader all the way over to the left-hand side. Both tracks a beat syncs up at 130 BPM. As soon as the track Last Night A DJ Saved My Life drops, I'm going to stop the loop on Lola's Theme straight away. Then when the time is right, exit the loop and transition between the two tracks. Let's have a listen. [MUSIC] So now as you can see there, the loop is running in the background on Lola's Theme. Then what I can do over the next place, it slowly starts transitioning over. So now I can start bringing the crossfader across and exit the loop so it doesn't repeat again. Now the two tracks have timed perfectly. That is one example of how you can use a 32 beat loop as an intro to time your mix perfectly. This technique can be used instead of you having to wait a certain amount of phrases before you can press play on the next track coming in. You can start the track straight away on the drop every time and loop it as many times as you want until you want to do the transition. I'm now going to quickly show you some more examples with some different tracks on how you can use the 32 beat loop intro to time your mixes perfectly. This time on the track on the right-hand side on Deck 2 is Calabria and as you can see here, the track has one phrase of percussion at the start and then goes into one phrase of bass line and melody. So for this, the bass line and melody ends five phrases from the drop of Last Night A DJ Saved My Life and the bass line and melody begins one phrase from the downbeats of Calabria. So normally to get this mix to time right, we would have to wait four phrases from the drop of Last Night A DJ Saved My Life to then press play on the track Calabria. But instead, what I'm going to do is set at 32 beat loop before the bass line and melody comes in on the track Calabria, and start the loop straight away from the drop of Last Night A DJ Saved My Life. Then just like in the previous example, when the time is right, exit the loop of Calabria and do the transition as normal. This way I don't have to count any phrases or wait any amount of phrases after the drop to press play, I just know I need to exit the loop on Calabria when the bass line and melody ends on Last Night A DJ Saved My Life. So what I'm going to do on Calabria is just remove this first marker that says one phrase of percussion. Go to where the bass line and melody starts on the track. Use the beat jump function to jump back 32 beats, which is obviously the start of the track, which is the downbeat. But I'm just showing you for example, then set the 32 beat loop from here. Press the first performance path to set that loop in the memory bank. So now that 32 beat loop is saved just before the bass line and melody comes in on the track Calabria. I'm going to put the track Last Night A DJ Saved My Life a few beats before the drop, a crossfader all the way over to the left-hand side. I'm going to put both tracks' beat syncs up at 130 BPM. Then as soon as Last Night A DJ Saved My Life drops, I'm going to stop the loop on Calabria. Then when the time is right, exit the loop on Calabria and do the transition as normal. Let's have a listen to that mix. [MUSIC] The good thing about using this technique as well is you can mix the track in early. So that's what I'm going to do now. [MUSIC] Now I'm going to exit the loop on Calabria. [MUSIC] Get ready to hear the bass swap. [MUSIC] There is another example of how you can use a 32-bit loop as an intro to time the mix perfect way, where you don't have to count the phrases and you can start the track up straight away on the drop. Now this time on the track on the right-hand side on deck 2, we have the track Music Sounds Better. As you can see here, it's four phrases of precaution until it gets to break one where the melody comes in on the track. But this time instead of counting the phrases between the tracks and trying to time them that way, I'm going to delete this first marker on the track, put the playhead on the track Music Sounds Better at the start of break 1, use the Beat Jump function to jump back 32 beats, activate a 32-bit loop, press the first performance pad to save that loop on the performance pads and do the same mix again, starting the track Last Night A DJ Saved My Life, just a few beats before the drop. I'm going to put the crossfader all the way over to the left-hand side, both tracks at beat syncs up at 130 BPM. I'm going to start the loop on Music Sounds Better straight away on the drop of Last Night A DJ Saved My Life and then exit the loop and do the transition as normal when the time is right. Let's have a listen to that mix. [MUSIC] On this next verse, I'm going to exit the loop and do the transition. [MUSIC] Now I'm just going to show you one more example of how you can use the 32-beat loop as an intro. This time on the track on the right-hand side on deck 2, we have Push The Feeling On. Again instead of counting the phrases on this track here on the intro, I'm just going to find the point where I want to mix in the track, which for this example, I'm going to mix it in at the point of the chorus, which is just here. [MUSIC] When I do the mix in transition, I want the track to come in at this point. What I'm going to do is get the playhead on that first beat of the chorus on the drop. I'm going to use the Beat Jump function to jump back 32 beats, I'm going to activate a 32-bit loop, and then save that loop on the performance pads just here in the bottom left-hand corner. Now I'm going to put the track on the left-hand side, Last Night A DJ Saved My Life just a few beats before the drop, crossfade it all the way over to the left-hand side. Both tracks are beat synced up at 130 BPM. Then as the track Last Night A DJ Saved My Life drops, I'm going to start the loop on Push The Feeling On, and then exit the loop at the right time and do the transition when it's ready. Let's have a listen to that mix. [MUSIC] There you have it. That is how you can use a 32-bit loop as an intro to always have perfectly timed mixes no matter what track you're mixing next. As you can see in these examples, each track had a different intro with different amounts of phrases before the significant zones. By using the 32-bit loop intro technique, I was able to mix all the tracks in the same way. I mixed them a lot easier without having to count phrases and wait a different amount of time before I could press play on each track. This is a good technique to use if you're going to do a live DJ set and you are unsure which tracks you are going to play at what time. You can prepare all your tracks beforehand with a 32-bit loop before the significant sounds come in and always have perfectly timed mixes during your set. 47. Advanced Mix 2 - 4 Beat Loop Intro: In this video, I'm going to show you how to do a 4 beat loop intro. In the previous video, I showed you how to use the 32 beat loop as an intro and how to time that to do a mix. Now we can also do the same thing, but with four beats or even eight beats. One of the main times we would use a four beat loop as an intro is when there is a short vocal just before the significant sounds come in on a track. We can use that 4 beat loop of the vocal to mix over the baseline of another track and time in time with the tracks natural structure and phrases. The 4 beat loop can also add extra anticipation to the mix as it builds up to make for a more interesting mix. So for this first example on the track on the left-hand side, we have the track Trick Me on deck 1, and on the right-hand side on deck 2, we have the track You're no good for me so at the start of the track here, You're no good for me. We have one phrase of percussion, and then it goes into one phrase of baseline. But just before it goes into that one phrase of baseline, when the significant sounds come in, there are 4 beats with the baseline goes out and there's a bit of vocal. Let's have a listen to that. [MUSIC] What we're going to do is use that four beats though with a bit of vocal sample to mix in width. We don't need to use beat jump for this. What I can do is just wind back to the start of the four beats. Now we're going to set a 4 beat loop so as you can see though now the four beats are highlighted in orange, so the loop is activated. I'm just going to delete that first marker of one phrase of percussion and instead place them on the performance parts of the 4 beat loop. Now when I press that first performance part, that 4 beat loop will activate [MUSIC] To time this mix right what I'm going to do with this loop is gradually fade in as soon as the vocals end on the track, Trick me, and then I'm going to exit the loop after one phrase. The track then goes into the baseline as it would do normally to time the mix correctly. What I'm going to do is just put the track on the left-hand side, Trick me in the middle of the vocal and baseline. Then as soon as the vocals end, I'm going to bring the track, You're no good for me in and do the mix. What I'm going to do is put the cross fader all the way over to the left-hand side, both tracks beats inked up at 130 BPM and let's have a listen to the mix. [MUSIC] That is one example of how you can use a 4 beat loop on the vocal just before it comes in with a significant sounds of a track. As you noticed, I set the 4 beat loop off and just let it run in the background until I was ready to bring it in. Then after one phrase of the loop repeating itself, I exited the loop, reduce the baseline on the track on the left, and did the transition as normal. Now this time on the track on the right-hand side on deck 2, we have House every weekend. Now we've not used this track before, so we're going to have a listen to where the significant science come in and we would want to mix the track. As you can hear, that other track just starts off with some simple percussion. [MUSIC] Slightly a bit of melody there, a bit of vocal fading in. [MUSIC] For this example here we're going to use that 4 beat vocal sample just before the track drops. What I'm going to do here, set a 4 beat loop, save it on one of the performance part, and use this 4 beat loop, just like the previous one, to mixing the track over the track Trick me. But this time what I'm going to do is start with a cross fader in the center. The filter dial all the way over to the high-pass filter side. I'm going to activate the loop as soon as the vocals end on the track Trick me. I'm mixing it in a slightly different way this time, but with the same principles. As soon as the vocals end on the track, Trick me. I'll activate the loop on the track House every weekend and then fade in slowly over one phrase with the filter dial, then exit the beat after one phrase, just as the track would drop naturally. Let's have a listen to that mix. [MUSIC] There's another way that you can use a 4 beat loop over a vocal just before the track significant sounds come in to mix over baseline of the track that's ending. I'm just going to give you one more example of how to use this technique. This time for this example, the track on the right-hand side on deck 2, we have the track, Push the feeling on and what I'm going to do is mix into this part of the track here. Let's have a listen. [MUSIC] What I'm going to do is use the 8 beat loop this time instead of the 4 beat loop just before that tracks significant sounds come in. I'm just going to wind the track back. Then set an 8 beat loop just here and then I went to save the loop on my performance pads. Then I'm going to the same mix this time, but with 8 beats instead of 4. This time we're going to start with the cross fader all the way over to the left-hand side, both tracks are beats synced up at 130 BPM. I'm going to stop the loop off before I'm going to bring it in so at times right. Let's have a listen to this mix. [MUSIC] There you have it. There are some examples of how you can use a 4 beat loop or an 8 beat loop to mix in a vocal just before the significant sounds of a track come in. But when using this technique, make sure you stick in time with the same structure of the phrases of the track so they still naturally switch and transition at the right time. 48. Advanced Mix 3 - No Percussion Loops & Hot Cues: In this video, I want to show you how to mix a track with no percussion at the start by using hot cues and loops. On the left-hand side on deck 1, we have the track are you with me. And this time on the right-hand side on deck 2, we have the track out of my mind. If we just have a quick listen to the start of the track on the right-hand side, out of my mind, you'll hear that there's no percussion at the starts of it, and it just goes straight into melody. [MUSIC] In previous videos, I've shown you some more basic ways to mix these two tracks together, and ways how to mix a track with no percussion at the start. But in this video, I'm going to show you a more advanced way of mixing in a track with no percussion at the start by using hot cues and loops. Firstly, what I'm going to do is set a hot cue right at the start of the track, out of my mind. [MUSIC] Now, when I press that hot cue on the performance part, it's going to take me straight to that point in the track and start playing from there. Then what I'm going to do is find a section of the track that I could use as an intro. You can usually find that the outro of the track will be suitable to also use as the intro, if the truck has a outro that is. This is because the outro would usually be made of similar kinds of sounds as the intro would. If the track doesn't have a outro either, you can use your judgment and use any part of the track that you feel could be suitable to use as an intro to mix with. For this track on the right-hand side here, I'm just going to have a quick listen to the outro [MUSIC], and just hear that last phrase of the track, is what we're going to use for the intro for this example. As we can here there, it's got some slight melody and some slight baseline. [MUSIC] Now using the technique that we have learned in the previous videos, I'm now going to set to loop over that section of the track that we want to use as an intro, and save it on the performance parts. So I'm going to move the play head back to the start of this phrase, [NOISE] set at 32 beat loop from here, and then set that loop on the performance parts on the last part. Now if I was to press that performance part it's going to activate that loop and start from there [MUSIC]. What I'm going to do for this mix, is use this section of the track way I've set the loop as the intro and mix this section in as I would do normally with a normal intro. But at the end of the mix, when the track is due to start a new phrase, I'm going to jump to the hot cue that I've set at the start of the track. This would hopefully work just like how an intro of a track would naturally flow into the break of a track. And you should sound good and fluent to the audience. As we just mentioned within that loop at the end of the track, out of my mind, it mainly consists of melodies and baselines. As we can see here on the left-hand side on the track, are you with me, there's a section of the track here that has two phrases of melody and baseline, but it fades out, which is this section here. What I'm going to do to time this mix right, is as this track on the left-hand side, are you with me, the melodies and baselines start to fade out, I'm going to bring the melody and baseline in on the track, out of my mind. And then at the end of the mix, I'm going to use the hot cue to jump back to the start of the track out of my mind where the track can continue as normal. I'm going to put the track on the left-hand side a few beats before the drop, put the cross fader all the way over to the left-hand side, both tracks will be synced up at 130 BPM. Then when the track are you with me drops, I'm going to activate the loop at the end of the track, out to my mind, and use that as the intro. And then when the track's read, I'm going to mix it in and fade the cross fader across. Let's have a listen to that mix. [MUSIC] That is one example of how you can use hot cues and loops to mix in a track with no percussion at the start, by using a different section of the track as the intro. I'm now going to quickly show you another example of how you can use this technique. This time on the track on the right-hand side, on deck 2, we have the track, pump up the base. If we quickly have a listen to the start of this track, you can hear that it has no percussion at the start also, and just goes straight into melody. [MUSIC] There's also a little bit of vocal there as well. So I'm going to do the same kind of mix that I did on the previous mix. Firstly, what I'm going to do is set a hot cue right at the start of this track, pump up the base. Now, if I was to press that hot cue at the start on the first performance part, it'll jump straight to this part of the track and start playing. And then I'm going to find a section of the track that I should be able to use as an intro. As I've mentioned previously, I'm going to listen to the outro of the track first because that is going to be a section of a track that is most going to resemble what an intro would sound like. [MUSIC] Once again, I'm going to use this last phrase of this track as the intro. As you can hear that it's got some slight melody and a baseline. I'm just going to set a loop over this phrase of the track [MUSIC]. Save it on the performance parts on the last part. I know if I was to press that last performance part, it's going to activate the loop and play the track from there. [MUSIC] Now as this truck on the right-hand side, pump up the base, the loop section that I've highlighted consists also of melody and baseline, so I'm going to do a similar mix as I did with the previous one, just with this different track. Once again, I'm just going to set the track on the left-hand side a few beats before the drop, cross fader all the way over to the left-hand side, both tracks will beat synced up at 130 BPM. I'm going to activate the loop on the track, pump up the base straight away on the drop of are you with me. Then when the melody and baseline starts to fade out on the track are you with me, I'm going to fade in the track, pump up the base, and at the end of the mix hit the hot cue that's at the start of the track pump up the base and let the track continue from there. Let's have a listen to that mix. [MUSIC] There you have it. There's a couple of examples of how you can use hot cues and loops to mix in a track with no percussion at the start, by using a different section of the track as the intro. 49. Advanced Mix 4 - Add Bass With Hot Cues: In this video, I'm going to show you another way and how you can use hot cues to make a more entertaining mix, if a track doesn't have any base line during the intro. This time on the left-hand side, on deck 1, we have the track, Give It Up, and on the right-hand side, we have the track, Music Sounds Better, on deck 2. As we may know, the track on the right-hand side now, Music Sounds Better, only has precaution at the start of it and then goes straight into break 1. Let's have a quick listen to this. [MUSIC] Now with this track, we are going to try and make this a more entertaining mix by using hot cues and add some extra base to the mix. We can do this by jumping to a different part of the track that has base line in it during the mix. Then at the end of the mix, jumping back to the start of the break of the track, so then the track continues as normal. As we can see here on the track on the right, we have highlighted two phrases of base line during the outro. Let's have a quick listen to this. [MUSIC] What we can do from here is use these two phrases at base line during the mix as part of the intro. We already have a hot cue set at the start of the two phrases of the base line, so that's fine. If not to do this mix, you'll need a hot cue at the start of them two phrases, where the base line comes in. After we've used these two phrases at base line, we're going to jump back to the start at the break of the track. What I'm going to do is go to this start of the break and just set a hot cue here. Now if I was to press that hot cue, the start of the break of Music Sounds Better would start. As we can see here, the track on the left, Give It Up, has two phrases at base line and melody for the chorus 2, and then two phrases of percussion to go to the end of the track. To time this mix right, what we can do is when the two phrases of base line and melody end on the track, Give It Up, we can jump to the two phrases of base line on the track, Music Sounds Better. Then at the end of the mix, jump back to the start of the break on Music Sounds Better. I'm going to do this mix for you now. Keep an eye on the hot cues and when I'm pressing them, on what part of the track I'm jumping to. What I'm going to do for this mix is put the track on the left-hand side a few beats before the drop. Crossfader all the way over to the left-hand side. Both tracks of beats synced up at 130 BPM. When the track Give It Up drops, I'm going to press "Play" on the track, Music Sounds Better. Then when the baseline ends on Give It Up, I'm going to use the hot cue to jump to the base line on Music Sounds Better for two phrases. Then at the end of the two phrases of the base line, I'm going to jump back to the start of the break of Music Sounds Better, so the track can continue as normal. Let's have a listen to that mix. [MUSIC] There you have it. There is another example of how you can use hot cues to jump to different parts of a track to make your mixes more interesting and entertaining. 50. Advanced Mix 5 - Acapella Bridge 1: In this video, I'm going to show you how to use an acapella or vocal to create a bridge between two tracks. For this example, we are going to quickly mix between three different tracks. To make things easier, we are going to create a separate playlist just for this mix with the three tracks in so we can quickly load them up in time for the mix. What we're going to do on the left-hand side on the library is just click the plus icon again, and it's going to create a new playlist, four rows. You can name this playlist whatever you like, but for this example, I'm going to name it Acapella Bridge. Once you've done that, you can go back into the main playlist. The first track we need to drag over is the track Trick Me. Then the second track we need to drag over into the new playlist is the Hands Up Acapella Loop, and the third track is the track Calabria. Now you should have all these three tracks in a separate playlist. What we're going to do for this mix is use the Hands Up Acapella to link the two tracks together of Trick Me and Calabria. We will go from when the vocals of Trick Me end to the vocals of the Hands Up Acapella and then to the melody of Calabria. We will only play each section of the mix for one phrase and quickly jump between the three tracks to make for an entertaining mix with some added anticipation and surprise for the audience than what your usual mix would include. Once the mix is done, we will also jump through the track Calabria using hot cues to get to the more energetic parts of the track faster. We're just going to set the loops and hot cues on these tracks to get it setup ready for the mix. Firstly, the track on the left-hand side we need Trick Me. We should already have the hot cue markers set up at the end of the track. So as you can see here, it says three phrases of baseline and vocals, which is the red marker, and then two phrases of baseline, which is the dark blue marker. At this point of the dark blue marker just here, this is the point where we will bring the vocals of the Hand Up Acapella in the mix. If you don't already have the hot cue marker set up here, you will need a hot cue marker for phrases from the drop of Trick Me, where the vocals and the baseline begins. Just have a listen to that section real quick. [MUSIC] Just that. Then we will load that track, Hands Up Acapella on the right. What we're going to do here is set a 32-beat loop and save it on the performance parts. I'll just go on ahead and set a 32-beat loop, and I'm going to save it on the hot cues of the performance parts. Then on the left-hand side, we're going to load up the track Calabria and we're just going to set a few hotkeys on this track ready for the mix. The first hot cue we're going to set at the start of the break, [MUSIC] and then the second hot cue, we're going to set 32 beats before the drop. I'm just going to go to the drop of chorus 1. [MUSIC] Use the beat jump function to jump back 32 beats. And then set the next hot cue just there. Then what we're going to do is set a third hot cue on the drop of the second chorus. The reason why we're setting a hot cue on the drop of the second chorus is because we want this drop to play instead of the first drop. If you have a listen to the first drop, [MUSIC] and then have a listen to the second drop, [MUSIC] you can hear that the second drop is more energetic than the first. So during the mix we're going to play the Drop 2 instead of Drop 1. I'm just going to drag the track, Trick Me up on the left-hand side again. To time this mix right, when the vocals of the track Trick Me end, we will bring in the vocals of the Hands Up Acapella in for one phrase. Then after one phrase, we will end the track, Trick Me and let the Hands Up Acapella play for one phrase by itself. Then after one phrase, we will press play on the hot cue to start the break of Calabria so that the Hands Up Acapella and the melody of Calabria are playing both together at the same time. Then after one phrase of that, we will end the Hands Up Acapella and jump 32 beats forward before the drop of Calabria using this second hot cue marker. Then just as the track Calabria is about to drop on the first chorus, we will press the third hot cue to jump to the second drop and play that one instead, because that one is more energetic. This might seem a lot to take in, but once you've watched them mix, it should become a lot easier to understand. For the first mix, I will explain what I am doing and then I'll do in the mix again without talking so you can listen to the mix fully. To get this mix set up correctly, we need to make sure that we have quantize activated on both sides of the decks. We're going to put the crossfader all the way over to the left-hand side, both tracks of beat sync top at 130 bpm. We're going to put the track on the left-hand side, Trick Me a few beats before the drop. Then when the track Trick Me drops, we're going to start the loop of the Hands Up Acapella in the background. Then when the time's right, when the vocals end on Trick Me, we will bring in the Hands Up Acapella. We're also going to bring in the Hands Up Acapella using the filter dial. What I'm going to do is turn the filter dial down all the way over to the left side, which is the low-pass filter. When it's time to bring the track in, we're going to use both the crossfader and the filter dial. Let's have a listen to that mix and I'll talk you through. [MUSIC] When the truck drops, I'm going to stop the loop of the Hands Up Acapella, but keep the crossfader over to the left-hand side. [MUSIC] On the next phrase, I'm going to make a crossfader across on the filter dialog to bring in Hands Up Acapella loop [MUSIC] just as the vocals end on Trick Me. [MUSIC] [inaudible] track Trick Me. [MUSIC] Get the track Calabria loaded up. [MUSIC] Crossfader in the center and be ready to press the first hot cue. [MUSIC] Fade the Acapella and get ready to press the second hot cue. [MUSIC] I just want to drop first and the third hot cue, hold the second drop of the track Calabria. [MUSIC] There you have it. There's an example of how you can use an acapella or vocals to bridge between two tracks. Also another example of how you can use hot cues to jump to different parts of the track to make it more energetic. I'm going to do that mix for you one more time without talking over it so you just have a listen to the mix fully. [MUSIC] 51. Advanced Mix 6 - Acapella Bridge 2: In this video, I'm going to show you another example of an acapella or vocal to create a bridge between two tracks. For this mix, we're going to need three tracks in a playlist again, but this time we need the tracks Utopia, the Hands Up Acapella, and Pump Up The Bass. For this mix, we're going to go from the track Utopia to the Hands Up Acapella and then to 32 beats before the drop of the track Pump Up The Bass. Let's get this tracks ready setup for the mix. First thing, we're to drag the track Utopia up on the left-hand side. There's already some markers setup here on the track on Utopia. This says it's got from the drop of chorus 2, two phrases of bassline of melody and then it goes into two phrases of bassline. Let's quickly have a listen to this. [MUSIC] That's the bassline of melody. They should drop into just bassline. [MUSIC] It's at this point here where it goes from bassline and melody just into the two phrases of bassline where I'm going to bring the Hands Up Acapella in. Now I'm just going to drag the track Hands Up Acapella on the right-hand side. This track should already have a 32 beaten loop set at the start of it. If it doesn't, you just want to set a 32 beat loop at the start of the Hands Up Acapella and puts it on the first performance pad. Then when you hit that first performance pad, it's going to loop them first 32 beats. [MUSIC] Now let's drag the track Pump Up The Bass on the left-hand side. Here we want 32 beats before the drop. Let's find the drop and then use the beat jump function to jump back 32 beats. Then set a hot cue right here. What we're going to do to time this mix is when the melody ends on Utopia, the vocals come in on the Hands Up Acapella, and then we're going to leave those two tracks in for one phrase, just like in the previous mix, and then end the Utopia after one phrase, then the Hands Up Acapella should play all by itself for one phrase whilst we're getting the track Pump Up The Bass ready. Then what we're going to do is start the track Pump Up The Bass 32 beats before the drop leaving the buildup of Pump Up The Bass and the Hands Up Acapella going at the same time. Then just as the track Pump Up The Bass drops, we're going to stop the Hands Up Acapella. Again for this mix, we're going to use the filter dials and the crossfader to bring the tracks in and out. Once again, I'm going to do a mix where I'll talk you through it and then another mix just after where I don't speak through it and you can listen to just the mix fully. To get this mix ready now, we need Utopia on the left-hand side, the Hands Up Acapella on the right-hand side, and then Pump Up The Bass ready to go after the track Utopia. For this next now, I'm going to put the track Utopia a few beats before the drop, the crossfader all the way over to the left-hand side, and the filter dial on the right-hand side turned all the way down to the low-pass side, both tracks are beat synced up at 130 BPM. When the track Utopia drops, we're going to use the loop function again to get the timing right of the Hands Up Acapella until we're ready to fade it in. Let's have a listen to that mix. [MUSIC] We've set the 32 beat loop of Hands Up Acapella in the background ready. When the next phrase of the melody ends on Utopia, we're solely going to bring the track Hands Up Acapella in using the crossfader and filter dial. [MUSIC] I'm going to fade the track Utopia out. [MUSIC] Get the track Pump Up The Bass ready on the left-hand side, crossfader in the center and press the hotkey 32 beats before the drop with the filter dial down. [MUSIC] Use the filter dials to mix. [MUSIC] There you have it. There's another example of how you can use an acapella or vocal loop to bridge between two tracks. I'm going to show you that mix one more time without talking over it so you can have a listen to it fully. [MUSIC] 52. Advanced Mix 7 - Loop Build Up 1: In this video, I'm going to show you how to mix between two tracks by creating your own buildup with loops. Dance tracks normally have a buildup before the drop of the chorus. The buildup is normally a drumroll that starts off slow and then speeds up the closer it gets to the drop. The buildup is there to create anticipation for the audience, ready for the drop of the track. We can have a quick listen to the track on the right-hand side here, Pump Up The Bass just before the drop. You should be able to hear the drumroll starting off slow and then picking up speed as it gets closer to the drop. Let's have a quick listen. [MUSIC] We can use this technique to create a similar buildup by using loops on one track to mix into the drop of another track. Ideally, when using a buildup with loops to mix with, it's best to use a vocal or acapella that is isolated by itself as much as possible. This is because an isolated vocal on its own will have less chance of clashing with another track's buildup, and a looped vocal can create more of an entertaining mix rather than just a loop buildup with percussion or a normal drumroll. For this example, on the left-hand side, on Deck 1, we have the Hands Up Acapella, and as we just listened to on the right-hand side, we have the track Pump Up The Bass on Deck 2. This time on the track Pump Up The Bass, we're going to set a hot cue two phrases before the drop instead of one phrase and start the track from there. This will give us more time to do the loop buildup on the Hands Up Acapella and create more anticipation during the mix. What I'm going to do is put the track on the drop-off Pump Up The Bass, use the beat jump function to jump back two phrases this time 1, 2, and then set a hot cue there. [MUSIC] Now on the truck on the left-hand side, the Hands Up Acapella, we should already have a 32-beat loop set at the start of the track. Let's have a quick listen to this. [MUSIC] As you can see there, it's got a 32-beat loop setup. If you don't already have this setup, we'll need to just set a 32-beat loop at the start of that Hands Up Acapella and save it on the performance pads on the first one. Then what we're going to need to do is set a one-beat loop at the very start of the Hands Up Acapella. I'm just going to exit this loop, go back to the start on the downbeat, and then set a one-beat loop here. Save that on the performance pads on the second pad. Now when I press that second performance pad, it's going to activate that one-beat loop. [MUSIC] What we're going to do for this mix is start off with the 32-beat loop on the Hands Up Acapella, and then after one phrase, reduce it down to one beat. Then when it's on 16 beats before the drop, we're going to reduce it down further to half a beat, and then when it's eight beats before the drop, reduce it down to a quarter beat loop, and then when it's just four beats before the drop we'll reduce it down to an eighth of a beat loop. It sounds something like this. [MUSIC] Then we're going to filter out. To make it easier to know when to reduce the loop down, we're going to set hot key markers on the track Bump Up The Bass at these points. The hot cue that is set to phrases before the drop is where we're going to start the track. Then as we can see here, we've already got a hot cue marker one phrase before the drop. At this point here is when we're going to reduce it down to one beat loop and then 16 beats before the drop, we're going to reduce it down to half a beat. Let's have a listen. [MUSIC] Which is just here. I'm going to set a hot cue here. Then after that, we're going to reduce the loop down even further, eight beats before the drop, [MUSIC] which is just here. Then after that, we're going to reduce the beat loop down further one more time four beats before the drop, [MUSIC] which is just here. Then just before the drop, we want to filter the loop out. These hot cues here before the drop is just markers for us to know when to reduce the loop down. What I'm going to do is do the mix for you first and talk you through it, and then I'll do the mix again so you can have a listen to it fully without me talking over it. On the track Pump Up The Bass, I'm going to get it ready on the second hot cue two phrases before the drop. [MUSIC] I'm going to have the crossfader in the middle and the filter dial down all the way over to the low-pass filter side, and that's how I'm going to introduce the track in. Both tracks are beat-synced up at 130 BPM. Just here on the performance pads on the left-hand side, I'm going to put the beat loop function on just so you can see which beat loop we're up to and it's easier to keep an eye on. Let's do the mix and have a listen to it. I'm first going to start off the Hands Up Acapella with a 32-beat loop. [MUSIC] Then to start the next phase, I'm going to start the track Pump Up The Bass two phrases before the drop. [MUSIC] Then I'm going to slowly filter the truck in. [MUSIC] Then to start the next phrase, I'm going to do one beat loop. [MUSIC] Then each hot cue I'm going to reduce down the beat loop by half. [MUSIC] There you have it. Those are an example of how you can use to beat loop function to create a buildup mix between two tracks just before the drop of the next track. I'm going to do that mix one more time for you without talking over so you can fully listen to it. I'm also going to mix out the track Trick Me to give you more of a full example of how you could do this live. Now on the right-hand side, I have the track Trick Me, and I'm going to mix the Hands Up Acapella into the track Trick Me just like we have done previously. Then I'm going to load the truck Pump Up The Bass and use the loop function on the Hands Up Acapella to mix into the drop of Pump Up The Bass. Again on the performance pads here, I do have the beat loop values so you can keep an eye on this here as I'm going through the beat loops, I'm reducing them down. Both tracks are beat-synced up at 130 BPM. The crossfaders in the sensor, I'm going to use the filter dials to mix these tracks. Let's have a listen to this mix. [MUSIC]. 53. Advanced Mix 8 - Loop Build Up 2: In this video, I'm going to show you a second example of how you can mix between two tracks by creating your own build up with loops. In the previous example, we used the hands up acapella to do a loop build up with. To do this mix, you don't necessarily need a specific acapella track to create a loop. You can also do the mix with any vocal that is isolated and on its own. You can often find vocals on their own in the middle of the breaks of the track. For example here on deck 1 on the left hand side and if we have a quick listen to the second break, you can hear some vocals just on their own isolated. [MUSIC] Now there is a slight bits of melody and piano there, but not too much it's mainly just vocals and we're going to use this part of the track to do the loop build up with. As long as the vocal loop sounds good when you loop it, it should be okay to use for a build up. For this example, we're going to use the four beats of the Bar Number 72. We can just see here on the waveform the bar numbers, and we're going to use Bar Number 72. I want to wind this back slightly. I'm going to set a four beat loop at the start of Bar Number 72. These are the four beats we're going to use to loop to do our build up with. Let's have a listen. [MUSIC] Now when we do the mix, we're going to hear the same build up with the same structure as the previous mix. We're going to start the track that we're going to mix into two phrases before the drop and then when the track is one phrase from the drop, use a one beat loop and then reduce the loop down as we get closer to the drop. On the right-hand side here again, we have the track Pump up the base and same as before we're going to start this track, two phrases before the drop. We're going to loop the four beats for one phrase then when the track Pump up the base is one phrase before the drop, we're going to reduce the loop down to one beat, then when it's 16 beats before the drop, reduce the loop down to half a beat and then eight beats before the drop reduce the loop down to a quarter beat. Lastly when the track Pump up the base is four beats before the drop, reduce the loop down to one-eighth of a beat, and filter the track home, just like we did during the previous mix. We already have markers setup on the track, Pump up the base to help us and let us know when to reduce the loops. I'm going to give you an example of this mix, and I'll do the first mix and talk you through it and then I'll do the mix again without talking you through it so you can listen to it fully. I'm going to start the track, You're not good for me, at the start of Break 2. Then when it gets to that 72nd bar, I'm going to set the for loop and activate it. At the same time I'm going to start the track, Pump up the base two phrases before the drop. For this mix, I'm going to use the filter dials to do the mixing with and keep the cross fader in the center. Both tracks of beats synced up at 130 BPM. Just on this performance parts here on the left-hand side, I'm just going to put it on beat loop again so you can see the different beat loops that I'm activating. You can also see the numbers here of the loops on this part of the software. Let's have a listen to that mix. I'm going to reduce the filter dial down on the track Pump up the base ready, and as soon as I set the four loop going on the track You're not good for me, I want to start the track, Pump up the base with the hot cues, two phrases before the drop. Let's have a listen to that mix. [MUSIC] I've got my loop function setup ready for four beats, so as soon as I activate it is going to do a four beat loop. I'm getting ready to press the performance pads on Pump up the base. [MUSIC] There we go, so we got a four beat loop going, Pump up the base going I'm going to filter that track in. Then on the next phrase, I want to reduce it down to one beat loop. Guess you are ready, that's a one beat loop. Next, hot cues you reduce it down to half a beat. [MUSIC] Then a quarter and then an eighth and filter it out. [MUSIC] There you have it. There is another example of how you can transition from one track to another by using a loop build up with the vocals from the breaker of a track. Now just before I do that example again, without talking over it, I'm going to show you how to set an automatic beat loop. Now when you set an automatic beat loop on a track, it means that when the track plays over that part of the track, it will automatically activate the loop that you have set itself. This can be good to use if you always do the same mix with the same loop every time. For example if you always want to loop this part of the track here. [MUSIC] You can save that loop on the performance parts. For this example, I'm just going to have to delete a couple of these hot cues. We can save this loop on the performance parts just here. Just in orange here, so a loop symbol. Now, if I was to click this orange loop symbol is going to turn red. Now what the red loop symbol means that it is automatically activated when it plays over this part of the track. For example if I wind this track backwards slightly, and I play the track from here, when it gets to the part of the track where the loop should be, it will automatically play the loop so I won't have to press anything. Let's have a listen. I'm going to press play on the track. [MUSIC] I'm not going to press anything on the controller or on the software and it will automatically loop that part of the track. This time I'm going to do the mix again, but use this automatic loop function so I don't have to set that first loop and I can focus on pressing play on the track on the right-hand side and then I'm manually going to flip down through the loops when it gets to the right points of the track. Let's do that mix again. I won't talk through it and can listen to it fully and start the track just before the break cross fader in the center, the right-hand side I'm going to turn that low-pass filter down, both tracks are beats synced up at 130 BPM and I have my automatic loop set on the track, You're not good for me. Again, I'm just going to change this to beat loop so you can see the different beat loops that I'm using now let's do the mix. [MUSIC] There you have it. There's another example of how you can use loops as a buildup to transition between two tracks. 54. Advanced Mix 9 - Loops & Fader Cuts Build Up: In this video, I'm going to show you how to use loops and fader cuts to mix between two tracks. This style of mixing was made popular by James Hype, who I've actually had the pleasure to DJ with a few times in Greece. He's technically one of the best DJs that I've seen in terms of technical skills with the DJ equipment and manipulate in tracks live. What we're going to do for this mix is emulate one of his famous mixes. What we're going to do is loop the vocal of a track, just like we have done on previous mixes. But then we're going to reduce it down so much that it creates a constant noise and a certain tone. Then what we're going to do is use fader cuts, which are basically quick flicks of the channel fader or cross fader to quickly cut in and out of the volume of the track. We're then also going to use the play/pause button as a slow break effect just before the drop to add extra anticipation. I will now show you how to use this technique of mixing with loops and fader cuts in this video. On the left-hand side we have the track this time Pump Up the Bass on deck 1, and this time on the right-hand side on deck 2, we have the track, You're No Good For Me. It's the same two tracks as the previous video, but just the opposite way around, just so it makes it a little easier for me to be in right handy to use this channel fader. Before I explain this technique, we need to adjust some settings just for this particular mix. What we need to do is just go into the settings and then go to the controller tab and then to the first tab of deck. Then from here, we need to scroll down until we see vinyl speed adjust. Now, we have the option of touch/break and release/start. What we need to do for the touch/break is set the dials to one o'clock. Then we need to go into the mixer tap in controller and this time find the channel fader curve. As standard, this will be set to a linear curve. This is the actual curve that we want for the channel fader when we're doing normal mix it. It is the most gradual unsteady fade of the track. But for this mix, we want the exponential curve just above it. This will mean we can cut in and out of the track's volume a lot faster for this particular mix and then exit the settings. For the touch/break as we put it at one o'clock, what that will do is it will stop the track slower instead of stopping it immediately as normal. If I play this track on the right now [MUSIC] and then I press pause, is going to stop it a lot slower. This is the effect we're going to want when we pause to track. [MUSIC] Also with the volume fader, is now going to have an exponential curve so it's going to get louder faster towards the top end of the channel. [MUSIC] For this mix, we're going to use a similar structure to the last couple of loop buildup mixes we have done. We are going to use the same four-beat loop on the track, You're No Good For Me. We should already have a loop set up on the band number 72. Let's just find that on the track. It's just in the middle of break 2. [MUSIC] We're going to use that same loop for this mix. If you don't have this setup already on your controller, you can always set the four-beat loop yourself when it comes up to that part of the track. But this time instead of after one phrase, reducing down the loops by half every time until the drop. This time we're going to use the manual beat loop function to reduce the loop down until it's making a constant tone. We can do this by when the loop is playing, pressing the Out button on the controller, on the manual loop function. This means we can then move where the end of the loop is by using the jog wheel. We can make the loop shorter or longer by turning the jog wheel clockwise or anticlockwise. For example, I'm going to play the loop, [MUSIC] and then when I press the Out button, it's going to start flushing. Now, if I move the jog wheel clockwise or anticlockwise, that will move the end of the loop. What we're going to do for this mix is reduce the loop all the way down until it makes a constant noise and tone. Let's have a listen to that. [MUSIC] I'm going to press the Out button, reduce it all the way down until it makes a constant noise and tone just like that. Then we're going to use our channel fader, which is now set to the exponential curve to cut the track in and out quickly to a pattern of four beats. Similar to when we beat joggling, we can use it in counts of four, 1, 2, 3, 4, and also with the ands in-between such as one and two and three and four and. We can make patterns to this count. Just like we would do with beat joggling, we can do the same with fader cuts. This is a very basic way of doing this whilst we're learning. If I was to press play on the track now, I can use the fader cuts one and two and three and four and, [MUSIC] so I could go 1, 2, 3, 4. One and two and three and four and. We can create patterns just like the beat joggling. One, two, three, and four. One, two, three, and four. Or for example, one and two and three, four. One and two and three, four. One and two and three, four. Then when the track is four beats before the drop, we're going to use the play/pause button twice just before the drop of the track. For example, the noise and the tone we'll be playing [NOISE] then we're going to use the play/pause button just like that before the drop. I'll do the full mix now and talk you through it. Then I'll do the mix again afterwards without talking so you can have a listen to the mix done properly and also watch how it's done. For this mix, I'm going to have the auto-beat loop setup over that four beats of the bar of 72. We also have the hot cue still setup on the track, Pump Up the Bass so we can gauge where we are within the track. I'm going to put the track, You're No Good For Me at the start of break two. Crossfader is in the center and I'm going to turn the filter dial down to the low pass filter side on the track, Pump Up the Bass and fade that in as we did previously. Both tracks or beat syncs up at 130 BPM. Let's do the mix. [MUSIC] When the full beat loop starts, I'm going to hit the second hotkeys and Pump Up the Bass and start the track two phrases before the drop. Now, the results of that tracking. Now, let's press that Out button and reduce that loop down to a noise. Then use the fader cuts and then starts off. There you have it. That is how you can use loops and fader cuts to mix from one track to another. What I'm going to do now is I'm just going to show you that sequence again, just using the loops of the track of You're No Good For Me. Then I'll show you again fully with both tracks and do the mix. Whilst the track Pump Up the Bass is building up, I would show you the loop sequence that I'm going to use. [MUSIC] Firstly, the four-loop beat will stop. Then we press the Out button, reduce the loop all the way down until it makes a tone. Then do the four-beat sequence. [NOISE] Then four beats just before the end, before the jog, we use the play/pause button, then the track should drop. I'm going to do that mix for you one more time without talking over it so you can have a look and listen to it for yourself. Crossfader is in the center, turn the filter dial down on Pump Up the Bass all the way over to the left-hand side on the low-pass filter, both tracks and beats synced up at 130 BPM. We have the ultra beat loop setting ready on four beats on the track You're No Good For Me, and let's do the mix. [MUSIC] 55. Advanced Mix 10 - Hot Cue Play: In this video, I'm going to show you how to use Hot Cue Play with an acapella over the drop of another track. For this mix, on the left-hand side, we have the track Energy on deck 1. On the right-hand side on deck 2, we have the Rhymes Acapella. Now, if we listen to the drop of the track Energy, we can hear that the track mainly consists of baselines and a little bit of melody as the significant sounds and has no vocal in it. [MUSIC] When a dance track has a drop without any vocals in it, it can be fun to put your own vocals or acapella over the top of it. One way to do this is we can just set a loop on the acapella and simply play the loop over the top of the drop. On the track on the right hand side, Rhymes, we can set an eight beat loop. [MUSIC] Save that to the performance parts on the first part. Then when the track Energy drops, we can just simply play that loop over the top of it. Also you may have noticed, because we are playing a vocal over the top of another track's chorus, both tracks are harmonically sound and in key. Both tracks, for this example, are in the key of 4A. These two tracks should sound good together when mixing, rather than two tracks that are incomplete, in different keys. Let's have a quick listen to this. I'm going to put the track Energy a few beats before the drop. Then as soon as the track drops, I'm going to play the Rhymes Acapella over the top of it. [MUSIC] You can use this technique to transition between two tracks like we have done in previous examples. Or you can just make a track more entertaining and fun, just like we did then. Now another way in which we can play an acapella over the drop of another track to make it more fun and entertaining is to use Hot Cue Play. This is where we set hot cues at certain points on the acapella and press them at different times to create our own patterns. This time on the track Rhymes, I'm just going to delete that loop. This time I'm just going to set a hot cue on the downbeat of the acapella on that first performance part. This time when I press the performance part, it's going to play it from that hot cue. [MUSIC] This means we can press that hot cue at certain times and create our own patterns. To start off simple, we can press it in a pattern that sounds something similar to this. [MUSIC] That will create as a one phrase pattern that we can repeat in time with the other tracks natural structure. To make it a bit more simple, I'm going to set markers on the track every phrase so we know when to restart our pattern. Now on the left-hand side on the track Energy, we have just Hot Cue markers every phrase. Before we do this mix, we need to make sure that quantize is activated and set to one beat on the settings. So that when we are pressing the hot cues they will snap in time with their tracks beat grid. Let's have a listen to this mix. [MUSIC] That is a simple way in how we can just use a hot cue to create our own pattern within acapella. This time what we're going to do is use two hot cues instead of one. We're going to set one on the downbeat, which we've already got, and then set another at the start of the next bar. [MUSIC] This now means we can create our own pattern with two hot cues and repeat itself over one phrase. We could do a pattern that sounds something like this. [MUSIC] Let's have a listen to that mix over the top of the track Energy. [MUSIC] There is an example of how you can use two hot cues to create your own pattern. Know you can even go further than that and set three hot cues. I'm just going to delete this second hot cue and I'm going to place another hot cue in the middle of the first bar. [NOISE] Then a third hot cue on the start of the second bar. [NOISE] Now we can be even more creative with our Hot Cue Play and we can create a pattern that sounds something similar to this. [MUSIC] Let's have a listen to that pattern over the top of the track Energy. [MUSIC] There is another example of how you can use three hot cues to create your own pattern. As you would here then on the second phrase, I just went off and did another pattern, but I kept it in the same structure of the phrase. So with all the examples, I just made them up. You can make up your own patterns also. But the important thing to remember when doing any Hot Cue Play is you want to keep your patterns in time with the natural structure of the bars and phrases of the track. Make sure you keep your hot cue patterns in time with a four beat, eight beat, 16 beat, and 32 beat structure just like we have done on these examples. Not just pressing the hot keys randomly at any time. The Hot Cue Play has to be in time with the track's bars and phrases, so that when your hot cue pattern changes, it changes in time with the track's natural structure, and it will then still sound good to the audience and not out of place. That being said, Hot Cue Play is a really fun way to make your mixes and DJ sets more entertaining. Have fun with it and try and create your own acapella patterns. 56. FX Unit: In this video, I'm going to explain to you how to use the FX unit. Most DJ controllers will have at least one FX dial and some can have up to four. On this DJ control that I'm using here, the FX unit is along the top. Each FX unit will have an on-off button to activate and deactivate the FX and FX dial to control the intensity of the FX and buttons to control the number of beats that the FX is applied to. You can also view the FX unit on your software by clicking the FX tab at the top of the screen. This will open up the whole FX display at the top of the screen. For this demonstration, I'm going to use the FX dial closer to the center as its easier to see. To control this FX dial on the DJ controller, on the software on the FX display, it will be these buttons here that will control it. Firstly, I'm going to click the drop-down box. You'll be given different options of what FX can be applied. For this one, I'm going to select the echo effect as this is the most used effect and it's easiest to explain. Most DJ controllers and DJ software will also now have Auto Tap, which is just here where it says auto. Auto Tap is like the beat sync but for FX. Just how beat sync keeps the beats in time of the beat grid, and also like quantize keeps the hotkeys and loops in to the beat grid, the Auto Tap does the same for the FX. Auto Tap will keep the FX in time with the tracks beat grid. By selecting Auto Tap, this will automatically time your FX with your track's BPM so you don't need to do it manually. If you do have Auto Tap, it's best just to leave it on whenever you are deejaying. If you do not have Auto Tap, you'll have to use manual tap. All you need to do to get your FX in time with the BPM of your tracks is tap the top button in time in the BPM. For example, if I press play on the track on the left-hand side and use the Tap button, keep an eye on the BPM number changing as I tap it. [MUSIC] As you can see there, it's not completely accurate as my taps will be slightly out. Does say 129 BPM but the track is actually 128 beats PM. So as mentioned, if you do have Auto Tap, it's worth just keeping that on and then your FX will automatically be beat synced up to the track's BPM. As you can see on the software here, the FX at the moment have the number one on them. This number is how many beats the FX is going to be applied to. This is just like the loop function. We can increase this by doubling it or decrease this by half. Now, this echo effect will affect eight beats of the track. This effect will no longer be applied to half a beat. This can also be changed by the arrow keys on my DJ controller here. I can go up and increase the number of beats the FX will be applied to. I can also go down to decrease the number of beats that the FX will it be applied to. The on-off button on the FX unit does exactly that. It turns the FX on an activates it and turns the FX off and deactivates it. Now, when the effect is activated and turned on, this doesn't mean that you will hear the effect straight away. The only way you will hear the effect is if the FX dial is turned up. The FX dial determines the intensity and the volume of the effect. If the dial is low, the effect will be of lower intensity, if the dial is high, the effect will be of higher intensity. To use the FX unit, you first have to select which FX you want, which we've done here. We've selected the echo effect. Then you have to make sure that Auto Tap is on so your effect will be in time with the beat grid of the track, then select the number of beats you want your effect to be applied to. Here we have one beat. This means the echo effect that we have selected will be applied over one beat of the track. Then we have to turn the FX on the DJ controller to activate it, and then turn the intensity dial up to however intense we want the FX to be. Let's play the track on the left and have a listen to how this sounds. [MUSIC] We have echo effect selected, Auto Tap is on. We're going to activate the FX. You can't hear it just yet be applied. Now, we're going to turn it off. [MUSIC] As you could hear, the echo effect was applied. If you stop the track from playing whilst the FX is still applied and activated, the FX will still continue until it fades out completely. I'm going to press play on this track here, turn the echo effect on, and then stop the track. [MUSIC] There are two ways to stop the FX from being applied. One is to turn the dial all the way down, and two is to turn the FX off and deactivate it. It can be a good idea to have a look at your DJ controller and see where the buttons and dials are for your FX unit and have a listen to some different FX and how they can be applied, and have a listen to how they will affect your tracks differently. 57. Advanced Mix 11 - FX Build Up: In this video, I'm going to show you how to use your FX to create more of a build upon your tracks. As we have mentioned previously, down-strikes can have a drum roll that increases in speed as it gets closer to the drop. This is to create more anticipation for when the drop does happen. For example, on the left-hand side here we have the track, Needin' U, and I'm just going to put the track on the second break during the build up and have a listen to the drum roll up this track [MUSIC] As you can hear, there is building up anticipation and increasing the speed of the drum roll. Now vocals looping faster until the drum roll stops and the loop stops just before the drop. We can add more anticipation and build-up to the drop by adding some extra FX during that buildup. This is a common technique that DJ's use when they are playing dance music or house music. You may see them turning the FX style more and more as the track builds up and then turn the FX style completely off just as the track drops. This is to create more anticipation during the build up, just before the track drops. For this example, I'm going to use the echo effect first and see how that sounds. Just here on the FX display, I'm going to select the echo effect. I'm going to set the echo effect to half a beat to start off with and then reduce it down to a quarter beat when it gets closer to the drop. Then I'm going to deactivate the effect just before the track drops. What this will do as the track echoes every half a beat, it can act as a loop, but whilst the track continues to play, it can create a drum roll effect by itself, hopefully creating more anticipation for the drop. Let's have a listen to how that sounds. I'm going to start the track Needin' U in the middle of Break 2 and slowly start to apply the echo effect as it builds up. Let's have a listen to that [MUSIC] I'm going to activate the FX and slowly start to increase it. Just quickly turn if off so you can hear it. Back off. I'm going to reduce it now. Then just before the truck drops, I deactivate the FX. I'm just going to do that one more time without talking over it and have a listen to how the echo effect affects the build up of the track [MUSIC] As you can hear that, you can use the echo effect to create an added anticipation and noise to the build up of the track. It can create a loop effect and drum roll build up effect by itself. This time we're going to try a different effect and we're going to try the reverb effect and see how that sounds. In the drop-down box here, I'm just going to select REVERB. At this time, the reason why I wanted to show you this one is because it doesn't come up in beats, it comes up as a percentage. For this we're going to use the 25 percent reverb and have a listen to how that sounds. We're going to use it in the same way the echo effect was used and slowly start turning it up the closer it gets to the drop. Let's have a listen to how that sounds [MUSIC] I'm going to activate the FX. I'm just going to turn it up and have a quick listen to how it sounds. Then now as the track builds up, slowly turn up the intensity [MUSIC] As you can hear again though, you can use the FX style and the different FX to create added anticipation and noise to the build up of a track. What you can do now is have listen to the different types of Fx and how they affect your tracks. 58. Advanced Mix 12 - Echo Out: In this video, I'm going to show you how you can use the echo FX, to echo out of a track when mixing. When mixing from one track to another, you can use the echo FX on the track you're mixing out of, to make more of a smooth and gradual transition into the next track. It can be used to avoid the track you are mixing out of, sounding like it's ending too suddenly. For this mix on the left-hand side, on Deck 1, we have the track Trick Me, and on the right-hand side, on Deck 2, we have the track Music Sounds Better. When I do the mix, just as the track Trick Me is going to end, and transition over to the track, Music Sounds Better, I'm going to add an echo FX on the track Trick Me for one beat. Now whenever you use the echo FX on a track, you want to make sure that the bass line and low frequency dial is turned all the way down. If a kick drum, or bass line is repeated and echoed, it can sound pretty bad to the audience. Some DJ's can say that when a kick drum, or bass line is echoed, it has a muddy sound. They say that the kick drum or bass line repeated on itself over and over again as it's echoed, it's muddy. If we are using the echo FX to echo out of a track, it's good practice to gradually turn down the low-frequency dial, just before you do the echo effects. Let's do this mix as normal, and just before the track transitions over into, Music Sounds Better, I'm going to put the echo FX on the track Trick Me. I'm just going to put the track Trick Me halfway through chorus 2 to make this a bit faster. Let's have a listen. [MUSIC] I'm gradually going to turn down the bass line, and echo out of the track. [MUSIC] As you can hear that, the echo effect carried on slightly after the mix into the track, Music Sounds Better. What I did is I left the echo effect activated and the effect style turned up, and just paused the track, so the effect kept going just like this. [MUSIC] I'm quickly just going to do that mix one more time for you without talking over it, so you can have a listen to it properly. [MUSIC] Again, as you can hear, the echo FX carries the track on a bit longer, and face the track out even after the mix is done, into the track Music Sounds Better. Now, this technique of using the echo FX to echo out of a track, can be used on pretty much any mix you want to do. Now another way in which you can use the echo FX to echo out of a track when mixing, is if you can't do a normal mix, and you have to do a drop mix. The drop mix, as we mentioned in the previous video, is where you just go straight from one track to the other track by pressing play on the track you're bringing in next, and stopping the track you are mixing out of. You may have to do this because you don't have an intro beats, or percussion at the start of a track you want to bring in. Or you may just want to drop beats in a key part of the track and create anticipation in that way. Now this is not the most flattering way to mix two tracks together, but it's good to know how to do it just in case you ever need to quickly switch between two tracks, and for some reason you cannot mix them properly. It's a technique that can be used as a last resort if nothing else is working for you. This time on the right-hand side, I have the track Calabria, on Deck 2, and again on the right-hand side I have the track Trick Me, on Deck 1. What I'm going to do is just echo out of the track Trick Me, and simply press play at the start of break 1 on the track Calabria. Just as the track Trick Me is coming to the end of its phrase, I'm going to turn the echo on, press Stop on the track, and then simply press Play on the track on Calabria. Let's have a listen to that mix. [MUSIC] As you can hear that, that's just a simple drop mix, but with an added echo effect on the track Trick Me. Just as it came to the end of its phrase, I simply applied the echo effect on the track Trick Me, and at the same time pressed Stop on Trick Me, and Play on the track Calabria, at the start of its break. As I mentioned, it's not the most flattering or technically hard mix to do, but it can be just as effective if you need to do that type of mix. There you have it. There's a couple of ways in which you can use the echo effect to echo out of a track when mixing. 59. Class Project: Hi there again. As part of the Skillshare community, you may already know that class projects are a big part of the platform and what makes Skillshare unique. In this video, I'm going to quickly outline this class project. For the class project, Skillshare gives you an option to add a cover image, a project title, a project description, and any extra images, videos, or files you may have and want to share. All you need to do is go to Projects and Resources tab under this video and click "Create Project". For the cover photo, you can use any DJ picture that you like. Some suggestions can be to use a screenshot of your DJ software. Or you can take a picture of your DJ equipment by itself if you do not want to be in the photo, or you can even take a picture of yourself DJing with your DJ equipment. For the class project you can title it whatever you like, for example you can title the project, My First DJ Project or My First DJ Mix, or even I am Now A Wicked Sick DJ. In the project description, you can feel free to put whatever you like in relation to the course. You can share your experience with the course in any way you like. There is no right or wrong answer here any information on how your experience was with the course and with djing in general would be perfect. But if you are struggling for things to write and to keep things simple, as I know it can be hard to think of things on the spot sometimes and also because I want as many of you guys as possible to participate in the class project, I'm going to give you an optional structure to follow of finishing these three sentences. I started this DJ course because three things that I have learned from this DJ course are, and after this DJ course, I am going to, so in the project description, you can finish them sentences for your project. The more that you guys share, the more we can all interact with each other and connect and discuss the topic of DJing is always great to hear how people have got on with the course and the positive impacts it has had on the DJ journey. At this time, Skillshare does not yet offer the option to directly upload videos or audio to class projects so for this reason, I'm not expecting everyone to record their own DJ mix and upload it. But if you do record your own DJ mix with either the tracks from the course or with your own tracks and want to add it to the class project that will be awesome. Any mix that you could share would be great to hear for both myself and the other students. One of the best ways to do this is to record your mix on the DJ software directly by clicking the "Record" button. From there, you can upload your mix to Mixcloud. Mixcloud is a platform designed specifically for DJs to upload their mixes too. From there you can share the link to your mix in your class project. Another bonus to this is that everyone else who listens to your mix on Mixcloud via Skillshare can also follow you on Mixcloud too and listen to your future mixes. Another option could be if you have a YouTube account and you don't want to create a Mixcloud account, is to put the audio into iMovie and put an image of the top of the audio. You don't even have to make the YouTube video public if you don't want to. You can just upload it as private and then share the link in the project. Or the last option is just to set your phone up and record your mix through your phone using the camera microphone on there. Again, with this option, you would have to upload the video online and then share the link. Remember, sharing your DJ mix is just an option if you did want to do so. If you don't want to do that, just uploading a picture and leaving some comments would be great if you have any questions about the project, feel free to create a discussion in the course, and I'll get back to you from there. I hope you enjoy the course and I look forward to hearing how it goes in your projects. See you in the next video. 60. Intro - Hip Hop and R&B: Welcome to the hip hop and R&B section of the course. This is an extra section of the course that I have added due to student feedback and students asking if I could do a hip hop and R&B section and I'm glad to say here it is. Unfortunately, in this section of the course, I'm not able to give the tracks away for free for you to mix along with, but I am very confident you will still learn a lot from these tutorials. By the end of this section, you'll be able to mix hip pop and R&B tracks effectively, even without the free tracks. You will still be able to do the same hip hop and R&B techniques that I teach you, but just with your own hip hop and R&B tracks. In this section of the course, I will show you several different ways in which you can mix hip hop and R&B tracks together. This section also includes how to mix tracks together that are at different speeds and at different BPMs. For example, how to mix a track that is 70 beats per minute into a track that is 90 beats per minute, or how to mix a track that is 100 beats per minute into a track that is 130 beats per minute. This is one of the most common questions that I get asked, how do you mix two tracks together that are two different speeds? I'm very happy to say that in this section, I answer this question and show you exactly how to do it. Also, at the end of this section, I will do a short DJ mix for you that mixes five tracks together that are also at different speeds and at different BPMs. This is to show you how you can use these DJ techniques practically in a live DJ set. I hope you enjoyed this section just as much as I enjoyed filming it, and I'll see you in the next video. 61. Sections of a Hip Hop and R&B Track: In this video, we're going to take a look at the different sections of a Hip Hop and R&B track. In dance music, the sections are determined by the music and sounds of the track. The break of a dance track is quieter and has less sounds, and then the track builds up to the chorus, which is the most energetic part of the track, where all the sounds come together and play at the same time. Hip Pop and R&B tracks are not the same. The main sections of a Hip Pop and R&B track are determined by the lyrics and vocals of the track rather than the music and sounds. There are four main sections of a Hip Hop and R&B track. These are the intro, the chorus, diverse, and the outro. First, we will take a look at the intos and the outros. Just like with dance music, the intros and outros are parts of the track that are at the very start and at the very end. The intros build up the track at the start and the outro fades out the track at the end. The intros and outros of a Hip Hop and R&B track are usually a lot shorter than a dance track. They only usually last for one or two phrases. However, this can vary depending on what version of the track you are using. There are two different versions of a track you may come across. These are DJ friendly tracks and non-DJ friendly tracks. DJ friendly tracks are tracks that will include intros and outros specifically made for deejaying. They'll have beats at the start of the track to mix in with and beats at the end of the track to mix out with. However, non-DJ friendly tracks do not have intros and outros specifically made for deejaying. They will generally just go straight into a chorus of us without any beats to mix with. These are like your radio edits that you will find on the radio or also on YouTube and Spotify. For example, as you can see on the playlist here, we have several tracks that are the same. We'll have an intro version and a non-into version. I'm just going to drag this track up here, light it up. Let's have the non-intro version on the left and the intro version on the right, just so we can have a listen to the difference. The track on the left on deck 1 will just go straight into the vocals and have no intro beats. That's all at the start. Let's have a listen. [MUSIC] Whereas the track on the right-hand side on deck 2 is the intro version, and it generally has one phrase of intro beats before the chorus of us comes in. Let's have a listen to this one. [MUSIC] As you can hear that, the track on the right has one phrase of intro beats specifically made for deejaying with. Sometimes non DJ friendly tracks do have very short intros and outros that may last around 60 beats. But these are generally not beats specifically designed for deejaying with. They are just there to quickly build up to the main part of the track for the radio or Spotify. For example, what I'm going to do is drag the track. I'm going to put the non-intro version on the left hand side and the intro version on the right-hand side. As you'll be able to hear on the non-intro version, the non DJ friendly track on the left-hand side, it will have a slight intro but it's not specifically designed for deejaying with. Let's have a listen to this. [MUSIC] As you can hear that it does have a slight intro for 16 beats, but it's not designed for deejaying with. On the right-hand side, we have the same track, but with a DJ friendly intro version. Let's have a listen to the start of this track. [MUSIC] As you can hear that, the DJ friendly track on the right-hand side has one phrase of intro beats designed specifically for deejaying with. One place you can find DJ friendly trucks are in what's called DJ record pools. A DJ record pool is a platform where you can download music specifically made for deejaying. The DJ record tool that I use is called DJ City. Another option is to use DJ links. You can generally find the DJ links already built into your library on your DJ software. For example, if you look here on the left-hand side of my DJ software on the library, these four boxes where it says login are DJ links. We have SoundCloud, Beatport, Beatsource, and TIDAL. What DJ links do is allow you to stream DJ friendly music directly to your software and use them to DJ with. It's like being able to connect to Spotify from your DJ software, you'll have access to a massive library of music directly from your DJ software to mix with. If you are serious about deejaying, I would highly recommend checking either of these two options out. It makes it a lot easier to DJ when you have tracks with specific intros and outros to mix with, rather than just radio edits that you may have downloaded from YouTube or Spotify. Now that being said, in this section, I am going to show you different ways to mix both DJ friendly tracks and non DJ friendly tracks so you know how to mix both types of tracks by the end of this section. Now we'll take a look at the choruses and the versus. The chorus is the main parts of the track. It can consist of either singing or rapping, and can also be known as the hook because it's the most catchy part of the track that sticks in people's heads. You can tell what part of the track is the chorus because it is normally repeated two or three times throughout the track, and usually only lasts for one phrase. The verse is the section of the track in-between the choruses. The verses are usually two or three phrases long, and the lyrics are not usually repeated anywhere else in the track. You'll generally find different versus throughout the track. To be able to find where these main sections are in the track, it's usually easier to find where the choruses are first and then the versus will naturally fall in-between. When highlighting your tracks, you only really need to highlight the choruses. Now, because the sections of a Hip Hop and R&B track are determined by the vocals and lyrics rather than the music concerns, we cannot just look at the waveform to determine the sections of the track like we can do with dance music. We have to actually listen to the track and listen to the lyrics to see where the lyrics repeat themselves to find the choruses. For this example, I'm just going to drag the track, lights it up again up on the left-hand side. I'm just going to quickly highlight the choruses on this track. What I've done here now is I've highlighted where the track repeats itself. Let's quickly have a listen to these sections now. [MUSIC] So that's the first chorus there. Then we'll just going to quickly have a listen to the second chorus., [MUSIC] As you can hear there on the second chorus, it repeats exactly the same lyrics as the first chorus. Now, if we flick anywhere else in the track, you'll realize that it's not saying the same lyrics. We've just listened to a section at the start of the track, [MUSIC] and then in the middle of the track, and then towards the end of the track. You can hear that each part of that track is different. These are the verses. When mixing Hip Hop and R&B, it's the choruses that we need to focus on mainly. This is why I've just highlighted these sections. What I'm quickly going to do now is highlight the choruses as well on the track on the right-hand side. What I've done there is I've just highlighted the choruses on the second track on the right-hand side. Well, we're just going to quickly have a listen to these to see if they repeat themselves. [MUSIC] That's the first chorus though. I'm just going to quickly listen to the second course as well. [MUSIC] As you can hear that, on chorus 2 it repeats exactly the same lyrics as our chorus 1. If I was to click anywhere in the track now within the versus, it won't have repeats in lyrics. I will just quickly going to show you that each one of these courses is one phrase long, so I'm just going to put the track, light it up on hot cue A at the start to the first chorus. Then use beat jump function to jump forward 32 beats. It takes us straight to hot cue B. I'm going to quickly jump to hot cue C. If you've seen them, the verse in the middle is two phrases long. Then from here, from hot cue C to hot cue D, you can see that's one phrase as well. Then quickly just wave well, I went to put it on hot cue A. Use the beat jump function to jump forward 32 beats. Then you can see there that it's one phrase long and it will be the same with chorus 2 as well. I'm just going to quickly as well change the chorus of the hot cues and make notes of them just so it makes it clear to what these sections are. What I've gone ahead and done that is just change the colors so that the first chorus is our light blue and the second choruses are a darker blue. You can see in the comments as well I've added CH1 for chorus 1 and CH2 for chorus 2. Now, as I've mentioned previously in the course, you can make notes on hot cues and set your hot cues however you want. But just for the purpose of this section, I'm going to set them out like this. Now you may be thinking why I have not set any further intros and outros. This is because with the DJ friendly tracks, they are generally always one phrase of intro and two phrases of outro. It'll become clear throughout this section why I've not highlighted them and only highlighted the choruses. But like I've said, after the chorus, you can highlight your tracks however you want, whatever suits you better. Another key point that I want to make in this video is, as you can see with these examples here and the highlights that I've made, the sections of the hip pop and R&B tracks are determined by the vocals and lyrics and not by the music and sounds. As you can see, there can be changes in the music and changes in the sounds within the sections of a Hip Hop and R&B track. For example, the base can come in and go out during the chorus and the base can come in and go out during the versus. This means it's not possible to spot the sections of a hip pop and R&B track just by looking at the wave forms, you have to actually listen to the vocals and the lyrics to be able to find the different sections. For example, as you can see here on chorus 1, it is mainly red in color, and then slightly it goes out. In chorus 2, is only half red and half a green yellow color. Then same with the chorus on, it's half green and half red, same of chorus 2. This is the same for the versus as well in the tracks, and each track is different. As you can see, it can be hard to spot the different sections just by looking at the waveforms, you do have to actually listen to the lyrics. The quickest way to spot the different sections of the tracks is to find where the choruses are by where the lyrics repeat themselves. Now we understand the different sections of a Hip hop R&B track. Let's move on to the mixes. 62. Hip Hop and R&B Mix 1 - Basic Mix: In this video, I'm going to show you the first way we're going to mix these hip pop and R&B tracks together. The first way I'm going to try and mix these two tracks together is in a basic way of when one track significant sounds end, another track significant sounds begin. This will be when the base ends on the track Light It Up and the base begins on the track Wow, which is at the very start of the intro, at the very start of the track. The track here on the left-hand side, Light It Up, the base ends around this point in the track. Let's have a listen. [MUSIC] It still does have a slight bit of base there, but it's not too intense. I'm going to mix it at that point there to see how it sounds. Firstly, we're going to have both beat sinks on on these tracks. Then let's have a listen to the mix. [MUSIC] Even though the significant sound switch at the right time and there are no real flat parts of the track we've just basic percussion, it is still a rather long mix and takes too long to get into the next track. Especially when hip pop and R&B tracks are a lot slower and it takes longer to get through a phrase. Let's see if we can make it sound any better. The second way I'm going to try and mix these two tracks together it's by pressing play on the track Wow as the second chorus ends on the track Light It Up. After the second chorus on the track Light It Up, there is a bridge between chorus 2 and the outro that just consists of baseline and a slight bits of vocal. Let's have a listen to that. Just here as chorus 2 ends, I'm going to mix the track in. [MUSIC] It's this section here I'm going to mix the track Wow in, and I'm going to do it like a dance mix at the crossfade over to the left-hand side and do a base swap in the center of the mix. Let's have a listen to see how that sounds. [MUSIC] Now that mix does sound good, and again, it's technically correct. However, for me, it can still take too long to get into the next track. The reason why I've shown you these mixes is to show you that mixing hip pop and R&B is not like mixing dance music. That style of mix that we have just done would be good for dance music because when mixing dance music it's more orientated around the music and sounds. However, mixing hip-hop and R&B is not all about the music and sounds. It does obviously play a part, but mixing hip pop and R&B has more to do with the transitions between the vocals and lyrics rather than the music and sounds. This is because the vocals on the lyrics of a hip hop and R&B track play more of an important role. For this reason, when mixing hip pop and R&B is going to have to be a lot faster and punchier style of mixing. It should ideally go from the vocals of one track straight to the vocals of the next track, as well as switching the sounds in the background. This time what we're going to do is mix the intro of the track Wow over the top of the chorus of the track Light It Up, which means to time this right, we will have to press play on the track Wow at the start of the chorus of Light It Up and then mix out of the track Light It Up at the end of the chorus. After the chorus, the audience will generally be expecting a new verse anyway. The transition into the other tracks first should fit pretty well when doing the mix. During the mix, we're still going to do base swap in the middle of the mix to avoid any clashes up significant sounds and baselines. Let's see how that sounds. I'm going to start the track Light It Up just before the second chorus. Then just as the second car starts, I'm going to press play on the track Wow. Crossfade all over to the left-hand side. Both tracks beats sync up, and let's have a listen to that. [MUSIC] As you would hopefully agree there, that makes sense a lot better and will keep the audience's attention a lot more and keep them entertained. It's still avoids any clashes of significant signs of baselines, vocals, or melodies. Now the good news is, pretty much all hip hop and R&B tracks that are DJ friendly are structured in the same way as this, with one phrase of intro and one phrase of chorus. This means that most hip pop and R&B tracks when mixed this way will generally fit together perfectly. I would say that this style of mixing, where we mix the intro of one track over the top of the chorus of another track would be the most simple and effective way to mix hip hop and R&B. This also means that you don't have to wait until the end of the track to mix. You can always choose to mix out on the first chorus or the second chorus. This means that if the track isn't going down to well, you can always mix out of it early into another track. For example, what I'm going to do now is mix out of the track Wow and back into the track Light It Up with the same technique. Let's have a listen to that. I'm going to put the track Wow just before the first chorus. Then press play on the track Light It Up at the starts of chorus 1. [MUSIC] That you have it. That is the most simple and effective way to mix hip hop and R&B tracks together when you have DJ friendly tracks with intros and outros. Let's move on to the next video. 63. Hip Hop and R&B Mix 2 - Mixing In: Now, we have established that you can mix the intro of a new track over the top of the chorus of an over track already playing. There can be different ways to mix the new track in over the top of the chorus. In the previous video, we did more of a dance style mix where we faded the new track in slowly with the cross fader. Then did a bass swap and then faded to the other tracks slowly with the cross fader as well. But as we have mentioned, mixing hip pop and R&B is a lot faster and a punchy style of mixing compared to the more progressive and smoother style of mixing dance music. So this time what we're going to do is mix the new tracking a lot faster, so it has a lot more impact in the mix. We can do this by hitting play on the track that we're bringing in next with the cross fader already over slightly towards the middle. This way, the new track comes in straight away and should have more of an impact in the mix. I'm going to show you an example of how to do this with these two tracks, and this time instead of staying in the cross fader all the way over to the left-hand side and slowly fading it in, I want to start a bit just next to the center. Let's have a listen to this. [MUSIC] So as you can hear then, as soon as the chorus starts, the next track comes in with a lot more impact straight away. Now, depending on how loud and how much impact you want to have the new track coming in will depend on how far over you want your cross fader. If you want something to sound equal, you want to have it directly in the center of the cross fader. If you want it to only have a slight impact, you can put it a quarter away across the cross fader. This all depends on what traction mixing and what impact do you want to have. However, when doing this style of mixing, we have to remember to avoid any clashes of significant sounds. So if I either want to do a bass swap at the very start of the mix or in the middle of the mix, depending on your preferred style of mixing. So the first option would be to start the track you're mixing next with the low-frequency equalizer all the way down and then switching them in the middle of the mix. All to have more impact, you may want to bring the track you're bringing in next with full bass and turn the bassline down on the track you're mixing goes off. So I'm going to show you these two different styles of mixing now. For the first one I want to start with a cross fader over slightly, and the bassline on the truck that I'm bringing in next all the way down, and then doing a bass swap in the middle. Let's have a listen to that. [MUSIC] Then this time what I'm going to do is start the new track with the bass all the way up and turn the bassline down on the track I'm mixing go top just before the chorus starts. Let's have a listen to that. [MUSIC]. So I'm just going to quickly show you them two styles of mixing again, where we bring the track in a lot faster with more impact, with a different track on the right-hand side now, to give you a different perspective. The first one, I'm going to start with the bassline down and then switch them in the middle and the second one, I'm going to start with the truck I'm bringing next with the full bass up and turn the bass down on the chorus. So let's have a listen to that. [MUSIC]. This one we have the bass diode on the truck coming in next. [MUSIC] Then this time for the last mix of this video, I'm going to bring the track in with the bass fully up and turn the bass down, so it just before the chorus of the track I'm already playing. Let's have a listen to that mix. [MUSIC]. So there you have it. Now you have three different ways to mix in a track when doing a hip hop and R&B mix. You can fade it in slowly and do a bass swap in the middle, like a dance mix that we did in the previous video or you can bring it in straight away with the bass down and then do a bass swap in the middle of the mix or you can turn the bass down on the chorus of the truck already playing and have the full bass of the intro of the new truck come in straight away. These will all depend on what tracks you are mixing and what impact you want to have whilst you are mixing. Now we have looked at the different ways of bringing a track in. In the next video, we're going to look at different ways of mixing a track out. See you in the next video. 64. Hip Hop and R&B Mix 3 - Beat Juggling In: In this video, I just wanted to add another quick way of mixing a track in using beat juggling. Using either one of those techniques that I've shown you in the last video of starting the track in with the crossfade already in the middle and the base already up or down you can also beat juggle the track in, so the audience expects to track to come in. Let me just quickly show you what I mean with this mix. This time instead of pressing play, what I want to do is beat over with a track in, I want to turn to track down on the left-hand side on the base and let the track that's coming in next coming with the base fully up. Let's have a listen to that. [MUSIC] They have it. I just wanted to add a quick video on just how you can beat juggling a track as well when mixing in hip hop and R&B. You can use the same patterns that I've shown you in the beat juggling section of the course and also including the DJ music-pack to practice to hip hop and R&B tracks with just beats to practice your beat matching. Try that style of mixing and have a bit of fun beat-juggling all tracks in as well. See you in the next video where I'll be showing you different ways of mixing out of the hip hop and R&B trucks. 65. Hip Hop and R&B Mix 4 - Mixing Out: Now we have looked at the different ways to mix a track in. In this video, we're now going to look at the different ways on how we can mix a track out. So far, we have just gradually faded the truck out that was already playing by using the crossfader. As we have mentioned, mixing hip-hop and R&B can be a lot faster and punchier to mix with. Now we're going to take a look at a few more ways how we can mix out of a track to have more of an impact on the track that's coming in next. The first way we're going to mix is that we're going to set a shot two-beat loop within the chorus just before we mix the track out. Let me show you how to do that mix. I'm going to start the track, Light It Up just before the second chorus. Then just before I mix out the track Light It Up, I'm going to set a two-beat loop. Hopefully what this will do is add a little extra anticipation to the mix and add more impact to the track that's coming in next. Let's have a listen to that. [MUSIC] As you can hear that, it can build up some extra anticipation for the track coming in next. Also because you're disrupting the natural flow of the tracks chorus by using a loop, the audience will then expect to mix and also expect the music to change to another track. Now we can also add spin back into this mix to add even more impact to the track coming in next. Just before the lyrics of the next track is going to come in, we're going to add a spin back. I'll show you how that sounds. [MUSIC] As you can hear that on the last couple of beats of the mix, I just did a quick spin back, and as soon as the spin back ended, the vocals in the next track came in. Now another way we can do this type of mix and have a similar effect is to exit the mix earlier with a two-beat echo effect. You can set the echo effect to two beats on your DJ controller or in your DJ software and apply the echo effect to the track you want to mix out of a few beats before the next track comes in. For example, here, I can open up the effects option on the DJ software, and on my release effects on the DJ controller just here, I have the echo effect setup to two beats. Now when I apply this release echo, it will echo two beats. Let's have a listen to that mix. [MUSIC] As you can hear though, at the same part of the track, I applied the echo effect for two beats. The only downside to that is you cannot do a spin back once you've set the echo effect. To take this a step further, we're going to go back to setting a loop. We can set the two-beat loop earlier in the chorus and then reduce the loop down to create more anticipation. This time we're going to start with a two-beat loop first and then reduce down to a one-beat loop, and then further to a half a beat loop and then do a spin back out just as the next track comes in. Let me show you what I mean on this mix. [MUSIC] As you can hear though, setting the loop and then reducing it down and adding a spin back adds a lot more anticipation to the mix and more impact for the truck coming in next. There you have it. You now have four different ways to exit a track during a hip hop mix. You can fade the track out gradually using the crossfader just like with the dance mix, you can use a two-beat loop within the chorus and then spin back at the end. You can use an echo effect with the chorus with two beats, or you can use a two-beat loop earlier within the chorus and then reduce the loop down and then add a spin back at the end also. I'm going to show you one more mix the other way around. This time I'll mix light it up into wall just to give you another idea of how you can use these techniques. Then we'll move on to the next video. Let's have a listen to that. [MUSIC] 66. Hip Hop and R&B Mix 5 - Changing BPM's: In this video, I'm going to show you one way in which you can mix two tracks together that are different BPMs and speeds. This is often one of the most common questions that I get asked. I'm happy to be doing a few videos on this topic. Firstly, we are going to be going from a slower track to a faster track. We are going to be playing Whats Poppin first, which is 72.5 beats per minute, and then mix into Rockstar, which is 90 beats per minute. Now, we can't just do a normal mix because we would have to change one track speed to match the other track speed, so we will end up with either a track that is going far too slow, or a track that is going far too fast, which either way won't sound great. We have to find a way to mix these two tracks without them sounding bad or off to the audience. Firstly, when doing this type of mixing between tracks that have different BPMs, we want to put the pitch range on the track we are mixing out of set too wide. Our standard is usually put to plus 6 or plus 10. As you can see here, just in green on the circle, it says plus 6, so I'm just going to change this too wide, so I'm just going to click it until it says wide. You should be able to do this on your controller as well. What this does is it allows you to change the track speed at a bigger range, allowing you to make the track a lot faster and a lot slower. For example, now if I move the pitch fader all the way up, it can go all the way to 145. But if I just put it on plus 6 and then move the pitch fader all the way up to the top, it's only going to go to 76 beats per minute, so it gives you a lot bigger range to play with. When using this type of DJ technique where you have to make big changes to attract speed, you also want to make sure that the master tempo is switched on and activated on record box. Just here in red, you can see some small letters that say MT on this side and on that side, this is the master tempo. When it is red, it is activated. It is also known as a key lock, as it is called on Serato. We have covered this in a previous video towards the start of the course, but what this does is it stops the track from going squeakier or deeper when doing big changes to the track's speed. It keeps the track at the same key no matter what speed it's going. For example, I'm going to play this track Whats Poppin, and then change the speed of the track and listen to how the key of the track doesn't change with master temper on. [MUSIC] The speed changes but the key doesn't. This time, I want to press "Play" again and turn the master tempo off and listen to how the vocals go squeakier. [MUSIC] As you can hear that, the master tempo is very important when doing this style of mixing. Now, what we want to do is find a part in the track that we are mixing out off that wouldn't sound bad being looped over and over again, preferably for two beats or four beats. This will work best with an isolated vocal, so the less sound is the better. Which means you want to loop a vocal that doesn't have any bass, melody, or percussion included with it. It also helps if the loop is the last two beats or the last four beats of a phrase. Now, if you cannot find an isolated vocal, you can use the low-frequency equalizer to cut the base side of the track if needed. As we can see here in the track, there is a greeny blue section, and as we know from the colors, it means it won't have very many sounds and it could be potentially vocals by itself. What I want to do is try and loop the last few beats of this section and see how that sounds. [MUSIC] As we can hear that, that is a complete vocal, so it is like a short sentence that we can keep looping that doesn't sound too bad. We're going to use this part of the track. Now, when this truck is playing, when it gets to this part, we're going to loop these two beats ready for the mix. What I'm going to do just for the point of this mix is just set a hock you here saying loop two beats. [NOISE] Now, when I get to this point here, I know this is the point where I want to loop two beats just for this mix. Once we have looped this part of the track, we are then going to increase the speed of the track to match the speed of the track we want to bring in next, which for this example will be Rockstar. Then we'll mix the track Rockstar over the top of the loop. I want to show you that mix now and let's see how that sounds. I must mention that whatever track is playing should be the master tempo. That means whenever you use beat sync, the track that is not master tempo will change its speed and BPM to match the master tempo, which is good for this mix because this will then go from 90 BPM to 72.5 BPM, and then we can increase the speed on the track Whats Poppin to much 90 BPM, then press "Play" on this track. I'm now going to press "Beat Sync" on both tracks and the track Rockstar has now gone to 72.5. When doing this type of mix, make sure you're familiar with your sync buttons on your personal DJ controller and DJ software that you use. I have been guilty of it myself previously when I've used different equipment where I've used beat sync wrong and the track that has been playing out to the audience has all of a sudden jumped to a different BPM when I try pressing the beat sync buttons. You do have to be careful when doing that. Have a listen to this mix, see what you think. [MUSIC] As you can hear though, I also started reducing the loop down at 16 beats and at eight beats, and then at four beats left before the next truck came in, just as I've shown you in previous videos. Now, the reason why we use a loop when changing the track to a different speed and we do not just speed the track up as it's playing normally is because using the loop disrupts the track's natural flow, and lets the audience know there is going to be a change in the track and change in the mix. It can also add some extra anticipation for the audience to what's coming next. If we didn't use a loop, the track would just be increasing in its speed and it'd sound really off to the audience. It'd sound like there is something going wrong with the track because they are not used to the track being played at that speed and changing as it is. Using a loop sounds more deliberate like you're meant to be doing it during the mix. Also, when using a loop to mix between two speeds, the loop acts like a bridge between the two tracks. Track 1 plays in its normal speed then the loop does the speed change, and then Track 2 plays at its normal speed as well. That means that both tracks are playing at their normal speed and it's only the loop that changes speed. This is a mixing technique that can also be done from a hip-hop track to a dance track. Here now on the left-hand side, we have the track Light It Up, which is at 100 beats per minute, and on the right-hand side, we have to track Sexy Chick, which is 130 beats per minute, which is a dance track. Firstly, we're going to find the parts of the track that we're mixing out of that has an isolated vocal and doesn't sound bad or incomplete when looped. Again, it helps if it's the last two beats or four beats of a phrase. We're going to have a look at the first chorus here, then have a listen to the last four beats of the chorus. [MUSIC] What we're going to do is use these last four beats of chorus one as they are isolated vocals with no baseline melody or percussion with them and it's the last four beats of the phrase. I'm going to do the same mix again, and let's see how that sounds. I have the track on the left-hand side here set to wide on the pitch range, it is the master deck, so it won't change speed when I press the sync buttons, the track on the right-hand side will change speed instead. Now, currently, it's at 130 beats per minute. I want to press both the sync buttons, and now the track on the right-hand side has gone to 100 beats per minute. Master tempo is on both tracks as well to avoid the tracks going squeakier or deeper. Let's have a listen to that mix. [MUSIC] As you can hear that, we did the same DJ technique. We looped the four beats at the end of the phrase, gradually moved up the pitch slider until it got to 130 beats per minute, then hit "Play" on the track Sexy Chick, which came in with a good beat and a good baseline, and then reduced down the loop after 16 beats, then after eight beats, and then after four beats, and then span the truck out. This DJ technique generally works better going from a slower BPM track to a faster BPM track. This is just because tracks don't sound as bad going faster and increasing the intensity. But if you were to slow down a track, it can sometimes sound worse going slower and it may lose the energy and the momentum that you've gained from the audience. It can sometimes sound off by dropping down speeds to a slower track when the audience are used to a faster speed and a faster track. As well, it is worth noting, you also don't want to be doing a mix like this every single time. You only really want to be doing big changes in speeds now and again when you have to. If you can, you ideally want to be gradually increasing your overall speed and BPM throughout your set by playing tracks that are only slightly faster than the previous track as you progress through your set. You ideally want to be jumping up small increments of BPMs every track, rather than large jumps in BPMs. For example, it's better going from a track at 72 BPM to 75, then to 80, then to 85, and then to 90 rather than going straight from a 72 BPM track to a 90 BPM track. That way you can slowly increase the speed and BPM of your tracks whilst it's playing without the audience noticing any big differences. That being said, if you do need to jump bigger BPM gaps, you can use this DJ technique to do so. What I'm also going to do is show you a couple more ways and techniques to mix between BPMs in the next few videos. See you there. 67. Hip Hop and R&B Mix 6 - Acapella Bridge: In this video, I'm going to show you how to use an acapella bridge to mix between two different BPMs. We have used an acapella bridge to mix between two tracks before in the dance section of the course. It's the same technique, but as the acapella loop is playing by itself, in the middle of the bridge, we can change the BPM to match the next track. When using an acapella loop, you want to start the acapella just as the vocals and on the track you want to mix out off. Then you want to end the acapella loop as the vocal style on the next track you are mixing in. You want the acapella loop to mix into the track that is currently playing for one phrase, then you want to play the acapella loop by itself for one phrase, which during that time you're going to increase the speed of the loop and get the next track ready and loaded up, then you want to mix the intro of the next tracking over the top of the acapella loop for one phrase. All together, it's going to be a three-phase mix, with something different happening every phrase. Let's have a listen to that and I'll talk you through it. Firstly, we're going to start off with the track on the left-hand side on Deck 1, What's Poppin. This track is at 72.5 beats per minute. Then we're going to mix in the acapella loop of Music Makes You Lose Control. This acapella loop is at 71 beats per minute, and then we're going to increase it to 90 beats per minute, and then mix in on the left-hand side on Deck 1, the track Rockstar. We're going to go from What's Poppin, to the Acapella Loop, back to Rockstar. As you can see here as well, the track loop we're going to be playing first is going to be the master deck, so the acapella loop will change its BPM to match this track on the left-hand side, and we've also got the pitch range as wide on the track on the right-hand side because this is the one we're going to be changing. Both tracks have master tempo activated. What we're going to do now is beat-sync both tracks up. As you can see, the acapella loop now has changed to 72.5. Let's have a listen to that mix and see how it sounds. [MUSIC] So just as the [inaudible] I'm going to start the acapella loop. Then over one phrase, I'm going to move the cross-bedder across to the other side. Now, because it is a solo track, the phrases take a bit longer. Now I'm going to take the next track ready and load it up, and then change the BPM on the right. Then to start the next phrase, press "Play" on the truck on the left-hand side. Now over one phrase played the acapella loop. Then add a beat of the sampler effects. There you have it. That is how you can use an acapella loop to mix between two tracks of different BPMs. I'm going to do that one more time for you without talking through it so you can have a listen and watch fully. [MUSIC] 68. Hip Hop and R&B Mix 7 - No Intro Hot Cue Jump: In this video, we're going to look at one way in which we can mix Hip Hop and R&B tracks that have no intro specifically made for deejaying. For example here on the left-hand side, we just have the original version of the track, Light It Up, so it's not the introversion. Let's have a listen to the start. [MUSIC] As you can hear that it goes straight into the melody on the vocals. I'm going to show you a way in which you can mix this track into another track by using a different section of the track as the intro. Now we have done a similar style of mix in the dance section of the course. Where you can use a different part of the track as the intro and then hot cue jump back to the start of the track at the end of the mix. We're going to the same type of mix with this track. Firstly, we will want to find a part of the track that best resembles an intro. A part of the track that hopefully just has some percussion and bassline and doesn't have any vocals or melody in it. This can usually be found in the outro towards the end of the track. Even though non-DJ friendly tracks don't have a proper intro to mix with, they can still often have some form of outro you might be able to use to mix with instead, even if it's only eight bits or 16 beats, you can still use a loop to mixing with. For example, let's have a listen to the end of this track. [MUSIC] We should be able to use the end of that track there. Now, I'm going to use the last 16 beats instead of the last phrase, because the second part of that phrase, the vocals answers prominent. I'm just going to set a loop on that part of the track just now. [MUSIC] I'm just going to set that loop on the performance parts as a hot cue. Then what we're going to do is go back to the start of the track, and set to hot cue just here. Then at the end of the mix, using that loop, I can jump straight back to the start of the track and play the first verse. [MUSIC] What I'm quickly going to do now on the track on the right-hand side is just highlight the choruses so we know where we're mixing. Now we have the choruses highlighted, we've got chorus 1 here at the start and then chorus 2 towards the end. For this example, I'm going to mix the outro over the chorus 2. I'm going to have to loop it twice to make sure it makes a full phrase. You can use any style of mixing that I've shown you throughout this section of the course, bringing the tracking straight away with the base down, and then doing a base swap in the middle, or bringing the tracking straight away with the base up and having the base down on the track that's currently playing. I'll leave that up to you to decide. I'm just going to quickly show you how to use the loop at the end of the track and use the hot cue to jump back to the start of the track during the mix. Let's have a listen to that. [MUSIC] Now as you could hear that, the track Light It Up did have some slight vocals at the end of it. But if you don't have a DJ-friendly track, you may just have to work with what you've got and do the best that you can. Or if you really want it to, because the outro of the track Light It Up does have some slight vocals in, you can make it a little longer mix and put the outro of Light It Up over the outro of the track Wow. It would be a longer mix but can still work and that's completely up to you. I'm going to show you that mix as well. I'm just going to delete the loop at the end of the track Lights It Up, set a hot cue just at the last phrase of the track of the outro. I'll show you a mix using that one as well and still jumping back to the start of the track. Let's have a listen to that mix. [MUSIC] You do have another option though. If you did want to use that, that's completely up to you and you're on DJ preferences. What I'm quickly going to do now is just highlight the choruses on the track, Light It Up. I did the same mix again, but the opposite way around. Now what I've done here is highlighted the choruses is on the track Light It Up. We've got chorus 1 here in light blue and chorus 2 in dark blue. I've also gone ahead and set a 32-bit loop at the outro or the track wall because it just consists of mainly basslines and precautions. I've also set a hot cue at the start of the track where the vocals come in and the verse starts. [MUSIC] What I'm going to do now is show you the same mix again, but the opposite way around, according from the track Wow to the track Light It Up, using the outro to mix with that first for the loop and then jump into the start of the track using a hot cue. Let's have a listen to that mix. [MUSIC] There you have it. There is one way that you can mix a track that has no intro made specifically for DJ by using the outro as the intro and using a hot cue jump to get back to the start of the first verse. I'll see you in the next video. 69. Hip Hop and R&B Mix 8 - Drop Mixing: In this video, I'm going to show you another way to mix tracks together when they don't have intros, or outros that you can use to mix with. This technique also works if you want to change BPMs and you don't have any intros, or outros to mix with either. The technique we are going to look at is drop mixing. Drop mixing is basically when you simply stop the track you're currently playing and then just press play on the track that you want to play next. You are just basically dropping the track in. This is the most basic form of deejaying. Even though it's called drop mixing, there isn't actually much mixing involved. It is not the most flattering way to DJ, nor is it the most fun way to DJ either. But trust me, it works and it can get you out of some sticky situations as well. We have used the technique of drop mixing before in the dance section of the course. But I believe it's even more relevant when mixing hip hop and R&B tracks for the main reason of changing BPMs, and that some hip hop and R&B tracks don't have intros to mix with. Drop mixing is sometimes your best and only option. The key to drop mixing is to end the track currently playing at the end of the chorus and then simply press play on the next track, a significant moment of the track that will keep the audience's attention, preferably the start of a verse. For example, what I'm going to do here is mix of the chorus of Wow, on the right-hand side on deck 2 straight into the verse, and the start of the track, Light it Up on the left-hand side on deck 1. I'm simply just going to stop the track on the right and press play on the track on the left. Let's have a listen to that mix. [MUSIC] It's as simple as that. Waiting for the chorus to end on the track you want to mix out of, moving the crossfader over, or stopping the track and simply pressing play on the significant part of the track you want to mix in. Now to make this a little smoother, you can start to reduce the base and the low frequency dial a few beats before you stop the track you're mixing out of. Let's quickly have a listen to that. [MUSIC] Now to make this mix even smoother and less of a sudden change, you can also add some light echo effect on the track that you're mixing out of. This will then make the track carry over slightly and make it fade out a little more, which will make it less of a sudden change. It's not only good to have the echo set to a half a beat, or one beat when doing this type of mix and applying it just before the end of the chorus. This also works best when reducing the base and the low frequency dial first. Then you are not repeating any baselines in the echo. What I want to do here now is just open up the effects style and I'm going to set the echo effect here just to half a beat. That echo effect is just this dial here in which is what we're going to use. I'm going to apply that a few beats before I press stop on the track. Let's have a listen to that mix. [MUSIC] Now as mentioned, this technique can also be used to mix tracks that are different speeds and different BPMs because you're not actually mixing the tracks. They are not going to be playing at the same time as each other. You can do the drop mixing technique exactly the same and it should still work the same, even though they are different BPMs. I actually use this technique quite a lot during my set. When I want to quickly change BPMs, or sometimes it's a lot easier than actually mixing the tracks. Let's show you how this is done. What I'm going to do here is mix the track Rockstar into the track, Whats Poppin. Both of these tracks don't have specific intros, or outros for deejaying with. What I'm also going to do from this one is mix from the higher BPM track to the lower BPM track, just to show you how it can be done. I'm going to go from the track Rockstar at 90 BPM to the track What's Popping at 72 BPM. At the end of the chorus, I'm simply just going to press play on the track on the left-hand side at the end of the chorus. Let's have a listen to that mix. [MUSIC] That was it that I've done with just the basic play and stop. This time I'm going to reduce the baseline and add bits of echo as well. Let's have a listen to that mix. [MUSIC] There you have it. That is how you can use drop mixing with hip hop and R&B tracks that don't have an intro, or outro to mix with, and also how to mix two different tracks at different BPMs if they also don't have any intros, or outros to mix with. One thing that you can always remember when deejaying is, if in doubt, echo out. See you in the next video. 70. Hip Hop and R&B - DJ Mix Demonstration: In this video, I'm quickly going to mix through the tracks that I've been using in this section of the course. I'm going to show you how I would progress through these tracks if I was mixing them live. Now I'm not going to play the tracks info just for the sake of saving time, but you should still be able to get the idea of the mixing techniques and how to use them. I'm going to start off with the slowest track first at around 70 beats per minute and then as I go through the mix, I'm going to build up to the fastest tracks of 130 beats per minute, as this is how I would normally do my sets when DJ-ing live. So as you can see here in the library, I'm going to go from 70 BPM to 90 BPM, to 100 BPM, and then to 130 beats per minute. I find that speeding the tracks up gradually throughout your set has a better effect than slowing the tracks down during your set. This is because picking up the speed and the BPM throughout your set will also increase the momentum and energy throughout your set for the audience. I'm just going to give you a quick rundown of what I'm going to do. I'm going to start with a track, What's Popping, and then do an acapella bridge into Music Makes You Lose Control and then into Rockstar. I'm going to increase the acapella loop in the middle to 90 BPM, and then what I'm going to do from Rockstar to Light It Up, it's just do a drop mix. So I'm going to go from 90 BPM to 100 BPM by doing a simple drop mix. Then what I'm going to do is mix the track Wow into Light It Up by using the outro of the track Wow, as an intro and jumping to the start of the track using a hot cue. It's as if the track Wow doesn't have an actual intro. Then what I'm going to do is find a loop in the track Wow that is just a vocal isolated by itself, increase the speed to 130 beats per minute, and then play the track Sexy Chick over the top, finally ending the mix on 130 beats per minute. I hope you enjoy the mix and you can get an idea of how you can mix these tracks during a live set that have lots of different BPMs in them. Now obviously when DJ-ing life, you're going to have more than six tracks. So this is going to be more of a gradual increase, but just for the sake of the course and for the sake of this mix, I'm going to mix these six tracks for you how I would do if I was DJ-ing live. I hope you enjoy it and let's have a listen. [MUSIC] 71. Congratulations!: Congratulations on completing the full DJ course. I hope you've learned some great DJ skills and DJ techniques and I hope you've come away with a lots of knowledge and value from the course. I just wanted to say thank you so much for choosing this course, and I really do hope you have enjoyed it. I want to wish you all the best and good luck in the future in all aspects of your DJ journey going forward. I hope you can use all your new-found DJ skills and I have lots of fun deejaying and hopefully potentially get yourself some live DJ gigs and put some great DJ mixers out there online. If you've not yet left a review, please feel free to do so. It is hugely appreciated and it makes a massive difference. I always try and reply to anybody who writes a review as I believe, if you've taken the time to write a review, the least that I can do is respond and say hi back. Once again, congratulations and thank you so much for choosing this DJ course. Hope to see you again soon in the future. Bye for now.