Quick hands eq technique?

[robdquick]

My weird thing is that im paranoid that i dont have the channel down when cueing. even if I can see the channel fader is down I still take my headphones off and mash the cue button a few times to reassure myself that no sound is bleeding through to the main output.

I do this ALL the time! Even though I can see the channel fader is down/crossfader is on the other side (and I always keep my finger on the side of it to make sure it doesn't move when I'm cueing a song) I still take the headphones off and check, just in case!!

I did have it once where I had accidentally moved one of the crossfader assign switches on the front of my MC6000, I was cueing away and the whole crowd could hear it! Wasn't until I noticed that they were giving me dodgy looks that I realised!

[sarasin]

Holy fuck, I thought _I_ was bad with the knob touching.

Who's knobs you touching then?

Would call the cops I would!

[No Left Turn]

fixed that for you Truly I don't think it's dependent on the kind of music at all; some DJs really like heavy eqing during longer mixes, and others don't. You can mix with eqs in a long slow manner with hands on one or two at a time, or you can do the same thing by going back and forth between each knob, adjusting a little at a time as you go, which will look a lot busier. It makes a subtle difference that you can probably notice if as a listener you know both songs and are watching what the DJ's doing, but chances are you wouldn't know the difference listening to a random mix.

I think that some genres sound "better" when mixed a certain way. This, of course, changes from genre to genre. For example, with trance or progressive where the mixes are long and drawn out and can easily last over a minute, I see DJs do very slow and gradual EQing the entire time. One track slowly mixes into the next one. Then you have genres like dubstep and hardcore where mixes are fast and abrupt because of how the intros/outros are structured. If you were to take this fast mixing style and do it with progressive, for example, it would sound really awkward.

I'm not trying to say that each genre has to be mixed a certain way, but I think that djfunke was trying to point out the different mixing styles of each genre.

[djproben]

^^^I agree; I was just saying that you can do a long drawn out eq mix with slow smooth motions OR you can do the same mix and look a lot busier going back and forth between EQs on each channel and making minor adjustments one at a time. Same mix, same styles of music, but one will look a lot busier than the other. But yeah, certainly most people will do longer mixes with trance than they do with hip hop. (I think you can do nice long blends with dubstep too if you know your stuff, but yeah most mixing in that genre tends to be pretty quick too).

[AllDay]

^^^I agree; I was just saying that you can do a long drawn out eq mix with slow smooth motions OR you can do the same mix and look a lot busier going back and forth between EQs on each channel and making minor adjustments one at a time. Same mix, same styles of music, but one will look a lot busier than the other. But yeah, certainly most people will do longer mixes with trance than they do with hip hop. (I think you can do nice long blends with dubstep too if you know your stuff, but yeah most mixing in that genre tends to be pretty quick too).

For me playing glitch hop a lot you only have so long to mix in, when I have played breakbeat or electro you have tons more time to mess with eqs and such.

[NewManSoon]

What is with DJ's licking their fingers every 2 seconds.. ugh!

[djxavier]

What is with DJ's licking their fingers every 2 seconds.. ugh!

I'm guilty of that one, vinyl is tougher to grip with uber dry fingers

[b1sh0p]

I have that habit when I'm really feeling it. It's not OCD as much as its just wanting to move and keeping a rhythm. It's goes along with bobbing my head like crazy.

[kooper1980]

What is with DJ's licking their fingers every 2 seconds.. ugh!

Nothing like saliva to give you extra grip when touching knobs!!!!

I have that habit when I'm really feeling it. It's not OCD as much as its just wanting to move and keeping a rhythm. It's goes along with bobbing my head like crazy.

Thats a really good point. I also think its part of feeling "involved" with the mix.

[TWD]

There's fidgeting, but what I've seen Sander and others do is a completely different level from what Ean is doing in the video posted. You can see him do it almost every transition. There's a good example in this video at 23m where you see his hands close up.



And it's not like he's not doing anything. You can hear the sound change, but I doubt every touch is actually doing something.