The most essential part of Dj'ing?

[Patch]

Good point. When all else seems impossible, you can ALWAYS work on your beatmatching skills. Everything else kinda just happens - but beatmatching takes serious, concious effort.

[keithace]

i am so glad someone didn't say "mixing songs in key"...

[hola amigos]

Track selection, but that's not an answer that's going to help you really. That's an obvious answer, so I guess you were asking about more technical aspects.

To me, the ingredients of an average/good mix are: -

1. Track selection. It's difficult to give advice about this cos it's a matter of preference, but I think unless you're amazing technically, then avoid just banging out mixes of the latest big hits. Too many people are doing that and it's hard to stand out. Do you though, so if all you're into are the latest big tunes, then stick with them.

2. Solid basics. Levels, beat matching, phrase matching and EQing.

And I think it's a good idea to post one of your mixes online so you can get some feedback on if from other DJs. You might be better than you think (or worse, lol), plus experienced DJs will be able to point out your weaker areas.

EDIT - In fact, are these mixes you posted representative of where you're at now?.....

http://forum.djtechtools.com/showthread.php?t=59127

I would definitely say you need to focus heavily on beat matching and phrase matching. I had a scan through the first mix and some of it is way off in those areas - the blend that starts at 6:09 for instance which is a total trainwreck. When you try and blend 2 songs, you seem to drop the incoming track in a little too late, often out of phrase, and way out of sync with the track that's currently playing. Sorry to be so blunt, but I gotta be straight up with you or it won't help you. Focus on the core basics - get the 2 tracks in sync first. Make sure you understand the concept of phrase matching so you can apply that, and work on your skills at dropping a track into the mix on time. Once you start to nail that, you'll notice a drastic improvement.

Yeah i don't know musical phrasing at all. I bring in the tracks at random points. Usually when i think the drop is going to be i push play on my 2nd track. Sounds pretty bad. I also got some Electronic music mixes. I really would love to be a Psy trance dj. But suck horribly at beat matching and get lost in the song when to bring in my 2nd track.

[SantotoMT]

@DJSigma is completely right about the beat matching. I learned this way: take two house songs/remixes with the same bpm and loop the intro (a lot of times this is just a straight bass beat) on both tracks. Put your fader in the middle and start playing deck A and really get a feel for the beat. Then press play (without sync) on deck B and master getting the beats to sound exactly the same so that you can move the fader left and right and have the same sound out of your monitors. Once you're consistent with that use song with different BPMs and use the pitch fader to match them up. After thats all good just work on your selection of songs to mix together for what sounds good and eventually play with the EQs and such.

[hola amigos]

Thanks! I will try that out. I sold my old mixer. So now i got to find a new mixer to try these new steps on.

[Ham]

I don't agree with the Track Selection part, at all.

Track Selection is about knowing your crowd, not about knowing how to actually DJ.

I've heard many DJs throw down awesome tunes but they can't mix them together to save there life, then I've seen DJs take requests on songs and are able to mix them perfectly, because they know how to.

Beat Matching is the key to Flow which is the key to DJ'ing, if your mix is all over the place, the crowd will be as well, irrelevant to song selection. It's all about keeping a Groove.

It sounds like you just need to practice

[LoopCat]

Track selection. I don't care how awesome you are at beat matching or how many rad tricks you have up your sleeve If you don't have an ear for what and when a track should be dropped you fail. Reading a crowd and searching out and playing great tracks that go well together is the most important skill in my opinion.

Actually addressing the first post beat matching, phase matching, and eq-ing are all equally important and will tidy up your mixes.

[hola amigos]

Yep more practice.

How do i learn phrasing? Youtube?

[LoopCat]

YouTube or better yet find someone better than you and learn from them.

[KundaliniRising]

I really would love to be a Psy trance dj. But suck horribly at beat matching and get lost in the song when to bring in my 2nd track.

hey i could help ya here....

there are few pretty key and simple tricks to mixing psy trance largely do to is "formulistic" nature, and these will help you with you phasing issues and also when to start tracks(when to hit play) and also when to bring the second track into the mix after hitting play. what kind of psy are you playing more progressive or full on stuff?

check out some my stuff at

http://soundcloud.com/kundalini-rising

Here is some of my more recent stuff




and fire away your questions!

also learn to beatmatch, practice lots! get real good at it, then ride that sync button LOL