As of right now, I use a Hercules RMX to DJ. Looking for a nice 4 channel midi mixer, but I don’t have enough to drop on an S4 or DX. I have the Scratch button on the RMX to toggle between using the eq knobs/ cutoffs for effects and EQ. But I’ve found that its almost always on. I never use Eq. I have 4 knobs on my lpd8 bound to the filters of all 4 decks. Thats what I use when I’m stacking songs or transitioning.
Every mixer that I see has EQ knobs. Its seems like everyone uses them. Except me. Or am I just going crazy?
The vast majority of DJs do use them, but as the last guy said don’t worry if not. A few times I’ve been mixing impromptu using just my X1 and Audio 2, and I just quickly remap the bottom 2 knobs to filters for each deck and it’s perfectly functional. Not ideal for my style, but I can make it work.
Remember, a filter is effectively similar to a set of EQ knobs anyway, many people who use EQs simply cut the bass on one track and then blend the 2, which can be achieved just as effectively with a high pass filter.
They’re a very useful tool to get your head around though, mastering every aspect of the tools on offer to you can only make you better
Hey, the original DJ mixers didn’t have eq’s, you had to buy an extra “eq” section for the old Urei’s. Personally, I use EQ all the time but I usually mix very long transitions (2-3 minutes or more). For people who mix 8,16 or 32 bars, you’re just fine with the line faders and using a filter is just an extra cool bonus that adds for control and subtlety.
OP: It’s a stylistic thing. EQs are an effect like any other. I don’t mix with reverb or flanger (ever)…does that mean I’m doing it wrong?
Actually, I’ve found that if your gain staging is set correctly and you pay attention to the structure of tracks that you can pull off full deep house or minimal mixes without ever touching an EQ. Technically, I’ve also found that if you pay attention to track structure enough, you don’t even need volume controls. Case in point: This mix. Yes, it’s breaks, somewhere between nu-skool and psy. It was done in Ableton a few years ago with no live or automated EQs, filters, effects, or volume adjustments. There’s a section of juggling tracks, but it was done with clip start and stop buttons…I just just set the gain staging right and keep pressing play at the right time. I did cheat and use a limiter on that mix, but I’m pretty sure it was set so that the loudest part of the mix only had about 3dB of gain reduction, which–honestly–is the same way I’d set up a DJ booth and PA system even if I were going 100% analog hardware.
Now, when I’m at home with my xone or have a modern mixer sitting in front of me, I use EQs a good bit (the xone hi-mid EQ and I are very good friends). But when I’m on all controllers–as I’ve found myself more and more–I use my lpd8 as a mixer, and it just doesn’t have the knobs for EQ controls…and I don’t miss them. I have it set up to have a master EQ section that I use a lot…but I can mix any of the genres I spin without touching EQs.
My dream mixer only has a master EQ, and so would the controller that I’d build if I got around to it. I just don’t like them that much.
My mixer has parametric eq’s that I LOVE. It’s like having a filter on each eq. When it comes right down to it everything besides the gain are just tools. Tools used in different ways to affect the music. Use what you got or what you’re given.
Nope. Well…sometimes if I’m using a mixer with an EQ, mostly only when I’m in trouble. Doing that as an “effect” is IMO played out. It doesn’t bother me when people do it most of the time, but EQ whoring gets on my nerves. I can’t affect how other DJs play, so I just make the change with my own sets.
On my lpd8 (as I would on my dream DJR-400), I tweak the master EQs quite a lot to make my set more coherent, but I hardly ever kill anything.
At home on my xone, I actually use the hi-mid EQ more than all of the others combined, followed closely by the high EQ if you’re talking about just having them away from 0dB, but I usually just cut a bit and leave it…most of the systems I’ve played on are just too bright…a tiny bit of high cut fixes that. As for the hi-mid on a xone…it “controls” snares, claps, and the tail of hi-hats better than anything else I’ve tried, and in my experience, controlling those high percussion elements is the best way to change grooves smoothly. It makes it completely trivial to switch between dubstep and breaks, for example…it also makes it a lot easier to switch between the driving grooves of tech house and the more laidback grooves of progressive.
If I had to choose one EQ knob to keep…it’d be that one. No question.
Seriously, go listen to that mix. There’s a lot going on in most of those tracks, and it was nothing but gain staging and structure. It took getting in an argument online about Ureis, listening to a deep, soulful house mix that someone posted as a response to my support of full-cut EQs, and then actually doing that mix for me to get it through my head.
i only tap the bass out a tiny bit in most cases, maybe 10 o’clock on the knob, with the main track being at 2 or 3 o’clock.
if i’ve got 2 or 3 decks stacked then they’ll all go to 12… but that’s where i might cut a tiny bit of high from a track, usually just enough to get rid of any nasty resonance
I have the Scratch button on the RMX to toggle between using the eq knobs/ cutoffs for effects and EQ. But I’ve found that its almost always on. I never use Eq. I have 4 knobs on my lpd8 bound to the filters of all 4 decks. Thats what I use when I’m stacking songs or transitioning.
