In this video I'm gonna give you a guide
on how to DJ for complete beginners But if you already know how to DJ and just want
to see what this video is all about [Demo] Then, please feel free to go to any
of these timestamps. Who knows? You might learn something new! You can try to think of it as a delicious sandwich... If there's too much breading, if there's too much
spam, if there's too much cheese.....sandwich? Now, if you're a complete beginner who doesn't
know anything about DJing I'll start this tutorial with a brief overview of what DJing is,
then another overview on DJ equipment in general, followed by two of the easiest and least
controversial methods of mixing and DJing to appease the Boomers out there So without further Ado, let's get started! The overall objective of DJing is to play and mix
music to appease a crowd So when you see a DJ "DJ" one is technically mixing two songs together and
the tools that enable that to happen most of the time, are two DJ Decks and a mixer But these club standard DJ tools you see in front of you cost over five thousand dollars! (Seriously really? So expensive.) And to be completely honest with you If you're starting out beginner DJ, please don't buy any of this! You'll be much better off buying any of these DJ controllers that cost around $299 and below Because all DJ equipment, and I mean all of them, basically and essentially do the same thing.... Play and mix music The reason why these guys cost so low is because they
utilize DJ software which requires a computer And that DJ software basically does everything And these things here, just give you a tactile and
physical way to control your software That's why they're called "DJ Controllers" Now, there are many DJ Controllers and DJ Software
out there, but they all look and do the same thing So what I'm about to discuss with you, can pretty much apply to
any DJ equipment you may have (DDJ-FLX4, etc.) So enough talking. Let's first break down the equipment, then teach
you guys how to DJ and mix with it! So the first thing you want to do is plug in your DJ controller
and open up your DJ software These white and red outputs on the back of your controller send
the master volume of your mix to your speakers and this little input over here is for your headphones Which will be the audio you hear when you're
prepping and mixing songs Now, you may be wondering, what's the point of connecting
your headphones to your controller when your speakers already output the
sound to you and your audience Well, it's because your headphones,
when plugged here give you the ability to pre-hear what you're doing when you're
prepping your song to mix for the crowd Because not all songs are the same Some are faster, some are slower, some are
in different keys and some have different structures But the point of mixing is to transition
one song to the other, despite their differences The bigger their differences, the harder they are to mix But as DJs, it's our job to find a way to proficiently and smoothly
transition and blend two tracks together to make a cohesive clean mix So since you're a starting out beginner DJ Let's first learn how to transition between songs that
are around the same speed and Tempo or what we professionally refer to as
BPM or beats per minute so we're gonna mix a couple of songs
that are between 124 to 127 BPM Before we move on to doing your first transition,
if you want to follow along with this video - good news! All the songs used in this tutorial are
free to download, so check the links down below First thing to do is load your songs to your respective Decks On the left side is Deck 1 and on the right side is Deck 2 So let's use this Browser knob over here
to browse through our songs So once you find your first song,
click the Load button on the left and that'll bring your selected song to Deck 1 and once you find your preferred second song
click the Load button on the right and that'll bring your selected song to Deck number 2 So once you know your songs your software will automatically determine their BPM and
create a Beat Grid You can think of your Beat Grid as a visual guide and series of markers that point to the location of Beats within the track And speaking of tracks, most DJ friendly tracks
have an Intro and Outro section These will be the sections where we'll primarily do our mixing Now, with our tracks analyzed and loaded onto their Decks, let's discuss the Deck functions Both Decks basically do the same thing
to their respective song That's why they look alike But their foremost important functions are the following: First, the Play/Pause function This green button here, toggles between
playing and pausing your track Second, the Cue function The orange button over here, cues your song So if you press Play too soon or too late you can quickly go back to the start
of the song and stop the Deck Third, the Tempo function This long fader here controls the BPM of your song When it's in the middle, it's in its neutral state at zero Fourth, the Jog Wheels
They temporarily speed up or slow down your song
when you push or pull them from their side Now, these Third and Fourth functions basically
are the tools you will use to Beat Match songs that aren't in the same BPM with each other So with our two songs loaded up and you knowing the very basic functions of the Deck section Let me discuss with you now, the Mixer section This area is in charge of being the
section where you blend and mix songs And the 4 most important functions of the Mixer section
are the following: First, the Volume Fader area This section here is in charge of
the volume of each respective Deck Second, the Crossfader section Now, this section has many functions But at its default, it basically controls both
volumes of each Deck simultaneously So if the Crossfader is on the left side,
Deck 1 will be at its loudest and vice versa And if the Crossfader is on the right side,
Deck 2 will be at its loudest and vice versa And using the Crossfader is by far the simplest and
easiest way to mix between two songs And we'll primarily use this in our first transition lesson But before we get to it, let me discuss
with you the Third and Fourth function Third, the EQ section These knobs, High, Mid, and Low, give you
further control of the frequencies of the song And to keep things really-really simple You can just think of these knobs as
three parts that comprise your volume So the Low knob contols the Bass of the song The Mid knob controls the Acapella/loud Instrumental-like sections of the song And the High knob controls the
Hi-hat sections of a song So since you're starting out, these knobs should be mostly
kept at the 12 o'clock position when mixing and blending Later on in this video, we'll start implementing the
Low knob into our mixing, so stay tuned for that Fourth, the Headphone Cue section These buttons are in charge of letting you pre-hear
what's going on on each Deck regardless of how high or low the volume fader is So now that we understand the basic functions of
the Deck and Mixer section Let's do our first transition So the game plan of your first transition is to simply mix
the next song at the Outro section of the current song So you want to mix the next song
exactly at this point here And playing the next song at that exact point is
the most important step of this whole process So let's finally begin our first transition lesson Step zero Make sure your Crossfader is to the left side on Deck 1 your Volume faders are all the way up your tempo faders are in the middle and your EQ sections are all
set to the 12 o'clock position Step number one, load your first song Play it And wait for its Outro section So this will be the part where you let your
audience enjoy and dance to the song And this will be the part where you look
at the first song's BPM and verify it So it's set to 124. Let's keep that in mind Step number 2 As the first song plays, load your
second song to Deck number two And simply adjust the Tempo fader to have
the same BPM as the first song So the secong song's innate BPM is 125, so let's drag
it up to decrease it, so that it'll match the current song's BPM And with that out of the way, just wait
for the second song's Outro section Step number 3, the most important part Now, at the exact moment you reach
the Outro section which should be here Play your second song and make sure the
Beat Grids are aligned with each other So you want them to look like this Now, your timing of playing the next song may be off So be ready to use your Jog Wheels to bring
the Beat Grids aligned and together with each other Step number four As both songs play, smoothly drag the Crossfader from all the
way from the left side to the right side to completely transition to the next song And congratulations! You've just made your first transition So let's keep this up and transition to the next song Step number five As the second song plays, load your
next song to Deck number 1 Match its BPM with the currently playing song And wait for the current song's outro
section, which should be here Step number six, the most important step Once you reach your outro section which is the transition point play your next song and make sure to
align the Beat Grids together So use your Jog Wheels to do so, and you can verify if things
sound good using your headphone Cue functions Step number seven Drag the Crossfader from all the way from the right side
to the left side to complete your transition If you want to continue mixing, simply repeat
this process starting from Step number two So if you're feeling pretty confident as a DJ it'll be time to start growing your career, making mixes, and especially DJing live And if you want to jump start your DJ career You should check out Young Guru's online course
on how to DJ from setup to sound check There he teaches you a bunch of things,
like how to set up your equipment, how to make sure everything sounds right, and just how to have
an overall better and smoother time DJing live So if you wanna check out that DJing live master class, which I highly recommend, because I've taken it myself Then you can click the link in the video description down below And that'll give you a 2 month free trial on Skillshare And Skillshare is an online learning community that
offers membership with meaning With over 20,000 classes in Graphic Design, DJing, Music
Production, Songwriting, and more - which are all fueled by passionate creatives like myself You're pretty much set for life if you want to learn anything efficiently, effectively, and economically Because an annual subscription on
Skillshare costs less than $10 a month So what are you waiting for? Start your 2020's right, and move your
creative journey forward now with Skillshare today So once you master using the Crossfader Let's move on to just mixing with the Volume fader and EQ section, which most professional DJs prefer for more control The main idea behind using the Volumes and the EQs to mix
is to make "sonic room" for the next song Step zero Make sure Deck 1's Volume fader is all the way up The Crossfader is in the middle section Deck 2's Volume fader is all the way down Your Tempo fader is in the middle and your EQ sections are all
set to the 12 o'clock position Step number one:
Load your first song to Deck 1 Play it And wait for the Outro section Step number two:
As the first song plays, load your second song to Deck number 2 And adjust its BPM via its Tempo fader
to be the same BPM as the first song Once you're done with that, just wait till
the first song reaches its Outro section Step 3, the most important part At the exact moment you reach the Outro section Play your second song and make sure the
Beat Grids are aligned with each other If they aren't, simply use the Jog Wheels
to correct and align the Beat Grids together And you can verify this with the
Headphone Cue button over here Step number four Once you know both songs are aligned
and are Beat Matched perfectly Bring the Volume fader of Deck number 2 up And as you do, slowly reduce the Low knob of Deck number 1, to make room for the Volume of Deck number 2 and when you reach this point on
Deck 2's Volume Start bringing the Volume fader of Deck 1 all the way down to complete the transition Now, if you're having a hard time mixing your songs together it could be because of your Beat Grids So here's a quick way to adjust them on Rekordbox DJ Click the section here And use either these two buttons to
align the Beat Grids with the Beat You want that Beat Grid to be exactly where the Beat starts And here's the way to adjust them on Serato DJ Click "Edit Gird", then click "Clear", and position your song to the exact section where the Beat starts, and click "Set" and "Save" To get smooth Crossfader settings and isolated
EQ controls on Rekordbox DJ Click this icon here, then click "Controller, then click "Mixer" Then bring the Crossfader Curve knob to the 12 o'clock position And then click "Isolate" on the EQ/Isolator setting To get smooth Crossfader settings on Serato Click this icon here, then click "Mixer, then click the knob near the Crossfader area, and bring it to the 12 o'clock position And you've made it to the end of the video, and if you wanna still continue on your studies on how to be a better DJ everyday today Check out these other things I have
around me here. They'll all really help you out And with that said, thank you so much for watching
guys, and I will see you all in the next one. Peace!
