DJ help , mix with only headphones

0:00 Sound, side, left

Good evening folks, this is lesson three incorporating a comment that someone left and that is they actually find it very difficult to distinguish one beat from the other. In other words, they find it very difficult to distinguish the beat that's actually playing to the beat they're mixing in. I'm going to give you a tip and also it's a lesson because it's also helping you in learning how to mix and get those beats synced which is what we need, okay? No need for monitors, no need for PA system, all you need is a mixer, two audio inputs, CDs, whatever, it doesn't matter, they've got to have pitch control. Now then, on your mixer you should have a balance, OK? The balance control on your mixer separates the sound into two audios, left or right. When it's dead centre, it's stereo, perfect stereo. If you put your balance to R, that is for right. So in other words, when that balance on that channel is R, at R...

All of the sound will go through the right side, speaker, headphone, whatever. When you do it to L, left, all of that sound will go to the left side. What I'm going to do is I'm going to flick my channel here, this channel onto the R which is the right side, which I hear through here and also you will actually hear on your system at home now on the right side or it could be the left side because it's the opposite and likewise here. My left side now, I will hear through my left ear. So you should be able to hear that through one speaker on your computer. So you should have stereo sound, but each deck will be on alternative speakers, okay? Right, now why are we doing this, okay? On this basis now, if you think about it, if you've only got one side through one headphone, the other side through the other headphone,

2:20 Is getting those boom, boom, boom

We've got to work them together, get them closer and closer and closer. Think about it logically. If this is here and you're listening to the monitor, the monitor sound system is all over the place, OK? So when you're mixing it in, as soon as you start mixing that sound in, the sound you're mixing in starts mixing with the audio sound out there. Therefore, it starts to get a bit awkward to mix it in and a bit difficult. On this basis, all you're listening to is right and left. So what you've got to concentrate on is getting those boom, boom, boom. The beats synced in. Concentrate either on the bass beat or that s-s-s-the hi-hat, okay? So we'll throw this one in. We're going to bring this one in. They're both in the green, so I haven't got this set up. What I'm going to do as well is when I've mixed it in and beatmatched it, I'm then going to decrease the speed on both of them at the same time and then increase it.

3:22 In essence, you've got three sounds you're trying to listen to

What you will hear is they'll go off, the beats will go off, but eventually as I fine tune it, the beats will hook up again, slow off, they'll increase, decrease, but then hopefully we'll always try and keep them in beat. Here we go. Counting those bars as well. Okay, here we go. Right now straight away this guy here is too fast. So if I left back now, it would just go totally off. Remember, I've got to slow it down. Okay, right. Again, principle. Why did we do this? All right. If you're having problems syncing those beats and you're listening to, say, this one here, the right turntable, through your headphones, and you're bringing this one into the main PA, all of a sudden now you're going to have this sound here through your right headphones but also the main PA. Plus you're listening to what's going through the main PA. In essence, you've got three sounds you're trying to listen to. One here...

Two is this one coming through the PA and also the PA. That's where it gets confusing. To stop that confusion issue, forget the PA, use your headphones. Right side, right speaker on your headphones. Left side, left speaker on your headphones. Practice like that. Two sources. Work on that principle and please let me know how you get on. I'll speak to you soon. Bye bye.

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