DJ Lesson Mixing Vinyl with No Key Lock House in to Old School Disco

0:00 I've had a few beers, we're doing a tutorial on vinyl and it's Christm

Alright guys, I've had a few beers, we're doing a tutorial on vinyl and it's Christmas. Thank you very much. I'm going to mix a tune into, sorry, a house tune into an old school tune. Old school is, there, Donna Summer, I Feel Love, and we're mixing in something that has explicit lyrics. It's a little bit naughty and it does swear. It says, if you are easily offended, turn off now. Fuck them all day, fuck them all night.

That's about it really, but it says it again and again and again. So, first of all with vinyl, it's very different to CDJ because with CDJ or with PC programs you can hit key lock or master tempo and it will keep the same key. No matter where you move the pitch. Whether you speed it up as far as it'll go or slow it down, it stays the same key. With vinyl, or more so with what I'm using now, which is... Technic's SL-1200 Mark II, as soon as you start to move the pitch slower or faster, not only will you speed or slow down the track, you'll also increase or decrease the pitch, the key, the sound, the feel, the vibe of the tune. So you need to be very wary. For example, you could have the pitch set here, center point on one deck.

Over here, it could be minus 4. You have a quick listen. The sound, the key is brilliant. They seem to sound and feel very good together. But this one here is for example maybe too slow. So you may think I'm going to increase it. So you then increase this one to plus 2. All of a sudden you find they're in beat. They work really well together. They're in time, BPM, beats per minute. But, because you've increased that one too much, they're now out of key. So you're like back to square bloody 1. I don't know how to finish it. So this is where it's more difficult to mix with vinyl, with no key lock, with no massive tempo. So you have to be more wary. Now also, when we're mixing something that is more EDM, electronic dance music,

It's made for the computer as opposed to... Well, actually this was drum machines, but it was more edited with like probably tape. So the splicing, what they used to call it, was slightly off. It could have been off by like 0.001 of a BPM which is enough to make it off. So it's far more difficult to keep this in beat with that. So what I'm going to do here is some sort of a demonstration where I can bring the track in, take it out, bring it in, take it out. I will stop and start, stop and start. You wouldn't normally do this in the mix. But of course this is an explanation. And a tutorial. Watch. Hopefully you'll learn as well. Right, here we go. So Donna Summer, I Feel Love. This one here is an LP. Donna Summer, I Remember Yesterday.

Taken from side 1... Side 2, sorry. Last track, I Feel Love. And if you want to know the info on this, it is...

3:29 Go and check it out on eBay

GTO Records Ltd. Donna Summer. I Remember Yesterday. And the number is GTLP025. It's old school. Go and check it out on eBay. OK, so what I'm going to do now is just find somewhere... By the way, do you like this hat? This was made by my partner Yvette Brooks from Wonderbugs on Facebook. And if you do like it, go and check it out. Follow the link down there because she makes personalised hats. They're one-offs. This... This! Right. Check it out. Where's my hair? Gone. Right, OK. That is a one-off hat. This is the only one in the world and she can make one for you too. Go and check her out. All right, I'm going to put that back on. OK, so start that off. In fact, what we need to do... And again, you know, you wouldn't do this live.

This is like showing you shit. OK, so let's find the beginning of this track. Come on! OK, beginning of the track. Zipping my ears up so I can hear. Now, can you hear? There's vocals going on there. Now, would I bring vocals over vocals? Not if I can help it. OK. So I've got a part of that track ready but I haven't really sorted the BPM yet. I haven't sorted the pitch out. So I need to wait until there is a time where there is... No vocals on the track I'm going to bring. There's no vocals on the track that's playing and I'm already with the vocals on the track that's going to come in. So maybe it would be a good idea... Maybe, not definitely, maybe it'd be a good idea to just make sure there's always vocals going on.

Who knows? Again, it's up to you. It's experimentation. Listen. Here we go.

6:01 I was actually moving the pitch

That sounds terrible actually.

Stop that. The beginning of that mix actually sounded friggin' shit because what I was doing at that particular point, I was getting it in beat. Now, I would have been doing that on headphones and if I'd have actually done that live, people would have probably gone, There's a friggin' hex going on there. I was actually moving the pitch... But I eventually got it in time. Now also, so what that will tell you, and please you need to then, if you haven't got CDJ or you haven't got controller, listen to CDJ or controller and try and do exactly the same carbon copy as what I did. Move your pitch like so. You will not hear the...

You'll hear a...

You won't... You won't hear it go... You'll just... Excuse me. Cheers, it's Christmas.

You won't hear it go... You'll just hear it go...

7:48 Oh dear, this is so funny

Okay, so let's try again. Oh dear, this is so funny. Let's try again.

Okay, so we'll go there and we'll go back a tiny bit.

A bit more.

Okay. So... This is... How can I put it? This is a tiny, tiny bit of information where mixing on vinyl is concerned. And if you have just started becoming a DJ and you're used to controller or CDJ and you will have continually on or you'll continually have on, sorry, the

Master Tempo You need to remember what it used to be like. So, here's a test for... Well actually it's not a test really. It's a way of maybe you practising more. Take the Master Tempo off. Now you may think, My God I can't do that. But try it. Take Master Tempo off. It will take your mixing to a new level. More importantly, it will take the way you learn how to mix to a new level. Because now, a track that you're playing will not stay in the same key wherever you move the pitch. It will change key. So you have to use your ears a lot more. Practice and enjoy. Happy Christmas. Thank you.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.