What basic knowledge does a DJ need?

1. The basic structure of electronic dance music - the concept of loop - almost all electronic dance music has a certain structure and rules. No matter how complex and changeable it is, there is a certain structure to follow.

If it is electronic dance music with drum sounds, you can follow the drum beats to understand the operation of the basic structure of electronic dance music. Just like writing, a song is an article, and an article is composed of words, sentences, and paragraphs;

The same is true for electronic dance music: one beat is equal to one word, eight words (beat) is a sentence, and four sentences are a paragraph (that is, 4×8=32 beats). We call such a paragraph a "loop". Then the cycle repeats itself over and over again.

If the drum sound is a solid beat with each beat, it is very easy to identify; but if it is a breakbeat or an interlude without drum beats, it is not so easy to identify, but still It is performed according to the basic pattern of every four eight beats forming a section. If you have a basic understanding, it won't be so difficult to be a DJ.

2. BPM- BPM is the abbreviation of "Beat Per Minute", which is the unit of beats per minute. The simplest concept is how many times the drum sounds in one minute, and the unit of this number is BPM.

For example, if a house dance song has a drum beat 124 times in one minute, then the song is 124 BPM. As for how to calculate BPM, you can use a watch or stopwatch to calculate it, and slowly count the drum beats manually;

You can also use some BPM-calculating machines or synthesizers, such as Pioneer DJM- The 500 mixing console has a built-in BPM metronome, and Casio also has a G'mix series of watches with BPM calculation functions.

Drum beat (cue point)--at the first beat at the beginning of each cycle, that is, the moment when the first drum hits "dong", we call it "cue point" (or cue point). cue point).

Finding drum beats is the basis of DJ skills. There is no DJ who does not look for drum beats before mixing, unless it is a DJ who is not on beat, then that is another matter.

3. Pitch--Only record players dedicated to DJs have this function. Perhaps it should be said that only record players with this function can be used by DJs. Pitch literally means pitch control, but in fact the change in pitch is caused by the change in the rotation speed of the record player.

DJs need to control the speed of the upcoming tracks when matching beats, so that the music coming out of the left and right tracks are exactly the same in terms of beat speed and BPM. Only in this way can the two songs be seamlessly combined. Mix together.

Pitch is a device on the turntable that controls the speed of the turntable to adjust the BPM of the song.

4. Fader/crossfader--the sound attenuation control slider on the Mixer; that is, a slider that can be moved up and down or left and right according to the track. There is a scale display next to this slide button, which indicates the volume played when the position is moved.

The DJ uses the fader to control the volume of the left track or the right track. As for crossfader, it controls the volume of all audio tracks (channels) at once.

5. EQ--EQ is the abbreviation of equalizer. On more advanced mixing consoles, there will be EQ adjustment buttons. Generally speaking, EQ adjusts the audio changes in the treble, middle, and bass of the track when it is played.

The use of EQ needs to be trained after the DJ foundation is laid.

Extended information:

Notes on DJing

1. Selection of joints-usually a song will have high and low phases. The climax stage usually has a melody or a particularly obvious timbre, and sometimes there is a vocal.

At this time, it is not suitable to fade in the next song;

On the contrary, at the low ebb, there is usually no main melody lingering, only drums, hi hat or bassline, At most, there are only one or two more timbres. This is an excellent contact point. Most of these contact points only appear near the end of the music or in the middle of a song.

2. The journey of DJ set - In a party, a DJ's set lasts about two hours, so how to use the overall journey (tripping) during the two hours? Highlighting the characteristics of a DJ is a very laborious task.

In two hours, about thirty tracks can be played. Therefore, the pursuit of the journey must be based on the principle of playing the same type of dance music within a certain period of time. If in a set or If you want to play all kinds of music in a short period of time, it will easily make people confused.

Reference material: DJing-Baidu Encyclopedia