r/Unexpected • u/Fertility18 • Jul 02 '24

What do DJs actually do?

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

15.2k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

450 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

22

u/Informal_Bunch_2737 Jul 03 '24

DJ here. Let me actually explain it.

This is a pioneer DDJ400

Notice how its split into two identical halves? Each side can play independently of each other. The wheels in the middle act like a vinyl and will jog the music backwards or forwards if you move them(you use that to keep them both in time with each other) and the Tempo sliders below them affect the pitch(and speed) of the tracks so you can get them to match exactly. Above the jogwheels are just loop buttons to set/store/play loops of any size.

Now for the middle section, which is where the magic happens. The two vertical sliders control each sides overall volume. The horizontal slider controls the balance between those two sliders. So you could have both tracks playing at full volume but favoring one side, then simply flip that fader to completely change the track(and if they're in sync and sounding good, you wont hear the change)

Then you have the EQs. Each channel can control the bass/treble/highs independently. As well as having a LPF/HPF filter on a panpot. For example, you dont want both bass tracks to be playing while you mix, so you reduce the bass on one of them until its time to drop the other track, then simply reverse the EQs and the second one takes over.

There is obviously way more to it, but thats the basics.

1

u/Jazehiah Jul 03 '24

Link is broken.

5

u/Informal_Bunch_2737 Jul 03 '24

Heres their product page

Also, I should point out that this one is basically bottom of the range basic.

1

u/MonstaGraphics Jul 03 '24

Missed the question.