Mastering the EQ
Deck A build up into a verse while Deck B drum pattern going into a break.
By using the EQ’s you can cut out certain frequencies low, mids or high. This allows you to even more smooth out your mix however if used improperly can destroy it also. Firstly you need to be careful of the gain, always make sure that you NEVER EVER hit RED BAR, Maintaining this is important, SO MANY TIMES I’VE WALKED OUT WITH RINGING EARS, Keep the green, Keep the peace. Now depending on your style it is up to you on how to use the EQ however I will say that imagine the EQ is a extension tool that allows you to carve two song together by reducing or adding frequencies like little touches, after all the EQ is technically an effect in itself. This can be used exceptionally well with the filter effect! Use deck A to play a verse while deck B has vocals, We could use the filter to cut out the bass of deck B then on EQ cut out mid frequencies of deck A, If this is beat matched correctly and not using to much effect should sound pretty good and with the filter frequencies you wouldn't even know if it was two songs playing together.
When mixing songs together you do not want two bass lines together, Or two vocals overlapping, or to much high. Fading songs in and out of each other requires you to switch bass lines, mids and highs frequently for a transitional mix however if you do not NEED to then don’t, if you have no idea on the usage of the EQ do NOT use it. I enjoy using the crossfader and bringing in songs smoothly from mastering the EQ, It can also spice up your mix to another level and sometimes make clarity of a mix that could be going wrong, Some mixers support kill switches, which allows you to kill that certain range while some mixers only reduces the range.
Your music collection will contain music from possibly Itunes, record stores, downloaded mp3s or other sources, It is important to know that some songs quality may be below average, or certain frequencies are not loud enough or to empowering, the EQ is best used for this specific job, play around with them and get used to it, make sure you listen and you normally can tell when the music is distorted or imbalanced frequencies.
Harmonic Mastery!
So, you’ve come along way and yet there is still more to learn :) You ever wondered why sometimes you mix two songs perfectly beat matched yet they sound terrible? That is because they are not harmonically matched in key, After a few years you’ll understand that music is created on a scale with notes that range from CDEFGABC which represent a certain key. Each block of 8 notes can be separated by numbers which represent the key of that pitch. For example C3 would be C Note in Pitch 3, If you played a song that was C Note in pitch 4 while another track is E Note Pitch 3 harmonically they clash and sounds terrible so you need to make sure when matching songs that they match key so they harmonically match, after years your mind will be able to notice the difference between tracks and samples which you can properly organize in your music selection. While it is difficult to show you what I am trying to talk about, listen to a pre mix and you’ll notice that most mixes harmonically match with all the tracks and when they do want to change the harmony they use other techniques, you could call this changing styles or changing direction, while experimenting you can increase your skills and provide clean, quality sets so people like me who are in the industry can enjoy decent DJ’s when trying to party.
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