Play button (the purple round triangle): the track you press starts playing. While it plays, the button turns into a pause shape, and pressing it again stops the track on the spot.
CUE: press it while stopped and it remembers the current position. The remembered spot appears as a purple flag above the waveform. Press it while playing and it returns to the remembered spot and stops. This is the same idea as real DJ software (rekordbox).
Waveform: the center line is the current playback position, and the track flows from right to left. Press a spot to jump there, and drag sideways to move in small steps. It does not snap to the beat, so you can close a gap by hand. Jumping alone does not change the CUE.
Where you are now: the orange line in the center is the current position. The bar numbers flow below the waveform, so the number under the line is the current bar. There is no separate box for the number.
Beat offset: check whether the red lines of the two tracks line up. When the red lines are half a beat or more apart, "The beats are off!" appears below the waveform. It shows only while they are off. It does not show how many beats off they are, because you can tell from the red lines.
Line colors: red is the start of a bar, white is the beats in between, orange is the current playback position, and lime is the saved CUE. When the red lines of the two tracks line up one above the other, the starts of the bars are matched.
CUE: a lime vertical line and "CUE" appear where you set it. It stays attached to its place in the audio and flows with it, so it disappears when it leaves the 8-bar view. It is not pushed to the edge, because that would make it look as if it were there.
View range: fixed at 8 bars. A and B are drawn at the same width of time, so when the tempos differ, the spacing of the beat lines looks different. Any offset shows up on the screen as it is.
Tempo: the speed of the track changes in steps of 0.5 BPM. Pull down to go faster, push up to go slower, the same direction as the tempo slider on a CDJ. The center is the track's own speed (128 BPM). Because it changes the playback speed itself, going faster also raises the pitch. This is the same behavior as a CDJ without key lock, or a record. Matching the BPM alone does not line up the timing of the beats automatically.
Previewing in headphones: on real gear, you can check a track in your headphones first without sending it to the dance floor. This screen does not have that. Match by listening to the sound that is playing.
EQ (HIGH / MID / LOW): this changes the amount of that band. Turned all the way down to 0, that band cannot be heard, just like the EQ on real gear: when you say "cut", it disappears. When the bass of two tracks overlaps it turns muddy, so try lowering the LOW on one of them and compare.
Fader: this is the volume of that track. At 0 it cannot be heard.
What you can practice with these two tracks: bring in B from bar 9 of A, at the point marked "Play B" in the waveform strip, and overlap them for 8 bars. During that time A is in Drop (chorus) and B is in Intro. At bar 17 of A, where the overlap ends, Vocal begins at bar 9 of B. That is where A should be fully lowered, not where A ends: if you do not lower it, A keeps playing for its remaining 16 bars and stays layered with the Vocal of B. The mark "Cut A" that appears at bar 9 of B is that cutting point. It is 32 beats, or 8 bars, from the start of B. This is one easy way to practice, not the only right answer. You can overlap anywhere you like, and nothing stops you if you do not follow the marks.
Track length: what plays here are edited versions cut out for practice. A is 32 bars and B is 16 bars. Not every real track is built like this. Playback stops when it reaches the end.
Audio credits
AKulakovka, "Pop House"PixabayPixabay Content LicenseA 32-bar cut arrived that keeps going for 45 seconds after the 8-bar changeover. According to the accompanying notes, the original was 118 BPM and it was converted to 128 BPM.
BAlex_Morgan, "House Music Classic"PixabayPixabay Content LicenseA 16-bar cut arrived: an 8-bar kick intro, then the vocals come in from bar 9. The tempo has not been changed.
At first, leave HIGH, MID, and LOW at the center position.
This is close to the original sound.
Lower HIGH
Move HIGH all the way down.
Actionlower HIGH
The high sounds should be reduced, and the track should sound a bit muffled.
Once you've checked, return HIGH to the center.
Lower MID
Next, lower MID.
Actionlower MID
The sounds at the center of the track, such as vocals and melodies, change a lot.
Once you've checked, return MID to the center too.
Lower LOW
Finally, lower LOW.
Actionlower LOW
The low part of the kick and bass is reduced, and the foundation of the track sounds lighter.
In club music, this change in LOW is especially easy to hear.
Play button (the purple round triangle): the track you press starts playing. While it plays, the button turns into a pause shape, and pressing it again stops the track on the spot.
CUE: press it while stopped and it remembers the current position. The remembered spot appears as a purple flag above the waveform. Press it while playing and it returns to the remembered spot and stops. This is the same idea as real DJ software (rekordbox).
Waveform: the center line is the current playback position, and the track flows from right to left. Press a spot to jump there, and drag sideways to move in small steps. It does not snap to the beat, so you can close a gap by hand. Jumping alone does not change the CUE.
Where you are now: the orange line in the center is the current position. The bar numbers flow below the waveform, so the number under the line is the current bar. There is no separate box for the number.
Beat offset: check whether the red lines of the two tracks line up. When the red lines are half a beat or more apart, "The beats are off!" appears below the waveform. It shows only while they are off. It does not show how many beats off they are, because you can tell from the red lines.
Line colors: red is the start of a bar, white is the beats in between, orange is the current playback position, and lime is the saved CUE. When the red lines of the two tracks line up one above the other, the starts of the bars are matched.
CUE: a lime vertical line and "CUE" appear where you set it. It stays attached to its place in the audio and flows with it, so it disappears when it leaves the 8-bar view. It is not pushed to the edge, because that would make it look as if it were there.
View range: fixed at 8 bars. A and B are drawn at the same width of time, so when the tempos differ, the spacing of the beat lines looks different. Any offset shows up on the screen as it is.
Tempo: the speed of the track changes in steps of 0.5 BPM. Pull down to go faster, push up to go slower, the same direction as the tempo slider on a CDJ. The center is the track's own speed (128 BPM). Because it changes the playback speed itself, going faster also raises the pitch. This is the same behavior as a CDJ without key lock, or a record. Matching the BPM alone does not line up the timing of the beats automatically.
Previewing in headphones: on real gear, you can check a track in your headphones first without sending it to the dance floor. This screen does not have that. Match by listening to the sound that is playing.
EQ (HIGH / MID / LOW): this changes the amount of that band. Turned all the way down to 0, that band cannot be heard, just like the EQ on real gear: when you say "cut", it disappears. When the bass of two tracks overlaps it turns muddy, so try lowering the LOW on one of them and compare.
Fader: this is the volume of that track. At 0 it cannot be heard.
What you can practice with these two tracks: bring in B from bar 9 of A, at the point marked "Play B" in the waveform strip, and overlap them for 8 bars. During that time A is in Drop (chorus) and B is in Intro. At bar 17 of A, where the overlap ends, Vocal begins at bar 9 of B. That is where A should be fully lowered, not where A ends: if you do not lower it, A keeps playing for its remaining 16 bars and stays layered with the Vocal of B. The mark "Cut A" that appears at bar 9 of B is that cutting point. It is 32 beats, or 8 bars, from the start of B. This is one easy way to practice, not the only right answer. You can overlap anywhere you like, and nothing stops you if you do not follow the marks.
Track length: what plays here are edited versions cut out for practice. A is 32 bars and B is 16 bars. Not every real track is built like this. Playback stops when it reaches the end.
Audio credits
AKulakovka, "Pop House"PixabayPixabay Content LicenseA 32-bar cut arrived that keeps going for 45 seconds after the 8-bar changeover. According to the accompanying notes, the original was 118 BPM and it was converted to 128 BPM.
BAlex_Morgan, "House Music Classic"PixabayPixabay Content LicenseA 16-bar cut arrived: an 8-bar kick intro, then the vocals come in from bar 9. The tempo has not been changed.
You don't need to remember the numbers.
Move each one by a large amount and
listen for which sounds change
by ear.
Why use EQ when mixing two tracks?
When you play track A and track B at the same time,
the sounds of two tracks are layered.
LOW in particular contains many strong low sounds such as kick and bass.
If you bring out the LOW of both track A and track B strongly, the low ends pile up, and
the sound becomes heavy
it sounds muddy
only the bass feels loud
can happen.
That's why, when overlapping two tracks, DJs use EQ to adjust the balance of the sound.
Move LOW from A to B
You may remember moving LOW once in "Connecting Two Tracks for the First Time."
This time, let's focus on that operation alone.
First, play both track A and track B so that both can be heard.
Play button (the purple round triangle): the track you press starts playing. While it plays, the button turns into a pause shape, and pressing it again stops the track on the spot.
CUE: press it while stopped and it remembers the current position. The remembered spot appears as a purple flag above the waveform. Press it while playing and it returns to the remembered spot and stops. This is the same idea as real DJ software (rekordbox).
Waveform: the center line is the current playback position, and the track flows from right to left. Press a spot to jump there, and drag sideways to move in small steps. It does not snap to the beat, so you can close a gap by hand. Jumping alone does not change the CUE.
Where you are now: the orange line in the center is the current position. The bar numbers flow below the waveform, so the number under the line is the current bar. There is no separate box for the number.
Beat offset: check whether the red lines of the two tracks line up. When the red lines are half a beat or more apart, "The beats are off!" appears below the waveform. It shows only while they are off. It does not show how many beats off they are, because you can tell from the red lines.
Line colors: red is the start of a bar, white is the beats in between, orange is the current playback position, and lime is the saved CUE. When the red lines of the two tracks line up one above the other, the starts of the bars are matched.
CUE: a lime vertical line and "CUE" appear where you set it. It stays attached to its place in the audio and flows with it, so it disappears when it leaves the 8-bar view. It is not pushed to the edge, because that would make it look as if it were there.
View range: fixed at 8 bars. A and B are drawn at the same width of time, so when the tempos differ, the spacing of the beat lines looks different. Any offset shows up on the screen as it is.
Tempo: the speed of the track changes in steps of 0.5 BPM. Pull down to go faster, push up to go slower, the same direction as the tempo slider on a CDJ. The center is the track's own speed (128 BPM). Because it changes the playback speed itself, going faster also raises the pitch. This is the same behavior as a CDJ without key lock, or a record. Matching the BPM alone does not line up the timing of the beats automatically.
Previewing in headphones: on real gear, you can check a track in your headphones first without sending it to the dance floor. This screen does not have that. Match by listening to the sound that is playing.
EQ (HIGH / MID / LOW): this changes the amount of that band. Turned all the way down to 0, that band cannot be heard, just like the EQ on real gear: when you say "cut", it disappears. When the bass of two tracks overlaps it turns muddy, so try lowering the LOW on one of them and compare.
Fader: this is the volume of that track. At 0 it cannot be heard.
What you can practice with these two tracks: bring in B from bar 9 of A, at the point marked "Play B" in the waveform strip, and overlap them for 8 bars. During that time A is in Drop (chorus) and B is in Intro. At bar 17 of A, where the overlap ends, Vocal begins at bar 9 of B. That is where A should be fully lowered, not where A ends: if you do not lower it, A keeps playing for its remaining 16 bars and stays layered with the Vocal of B. The mark "Cut A" that appears at bar 9 of B is that cutting point. It is 32 beats, or 8 bars, from the start of B. This is one easy way to practice, not the only right answer. You can overlap anywhere you like, and nothing stops you if you do not follow the marks.
Track length: what plays here are edited versions cut out for practice. A is 32 bars and B is 16 bars. Not every real track is built like this. Playback stops when it reaches the end.
Audio credits
AKulakovka, "Pop House"PixabayPixabay Content LicenseA 32-bar cut arrived that keeps going for 45 seconds after the 8-bar changeover. According to the accompanying notes, the original was 118 BPM and it was converted to 128 BPM.
BAlex_Morgan, "House Music Classic"PixabayPixabay Content LicenseA 16-bar cut arrived: an 8-bar kick intro, then the vocals come in from bar 9. The tempo has not been changed.
First, listen to the state with the LOW of both A and B brought out.
Next,
lower the LOW of A
and then
raise the LOW of B
as you operate.
Actionlower A's LOW → raise B's LOW
The lead role in the bass then moves from track A to track B.
Rather than switching the whole track at once,
you can swap the lead role gradually, one part of the sound at a time.
That is something you can do.
Combine the fader and LOW
On the previous page,
A only → A + B → B only
you changed how the whole track is heard with the fader.
If you add LOW operation to that,
you can move the lead role for the whole track with the fader
while also moving the lead role for the bass with LOW.
You can do both at the same time.
This is the operation you were doing in your first mix.
However, for now,
when to swap the LOW
is not something you need to judge yourself yet.
You'll learn it later, in the chapter on actually mixing two tracks.
LOW doesn't always have to be swapped
Swapping LOW from A to B is one of the methods often used when mixing two tracks.
However,
LOW must always be swapped in every mix
is not a rule.
For example, in a spot where the kick and bass have already dropped out of one of the tracks, the low ends may not overlap heavily.
How EQ is used changes depending on the tracks and the way you mix.
For now,
EQ lets you change the balance of the sounds within a track
Play button (the purple round triangle): the track you press starts playing. While it plays, the button turns into a pause shape, and pressing it again stops the track on the spot.
CUE: press it while stopped and it remembers the current position. The remembered spot appears as a purple flag above the waveform. Press it while playing and it returns to the remembered spot and stops. This is the same idea as real DJ software (rekordbox).
Waveform: the center line is the current playback position, and the track flows from right to left. Press a spot to jump there, and drag sideways to move in small steps. It does not snap to the beat, so you can close a gap by hand. Jumping alone does not change the CUE.
Where you are now: the orange line in the center is the current position. The bar numbers flow below the waveform, so the number under the line is the current bar. There is no separate box for the number.
Beat offset: check whether the red lines of the two tracks line up. When the red lines are half a beat or more apart, "The beats are off!" appears below the waveform. It shows only while they are off. It does not show how many beats off they are, because you can tell from the red lines.
Line colors: red is the start of a bar, white is the beats in between, orange is the current playback position, and lime is the saved CUE. When the red lines of the two tracks line up one above the other, the starts of the bars are matched.
CUE: a lime vertical line and "CUE" appear where you set it. It stays attached to its place in the audio and flows with it, so it disappears when it leaves the 8-bar view. It is not pushed to the edge, because that would make it look as if it were there.
View range: fixed at 8 bars. A and B are drawn at the same width of time, so when the tempos differ, the spacing of the beat lines looks different. Any offset shows up on the screen as it is.
Tempo: the speed of the track changes in steps of 0.5 BPM. Pull down to go faster, push up to go slower, the same direction as the tempo slider on a CDJ. The center is the track's own speed (128 BPM). Because it changes the playback speed itself, going faster also raises the pitch. This is the same behavior as a CDJ without key lock, or a record. Matching the BPM alone does not line up the timing of the beats automatically.
Previewing in headphones: on real gear, you can check a track in your headphones first without sending it to the dance floor. This screen does not have that. Match by listening to the sound that is playing.
EQ (HIGH / MID / LOW): this changes the amount of that band. Turned all the way down to 0, that band cannot be heard, just like the EQ on real gear: when you say "cut", it disappears. When the bass of two tracks overlaps it turns muddy, so try lowering the LOW on one of them and compare.
Fader: this is the volume of that track. At 0 it cannot be heard.
What you can practice with these two tracks: bring in B from bar 9 of A, at the point marked "Play B" in the waveform strip, and overlap them for 8 bars. During that time A is in Drop (chorus) and B is in Intro. At bar 17 of A, where the overlap ends, Vocal begins at bar 9 of B. That is where A should be fully lowered, not where A ends: if you do not lower it, A keeps playing for its remaining 16 bars and stays layered with the Vocal of B. The mark "Cut A" that appears at bar 9 of B is that cutting point. It is 32 beats, or 8 bars, from the start of B. This is one easy way to practice, not the only right answer. You can overlap anywhere you like, and nothing stops you if you do not follow the marks.
Track length: what plays here are edited versions cut out for practice. A is 32 bars and B is 16 bars. Not every real track is built like this. Playback stops when it reaches the end.
Audio credits
AKulakovka, "Pop House"PixabayPixabay Content LicenseA 32-bar cut arrived that keeps going for 45 seconds after the 8-bar changeover. According to the accompanying notes, the original was 118 BPM and it was converted to 128 BPM.
BAlex_Morgan, "House Music Classic"PixabayPixabay Content LicenseA 16-bar cut arrived: an 8-bar kick intro, then the vocals come in from bar 9. The tempo has not been changed.
This is not practice in finding the right answer.
The goal of this page is to learn by ear how the sound changes when you move the knobs.
That is the purpose.
Summary
EQ changes the balance of the high, mid, and low sounds within a track
Moving HIGH, MID, and LOW lets you increase or reduce just some of the sounds without stopping the whole track
Moving LOW from A to B is one of the typical methods used when overlapping two tracks