So you’ve bought a DJ controller, installed the software and you’re itching to start mixing. Great – but there’s more to it than plugging it in and hitting play. These are the five set-up questions we get asked about more than any others, and getting them sorted now saves you a lot of frustration later.
We’ve used a Pioneer DJ DDJ-FLX4 and Rekordbox to demonstrate in the video, simply because it’s the most popular set-up out there. But think of it like learning to drive: the car you learn in doesn’t matter much. Everything here applies to any controller that plugs into DJ software.
1. Plug your speakers into the controller, not your laptop
It’s tempting to leave your speakers plugged into your laptop, especially if that’s where they live already and your software played through them when you first installed it. Don’t. They need to go into the outputs on the back of your DJ controller.
Your controller has what’s called a four-out audio interface built in. Outputs one and two are the left and right channels for your speakers, and outputs three and four are the left and right for your headphones. All the controls you mix with assume your speakers and headphones are connected this way, so if they aren’t, nothing will behave the way it should.
Any speaker is fine as long as it connects with a wire. Bluetooth won’t do the job.
2. Get your music into the software (and make a playlist)
If you’ve played from USB sticks before, you might be looking for somewhere to plug one into your controller. There isn’t anywhere, even if there are computer-style sockets round the back. Your music lives on your computer, because that’s where the software and your music library are.
So either sign in to your streaming service from inside your DJ software, or use the software to import the music you already have on your computer. Either way, it’ll appear as your library in the bottom half of the screen.
Then do one more thing: make a playlist (some software calls these crates, but they’re the same thing). A vinyl DJ would never take 10,000 records to a gig – they’d pick the ones they wanted for that night. Do the same. Create a new playlist, drag in the tracks you want for today’s practice session, live stream or gig, and DJ from that.
Playlists don’t move or copy your files, so the same track can sit in as many playlists as you like. It keeps your head clear of hunting for the next tune, so you can concentrate on the actual DJing.
3. Set your levels with the trim controls
A common beginner complaint is that even with both channel faders all the way up, one track is louder than the other, or the whole thing is distorting. The fix is the knobs at the very top of each mixer channel, called trim, gain or level depending on your gear. These are tied to the level meters in the middle of your controller.
Find a loud part of the track (big waveforms mean loud), press play, and turn the trim up until the meter is just touching red. Then back it off a little. Do the same for the other deck.
Now when both channel faders are at the same position, both tracks will play at the same volume, which means smooth transitions without the level jumping around. Professionals do this out of habit and amateurs don’t, and you can hear the difference every time.
Most DJ software has an auto gain or auto level feature that gets you roughly there, but it’s a good habit to keep an eye on those meters and tweak the trims down if things creep up.
4. Use your headphones to prepare the next track
Headphones are handy for practising late at night, but DJs mainly use them to listen to the deck the audience can’t hear, check it’s the track they want, and get it ready to mix in.
Any wired headphones will do. Don’t sweat which pair – just make sure you’ve got some.
To hear a deck in your headphones, press the cue button on that deck’s mixer channel. Then check two more controls. The headphones level sets how loud they are, and if your controller has a cue/mix knob, turn it all the way to cue. That way your headphones play only what you’ve selected with the cue buttons, while your audience hears whatever’s coming out of the speakers. (The one exception is if you’re DJing in headphones only with no speakers plugged in, when blending the two can be useful.)
5. Get around your tracks with the jogwheels and cue button
The jogwheels are the biggest controls on your controller for a reason: they’re the easiest way to move around a track. Turn clockwise to go forward and anticlockwise to go back, with the track either playing or paused. Don’t be scared of them.
When you mix a track in, you’ll usually want to start it on its first beat. Tracks often have a second or so of silence at the start, so you need to mark exactly where the music begins. That’s what the cue button on the deck is for (it’s also labelled “Cue”, but it does something completely different to the one on the mixer).
Press Shift and tap Cue to jump to the start of the track on nearly all DJ software. Use the jog wheel to find the first beat, then, with the track paused, tap Cue. That sets your temporary cue point. Press play and the track starts right on the beat. Tap Cue while it’s playing and it jumps back to that point and waits.
You can only have one temporary cue point, but you can move it whenever you like. If the track is playing, Cue takes you back to the last point you set; if it’s paused, Cue sets a new one.
You’re ready to start mixing
Speakers, music, volume, headphones and decks: sort those five out and you’ve got everything you need to play tracks on any controller. The next step is learning how to move between tracks and make it sound good, and that’s exactly what our five transitions video covers.
- If you’re using a DDJ-FLX4, our How To DJ Fast course takes you from where you are now to playing full DJ sets confidently, covering every control on the unit and everything you need to know in the software.
