Beginner DJ Lesson on Using the Filter Effect on the Numark NV with Serato DJ

0:00 I want to talk a lot about effects in the mix

Alright ladies and gentlemen, in this video we're going to cover quite a few things. First and foremost I'm using the Newmark NV, I'm using Serato DJ, and we're going to use a few very simple effects. I want to talk a lot about effects in the mix. Let's go back 30 years maybe, to when highly likely your mother and father weren't even thinking about you, or maybe you were running around in shorts, or maybe like me, my mum and dad weren't thinking about me because I was outside running around in shorts.

Okay, vinyl. We did have mixers then. Vinyl turntables. Vinyl turntables and the only effects we could pretty much do was spin back or scratching, so the effects were very hands-on. You had to make the effects, unless of course you had some form of really expensive external controller, but there weren't that many then and they were all analogue. I don't think they were digital then. Nowadays people seem to think that to get a good mix you need to use effects all the time. No, that's wrong actually. To get a good mix, to get a good transition, there's possibly no need to use any effects at all. Think about this. If you hear DJs who use effects all the time during the mix, then are they trying to hide the actual transition? Or do they just want to enhance the transition?

2:32 They'd go, what the hell are you doing?

Are they trying to hide the fact that they're using the sync so they're just making some wacky effects? To make people think, wow, aren't you fantastic? You know, there are a lot of points to think about here. Now then, I have in front of me the new Mark NV and I'm going to show you how a simple effect can enhance your mix. In fact, a simple effect can enhance virtually every single mix you do. Alright, you don't want to use it all the time, but it's going to help. Let's go back again to when DJs just used vinyl. A lot of the tracks were made by real people and they were 7-inch versions. Alright, yeah, OK, 12-inch has been around since 1976, 75, something like that. But even prior to that, if, let's say, for example, there were effects units then

And DJs were using loads of effects. If you were doing a transition and you were adding loads of effects over old school, say, Bob Marley or, I don't know, old Michael Jackson or, say, Stevie Wonder tracks people would think you were balmy. They'd go, what the hell are you doing? You're destroying the track. Yet modern day music allows us to add effects because the tracks are very long. We have a long intro and a long outro. There is cause to use effects, but again, try and use them subtly. A DJ, a good DJ will use effects so well that the crowd don't even know he or she is using an effect. OK, think about that. Right, the two tracks I'm using are from Mr Lenny Fontana, Say You Want Me and Slapjack on this side here.

What I'm going to do is just use the filter effect, nothing else. And on the new mark. They are the four dials, big and bold, right in front of your face, just above the sliders. They're actually, you have the sliders if I just bring the camera, pan the camera down just a tad. Let's have a look. I'm not going to edit this. Never. Don't like editing videos. What's the point? I do sometimes, but wrong one. Right. Just bring that down to about there. OK, so you can see them here. Now, if you are considering getting a controller, then. I would say consider the new Mark Envy because it's Serato ready. It's got all the functions you need, and if you want to do video mixing, you can. If you want to do just normal DJ mixing, you can.

4:35 We're coming to the end of the track n

If you want to add external players, you can. And also, if you want to close your laptop so people don't think that you're doing Facebook. In a gig, then check out the new Mark Envy because the functions allow you to close your laptop. Of course, make sure that the laptop isn't going to or won't go to sleep. So you have to make sure that when you close the laptop, it knows it's still working and you can pretty much carry on DJing using the screens above each of the platters. So what I'm going to do here is a really simple transition just using the filters. That's it. Nothing else. Press F. Play here. We're coming to the end of the track now, the filters are already there. You don't have to do anything with them.

You don't have to find the effect, find the filter effect it's there. So have a listen now you can hear as we move the dial anticlockwise to the seven o'clock position. We've got that nice subtle deep bassy sound. That's the sort of sound I'm just going to pause that. That's the sort of sound you would expect to hear on the way to a rave. You know, you're driving through the countryside and all you can hear through the you've got music blasting in your motor, but you can just hear this, you know, the windscreen is rattling from this orgasmic, eargasmic bass sound from like four miles away from about 20, 21 inch drivers. Going, that's the sound you get. Here, there, that's the sound, turn it the other way and you get that high pitch treble sound and that's one of those annoying sounds if you turn up to your gig and you turn your PA system on and you think, oh dear, who did I lend my speakers to last night because they've blown the bloody bass drivers.

They're bastards. Okay, right. So let's do that. Now what? I'm going. To do is I'm going to turn, just pause that again. I'm going to turn the filter dial on the right hand deck. Let's just have a listen quick. Listen to this. Listen 12341234 now it's already high pitch anyway because it's just the hand clap, but by moving the filter effect to around about the three o'clock position, we're almost enhancing the sound of the hand clap anyway.

7:21 This burning in your ears of this hand clap

And a way of describing that it's almost like this sort of all right, don't take this the wrong way. This burning in your ears of this hand clap. It's not a nasty burning. It's just over exaggerating that hand clap. So it's making it from a scale of one to 10 if that hand clap was like five there at 12 o'clock, you're now getting a seven because what you want to do, you want to over exaggerate that hand clap to make sure it's more prominent in the video. Prominent in the mix. So let's just go back to this one here. Hopefully I've got my timing right now what I'm doing, you see I'm moving the dials at the same speed and at the same time. So as the one on the right comes into 12, so on the left is coming into three now that to me sounded fine and just bring

The one on the left out to five o'clock volume down, that is it, that is it. I'm going to give you another analogy here, I remember someone ages ago on a television show asking chefs to make broccoli soup and a few of the chefs got loads of ingredients and all sorts of ingredients to make broccoli soup but one chef what they did they had some broccoli, some salt and pepper and they made broccoli soup, that was the best. They didn't add loads of rubbish, they just made what was asked them to make, that's it. So here all we're doing, we're having a mix but we're keeping the mix very simple, very simple transition using a very simple effect this is the new Mark Envy and the filter alright. Thank you very much to Mr Lenny Fontana for letting me use his tracks if you want any info on these tracks check out the link

In the description, it will take you to Karmic Power Records and this I believe is called a talk over when as soon as I finish the track will come in. Oh yes, thank you very much, practice and enjoy, nice one.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.