Beginner DJ Mixing Lesson Using the Low Mid and High EQ on a DJ Mixer

0:00 Is pretty much box standard

Right, so there are many ways of using the EQ on your mixer. Now what I'm about to show you is pretty much box standard with any controller, any mixer out there or any media player like this. So we have low which is also known as bass, we have mid which is also known as mid and we have high which is also known as treble. So don't forget mid is mid, high is high, treble, low is bass. Low is your booming sound, the bass beat, the drum pattern, the lower end part of the drum pattern, the bass in let's say the track itself, the bass line. Mid will take a lot of the sound so that is a lot of your lower end percussion, the vocals, the melody, the guitar, the synth. The keyboards, the violins, the instruments you know that's where a lot of the sound will come from.

And then the high is your sort of hand clap, the cymbal so the high is very little. Now if we looked at a percentage of all of the EQ bearing in mind some mixers will have a four band EQ but we'll just concentrate on three. Probably the low will take more of the overall sound. Probably the high will take more of the overall audio sound but then the mid will seem to cover more of the feel, of the energy of the mix. So there's almost like a contradiction there but trust me. And then the top is very very little so if we looked at a percentage you know your bass is probably going to be maybe 60%. Your mid is probably going to be literally 35% And then your high is going to be the last 5%. But then the mid does stand out quite a bit.

Unless you're going to be playing drum and bass in that case then it's going to be completely different. Excuse me one second. You alright lads? It's alright, looking after kids at the moment as well. Alright so what I'm doing in this tutorial we're playing a track by Mr Lenny Fontana and Shirley Lights. A track entitled Fire. It's the Saturday Night Disco Club Mix. So let's just press play. Nice fall to the floor drum pattern there with some coldies in the background. A really sort of punchy old school vibe hyped up for a new club industry. Just that sort of feel and the strings in the background is reminiscent of South Soul from the early 80s but it does have that modern day punch. There's your bassline.

Right let's rewind it a little bit.

Take away the low.

3:10 Some mixers have what's known as kill on the EQ, low mid and high

Now that's where the bassline would come in.

Excuse me. Now also let's take it to another level. Some mixers have what's known as kill on the EQ, low mid and high. So in other words when you turn the low down to 7 o'clock you not only can turn the bass down well you actually, you turn it off. Literally gone, boom finished. So if you have complete kill on your mixer and you turn the low mid and high all the way each of the dials to 7 o'clock you won't get any sound at all. Alternatively on here we have minus 26dB. Now I'm using the XDJ-RX2. Now here we do have the infinity icon which is number 8 at an angle. Now that's telling me that we can have complete kill but I'm pretty sure we can only have that if we use the correct software. At the moment I'm just using a basic file with the controller itself.

4:47 There's the bass there's the mid and there's the high

So at 7 o'clock we reduce the output of that EQ by minus 26dB. I think it's either 26dB or 26%. I'm pretty sure it's dB, that's decibels. Now that will not completely get rid of the bass but it will pretty much take a lot of it away. Same with the mid and same with the high. So for example if I press play again with all of the dials turned to 7 o'clock we can hear the track but at the same time not all of it. There's the bass there's the mid and there's the high. OK, so you can see what I mean about the percentage. We can only hear a tiny bit of the high quite a lot of the mid bass is coming in there's your bassline. OK, so with this demonstration and also this is good practice for you same track both sides now what I'm going to do

I'm going to play the left hand side I'm going to wait until the bass line starts as soon as the bass line starts I'm going to start the right hand side slowly mix it in let's move the headphones out of the way now the reason for doing something like this same track both sides pitch in exactly the same position now you have the same file it's a mirror image so long as they're in beat you don't have to worry about beat matching you can concentrate on the EQ which is what you want to do. If you're using a laptop and software you should be able to see on the screen the way formats in perfect tandem in unison working together. OK, so let's press play let's wait for that bass line to come in

To begin with if it's slightly off just use the jog wheel to jog it in place so I'm not worried about if it's slightly off beat now I'm going to turn the bass completely down on the right hand side

Slowly bring the volume up

What I'm going to do now take the mid away from the left hand side and increase on the right and that's because I haven't got any bass on the right

And now at that point where the bass line came in I've now brought the bass up on the right and taken it out on the left

Let's go back now I started the left hand side again over the right hand side

Beat the process now left hand side bit more mid right hand side take away the mid don't want too much of a drop in the volume get ready for the bass again slowly take away the mid get ready to do the same thing start the right hand side more emphasis on the right hand side mid, less on the left get ready for bass transition now a lot of it is about experimenting yourself now bearing in mind this is a house track but it's about the tune as well if you've just got a bass line tune then you know the pitch will be slightly different if you've got a more handbag up tempo energy sort of tune you may be going to be using the mid and the high more now notice notice I didn't really use the high the treble much at all if I wanted to

I could have tweaked it very very slightly alright I hope that's been a help there will be a link in the description to this tune from Mr Lenny Fontana I hope you've enjoyed it I'll just give you a bit more of a demo of it lot of energy with this vibe lot of energy practice and enjoy thank you

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