A couple of weeks ago I went to a party where a friend of mine was mixing. His choice in music is quite unique and he’s one of those guys who just buzzes with enthusiasm when it comes to playing in front of a crowd. However, this time he got lazy and paid for it…
Using the Sync button is nothing to be ashamed about.
Every digital DJ uses it more than they’d like to admit. But since we’re talking about a guy who tends to play exotic and generally offbeat sounds, he should’ve previewed the mix in his headphones instead of pressing “Sync” directly on the Master channel. All DJ software analyzes the song upon loading it to a deck, but sometimes the genre or quality of the song may prove too obscure to generate a well spread beatgrid.
A correct beatgrid (vertical bars that separate the beats of a song) governs the success rate of a “Sync mix”.
The software might not have created the beatgrid properly and when my friend pushed the Sync button the songs were anything but synced. The people immediately stopped dancing and just looked at the DJ. Of course, he went straight to the next song but the vibe that he tried so hard to create was ruined; functions such as a beatgrid editor will enable you to adjust the beatgrid perfectly.
It’s wiser to preview the follow-up song, set your cues and hit the play/cue button while being ready to correct the mix, instead of worrying if your songs will be synced straight away when pressing Sync.
Not previewing the mix makes you look like a more advanced DJ, but you need to be able to quickly correct your mix by using the pitch bend buttons or the jogwheel. If you preview the mix, you’ll know straight away if something isn’t sounding right. The people that hear a wrong sound will most likely choose to respect the effort of manually correcting and making the mix sound right, rather than watch you abuse a function that can’t cope with a certain mix.
Nobody wants to see a machine behind the music, mistakes being our confirmation that we’re still human and solving them sincerely is, more than often, the proof that you’re determined to make the party rock.
