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School

Tips & tricks

All The Basics to get you started on your DJ Journey

Lesson 1

The board

Two decks. Mixer in the middle. Everything else is extra.

MIXERAB1234CROSSFADER
  1. 1Left deck is A. Right deck is B. The mixer sits between them.
  2. 2Each channel has gain at the top, EQ in the middle, a cue button, then the fader.
  3. 3The long bar at the bottom is the crossfader. Leave it centred until you actually need it.
  4. 4If you can point to those four things with your eyes shut, you can mix.

Lesson 2

Cans first

The room hears the master. You hear the next record in the headphones.

HEADPHONESCUEMASTER12CUE MIX
  1. 1Put the cans on. Split-cue if you’ve got it — one ear master, one ear the next tune.
  2. 2Hit CUE on the channel you are about to bring in. You should hear that deck only in the cans.
  3. 3Do not raise that channel fader until the phrase in the cans lines up with the phrase in the room.
  4. 4If you can’t hear the next kick clearly, turn headphone mix toward CUE, not the master.

Lesson 3

Gain before EQ

Gain sets how loud the record is. EQ shapes it. Don’t mix those jobs.

GAINCH1GAIN2HI / MID / LOW3FADER
  1. 1Play the loudest part of the track (usually the drop) with EQ at noon.
  2. 2Turn GAIN until the channel meter kisses yellow, not red.
  3. 3Match the other deck the same way. Two records should look the same on the meters before you blend them.
  4. 4If a mix is thin, reach for gain last — check you didn’t scoop the bass on both channels.

Lesson 4

EQ is a knife

Two kicks in the same room fight. One of them has to sit down.

EQCH1GAIN2HI / MID / LOW3FADER
  1. 1LOW is the kick and sub. MID is the vocal and stab. HIGH is hats and air.
  2. 2When both decks are playing, drop the LOW on the incoming channel until the swap.
  3. 3Bring the new LOW up as you take the old LOW out. That’s the swap — not a volume fade.
  4. 4Don’t cut mids on a vocal track unless you want the MC to disappear. Cut what clashes, leave what talks.

Lesson 5

Match the pulse

Tempo first. Nudge second. Fingers last.

DECK1PITCH2NUDGE THE PLATTER
  1. 1Read the BPM. Put both decks in the same number with the pitch fader (or sync once, then learn without it).
  2. 2In the cans, the two kicks should land together. If the new one runs ahead, slow the pitch a hair.
  3. 3Nudge the platter — push to catch up, drag to hold back. Tiny moves.
  4. 4Once they lock, stop touching the platter. Let the pitch fader do the holding.

Lesson 6

Count the phrase

Tunes breathe in 8s, 16s and 32s. Mix on the breath, not in the middle of a sentence.

32 BARS1RED = PHRASE START
  1. 1Most UK garage, bassline and DnB phrasing is 8 or 16 bars. Count kicks: 1-2-3-4 is a bar.
  2. 2Start the new tune on a phrase start — intro, breakdown, or the first bar of a drop.
  3. 3Do not dump a drop on top of someone else’s drop unless you mean it.
  4. 4If you lose the count, wait. A late mix that lands is cleaner than an early one that crashes.

Lesson 7

Hot cues are bookmarks

Mark the intro, the vocal, the drop, the outro. Then stop hunting.

HOT CUES1234INVOCALDROPOUT
  1. 1Pad 1: start of the mix-in (usually bars of drums).
  2. 2Pad 2: first vocal or hook.
  3. 3Pad 3: the drop.
  4. 4Pad 4: mix-out / last 16. Recue from 1 when you want a clean run-in.

Lesson 8

Loop to hold the room

A 4 or 8-bar loop buys you time. It is not a trick. It is a pause button with groove.

LOOP8 BAR1EXIT ON THE 1
  1. 1Hit LOOP on a drum phrase, not a vocal syllable.
  2. 24 bars to catch a thought. 8 bars to stretch an intro while you find the next tune.
  3. 3Halve the loop only if the kick still makes sense. A 1-bar vocal loop turns into a stutter fast.
  4. 4Exit the loop on a phrase start so the track continues like you never paused it.

Lesson 9

Filter to leave

A high-pass takes the weight out without killing the hats. Use it to walk away.

FILTERLOW-PASSHIGH-PASS1
  1. 1Sweep the filter on the outgoing channel as you bring the new LOW in.
  2. 2High-pass = bass leaves. Low-pass = top leaves. Most mix-outs want high-pass.
  3. 3Don’t park a filter half-open all night. Open it back up or kill the channel.
  4. 4EQ still does the kick swap. Filter is the coat you put on as you walk out.

Lesson 10

Echo out, then shut up

One echo on the last vocal. Then hands off.

FXECHO 1/41WET THEN OFF
  1. 1Send or dry/wet on the outgoing channel, echo or delay, 1/4 or 1/2 beat.
  2. 2Hit it on the last word or last snare, then pull the fader.
  3. 3Kill the effect as soon as the new tune is in. Wet tails on two records is mud.
  4. 4If you need a third FX in one mix, you don’t. Save it.

Lesson 11

Stems, one layer

Drums, bass, vocal, music. Mute one. Don’t solo everything at once.

STEMSDRUMSBASSVOCALMUSICMUTE THE CLASH
  1. 1Use stems to lift a vocal over a bed, or to drop drums out of the outgoing tune.
  2. 2If the stem sounds crunchy, you pushed the isolation too far — back it off.
  3. 3Never leave two vocals fighting. Mute one stem or don’t mix those two records.
  4. 4Stems are a tool. If the blend works with EQ alone, leave the stems alone.

Lesson 12

Faders vs the bar

Club mixes live on channel faders. The crossfader is a cut, not a blend.

FADERS123ABCROSS
  1. 1Keep the crossfader in the middle. Ride A and B with the two channel faders.
  2. 2Scratch, battle, quick cuts — that’s when the crossfader earns its keep.
  3. 3Hamster / reverse is for cuts. Don’t reverse it ‘for fun’ mid-set.
  4. 4If a mix is messy, your hands are probably on the wrong fader.

Lesson 13

Build the crate first

The set is won in the library, not on the night.

CRATE1. BPM2. KEY3. ENERGY4. DROP
  1. 1BPM and key on every file. Energy mark: warm-up, peak, reset.
  2. 2Folder by job, not by vibe word. ‘Garage 130 mix-in’ beats ‘tunes I like’.
  3. 3Waveform preview the drop so you know if it slams or teases.
  4. 4Take 20 records you can mix, not 400 you might. Dead weight slows the hunt.

Lesson 14

Same hands, three desks

rekordbox, Serato, Engine — the labels move. The job doesn’t.

THREE DESKSrekordboxSeratoEngineSAME JOB · DIFFERENT STICKER
  1. 1Cue / headphones: CUE button on the channel, then headphone mix.
  2. 2Loop: LOOP / AUTO LOOP. Hot cues: the pads under the jog, 1–8.
  3. 3Stems: pad mode or a STEMS panel. Filter: channel knob or FX slot one.
  4. 4Learn one desk properly. The others are the same map with different stickers.

Not Carlo’s course and not his words. If you want the original videos, that’s his channel. Software updates live on SOFTWARE.