31 DJ Tips and Tricks

Modern DJ hardware and software has so many features these days, all designed to make you more “creative” and “unique” but honestly a lot of the time they are just a distraction from what you should be doing.

Seamlessly mixing your music and pleasing your crowd in the process! So use effects and tricks sparingly.

Almost all professional music is well produced and full of well mixed effects anyway so try not to destroy all their good work with too much flange, delay, reverb, filter, gate and whatever else you think might be fun to add to your mix. Keep it simple!

Having said that, there is always room for creativity. I recommend practicing with effects before the big gig so you know what sounds best. It’s not a good idea to start experimenting during a live set as things could easily go wrong. Be prepared!

Besides adding more complexity to your set means more chance you might mess it up! There’s no prizes for who can play 4 tracks at once with a mountain of effects on top. Let your crowd enough one awesome track at a time (ok maybe 2!)

Its all too easy to unwrap you new shiny DJ hardware and just start playing with all the buttons and dials and faders all at once! But you’ll never truly understand your mixer or decks unless you take your time to find out what each little tool can do.

So slow down, pick a track you can loop for 20 minutes. pick one or two controls and see what they do.

See how creative you can get with just those controls in play. Once you feel you’ve mastered how to use them, move on to another pair.

No piece of DJ hardware is perfect either, learn what shortfalls your system has or find out what shortfalls YOU have when trying to use it.

It’ll help you identify areas you need to improve and also find solutions to the issues in your setup.

This is especially important with modern mixers and controllers as the number of knobs, faders, toggle buttons, pads, shift modes, touch screen displays and jog wheels has only increased over the years. Learn what everything does before you start playing in front of crowds. Your audience will thank you for it in the long run.

Seen a DJ do something interesting during their set? Or heard about a new mixing trick with filters and faders? Maybe a new looping technique or tips on how to seamlessly mix key matched tracks.

There’s thousands of cool DJing tricks and techniques to learn but it can feel like you want to just jump in and do it all right away. Trust me you’ll never master the art of DJing by doing that. Pick one tip or technique and practice, practice, practice. Repeat it over and over with a couple of your favourite tracks.

If you want to find tracks that are key matched or are in complimenting keys check out our review of a free online resource on how to get key of songs.

On the flip side of this I wouldn’t recommend repeatedly using the same trick over and over in your DJ sets. While some famous DJs rely on being a one-trick-pony, it’s not going to show your full potential to the crowd or your client. Learn new techniques, master them and explore others. Never stop learning!

Do it so many times that before long it feels natural and easy to spot exactly what you need to do. This is how world class DJs learn and become at one with the music. Use the force! If you’re looking for some online DJ courses I have a list of some free and paid here.

This will likely take you years to master but every good DJ should be able to scratch mix! There’s no denying it, scratching is cool, it always has been and judging by the amount of digital hardware that lets you scratch MP3s and CDs, its not a dying art form either.

There’s plenty of YouTube videos on how to learn some simple techniques to get you started. Learn how to keep you scratches tight, master using your crossfader to its full potential.

Learning to scratch mix isn’t just about making cool sounds over your tunes, it helps you learn to catch and release tracks at the right moment and even get you out of a tight spot if a mix totally fails on you.

If you fall in love with scratch mixing then think about getting the right mixer for scratch mixing too. The right hardware will help you improve you scratching skills!

Of course its not a necessity  that you become a scratch master, but it will give you a more tactile appreciation for DJ-ing, and it might just add some flare to your sets . Don’t worry if you just can’t get to grips with it, keep practicing and having fun. Just do this at home rather than in front of a crowd, nobody likes a bad scratch mixer.

Learning to mix well is at the very core of DJing but sticking to one musical genre wont help you improve your mixing abilities. Jump out of your comfort zone and try mixing another style. If you’re a house DJ try Hip-Hop which is around 30 BPM slower and has a different set of mixing challenges.

Or up the tempo with Drum & Bass (Learn how to DJ Drum and bass here) which is rich in percussion and bass lines that you’ll need to master mixing together.

This not only broadens your skill set but helps you understand your hardware better too. You may find techniques and styles in those musical genres that you want to try out on your musical passion. Merging these can lead to a whole new way of DJing for you!

We’ve got some great articles on how to DJ deep house and also how to DJ EDM so check those out to broaden your horizons.

For some reason people think modern DJing is all about bravado and fame. It really isn’t and the DJ community is actually a very friendly, helpful and collaborative world.

So meet other DJs, discuss your skills and more importantly ask questions, answer them too if you have the answer. Share tips, learn from others.

Everyone is always learning.

Watch this great interview with Carl Cox on “How I Play”.

Modern DJ hardware can sync tracks with the push of a button which goes against god and nature in the eyes of many veteran DJs. me included! There’s a lot to be said for syncing tracks, leaving you free to get super creative.

But the sync feature doesn’t always work perfectly and if you rely on it you are doomed to fail! So learning to beat-match is a key skill every DJ should have. If you can’t disable syncing and perfectly beat-match two tracks then you’re not really a DJ my friend.

So get practicing. Start one track and learn to adjust the temp, listen out for the little signals that your track is slipping out of time, don’t look at beat-matching displays either, use your ears. trust your instincts and master this very basic of DJ requirements. We’ve written an entire article on how to beat match that I high recommend you read.

Professional DJ software allows you to create loops from your favourite tracks that you can manipulate during your set.

You can set these before your gig too and jump straight to them, creating never-ending tracks that you can then get super creative with.

But why not go one further and create your own loops. You could create your own drum loops with drum machine software. Or a funky stab or piano melody.

Maybe download some sound effects and edit them together. Import them in to your software and make your DJ totally original. All very easy to do and it’ll make your set sound totally unique!

Can you sing? Know someone that can? or have access to a library of vocal samples? Add them to your DJ software and have them ready to go at the push of a button. You could even loop them and add effects to them to create something totally new.

Maybe get a voiceover artist on fiverr.com to say the name of the gig you’re at and load that in to your playlist. Your crowd will love it!

When your DJ hardware doesn’t quite do what you want it to, or maybe you just want some dedicated button to push for something unique. Grab an inexpensive Midi controller and map some triggers to them.

With software like Traktor you can even set variables so buttons perform actions only when other actions have happened.

This allows you to get extra creative in a very simple and effective way. Midi controllers generally cost around $50 (35GBP), some less some more. All well worth it to do something original. I personally have the Akai LPD8 which is awesome.

DJs survived just fine without laptops for many years and you can too! While its at the heart of most DJ hardware setups there are other methods like CDs and Vinyl. They have their own challenges that you should master and it’ll give you more skills to use in more situations.

Some clubs are actually banning laptops, forcing their DJs to return to the original DJing methods.  This is no bad thing and knowing how to DJ with turntables and analog mixers is a great skill to fall back on should all the other digital hardware fail. Its why you still see vinyl turntables in most clubs.

So you’ve got an awesome digital mixer, some expensive digital decks and a host of other wires and peripherals. But suddenly everything stops working and you have no idea why! This may be an unlikely scenario but do you know how to DJ with just a laptop? Read my article on how to do just that in case everything else fails.

There are pros and cons abut again its a great skill to have should things not go to plan, or maybe your budget just hasn’t stretched to owning all the top DJ gear you hope to have one day.

You may love a bunch of tracks but that doesn’t mean they’ll mix well together! Listen to your tunes from end to end, understand what can be done with them and learn which tracks compliment each other well. Then build your play list accordingly.

There’s no point having 50 tracks to choose from if half of your mixes sound awful. Knowing which tracks go with what others is the best way to prepare for a gig.

I high recommend reading our in-depth article on how to create the best DJ set list as we explore everything you need to know about making the most of your DJ gig.

Your crowd are one collective entity creating you gig’s “vibe” and you are the master controller. The crowd want to be taken on a journey, taken from one sound to another.

You can do this by building up the intensity of soundscapes throughout your set, from a deep and soulful start, to an uplifting hands-in-the-air anthem filled middle, to a low-down and dirty intense ending.

Crowds respond much better if your set flows well. So think about what tracks should go in what order to achieve this. Jumping from one style to another wont do this and will only turn people off.

Tease people, delight people, learn when to drop the beat at the perfect moment to send them all into a frenzy.

Its one of the biggest thrills of being a DJ! Nothing beats it.

While you may love what you’re playing and be pleased with your set, remember your crowd are there to be pleased. If you fail to please them there will be repercussions!!

Have your preferred playlist but be sure to have backups. Learn how to read your crowd, are they in to what you’re playing? If not then be prepared to drop everything and delve in to your playlists for something better.

Reading the crowd is without doubt an art form in itself and arguably the pinnacle of your DJ skills. That’s why we’ve written a full DJing tutorial on reading the crowd to help you fully understand what you need to know.

Almost every track has plenty of bass, mid range and high frequency sounds to fill the venue, so mixing one or more tracks on top of that is just adding to an already crowded sound.

Most modern mixers have filters to take out the low, mid and high frequencies. So instead of fading one track in to another try filtering one frequency out and bring another in. Replace your master track’s bass-line with that of another track.

As a general rule its wise to fade in a new track with a reduce high frequency and low frequency for a more seamless mix. Increase them slowly as the mix builds, taking out the bass from master track. Its a very easy and effective trick anyone can do.

Modern DJ software can maintain the original key of a tune whole adjusting its tempo. Not only that but they can also adjust the key of a track independently of the tempo too. You can take two tracks with different keys and match them perfectly.

This adds a whole new dimension to seamless mixing where the melodies, bass lines and stabs all work in unison. Getting this right can take some practice as you don’t want sounds to clash either.

DJ Software like Traktor Pro can analyse all of your tracks and store information in its key and beats per minute (BPM) so you can find tracks that have a similar or exact matching key and refine to get the key mix just right. 

Master the art of mixing in key with our article here.

There’s plenty of instrumental tunes out there, songs with no vocals at all. So why not find some vocal only tracks to play over them and create something entirely new!

There’s plenty of places online to find acapellas of your well known tracks, especially bootleg music blogs. You can also purchase vocal samples online for something people haven’t heard before.

All modern DJ software allows you to record your set while you’re playing. I recommend doing this for 2 reasons.

You can analyse what mixes worked well, what mixes maybe didn’t live up to your expectations, where your beat matching slipped and what tracks maybe didn’t go together so well.

As for Nostalgia! If you’re especially proud of a set and had an awesome time playing to your crowd then its great to keep that memory. Think of it as a digital photo of your night.

Beat matching and sample looping are all wonderful creative tricks to mix your music but if you choose the wrong moment in a track it can sound awful! If two vocals clash, melodies compete for dominance, 2 bass-lines overwhelm the sound system or you suddenly stand playing beats over a break, it can really mess up your set.

Every track has a number of perfect moments for you to mix in the next track and mix out the master. Learn where those moments are, experiment and practice. Remember where they are (add markers or cue points if your software allows). Your crowd will go wild when you drop the mix in at just the right moment.

For more advanced mixing tutorials check out my article here.

Do not trust your hardware! These highly technical pieces of equipment can fail. What will you do if your laptop fails? Or your decks or mixer?

My advice, carry at least one entire backup of your playlists and musical library on an external drive. Preferably a big USB memory stick that is USB 3 and has very fast reading capabilities.

You should also load up an iPad or iPhone with a backup of your tunes as well as DJ software. Bring charging cables and a stereo jack to phono (RCA) cable . Worse case scenario you can plug straight in to the sound system and you’re back in business!

Here’s one useful option thats lightweight and a good backup system Check out the Reloop BeatPad 2 Cross Platform DJ Controller.  Small enough to be portable and doesn’t require a laptop.

It always amazes me how drunk or intoxicated some DJs get. Sure its easy to get swept up in the hedonistic party atmosphere but it wont enhance your DJ skills. It’ll also make you need to pee more which isn’t a good thing when you’re 20 minutes in to your 2 hour set!

So stay sober, stay alert, stay healthy and happy. Your body will thank you and you’ll be fully aware of what you need to do. Your crowd will thank you for it too.

You may have one perfect playlist all set up and ready to go for your given time-slot or party. But things can change at a moment’s notice and you may find yourself in a situation where your playlist really isn’t’ appropriate.

That 90 minute dirty house set you planned to play at 2am may not sound so great if you suddenly get moved to the 10pm slot. Or a change of venue or event may mean people are expecting a very different set from you. Are you ready for that?

So prepare a number of sets, know them well. vary your musical journey, prepare to orchestrate a different vibe.

I recommend reading my guide to creating the best set lists for any gig.

You’re doing for the love of the music right? So enjoy yourself! Don’t let your nerves get the better of you. Go with the music and show the crowd you’re enjoying it too.

Its a strange culture but the crowd actually like to see the technician playing the music, so show them you’re in to it and they’ll likely be in to it too! Feed off their vibe, let it consume you, feed it back to them and get them excited too. Show them you care. So don’t just stand there staring at all the flashing lights and buttons. Smile, dance and get in to it as much as your crowd are.

Having said that, don’t spend all your time waving your hands in the air and pulling weird DJ poses. Nobody likes a show-off.

Professional DJs will be able to tell you everything about a single track. Its tempo, key, how many bars before the break, when the bass-line drops out, where’s the best place to create a loop and much much more.

Its why pro DJs sound so good and can be so creative while making it look so easy.

Take your time to listen to your tunes. Even analyse their wave-forms on your laptop. Set your cue points and loops. Remember their structure and find other tracks that compliment them well.

Speaking of complimenting tracks. An easy way to do this is to pick a track and then find at least 1 other track that you know works very well with it. By this I mean they match well in structure, have complimenting bass-lines or melodies. Maybe even share the musical same key. Label these tracks (you could edit their name to include a marker).

Once you have small groups of 2 or 3 tracks you’ll find it easy to build up a playlist from them. It’ll also allow you to easily create a musical journey to take your audience on. You can read more on how to create the perfect DJ playlist here.

Pushing buttons is great and all but DJing with vinyl is where it all started and where, for some, it will always be. If you can’t DJ with records on turntable then you really should learn to.

You’ll have a real appreciation for the art of DJing and how hands on you can be with your music. Its the most tactile experience you’ll have and is actually one of the least expensive DJ setups you can own.

If you’re just doing it for the (potential) fame or money then give up now. If you’re playing one musical genre over another because you think you’ll get more gigs then give up now.

DJing isn’t easy, it takes dedication and hard work. You may never become a wold famous DJ, you may only play a small nightclub or bar in your home town, but you’re still doing it for the love of good music.

So love the music you play and play the music you love.

Confidence is vitally important in DJing. If you know your DJ setup inside and out, known your tunes from start to finish and have refined what skills you do have then there’s nothing to fear. Get out there and rock somebody’s world. You don’t need to be the world’s best DJ to win the crowd, just work within your means, master your craft slowly and methodically.

Don’t try and do more than you feel comfortable. Just because some jock  on YouTube shows of playing 6 decks at once and scratch mixing their way through 20 tracks in 5 minutes doesn’t mean they are better than you.

is essentially a freelance business. If you make a career from DJing you’ll be self employed which isn’t easy. You need to learn plenty of other business skills to get the gigs you want for the price you think you’re worth.

I highly recommend you create a professional looking DJ Portfolio to give to potential clients. DJ portfolios are very useful for getting contracts with DJ agencies, night clubs, music festivals and even corporate gigs. We’ve created a handy step by step guide to creating a DJ portfolio which is well worth a read.

Learn to promote your brand, start social media channels to promote your gigs. Get a website for your DJ business, work tirelessly to be the best you can be. It takes a lot of dedication but you’re doing what you love so its worth it!

If you are getting DJ gigs there’s one thing everybody wants from you whether they are your adoring crowd, the promoter, your agent, even your fans on your social media channels. They want to see a consistent brand from you. So mould your DJing style and have a signature theme to your DJ sets. Pioneer so tricks and techniques that only you do. Be recognised by them and evolve them over time too.

This applies to every aspect of your DJ career too, not just your DJ sets. DJing is a very public activity and people will expect things of you.

Here’s an extra bonus piece of advice to be a better DJ. Always be professional! Don’t let a venue or promoter down. Always turn up on time (or early). be helpful, sober and willing to step in if there’s an emergency. Go above and beyond what is expected of you. Whether your a mobile DJ, a nightclub or bar DJ, you’re there because of business so be sure to provide your service in the best way you can.