“Beat-mixing is a core skill of anybody who calls himself a professional DJ” – Hugo Drax
Hugo Drax, a well-respected long-time mobile DJ that often appears at industry trade shows such as Mobile Beat, makes a strong argument in the video above (we’ve got the video cued up to the relevant part) for learning how to mix on beat without the help of DJ software “Sync”. All new DJs going pro or those considering taking on the profession should pay attention.
While Drax immediately goes on to say that you do not need to sync beats to perform a solid set, the understanding of how songs work together, such as harmonically, is an essential part of knowing how to select music that works well together. The audience may not be paying enough attention to understand exactly why your mix sounds good, but they will have a better musical experience that they won’t easily forget.
“The knowledge of beat-mixing, the skills that go with, change how we select music, it changes our programming, it makes us better” – Huge Drax
Drax goes on to explain that mixing songs in key, otherwise harmonically, makes for much smoother transitions from song to song and genre to genre (the later is a skill mobile DJs require more-so than their club DJ counterparts, as they often need to seg from one genre to another).
DEX 3 is equipped with a truly amazing ‘sync‘ algorithm, allowing DJs to mix on beat with a single button press from either a cold stop or while playing. The included key detection, key search and key control allow DJs to also find and mix songs harmonically. These are tools that we expect DJs using our DJ software applications to lean on heavily — however, the experience and skills learned from first understanding your music and how it works well together, by learning without technological assistance, will pay dividends as you go from being a hobbyist to a true professional behind the digital decks.
Have questions about Sync, beat-mixing or mixing songs harmonically with our DJ software? Please leave them in the comments section below!
