Things You'll Need:
- Reference monitors
- Headphones
- Records, CDs or MP3 files of ready-mixed drum and bass music
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Step 1
Set the equalizer on your mixer to completely flat. Play a drum and bass record, CD or high-quality MP3 file through your studio reference monitors. How does the music sound? Are the highs crisp without sounding tinny, and are the lows nice and deep without breaking up?
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Step 2
Adjust the equalizer settings on your mixer until the music sounds just right. Switch records and repeat the process to fine tune your speaker system and ensure that professionally-mixed drum and bass records from different artists sound good on your system.
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Step 3
Put together your own drum and bass mix. Put a few tracks together and listen. Are you reproducing the sound quality of the professional mixes you used to tune up?
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Step 4
Play a track with a nice, steady beat and step away from your DJ station. Stand in different points in the room to determine how the music sounds from different vantage points. Listen for dead zones.
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Step 5
Listen to your mix through high-quality headphones. Fine tune your mixer, and try to split the difference between optimum levels for monitors and headphones.
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Step 6
Hook up your tables or audio source to a professional PA system. This is vital if you are going to mix live. A mixer set to sound perfect on your home reference monitors won't necessarily sound perfect in a live venue. Always do a sound check.
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Step 7
Burn a CD and create an MP3 file of your mix. Play the mix through a laptop, iPod and car stereo, and make sure the mix sounds good in each medium. Does the bass sound muddy and get lost on a laptop's smaller, less powerful speakers? Boost your low mids and cut out the lowest lows.
