DJ Mixer Setup: Mixer Types

Series Summary

Hip hop music has a unique ability to get people bobbing their heads, feeling the groove, dancing to the beat. A DJ’s job is to keep that beat seamless and uninterrupted all night long. You can tell a master turntable artist by his highly polished scratching skills and by how well he mixes beats and songs together, creating the perfect playlist for a night out on the town. In this free music video series, a professional DJ show how to set up a mixer. Learn how to plug in power, speakers, grounds and turntables. Get instruction on setting lines, adjusting faders, levels and master balance, cueing records and plugging in headphones. Receive tips on trim nobs, balance per channel, EQs, microphones and different types of mixers.

Video Transcript

"Alright, today we're going to use this mixer for our demonstration. I would call this a mid-level DJ mixer. You can do a whole lot better and you can also do a whole lot worse. Different mixers have much more variety than different turntables, because different mixers will often actually have different features and some will have way way way more, and some will have just the bare minimum. This has most features you will find on every DJ mixer. It's a three channel mixer so that means you can put in three different players. I usually use two turntables. Occasionally I'll put in an IPod or a CD player. You can have two CD players, one turntable, you could have three turntables. It's got your standard, high, mid and low EQ. It's got your standard balance on each channel and as a whole. I found with this particular mixer, my cross-fader actually broke and I needed to get it repaired and sometime soon, I may even need to get it repaired a second time. But this will do for a working DJ."