DJ glossary

A joint set by two DJs who take turns, usually one or two tracks each.

A group of 4 beats in electronic music. You count: one-two-three-four.

One hit of the main rhythm. In club music it's most often a kick drum hit.

The beat markers rekordbox places on a track. SYNC, QUANTIZE, loops and effects depend on how accurate it is.

Matching the tempo and phase of two tracks so the kicks hit together. A core DJ skill.

A separate output and speakers next to the DJ, so they can hear the mix without the delay from the room.

How many beats play in a minute. House is usually around 120–128, techno 125–140, drum and bass around 170–175.

A part of a track with no kick or with minimal rhythm: melody, vocals, space. It comes before a new build-up.

The part of a track where tension rises before the drop: the drums speed up, noise or a filter rises.

A signal louder than can pass without distortion. CLIP lights up, the sound crackles, and the speakers suffer. The fix: turn it down.

How fast the volume changes as you move the crossfader: a sharp curve for scratching, a smooth one for long transitions.

The point in a track you start it from. “Cue” also means listening to a track in your headphones before the room hears it.

The CUE button on a channel sends the track to your headphones so you can mix it in without the room hearing. MONO SPLIT puts your track in one ear and the room in the other.

The first beat of a bar. This is where you set cues, start loops and launch the next track.

The moment after the build-up when the bass and the kick come back at full power. The energy peak of the track.

The HI, MID and LOW knobs: they adjust the highs, mids and lows of the sound. Isolator mode lets you remove a band almost completely.

An effect that smoothly cuts the lows or highs of a track. The most common tool for smooth transitions.

The signal level at the channel input. You use it to match track volumes before you work with the faders.

Mixing tracks by key. The Camelot wheel numbers keys like 8A, 9A, 8B: neighboring numbers, and the same number with the other letter, match most smoothly.

The gap between your current level and overload. A good DJ leaves headroom and keeps the meters out of the red.

A saved cue on a button: press it and the track instantly plays from that spot.

The start and end of a track, usually with a simple rhythm. They're made specifically so DJs can mix them easily.

The musical “pitch” of a track, for example A minor. Tracks in close keys sound good together; tracks in distant keys clash.

A section of a track that repeats over and over. It gives you time to mix and helps build tension.

The mixer's main output that the room hears. The “master player” is also the player that SYNC follows.

A feature that keeps the pitch when you change the tempo. Without it, a sped-up vocal sounds like a cartoon.

A saved bookmark cue on the track's waveform. It helps you get to the right phrase quickly, but doesn't start the track by itself.

Speakers pointed at the DJ (BOOTH output). They help you hear the mix without the delay of the sound coming from the room.

A style where the DJ freely mixes different genres and tempos (hip-hop, pop, house, Latin) to suit the crowd.

A larger section of a track, usually 16 or 32 bars (some count a phrase as 32 beats = 8 bars). New elements and transitions almost always start at the beginning of a phrase.

A transition where the phrases of two tracks start at the same time. Then the change of sections sounds natural.

The AlphaTheta/Pioneer network: players, mixer and rekordbox connected with LAN cables share USB sticks, the beatgrid and sync.

Snapping your presses (hot cues, loops, effects) to the nearest beat on the grid — it helps you keep the rhythm.

A DJ's list of requirements for the venue: equipment, monitors, sometimes drinks and transportation.

A DJ's performance from the first track to the last. A good set tells a story: warm-up, development, peak, finale.

A mode where the track keeps playing silently while you loop, reverse or scratch, and then comes back in at its place.

Automatic matching of tempo and beats to the master player. A helper, not a replacement for your ears.

How many percent the tempo fader can speed up or slow down a track: ±6, ±10, ±16% or WIDE.

The moment one track takes over from another: with faders, EQ, a filter, an effect or a hard cut.

A jog wheel mode where pressing the top stops the track, like a finger on a record, and lets you scratch.