We've selected 8 of our favourite tips and tricks from DJ Mag’s How I DJ video series, touching on backspins, DJ tools, multi-deck DJing, and much more.
Since 2020, DJ Mag’s How I DJ video series has been a steady stream of pro-level DJ tips and advice. The series asks some of club music’s leading DJs about their influences and the development of their craft, along with dynamic demonstrations of their go-to techniques. Across 16 episodes, it’s become one of our chosen sources for mixing inspiration, so we decided to rewatch every episode and select some of our favourite tips and tricks.
Below you’ll find words from each 8 of the DJs featured so far, with supporting explanations and ideas for expanding on their advice. We’ll be revisiting the series soon, with another article that explores the pro techniques of 8 more DJs.
“When I’m trying to do a four-deck transition, I’m conscious that it can get very messy very quickly, because four songs aren’t meant to be played together,” says the UK artist James Hype. “[So] I’ve made conscious decisions in what tracks I’m going to play and how they’re EQ’d and they’re put together.” James goes on to explain how he considers where each element he’s using—bass, vocals, hi-hats—sits in the frequency spectrum and adjusts EQ and filters accordingly.
James also raises an interesting point about perceived depth of sounds. By gradually opening a low-pass filter on a loop, he aims to move the sound towards the audience. This same logic can be applied to reverb, where sounds placed in a large space are perceived to be farther away. With this in mind, imagining your mixes in three dimensions could throw up some cool creative choices.
“I really think that the first level of DJing is being able to beatmatch,” says DJ Mag’s current #1 DJ in the world, David Guetta. “And the level two is using tonalities—keys between records that are working together.” In a quick demonstration, David shows how using the Key Sync functionality can turn a transition that sounds just OK into one that sounds harmonious—like the tracks were meant to be played together.
David expressed this same sentiment to us a few years ago, when we explored how DJs utilise harmonic mixing. In his mind, it should be central to a DJ’s craft. “This is, in my opinion, what separates good from great. It kills me when I hear a DJ mixing two records in clashing keys for a full minute. Harmonic mixing is absolutely essential in my opinion.”
“As you’ll probably notice, I love doing backspins,” says the US house artist Roger Sanchez. “It’s from back in my old-school hip-hop technique.” However, in this demonstration Roger is playing upfront house music. That’s immediately something to remember: be open to mixing techniques from other styles of music. Although the backspin, or spinback, is most commonly associated with genres like hip-hop, reggae and drum & bass, Roger shows how it can be utilised in four-on-the-floor club music to great effect.
For Roger, the key is to apply an echo effect to the backspin. “It provides a nice dramatic exit,” he says. “Not only when you’re exiting from one track to another one, but also when it’s time to end the set.” The fun doesn’t stop there. Try slapping effects on other hip-hop mixing techniques. A huge reverb on a baby scratch, for instance. Or an echo on a vinyl stop (or a CDJ emulation of one).
“This is a category of tricks I do in some of my sets,” says the Canadian DJ and producer A-Trak. “There’s this implied dialogue with the audience where I’m saying, ‘Hey, recognise this loop? You know this, right? It’s Basement Jaxx. See where I take it…” In this clip, the familiar musical part is the hyperactive stabs of Basement Jaxx’s “Fly Life.” A-Trak then subverts expectations by running different drums underneath, cutting in a spoken vocal sample, and applying loads of effects.
As he points out, the aim with this style of mix is to find parts that are musically coherent but are different enough from the recognisable loop to surprise the audience. He uses drums from an Addison Groove track that are just rhythmically different enough from the Basement Jaxx original to give the impression of re-edit or a remix. The possibilities here feel pretty limitless, but consider using the technique as a way of folding unexpected genres into your sets without actually playing the songs themselves—running a recognisable soul loop over techno drums, for instance.
“What really helps me to understand the different volumes of each record, in order to not be too weak with the record I’m putting in, is to try to mix without the headphones,” says the Italian techno DJ Adiel. Her advice speaks to the challenge of matching volumes between different vinyl records. A mixer’s channel output metres can offer a visual guide, but Adiel says your ears can be more reliable.
There’s another important benefit to this suggestion. “Also the volume of the headphones should be really moderated because it can isolate you from what is happening there on the outside,” she says. Most DJs can probably relate to this. You’ve been so preoccupied with your performance that you forget that there’s a room full of people in front of you. Coming out of the headphones arguably helps forge a deeper connection with the dance floor by more closely hearing what they’re hearing.
“I just figured if you could chop [between] two of the same track when they’re going forwards, then in theory you could do it in reverse,” says the UK DJ Neffa-T. “But there’s a slightly different pattern to it because the beat match doesn’t sound right.” This may immediately make sense to you, but if not, here’s a visual representation of what’s going on. If the same 909 kick plays at the same time but one is reversed, you get the attack of one kick, quickly followed by a backwards sucking (or scratch) sound as the other kick reaches its peak.
With this technique, Neffa-T uses the crossfader to chop between the normal and reversed versions of the same grime track. “You want [the reversed track] to swing into a kick or swing into a snare,” Neffa-T says. We tried the technique on a drums-only house loop and it sounded great but, as Neffa-T says, timing is everything—your cut needs to happen later than expected to get a satisfying impact. Add some filtering or other effects to the reversed version for an extra flourish.
“[DJ Tools] can often be a segue from one track to another,” says the UK selector Monki. “Two tracks [that you want to mix] might be really busy and so you need something more simple to stitch those two together.” By DJ tools, she’s referring to things like instrumental drum tracks or breaks, melodic loops, and vocal acapellas, and when you step back from it, Monki’s advice here is really powerful. Using a reliable and flexible drum track as a brief interlude completely broadens your options for what comes next. Drum tracks can also work as a breather or a palette cleanser, a moment of relative calm before hitting the audience with something more full-throttled.
“If it’s an acapella, it might be something you want to dip in and out of,” says Monki. This advice indirectly highlights that, as DJs, we can get caught in an A-B mindset, where one track simply follows the next. To break free, try thinking about longer arcs of time, with, for example, a tasteful acapella serving as a motif throughout your entire set. Monki offers the technique of teasing an anthemic melodic loop—and then playing the original two tracks later. A switched-on dance floor will almost always appreciate such dynamism.
“It just gives people some good goosebumps,” says the amapiano artist Musa Keys. “Instead of hearing the song as they’d hear it on Apple Music or Spotify, it gives them a different feeling, keeping people super interested in my mix.” To demonstrate, Musa plays a simple intro beat of an amapiano track. “Sounds a little bit boring,” he smiles. He next cycles through short note lengths—1/8, 1/4, 1/2—on the echo Beat FX while rhythmically cutting out the channel fader to leave only the echoed signal. A functional drum section is quickly transformed into a potent DJ performance.
This particular use of Beat FX is a signature technique of South African dance music, which tends to emphasise percussion and rhythm. Musa’s example is quite flashy, but the echo Beat FX can also be used subtly, creating, for example, little rhythmic accents at the end of each bar to gently nudge the audience. On the other end of the scale, a Beat effect like reverb might be used in combination with a Color effect for massive mainroom moments.
