Browser
DECK A
DJ Mixer Express
Quick Start Guide
Mixer
Separate Video Screen-
Move it on any TV/
Monitor/projector.
Current playlist
AutoMix playlist
DECK B
and cue points (green
DECKS
Time
Elapsed/Remaining
(click to toggle)
Pitch Bend – manually adjust the speed, slowing or speeding up when needed to correct and perfect your sound.
Combine effects with the axis by clicking on 'X' or 'Y'.
Hot Cue-points – saved cues that can be instantly triggered.
How you place them makes them hot or not.
(press and hold a cue-point to delete it)
HX/Y effects pad – move the cursor within the pad effect results.
(the upper left corner of the pad is the place where no effect applies)
SYNC – instantly synchronizes that's playing (master).
Reset Pitch – when pressed it will smoothly reset the track's pitch to
0%; if you double click it
x2 – pressing it loop.
it to exit the loop. Press it again to recreate the last loop.
KeyLock – activate this to keep the track in the same key, no matter the speed or leave it off to get
Play-Pause – starts/stops playback
Record – press this to begin recording your session; great for making memories or for learning from mistakes.
( signal strength from each deck volume.
Mix Left / Mix Right – no more waiting, no manual mix ; you're telling the software to MIX the
NEXT song; left for deck A or right if you want deck B to play next.
Monitor – after plugging your headphones and setting the soundcard you want to use for monitoring (see pages 7 and 8 for
Audio section), click the headphones button to monitor your mix.
About...the software and us.
MIXER
Master Video preview –click it to open a separate video screen that you can mount on a projector, huge TV or on a secondary screen ; press FULL SCREEN...shiny.
Input Gain – if you feel a track has low volume and you've already pumped up the volume, this is the knob to twist.
Volume – modify the signal volume, whatever your purpose may be.
Eq High / Mid / Low – a
DJ's bread and butter. Each one goes from
-36 db to +12db.
Crossfader – the bridge between
Deck A and deck B; fades the audio... slide it with no remorse.
PLAYLIST & BROWSER
Search – you can search for a track by entering its partial name; press space to enter search mode and press Esc to exit search mode.
Drag Up/Down – moves the selected track up or down within the playlist.
Sort – by artist, title, BPM, key, comment, time, album, genre, year, filename, track... then reset.
Preview – this is great when you build playlists and need to hear a song for a bit ; use the bar to skip quickly through the song.
Add – press it to add files, folders, playlist or to import your music directly from Itunes.
Remove – removes the selected song from the playlist.
Clear – the playlist becomes empty after this click.
Shuffle – ain't nothing wrong with a little chaos in your list ; after all, chaos is an order yet undeciphered.
AutoMix – if enabled the software will automatically start mixing the tracks in the
right-side playlist, so take your time to choose and arrange your playlists well.
The HISTORY list allows you to see what you played in specific days/months/years.
Use this to your dvantage.
Browser – allows you to explore and import tracks from your computer or other portable devices; right-click to create as many new playlists as you want. (rename and rearrange whenever you feel)
Playlist – shows you the selected playlist/tracks; it acts like a virtual record holder.
Search – useful knowledge : write ?k ?for key, ?b ?for
bpm,?y ?for year, ?g ?for genre, followed by the values that interest you; timesaving filters.
AUTOMIX PLAYLIST The list on the right is your personal sidelist ; use it for whatever purpose, be it for
AutoMixing or simply to place certain tracks in another list as a reminder for later.
PREFERENCES
General
Select User Interface – this is the software's dressing room where you get to pick the outfit that you see appropriate for any occasion; every skin has its own advantages and functionalities (go to www.macdjmixer.com
to find more skins).
Show Hints – if you need to see an explanation for every button/knob/slider that you hover on with your mouse, leave this on ; it gets annoying after a while.
Reset Deck after Load – if enabled, any new song that you load will be placed in a freshly reset deck: pitch, volume, eq-kills and cut-off filter.
Reset Pitch after Auto-Mix – when a transition between two songs has been made with Auto-Mix, the pitch (BPM) resets seamlessly to its initial value.
Beat-Matching when Auto-Mixing – this option beatmatches the two tracks before cross-fading between them in
Auto-Mix mode.
Use slow speed/pitch reset - if enabled, after you press the pitch reset button on a deck, the pitch/speed will gradually
(instead of immediately) reset to 0.
Remember History – all the songs you have ever played in our software will be remembered; check your History list to see what you played at any party from any date.
Remember Song Equalizer Settings – when activated, the software remembers any alterations/changes to the
High/Mid/Low frequencies of an individual song/any song.
Use Perceptual Automatic Gain – an advanced algorithm that once activated knows what's loud and what's low in volume, automatically correcting the gain levels.
Disable Automatic Cueing – when enabled, songs are no longer automatically cued, upon loading, at the earliest Cue or
Mix-In point.
Auto-Mix fade time – when Auto-Mix mode is active and makes a transition, this parameter controls how long it takes for the crossfader to move between decks.
Auto-Mix Limit Track – this is the Auto-Mix setting that lets you choose how long you want a song to play before it mixes to the next one (30 sec? 1 min? no limit?)
Pitch/Tempo range – by fiddling with this the pitch slider allows 4, 8, 16, 24, 32 or 50% pitch change; the smaller the pitch change, the finer the adjustments.
Cutoff Filter mode – lets you choose the type of cut-off filter that you prefer. You can select between Low Pass, High Pass and a combined Low Pass & High Pass filter mode. If the filter mode is changed, the two cut-off filters are set to Filter OFF.
Crossfader curve – this controls the way the crossfader is modifying the volume of the 2 decks. If this is set to hard, the volume will jump abruptly from mute to full volume (or from full volume to mute). If the curve is soft, the volume will change smoothly.
Audio
Select audio device – selects the audio output where the Master signal comes out. Usually, you will select the soundcard
/ audio device where your speakers are connected. If you have internal speakers, the device is usually called “Built-in”,
“ Internal Speakers” or has a similar name. Optionally, if you have a multi-channel sound device you can also use this to output the Monitor signal as well. (on Windows, remember that the ASIO option of a soundcard is always the best choice; no ASIO? Try choosing WASAPI for better latency).
Output Routing – this lets you select how you want each deck and the heaphones to be handled by the master device.
This refers to the device that you selected at the Select audio device.
Disable crossfader/volume faders (external mixer mode) – if you don't want to use dj mixer express mixer, you have the option of using an external mixer. If your soundcard has enough outputs you can have independent outputs for Deck A, Deck B an Monitor (headphones). You can then mix these as you see fit on your external mixer. Please note that mix recording will not work in this case, since the software doesn't do the actual mix itself.
Select an additional audio device for previewing / monitoring – in case you don't have a multi-channel sound device you can still connect your headphones to a secondary output by selecting it here. It is, however, recommended that you have one sound device or hardware controller with multiple audio outputs (multi-channel) than to have two different audio devices (sync problems may occur in this scenario).
Latency – this is the amount of time from giving/issuing a command to its actual execution. For example, if the latency is
100ms (0.1 seconds), after you press the Play button it will take another 100ms until the sound is actually heard in the speakers / headphones. A lower latency will increase the interactivity by making the program respond faster to the commands (e.g. more natural sounding scratch, etc.); on slower systems, sound dropouts and glitches tend to occur.
Input Routing – this lets you change how your inputs are set (microphones and inputs you can set on each deck); the settings depend on the audio interface that you selected from the Select audio device.