DJ Studio
Laid out like a Pioneer DJ DDJ-FLX4, so the real controller already feels familiar.
— DECK A —
MASTER
·
— Press LOAD to pick a track —
— BPM
-0:00 0:00 / 0:00
LOOP
— DECK B —
MASTER
·
— Press LOAD to pick a track —
— BPM
-0:00 0:00 / 0:00
LOOP
— BPM
— BPM
0.0%
0.0%
What works in the Studio
- Decks: jog wheels (spin the black outer ring to nudge the tempo; grab the grey platter to hold & scrub the track like vinyl), PLAY, CUE (hold it to hear the track from the cue point), tempo faders, BEAT SYNC and LOAD. BEAT SYNC works as in rekordbox: press it and it stays lit, keeping this deck at the MASTER deck’s tempo with the beats lined up (when you press it, and when the deck starts playing); press again for off; hold it a second to make that deck MASTER (the deck screen says which). Moving a synced deck’s own tempo fader takes it back and switches its sync off. TEMPO RANGE sets how far each tempo fader goes (±6, ±10 or ±16%; it starts at ±10%): SHIFT + BEAT SYNC on a real FLX4, or here click the TEMPO RANGE label under BEAT SYNC, the ± button on the deck screen, or Shift-click BEAT SYNC.
- Pads: HOT CUE, BEAT JUMP (top row jumps back 1 beat, 1 bar, 4 bars or 8 bars; bottom row jumps forward; it stays on the beat), PAD FX (blue top row for during a track: echo, reverb, filter, flanger; red bottom row ends it: brake, spin down, echo out, fade out), BEAT LOOP (loops of ¼ to 32 beats) and STEMS on the SAMPLER button, in Serato’s order: 1 voice, 2 melody, 3 bass, 4 drums on/off; 5–8 play just one. Pressing SAMPLER gets the stems ready; the deck screen says LOADING or SPLITTING until they are.
- Loops: IN → OUT, 4 BEAT/EXIT, 1/2X and 2X. Loops snap to the beat.
- Mixer: TRIM, HI / MID / LOW, CFX filter, channel faders, crossfader, master level and VU meters.
- Beat FX: FX SELECT, BEAT ◀ ▶, LEVEL/DEPTH, ON/OFF and the 1 / 2 / 1&2 button; the screens show the effect.
- Screens: BPM (click it to change the tempo), key, time left, back to the start, play / pause, eject, SYNC, ± (TEMPO RANGE), MT (Master Tempo), loop lengths (½ to 32) and − / + to zoom the big waveform.
- Track library: LOAD opens it, with crates by tempo and genre and “Mixes with” for tracks that will mix with the other deck. “Use my own MP3” is at the bottom; their stems are split in the browser, so they’re rougher. The split is kept on that computer, so the same song’s stems are ready straight away next time.
- Keyboard (as in Serato): W / S – Play or pause Deck 1 / Deck 2 and I / K – CUE Deck 1 / Deck 2. Holding I or K works like holding CUE.
- BPM on / off: the BPM button (top right of the screens) hides every BPM number, so you beatmatch by ear (the Gold challenge). A link ending
?bpm=offopens the Studio with them hidden. - Also: REC (top left of the screens) records your mix; every mix you record stays in a list until you leave the page, to listen back to and download (or send to Showcase, if your teacher lets pupils add their own); EXPLAIN (top right) shows what each control does when you hover over it; the button under the controller goes full screen.
- Smart CFX and Smart Fader (the two orange buttons on the left of the mixer): Smart CFX makes each CFX knob bring in echo and reverb as well as the filter; Smart Fader mixes for you as you slide the crossfader (the tempo glides across, the new track is lined up on the beat, the bass swaps in the middle). Both start off; a link ending
?smart=offlocks them off, for assessments. - A real DDJ-FLX4 (in Chrome or Edge on a computer, not Safari or an iPad): plug it in with its USB cable and click USE FLX4 at the top left of the screens; the first time, the browser asks to use MIDI devices. Then its decks, jogs, pads, loops, mixer, Beat FX and LOAD work the Studio: LOAD opens the track library, turn the browse knob to pick a track and press LOAD again to load it. Whatever you touch on the controller lights up on the screen, and its lights follow the Studio. Its tempo faders pick up: after SYNC, move the fader towards the arrow beside the % until it takes over. Close rekordbox or Serato first. SMART CFX and SMART FADER don’t work from the controller yet (use the orange buttons on the screen).
- Headphones (with a DDJ-FLX4): choose DDJ-FLX4 as the computer’s sound output (then reload the page), plug the speakers into its MASTER OUT and your headphones into its socket. The CUE button above each channel fader sends that deck to your headphones before its fader, so you can get the next track ready while everyone hears the other one; HEADPHONES MIX blends it with the main mix (left CUE, right MST). With no CUE on, the headphones play the main mix. Without a DDJ-FLX4 the computer has one stereo output, so the CUE buttons just say what they need.
- Not wired yet: SHIFT and BACK on the screen, MASTER CUE and MIC (EXPLAIN says what they do).
MIX-ED isn’t connected with or endorsed by Pioneer DJ or AlphaTheta. Pioneer DJ, DDJ-FLX4 and rekordbox are trademarks of AlphaTheta Corporation; Serato is a trademark of Serato Limited.