How to start recording and uploading better sounding DJ sets-- a comprehensive guide.

I) Introduction

So if you’re like me and have come to the harsh realization that in order to be part of the DJ eco-sphere in this highly techno-savvy and content abundant day and age we live in, you will need to elevate your overall DJ game and break down all that you so far know about what it is and what it takes to be a DJ and put on your business hats on because just like any other brand with a clear and calculated business/marketing plan aimed at ultimately optimizing sales and profit numbers your main goal is to evolve as a DJ and achieve growth.

Another important realization is that DJ technology in all its wide variety of forms have made the DJ profession much less inaccessible and mysterious as it was before. DJ’ing no longer requires the raw and uncut talent you once thought only you were born with. Technology has also made it possible to no longer need the deep level of skill brought on by countless hours of practice behind the decks while constantly tapping your finger to get the feel of the BPM as you attempt to perfect the ever-so-gentle finger nudge of the vinyl record or CDJ jog-wheel as you fight the track tempo to keep in sync.

DJs are simply no longer the same mini rockstars they were perceived to once be back in the 2K’s and before. DJs are no longer the life of the party which the crowd frantically cheered on at each bass drop. And lastly but most importantly, the recorded DJ mix is no longer this rare gem of a rock that was once valued, praised and shared as any piece of expressive art would have been appreciated. Music lovers and listeners tragically lost the patience and attention span needed to listen to a DJ set and truly transcend time and connect on a spiritual level with the DJ and the picture he/she is trying to paint via the mix he recorded. DJ mixes are now being easily mixed and recorded and quickly uploaded in haste as to keep up and compete with the vast amounts of similar online content.

I’ve been listening to a lot of amateur DJ mixes online lately, mostly on Soundcloud, and one thing is so clear to me as night and day, and that is quantity over quality has taken precedent and become the norm across the board. No matter how good the DJ’s mixing ability is, the frequent problem is that the actual sound of the recorded mix simply just sucks. Almost no thought is given to proper gain/EQ leveling, mixing mistake correcting, clipping and the final mix-down. Most DJ sets I’ve heard also don’t take into consideration all the different types and amounts of audio processing happening on the vast number of websites the set is uploaded to, and that all DJs need to do is put much more work in refining their DJ sets because the bottom line is that this recording is their flagship product as a brand, and if they truly want to adopt the philosophy of not only treating their nature as an artist, but also as a professional as well no matter how often they record and upload. Perfectly sounding DJ mixes or anything close should be the default standard and benchmark for any active DJ online.

So yeah…. The obvious moral if the story here is that lots of technological advancements today on the DJ front have now enabled more people to learn and become DJs at a much quicker pace and thus churn out DJ content such as DJ mixes, shows and podcasts at a more frequent and broader scope. Therefore, recording a great sounding DJ set as you make the mindset change from quantity back to prioritizing quality is a process that involves a certain level of creativity in and of itself and deserves much more attention if you think you’re lacking.

After over 2 decades of audio and DJ experience and many hours of research just recently, I present to you my comprehensive guide of the theories, check-lists, examples, best-practices, concepts and steps available and required to achieve the best sounding DJ set recordings that you can possibly upload. If any DJ is reading this guide and can totally relate to what I am talking about then please read on and apply whenever you deem necessary and I can guarantee you will start having better sounding DJ sets and recordings on your pages in no time!

II) Routing and Connectivity

DJing with Vinyl/CDJ/Mixer

Power: I highly recommend all your DJ and recording equipment be connected to either a power surge protector or UPS in order to eliminate the chance of any static caused by power outages or sudden electrical surges.

Electrical related issues:  Hissing, Buzzing and similar static in your recorded sound are usually signs of electromagnetic interference caused by a fault somewhere down the electrical circuit chain, starting from your wall socket all the way to your mixer’s circuit-boards and anything in between. So, if that’s where you pinpoint the root of the interference to be from, then a visit to your favorite electrician is due.

Cables and connectors:  Do not use old, damaged, or low-end audio cable because they tend to be the likeliest reason behind most a dirty or low-quality signal. No need to invest in gold plated and other “premium” type audio connectivity because it’s total overkill for this application. Also make sure the contact point between your cable and device isn't dirty, rusted, or broken to eliminate this node in your signal chain isn't the culprit.

Grounding: Check you’re equipment's grounding—it’s there for a reason. This might not apply much in the digital age nowadays as it did on old equipment and power supplies but it is always good to make sure improper grounding isn’t what is causing electrical interference or feedback in your recordings.

Dust & Debris: If you still are getting a dirty signal in your sound and you have years of dust, dirt and cookie crumbs accumulated in your DJ gear then it could be a good idea to check your mixer’s faders and clean them. Either by blowing into them or if need be open them up and clean all that gunk up with a special electrical solution…There are plenty of videos on how to make your own electronics safe soap using baking soda on Youtube.  

Audio Interface: Invest in a USB interface because these devices are the industry standard for converting any analog sound such as sound coming from a microphone or audio output from your mixer into digital signal that can be stored on your computer. For the sake of DJ mix recording any interface will do such as the entry level Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 and Behringer UMC202 HD that cost around $200.

Mobile mix recording: If you’re recording your sets on the go or at an event with your trusted portable audio recorder such as the ZOOM or Sony UX560 and are experiencing bad quality sound recordings, then you might want to change the SD card and if that still doesn’t solve the problem then your device is most probably faulty. 

Digital DJing (Computer/Mobile apps)

The first step for better sounding mixes recordings when recording from your DJ app is to be able to better control and modify the output recording. I highly recommend that you record out into an audio editor or DAW instead of recording straight to a WAV or AIFF file directly from your DJ software. The reason behind this is because it would be much easier and efficient to apply any audio editing, automation and mastering effects later on in the process when you’re done DJ’ing. The number of software able to record internal and external audio are too many to mention but the 2 most obvious ones are Ableton which is paid, and Audacity which is free.

To properly route the output audio signal from your DJ app to your preferred DAW, audio editor or streaming service making sure to have the cleanest and most uninterrupted signal that is isolated from your other OS sounds such as from your browser-- you will need to install one of many “virtual audio protocols” or “virtual audio cables” available for your OS. These apps enable you to manage the inter-app connectivity and redirection of all audio and in some cases MIDI events happening within your system. So, if you want to record out from Traktor straight into you DAW or audio editor while be keeping the audio channel totally separate from other system or browser sounds then this is your only option. Here are some names of these virtual audio cables:

Windows: VoiceMeeter, VB-Audio, VB-Cable, Jack

Mac OSX: Soundflower, Loopback, Blackhole

Linux: Pulseaudio, ALSA

iOS & iPad OS: Audiobus, AUM

Android: VB-Audio, VB-Cable

Mac OSX is more optimized for audio than Windows is so if you’re a Mac user and want to make sure your audio recording base is off to a good start then make sure you stay updated with Apple Software updates. In Windows on the other hand, you might require to install audio drivers for some audio related apps and hardware so make sure everything is installed and up to date properly.

III) All about the mixing session...

The tips I will mention in this section only relate to me and what I am comfortable with. I’ve recorded many mixes over the years and I’ve incorporated and refined this process with my relatively good knowledge or “computer stuff” in general and intermediate knowhow of “technical audio stuff” I’ve picked up on the way from 18 years of music production. I recognize each DJ has his preference on what makes a better DJ set recording but these are the things like gear and software setup/settings which I found to have worked for me.

Post-mixing and recording checklist: 

NOTE: Most online music these days and especially electronic music tends to be mastered to the same loudness levels so you won’t have to put too much effort in leveling tracks with very different volume and EQ levels. The following list is in no particular order.

Music file sample rate: For best mix recording results always choose music that is at-least in 192-320kbps MP3 format or better yet uncompressed WAV.

Fingerprints: Vinyl Junkies dust off your records clean those fingerprint marks! CDJ users same goes for you as well. 

Mixer Channel Levels: Start off with volume fader at 100% and gain at 0db.

Mixer EQ Levels: Everything at 0, 0% or 12 O’clock. We will leave any master output EQing at a later stage.

Mixer Master Output Levels: If your mixer has a separate master and record out level control then it doesn’t matter what level your master out is at because this will not affect the final recording.

Mixer Record Output Level: I will always try to lower the recording level to around -6db to eliminate any chance of clipping in the audio recording leaving me with an audio file that I can normalize the final volume to a nice and steady 0db or -11LUFS and add other post-recording effects in order to get the most professional sounding mix.

Software settings/preferences: Make sure you’ve selected the correct audio devices, channels, and IO settings in all the apps involved in recording your DJ mix. And most importantly make sure you’re not recording in MONO when recording into a DAW or audio editor because I’ve done that mistake a few times, forcing me throw a flawless mix down the drain.

Dubs and Takes: Record your mixes in takes and each time start from where you stopped when you messed up in your mix transitioning. Or if you think that you could have done a better job with timing too often in your session then please do so. Remember that this is how professional singers and musicians record their music to achieve a perfect final mixdown, so why should recording your DJ set be any different? If you’re recording or importing into a DAW then you can do all the cutting and stitching inside the interface otherwise import your recorded audio file into Audacity or any other audio editor.

Automation: Whenever I really am inspired to create a perfect mix in all sense of the words, I would always revisit the recording in my DAW bit by bit and automate parameters like volume, reverb, filter, LFO, etc. to add those dreamy final touches for the story I am trying to tell. 

Metering: Since your priority here is the recording and not tearing down the roof at your gig, then make sure you have an accurate level meter on your recording source and make sure you are not clipping as you are in the mix. As I’ve mentioned previously: clipping is a seriously common trait found in many of the amateur DJ mixes I’ve heard recently so to absolutely avoid any chance of that happening always record with at least -6db headroom and leave the signal boosting compression post mixdown in your DAW.

Cutting/Splitting into tracks: If you want to cut up your mix into individual tracks then you will need to obviously divide up the audio file in your DAW or editor. You can either edit and slice the overall mix into individual audio clips manually track by track or make use of the “insert marker and regions” and “extract all regions” functions in your favorite DAW or other specialized audio apps like Soundforge 6. If you do want to actually do this step, I recommend you do the cutting and dividing at the end once we are done with the mastering in order to avoid repeating the tasks.

Bouncing/Rendering: Put the finishing touches by cutting the silent part of the audio clips and apply fade in/out curves to sections of the mix whenever necessary. Always render and export the pre-master mixdown(s) as WAV or AIFF files because unlike MP3’s, these audio file formats are lossless, uncompressed and will make sure you have a sonically optimal base to build upon (without any potential quality degradation) before you begin mastering. The best audio export settings for a WAV or AIFF that has a perfect balance of file size and quality should be 44,100 Khz sample rate, 16-bit depth with dither.

Naming and archiving: Storage space is cheap and abundant these days so there’s no need to overwrite any of the different audio files from each step of the whole DJ mix process. Name each version accordingly so that if you ever need to revisit and revise a certain part of your workflow you can easily recall it.

IV) Why should I master? (Warning: philosophy)

Now that you are done with the mixing, recording, and editing phase and want to achieve that final and seemingly impossible 10% of what it takes to have a clean and professional sounding DJ mix you will need to take your DJ hats off for a moment to speak like an audio mixing and mastering technician.

Let get one thing clear first—in an age where the internet Is flooded with content creators racing to churn out fresh and new content more frequently, we can’t expect our DJ mixes to be played in loud settings such as parties and for extended durations like we used to when we were kids and had our favorite DJ’s monthly mixtape on repeat. If you want to be competitive in this technological landscape where it has become extremely easy for anyone to pick up DJing and begin recording mixes and mashups you will need more than just to define your DJ profile with the quality of your DJ skill and pro-sounding recordings, but like anything else these days you will need a lot of whatever it is too. Over a 15 years ago I would usually take my time in curating the track-list for an upcoming set, and take even more time before I finally hit the upload button to wherever listeners can stream or download the mix on. Despite the lack of frequency… I still remember when my 80-minute-long mixes would get decent listening statistics (+10k each) om just Soundcloud and Personal Website alone. This is amazing compared to today’s standards especially considering all the plays and user engagement the sets gathered were purely organic and all I did to promote the links was to put out a few non-paid Facebook posts. And I’ve noticed that most people listening to my or any other DJ’s sets, will tend to listen to the set from beginning to end thus truly valuing the DJ set as what it truly is and always should be-- a form of modern music entertainment that encompasses a journey into sound for the listener, a journey that is a savory delight of thoughts and emotions. And just like any other type of journey you love taking and look forward to time and time again, it will need to be start off calm and gentle as it smoothly progresses from level to level while building up the excitement and anticipation for the next moment and the satisfying mystery of the rest of the moments after that. Many might disagree on this point and claim that there is much beauty in chaos and that linear and gradual progression is thing of the past therefore to be different and better a successful DJ mix should be random and spontaneous in things like pitch and key variance from one track onto the next, or that the timing and speed in mix transitions must be radical and unconventional for it to truly reflect the DJ’s creativity, imagination and skill…and yes that maybe true because at the end of the day what we practice is an artform and mode of self-expression so I can’t argue with that. However, it is also very true that the human ear and brain is rather primitive in the sense that it needs to see patterns to various degrees in whatever visual or auditory stimuli it processes. That is why we tend to see random shapes and patterns in clouds when there is none, or more similarly to our topic, how we also developed musical notes, scales and chords and defined their overarching music theory by what note pitch, sequence, combination and progressions please our ear musically and which don’t. So just like classical music theory and the random visual patterns we see in nature our brain is programmed to respond well to familiar things, faces, sounds, etc. I’m of the opinion that DJ mixes that follow a smooth and logical roadmap and progression should always abide by a certain level of structure and discipline and that ultimately reflects on the level of talent, maturity and profession that DJ brings forward. The bottom line is that if a song or a musical piece has a catchy and memorable melody or chorus, it’s because we tend to subconsciously predict the next note, rhythm or verse and what we usually predict is something that, by definition we are familiar with and respond positive with emotions to, which by default leaves us with only neutral and/or negative feelings in response to anything that is unknown. Using this same logic of being naturally inclined and attracted to what we know as opposed to what we don’t I will wrap up this lesson in biology, psychology and philosophy asking why shouldn’t good DJ mixes follow the same thinking? Rhetorically asking of course.

V) Pre-mastering considerations 

First of all and now that we have our final unmastered mix-down bounced to a WAV file, we could technically convert it to MP3, upload to our pages and then begin sharing our work... however, this day and age of digital streaming has added a paradigm shift to what the techniques to professionally mix and master a DJ set that is ready for the internet, the many online music platforms, and the various sound systems most of your potential listeners will play it on. A long time ago DJ mixes were mastered with loudness levels and EQ curves mostly suitable for night-club-party plays or radio airtime mostly listened to loud in the car. The mixes were all compressed upwards and the mostly low EQ frequencies boosted because not all electronic music had reached a point yet where most of the music was leveled and mastered to a standard and optimized level. Another important point is that the loudness war in music where artists and producers engaged in who can deliver the lowest sub-bass at the highest possible volume without clipping didn’t exist yet, and music was still partly defined by the dynamic and uncompressed range it had. Having said that DJs and mix engineers always fine-tuned the DJ mix in the master to give it that extra kick to keep ultimately leaving it up to the mastering to make it sound professionally or amateurishly made.

A second important advancement in the music industry to note is the amount of automated compression, limiting, down-sampling, etc. that is applied to different degrees on each and every music streaming platform from Soundcloud, to Spotify, to Twitch…everything! Hi-def streaming services like Tidal and Beatport Link Pro will stream music at standardized sample rate of AAC 256kbps no matter how lossless and high quality the audio file you send them. Soundcloud on the other hand will compress all your uploads down to 128kbps which you will never dare think about playing in club or event. Therefore, imagine how bad the streaming audio would be of a DJ mix that’s recorded with volume clipping then uploaded to Soundcloud and then compressed to 128kbps! I can’t tell you for sure about the science behind why compressing an already clipped audio recording will make it sound worse, but I promise you it will make it sound a lot worse and that’s not what you want. Another downside to a seriously compressed signal like Soundcloud’s is the loss of frequencies within the signal, so for example the super deep sub-bass of a Skrillex dubstep track would usually be clear on a decent pair of studio monitors and you can feel it in your chest, but once it is compressed, certain low frequencies will occupy unnecessary space in the audio spectrum but also be barely audible to the human ear.

The third and final reason behind this paradigm shift in the final mixdown mastering strategy is the unprecedented access to vast amounts of music on a vast amount of playback devices with extremely different acoustic settings. Like I said before, back in the day, loud music, and loud electronic DJ tracks/mixes were mostly aired on large sound systems that will make the music sound amazing regardless of its recording quality… you know, the sub-woofers and stuff! Whereas now, most music of any kind has become more personal with a wide variety of music sources being played on a wide variety of devices and speakers. In short, the mastering theory and dynamics of something you want sounding good on a new car stereo will be quite different from them as applied on your smartphone speakers, which will also be different than a pair of insanely bass-heavy Beats by Dre. Headphones. Catch my drift? So, in our mastering strategy we need to choose the most optimal settings and effects to achieve the best possible sound across all streaming and playback devices. That’s the theory at least…

VI) Post recording and mastering

I’ve summed up all the things I do to master and the ways I do to achieve them via either free and/or a paid processes while using 2 main software methods—the first one is a basic and hands on approach using Audacity which is a completely free software with built-in tools and effects. On the other hand. the second main way/method is a bit more advanced but if used correctly can dramatically improve any audio mix within all possible post-mixing and post-recording boundaries, but this more advanced method of cleaning up your DJ mix and have it sound great on any device streaming from any platform and clean of any irregular accidental boosts or decreases in the mix is certainly not cheap. The running cost however depends on the tools, plugins and details you use since they carry much more potential and complexity that the pros use when mixing and mastering any kind of audio and/or music recordings. Therefore, choosing which method to go with depends on the amount of error you need to fix in your recorded mix and how much of the ends you think justifies the means to spend your time learning something new and spending money buying several plugins (some are free). This is of course with not forgetting to mention the initial cost incurred on purchasing a DAW like Ableton or Reason to load the VST plugins you need.

Disclaimer: Sound engineers and music producers will learn that there is only so much that mastering can do to an audio recording/file, and this final process in making and recording your mix before upload is only meant to tie up loose ends and polish up an already decent mixdown-- not performing miracles.

Mastering is ironically the most tedious and technical process in any sound/production studio workflow and for it to be worthwhile please follow the above steps I’ve detailed in this post as a baseline process and don’t record your mix with 30% gain on the master volume, and go crazy with filter sweeps in the mix every 30 seconds like you’re in a 90’s rave. Your overall mix will have extreme variance between the lowest transient point and the highest transient point because you would be clipping and distorting in some parts of the mix and totally lacking energy in other parts and that is a total vibe and buzzkill for any listener and fan of your style of music. Having said that, if you feel that your final recorded mix sounds more like a drugged-out rave with cheering crowds, then no magical mastering can help you and it’s best that you repeat your mix with the proper preferences and care just as you would with artwork.

Enough talk, here goes the first step right after you load your audio recording into Audacity:

a.    (THE BASICS)

Step 1 – Initial Audio Normalization

FREE (Audacity): Boost the whole audio volume and signal up a bit so you can see the high transients more clearly by either normalizing the entire clip to -1db or 0db or increasing the gain by 5db-6db on the mixer.

PAID (DAW / AE): Apply a dynamic compressor built in to mastering plugins like Izotope Ozone 9 or Waves Audio to more accurately boost the low points and limit the high clipping points to more standard degrees while using another mastered audio file as a reference benchmark.

Step 2 – Clipping limiting and audio level fine tuning

FREE (Audacity): Scan through the audio file’s waveform to identify the high-point transients, select and highlight that section and then educe the amplitude or gain to a level more in line with the recording’s overall average. Now apply hard clipping to -3db and a limiter to -1db and repeat the process while increasing 1db each time on the clipper and decreasing another 1db respectively on your limiter. The goal here is to manually normalize all the mixes’ signal levels to an equal value (amplitude). Make sure to take notice of the mix sections where you’re doing a high-pass filter sweep because these parts tend to clip sometimes.

PAID (DAW / AE): Glue compressors as standalone effects or plugins with similar functionality built into most mastering suite software will do a great job in scanning your mix and applying compression, limiting, and clipping wherever necessary with the added functionality of being able to benchmark against another well mastered reference audio file. You can use any DAW’s built-in glue or dynamic compressor/limiter here. Or a good 3rd party option would be Fabfilter Pro-C3, Fabfilter Pro-L and Izotope Ozone 9 Vintage Compressor. 

To achieve the best effect; repeat this process over again while applying several limiters in the chain each time in a subtle way as opposed to using 1 limiter, once, heavily.

If used correctly, your limiter’s and clipper’s main roles in the mastering chain are to let the volume and “energy” of the mix sit well together in the mix whereas the compressor’s main job is to define the “groove” of the sound…aka the bounce…. aka what will make you dig the feel of the track/mix.

Step 3 – Managing unneeded frequencies

Since most streaming services and websites will compress and down-sample your hi-res audio file to 128kbps, the necessary thing to do is to completely filter out frequencies in your mix that are taking up precious space in your equalizer spectrum, this is without having any positive bass-type effect on the sound outputs. If anything, trash low frequencies might sound great in your recorded WAV file but will make the mix quality of the uploaded streaming version sound muddy. Removed unwanted frequencies from the mix will also allow you to make your DJ mix slightly louder without clipping.

FREE (Audacity): Open up any built-in equalizer of frequency filter and completely cut the 10hhz-12hz from low frequency using an elliptical cut.

PAID (DAW / AE): The same end-goal as in the Audacity method but while using VST equalizer plugins such as Fabfilter Pro-Q3 or UAD Cambridge EQ which allow more advanced functionality, fine-tuning and the ability to automate and record the EQ parameters manually for a more precise workflow.

If you are mastering an electronic music mix, and in order to finetune the low parts of the EQ even further, I would always ever so slightly boost the EQ frequency range where the kicks and toms usually sit, so we don’t lose that THUMP sound in the mix. Usually, I would ideally boost around +2db in signal gain within the 35khz-40khz range of the EQ spectrum.

Step 4 – Multiband compression

Not only will the different volume levels vary in a mix but also each of the 4 main equalizer frequencies as well—sub-low, low, mid and high. Multi-band compressors act like normal compressors but except for the EQ signals. When on and armed, the MB compressor will spring into action when it detects an EQ frequency above a certain level and then will compress it down (or up – in the case of a lacking a high (treble) frequency) thus achieving an overall effect making the mix sit together nicely and tidily.

FREE (Audacity): Open the Multiband Compressor from the Effects section and dial in your required settings. You generally want to aim at getting the sub-low and low frequencies compressed to 0db, the mids to 0.5db-1db and the high frequencies to a nice and bright 1db-2db.

Paid (DAW / AE): The overall idea is the same as Audacity’s method but again with the paid method you have plenty of more plugin options with much more in-depth functionality, parameter automation recording and detailed visual feedback from the included graphs. My plugins favorite for this job are Fabfilter Pro-MB and Acon Digital Multiband Dynamics.

b.   (THE EXTRAS)

I would classify these upcoming steps as overkill most of the times, but if you know how to use them creatively without overdoing it, you can achieve whatever sound you’re looking for either on select parts of your mix or the overall audio file.

Step 5 – Stereo Imaging 

If you feel that your mix isn’t wide enough and could use a bit of “stereo widening” to give it a bit more life then you have many options and effects plugins available to adjust this parameter in both the free and paid audio editing apps and DAWs.

Step 6 – Distortion & Saturation

Sometimes certain parts of the mix, or maybe the overall audio file will lack a bit of “grit” and “dirt”. Use the many built-in saturators or distortion effects available at your disposal. 

Step 7 – Reverb

I personally would never add any unneeded reverb or space echo effects to a master mix because I really don’t see the need to in any scenario. But each to his own, I guess…

Step 8 – Smart Effects

If you feel like getting creative with the mood you want to set in a particular part of a mix, such as in a build-up or break within a track. Or if you want to create and fine-tune your own custom DJ set intro and outro, then now that you have the final signal levels and frequencies down on lock is the time to do it. Doing this in your DAW or audio editor is a much more precise way to undertake than if you were to do it on your DJ mixer and decks simply because of the micro-control and edit ability of all your plugins and their parameters. Now you can repeat it over and over again as many times as you see fit until you achieve your desired audio effect.

Step 9 – Metering

Always keep an eye on your master output VU meter and read about each of the loudness values and what they mean. Each major streaming protocol, and service have different loudness level standards for their maximum audio output levels. To go even further, each country/region also has it’s sets of limits and max levels for streaming and broadcast audio as well. The most common metrics for loudness metering are LUFS and RMS which both work on different scales. I suggest you get familiar with these metrics and their values if you are serious about perfecting your DJ mixes or if you’re getting into production because knowing what each value represents will be of great help to you. Audacity has a built-in meter but its quite basic, however DAWs have paid 3rd party plugins that will give you visual data and graphs that include the many values and dimensions of the sound so you can understand and tune your sound to the most precise degree.

I must make it clear however that fixing your mixes like this IS NOT CHEATING! You are uploading your work to the cloud for a potentially infinite amount of time so I think it is worth going to extra ends to tidy up your mix and it’s sound. If you’re in a club and you’re mixing like a madman and your kicks and bass outweigh all the other elements of the mix while the crowd cheers, then sure, do that as much as you see fit. However, remember that your DJ mix might be listened to as someone is putting in a long night at work, or wants to set a certain mood at a dinner party and might not care for any hyped-up DJ tricks. Having said that, now and previously, your DJ mix should be a journey, a smooth and civilized story in sound that is somewhat linear in key progression but standard in volume levels. 100% of all the greatest DJ mix compilations like the A State of Trance compilations, John Digweed’s Transitions, and Sasha’s legendary Invol2ver to name a few have all been professionally mastered to be the best possible version of itself as a recorded mix can be.

VII) Final thoughts and the cherries on top

Here are some random thoughts and things you can do to achieve a better sounding DJ mix without falling into any particular category or step within the overall process.

·     Always keep in mind that achieving a good sounding mix doesn’t necessarily mean you need to spend hours and days choosing and curating the track-list nor does it mean that your set must be an identical copy of the latest Beatport chart.

·     Always remember that you are recording a set for any mood and atmosphere that is not in the club or big-room venue. I guarantee you will start hearing much better results if you follow this guide and you think the sound quality of your recording is lacking.

·     Please for the love of God, do not record shoutouts, or play your cheesy jingle and watermark shouting out your DJ name. This is totally uncool, unprofessional and unnecessary.

·     Restrict the usual suspects of effects such as filter sweeps and reverb for only the times when you are transitioning in and out of a mix. Leave the cheese for the night-club.

·     Please, please, please always note down the track-list and the order in which they are played and include them in wherever you will upload the mix. If you think you are protecting your secrets and hard work then think again because Shazam can identify all the track IDs in the mix with no errors. Also, and if possible, include the time-codes and the timings of when each track in the mix is played.

·     Once you are ready to upload it to the cloud, consider playing the audio file back on several sources to make sure it sounds good on smaller devices such as phones as well as on more refined outputs such as a Hi-fi stereo.

·     Even if you have very amateur visual design skills, get any royalty free image of your choosing and design the cover art for all of your mixes. Speaking out of experience-- adding cover art can dramatically increase your plays and user engagement.

·     Including all the relevant info, descriptions and metadata with the audio file upload will maximize your set’s SEO and overall friendliness with search engines.

·     Promote the set upload on your social and messaging channels using promo links and your own DJ link trees to listeners so they can quickly link to all your online pages and contact information if they wish.

·     Making a promotional preview video might produce slight hype and be overkill for your DJ set but could be a nice idea if you recorded this set to mark an occasion.

·     Promote your set using link and playlist aggregators, link exchanges and other free online music promotion services such as Repost-Exchange, Soundplate Clicks and Hypeedit.

Always remember that if you are the brand, then your musical creations such as these DJ mixes are your main products and no matter how good you are as a DJ and experienced as a mix-master or a wizard when it comes to getting creative with effects and scratching—it all means absolutely nothing if the mix you upload online for the world to hear sounds amateurish due to a poor recording and post-recording technique. That’s just a fact neither you or I can or will ever change!