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New to this? Turn on PRACTICE MODE first. It is five short
lessons that teach one thing at a time, it shows you everything, you
cannot lose, and you can finish it. Two minutes.
Two records. The left one is the club's and you cannot touch it —
it goes thump … thump … thump, and every fourth thump is
louder. That loud one is the ONE.
Yours plays a click, so you always know whose sound is whose. It
comes in wrong, and you can hear it: thump-click … thump--click …
thump----click. Get the click to disappear inside the thump.
THE TWO CONTROLS, AND WHICH ONE FIRST.
1. The SPEED slider — this one first, always. Your record is
running very slightly fast or slow, and that is why it keeps
getting out of step. If the gap is slowly opening up on its own
while you sit still, that is the speed, and no amount of shoving will
hold it. Nudge SPEED until the gap stops changing. Your click also
goes a bit higher or lower as you move it, which is how you know the
control is doing something.
2. Dragging your record — this one second. Drag it sideways and
it shoves the whole record forwards or backwards in time, so
your click lands earlier or later. It does not change the speed.
Drag right and your click comes sooner; drag left and it comes later.
Right across the record is about one beat, so small drags.
That is the whole game: a gap that slowly opens up is the speed. A
gap that just sits there is the position. Fix the speed, then shove
it into place.
When it is together, hit DROP — but only on the loud thump.
Press it anywhere else and nothing happens except a grumble from the
crowd; the mix carries on and you can try again on the next one. So a
mistimed thumb costs you a bit of time, not your whole mix.
After DROP the controls lock for eight beats while the room
listens, and the worst moment is the one that counts. A wrong
speed comes apart right there in front of everybody — which is why the
slider is not optional.
A run of good mixes multiplies what the next one is worth. The
crowd's patience is the bar under the picture — it drains while
you fiddle, a good mix tops it up, and it gets shorter every tune. When
it empties, they go home.
Can't tell whose sound is whose? Mute one record and listen to
the other on its own until you have its rhythm, then bring it back. Both
always play through the eight beats after a DROP.
What PRACTICE MODE gives you. Nothing is scored and there is no
clock. You get a readout: a pointer showing how far apart the two
records are and the number in thousandths of a second, with the band
you are aiming for shaded in. The readout moves on its own when your
speed is wrong — that sliding is the speed error, and it is
the thing the slider is for. You also get the bar drawn out flat
so you can watch the ONE coming round, a lamp that goes amber then
green, and a ring on the club's record each time the loud thump lands.
The readout is a dial, not a control — the only two things you
can move are the SPEED slider and your own record.
On a laptop: ← → nudge your record, space drops it.