13. Glossary of Terms
- balance
- A balance control on a mixer allows to adjust the balance between the left and right
channel. The balance refers to the relative volume of the corresponding channel in a
stereo audio signal.
- beatmatching
- A mixing technique used to establish a similar tempo with two or more tracks,
making them sound like just one track.
- BPM
- Beats per minute (BPM) is used as a measure of tempo in music.
If you tap your foot to music you are following the “beat”.
If you count how many taps you do in a minute you have calculated the BPM.
- crossfader
- The crossfader is a slider that determines how much each deck of audio
contributes to the master output.
- cueing
- Headphone cueing, or just cueing, is listening to the next track you would
like to mix in in your headphones. The audience will not hear what you are
cueing in your headphones. Being able to cue is a crucial aspect to DJing.
- deck
- A deck is like a virtual vinyl turntable. You can load a track into
it and play the track, just like you would put a record on turntable and
play it.
- head/mix button
- The head/mix button is used to control how much you mix the master
output into your headphone output. This can be very useful when
cueing a track, because you can test out how it sounds when mixed
with the main mix in your headphones, before letting the audience hear the
track.
- headphone button
- The headphone button is used to indicate whether or not you are
pre-listening to a deck or sampler in your headphones.
- headphone output
- The headphone output is what you hear in your headphones. You can play tracks to
- IRC
- Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a an online chat network. The Mixxx IRC
channel can be found on the FreeNode IRC Network
in the #mixxx channel.
- key lock
- With key lock enabled, the tempo of the track will change but the pitch
remains consistent. When unlocked, the pitch slider will speed up (or slow
down) the track and the pitch will increase (or decrease) along with it.
- kill switch
- A button to turn on and off output or individual frequency ranges within a
channel, i.e. treble, mid and bass. Useful for effects where the DJ drops
a track out for a period or creates room for a transition.
- latency
- Latency refers to a short period of delay (usually measured in milliseconds)
between when an audio signal enters and when it emerges from a system.
Being able to lower the Latency as much as possible makes a huge difference in
responsiveness.
- master output
- The master output is the main audio output. It’s what your audience hears.
- MIDI Controller
- An external hardware device, usually connected to your computer via USB,
that allows you to control audio applications. Many DJs prefer to control
DJ software using physical knobs, faders, and wheels instead of using a
keyboard.
- operating system
- Your operating system (OS) is the computing environment on your
computer. For example, Windows, Mac OS X, or GNU/Linux are the three
operating systems that Mixxx supports.
- PFL
- PFL or “pre-fader listen” is a fancy word for whether or not you are
“pre-listening” to a deck in your headphones. See also: headphone button.
- phase
- The phase of a track is its position relative to another track. If two
tracks are sync’d to the same tempo and in-phase then they should be
playing so that their beats are aligned.
- pitch bend
- A technique used by DJs that temporarily bends the rate of a track up or
down, usually while a button is held. This technique is usually used to
make micro-adjustments to the synchronization of tracks while
beatmatching. Before digital DJing, this was accomplished by dragging one’s
finger alongside the turntable to slow it down or by twisting the record
spindle to speed it up.
- rate
- The speed at which a track is played back, usually expressed in terms of a
percentage of the speed relative to the tracks normal rate. Often while
mixing, DJs adjust the rates of tracks so that they can play at the same
tempo as other tracks. This allows DJs to beatmix, and is an essential part
of DJing.
- reverse
- Reverse plays a track backwards.
- sync
- Sync allows you to automatically adjust the sync’d tracks tempo
and phase to be in sync with another deck that is playing.
- tempo
- The speed of a track measured in bpm.
- track
- A track is another word for a song.
- vinyl control
- A method of controlling DJ applications which simulates the traditional
DJing paradigm of two turntables. Using special vinyl records called
“timecode records”, the DJ application analyzes the timecode signal and
simulates the sound and feel of having your music collection on vinyl.
- volume
- A term that refers to the degree of sound intensity or audibility; loudness.
A volume control is used to adjust the output gain setting.
- vu meter
- The volume unit (VU) meter is used to show the relative levels of audio signals
and is subdivided across channels. Basically it represents how ‘loud’ a sound
from a channel is.
- waveform overview
- The waveform overview shows the waveform envelope of the entire track, and is
useful because they allow DJs to see breakdowns far in advance.
- waveform summary
- The waveform summary shows the waveform envelope of the track near the current playback postition.