Here you will read all about choosing a DJ mixer which suits your needs perfectly.

A DJ mixer is the heart of a hardware DJ setup. Anyone can play one track then another, but the DJ mixer lets the DJ smoothly fade from one piece of music to the next.

Most hardware DJ setups have two main audio sources which can be CD, vinyl or sometimes iPod. The function of the DJ mixer is to mix effectively between these sources and additional audio sources such as samplers or laptops.

The whole range of DJing can make good use of the DJ mixer. This might range from simple beat-mixing all the way up to complex creative techniques such as beat-juggling, scratching and "turntablism". Different mixers are suitable with different techniques for example scratching would need very short cross-fader curves, so different DJ mixers are aimed towards different types of DJing.

The greater the number of channels on your mixer, the more different sound sources you can mix together easily. Each channel will typically have inputs for one or more audio source and usually some EQ which can be simple bass and treble controls or more sophisticated options. Channels might also feature one or more "kill" switches. An example of their use would be to kill the bass frequencies of one track so that they don't clash with those on another track.

The "cue" function on a DJ mixer is important as it allows the DJ to listen to a channel through headphones without sending it to the main mix. This feature is what allows the DJ to pre-listen to tracks to choose the best next track and also to beat-mix effectively.

The other unique and essential feature of a DJ mixer is the crossfader which enables the DJ to smoothly change from one track to another. Some crossfaders have a choice of different curves sometimes aimed at specialist functions such as scratching.

A better quality DJ mixer will give higher quality sound plus less unwanted hum and hiss and be more long-lasting and reliable. Some offer additional features which can sometimes help and sometimes be pointless or worse than useless. For example a good quality BMP counter can be a lot of help when beatmixing but a cheap one can be worse than nothing at all.