DJ effects: filter, echo, noise and space

Effects are for the moments between records: a filter sweep up to a drop, an echo to let a record go, a wash of reverb into a breakdown. Mix//Sync has four, in the style of the effects built into a DJ mixer, with one knob on each channel.

Where they are

Above the crossfader are four buttons: Filter, Echo, Noise and Space. The lit one is the effect both channels use. Filter is lit when you start.
Under each channel's fader is its FX knob. At the center the effect is off. Turn it left or right to bring the effect in.
The FX knob catches at its center, and a double-click puts it back there.
Choosing another effect puts both FX knobs back to the center, so an effect never starts at full.

The four small dots under each channel's EQ show the beat of the bar. They aren't part of the effects.

Filter

Turn left and the filter takes the highs away: the record sounds muffled, and near the end of the turn little but the bass is left. Turn right and it takes the lows away, until mostly the hats and the top are left. The filter's edge gets sharper the further you turn, so a slow sweep has a ringing, rising sound.

Turn the playing record to the right as the new one comes in, and its bass clears out of the way.
Sweep a record slowly to the left through the last phrase before a breakdown, then back to the center on the first beat of the next one.

Echo

Echo repeats the channel's sound once every beat, timed to that deck's tempo. The further you turn, the louder the repeats and the longer they keep going. Turn left and each repeat gets darker. Turn right and each repeat gets thinner. The repeats always die away, and back at the center the echo is off, repeats and all.

A common use: bring the echo in on the last bar of a phrase as the next record takes over, then pull the old record's fader down. The fader takes the echo down with it.

Noise

Noise adds a rush of white noise to the channel, shaped by a filter. It comes in gently and grows as you turn. Turn left and the noise grows darker, toward a low rumble. Turn right and it grows thinner, toward a hiss. Riding it up over a build and snapping it back to the center on the drop is the classic move.

Space

Space is reverb. It adds a tail of a couple of seconds to the channel, as if the record were playing in a bigger room. The further you turn, the more reverb you hear. Turn left for a darker reverb, right for a thinner, brighter one. It suits breakdowns, vocals and the last notes of a record you're leaving.

The record keeps playing underneath

Echo, Noise and Space are added on top of the channel. They never take the record itself away, so with any of them on, the original keeps playing as it was. Filter is the one that removes part of the sound.

On a deck you're playing, all four sit before the channel fader, so the fader turns an effect down along with its record.

With a friend

An effect on a deck you're playing is part of the sound your partner hears.
An Echo, Noise or Space you put on your partner's deck plays on your computer only: you hear it, and they don't.

Go easy

An effect on every transition stops sounding like a choice. Pick your moments: the end of a phrase, a breakdown, the handover from one record to the next. Then bring the knob back to the center, so the next record starts clean.

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