Decks and mixer

Drag a track from the browser onto a deck to load it, or select it and press a controller's LOAD button. You can also drag an audio file straight from Finder, Explorer or your file manager onto a deck: it loads there and joins your library. (On Linux this needs an X11 session; Wayland doesn't pass file drops to openDJ yet.)

Decks

In 2-Deck each deck runs, from the outer edge in:

• The tempo column: SYNC on top, the tempo fader, and − and + under it for small steps. The triangle beside the fader puts the tempo back to the track's own. A lilac line down the fader means key lock is on; right-click the fader to switch it.
• The pads, with their tabs on top (see Pads).
• The LOOP column (see Looping).
• The jog wheel, with CUE and PLAY under it, next to the mixer. Drag round its black rim to bend the tempo, scroll over it to nudge, and hold « or » in its lower corners to bend slower or faster. SLIP sits in its top right corner (see Slip, bend and censor).

Above them, the deck's header shows the cover, title and artist, the time left and the track's tempo and key, with the overview waveform of the whole track. Click the overview to jump; dragging it moves without playing what it passes.

To empty a deck, point at its cover and click the small ⏏ in the corner (the Mixer has it at the end of its title bar instead). It works on whatever the deck holds: a track, the Groove Box, the Looper, an input or the Mixer. It only shows while the deck isn't playing. Right-clicking the cover has Unload deck too, and ⇧ ⌥ ← / → unload decks 1 and 2. If it was a mistake, click ↺ Put back on the empty deck: a track comes back where it was.

Waveform colors

Settings › Decks › Waveform color picks how the waveforms are colored:

• RGB (the default): one shape, red where the bass is loudest, amber for the mids and blue for the highs.
• 3-Band: the bass, mids and highs stacked in their own colors, the bass widest, as on rekordbox. Palette picks Blue-Orange-White (rekordbox's colors) or Lilac-Cyan-White.
• Blue: one blue shape, lighter where the highs are loud.
• Stems: each stem (kick, hi-hats, bass, instruments, vocals) in the color of its stem pad, the loudest at the back, so you can see where the vocals come in or the bass drops out. A track shows RGB until its stems are ready.

Overview draws the overview under each deck Full, mirrored about its middle, or Half, growing from the bottom edge as on rekordbox. The big scrolling waveform is always whole.

Show vocals, off at first, tints the sung parts of the waveforms green, as on VirtualDJ. openDJ checks each track for vocals the first time you load it (or when it's analyzed), in the background, so the green shows up a few seconds after the waveform; after that it's there straight away. Tracks with HQ stems use their vocal stem instead.

Size follows gain, off at first, makes a deck's waveforms taller or shorter as you turn its gain knob, as on VirtualDJ.

Waveform zoom

The large scrolling waveforms zoom in twenty steps of 5%, from 5% (about 40 seconds across) to 100% (under a second, close enough to line a grid up with a kick). They start at 40%, ten seconds across. Every large waveform zooms together, in every layout, so beats stay the same distance apart on each deck; the overviews under the decks always show the whole track.

• Scroll the mouse wheel or swipe on the trackpad over a large waveform: up zooms in, down zooms out. The zoom follows smoothly and settles on the nearest step when you stop.
• Use the bar at the edge of the waveform under the pointer (the side away from the grid pencil), widest at the top: click the grey track to move the lilac marker there, or drag the marker up and down.
• ⌘= and ⌘− (Ctrl on Windows and Linux) step in and out, ⌘0 goes back to 40%. They are also in View and in a large waveform's right-click menu.
• On a controller, map Zoom waveform in, Zoom waveform out, Reset waveform zoom or Waveform zoom (1 to 20).

The step shows for a moment on the waveform under the pointer (or the top one). openDJ remembers it for next time. Decks playing an input, an instrument or the Groove Box keep ten seconds across.

Waveform height

The large scrolling waveforms have ten heights, 1 to 10; 3 is the usual one. Each layout remembers its own, so tall waveforms in 2-Deck don't make 4-Deck taller.

• Drag the line under the waveforms: a lilac grip shows when the pointer is on it. The waveforms stretch with the pointer and settle on the nearest height when you let go, with the number in the middle. Double-click the line to go back to 3.
• Click the arrow on the right of the waveforms button in the top bar and pick a number.
• Right-click a large waveform and use − and + under Height.
• ⌥⌘↑ and ⌥⌘↓ (Ctrl+Alt on Windows and Linux) make them taller or shorter. They are also in View.
• On a controller, map Taller waveforms, Shorter waveforms, Reset waveform height or Waveform height (1 to 10).

The library always keeps room for about five tracks. When the window is too short for the height you chose, the waveforms show the highest one that fits, and grow back when the window does. The decks never shrink.

Beat counter

Beside the title, four squares light up one beat at a time, so you can see where the bar is: the first beat of each bar lights white, the others in the deck's color. The thin bars under them fill up through each group of four bars, and all four turn lilac in the last bar before a new phrase starts, so you know the change is one bar away.

Next to the squares, the count reads phrase.bar.beat (for example 3.2.1: phrase 3, bar 2, beat 1), and under it ↓ 6 › DROP says the next phrase, a drop, starts in 6 bars. The phrases come from the track's phrase analysis; a track without phrases is counted in phrases of eight bars from its first bar. If beat 1 doesn't land on the downbeat, the beat grid is off: click the tempo on the jog and choose Bar 1 here on a downbeat (see Beat grids).

Choose Off, Beats (squares only) or Beats and phrases under Settings › Decks › Beat counter. The 4-Deck strips show the squares only.

PLAY, CUE and SYNC show an outline in the deck's color while they're on. Shift-click and hold PLAY while the deck plays for censor.

The decks' effects are in the FX bar under them.

Jam on a deck

A deck can play something live instead of a track. Click Jam in the rail at the far left (the keyboard icon) and drag one onto a deck:

• A Groove Box kit: a drum machine in time with the mix (see Groove Box).
• An instrument plugin you ticked in Settings › Plugins, played with a MIDI keyboard or the KEYBOARD pads. OPEN on the deck opens its own window for its sounds and presets (see Instruments).
• The Looper: four layers you record in time with the mix and play back (see Looper).
• The Microphone, from the input picked in Settings › Audio.
• The Mixer: up to eight aux inputs from Settings › Audio (turntables, a drum machine, a phone, another DJ's mixer) summed into the one deck. The numbers on the deck turn each input on and off; a new input starts off. The deck's fader is the Mixer's master, and one deck holds the Mixer at a time.

It plays through that deck's channel, so the EQ, filter, effects, fader and crossfader all work on it. A track on the deck is stopped and ejected first. An input plays on one deck at a time: dropping it on another deck moves it there, and while a deck has it, its own channel in the MIC panel stays quiet. The Jam page shows which deck each one is on.

The deck's scrolling waveform draws what it plays as it plays: the sound comes in at the play line and scrolls away to the left, with nothing ahead of it. The beat lines and bar numbers are those of the track leading the mix (the sync leader, or else the first deck playing a track), so you can see your part land on its beats. The leading track's phrases show too: a thin strip along the top in each phrase's color, running on ahead of the play line, and a flag at each new phrase, so you can see the drop coming and bring your part in on it.

On a deck playing an instrument plugin, the notes you play show as bars on a note roll over a faint copy of the sound: one row per note, fitted to the notes played in view, with the notes still held lit up to the play line. The rows of the scale the instrument plays in (its Scale setting, Auto or a picked scale) are tinted.

On a Groove Box deck, the scrolling waveform shows eight step lanes, kick on top, over a faint copy of the sound. The hits it played scroll away to the left, and the hits still to come are drawn ahead of the play line as outlines, so you can see the next bars before they play. Fills are drawn in lilac, and a groove you queue shows from the next bar on.

On an instrument deck, the small sliders button at the waveform's top right switches to macro lanes: the knobs on the page the deck shows, drawn as lines up to the play line across the waveform's full height, each in its own colour, so you can see the filter ride you did a few bars back. Only the knobs that moved in view get a line. The list just past the play line names all eight with their values and colours, dimming the ones left alone. Click the button again to go back to the note roll. Macro lanes are in 2-Deck only; a Groove Box deck always shows its step lanes.

To go back to a track deck, load a track onto it, or press EJECT while it is stopped. openDJ remembers what each deck plays for next time.

Looper

Drag Looper from the Jam list onto a deck. In 2-Deck the deck shows four layers, two by two, with ▶ PLAY and four beat lights under them. The header shows the tempo the Looper plays at, and whether it is in time with the mix.

• FROM picks what it records: Mix (the main mix), Mic, Aux, Instr. (the instrument plugin), Aux 2 or Aux 3.
• BARS sets how long a new layer is: 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 bars.
• Tap a layer's ● REC to record it. It shows NEXT BAR until the next bar starts, then RECORDING, then ▶ PLAY with its length once the bars are done. Tapping a layer on a stopped deck starts the deck.
• Tap a playing layer to OVERDUB: what comes in is added on top of it. Tap it again to go back to playing. With THEN OVERDUB on, a layer goes straight on to overdub when it finishes recording.
• CAPTURE puts the bars just heard into the first empty layer, even if you weren't recording. LAST picks how many: 1, 2, 4 or 8 bars.
• Each layer has M to mute it, a level knob, and × to clear it.
• UNDO takes back the last recording or overdub, and REDO brings it back. While a layer waits for the bar or records, UNDO cancels it.
• ▶ PLAY under the layers starts all of them together, and ■ STOP stops them.

A layer holds up to about 48 seconds, 16 bars at 80 BPM. If what you pick is longer, the deck says Too long to fit: pick fewer bars. To go back to a track deck, drop a track on it.

Slip, bend and censor

SLIP keeps the track in time while you play with it. Click the word SLIP in the jog's top right corner (2-Deck only): it turns lilac when on and light grey when off. While it's on, scratching, a loop, a hot cue held down, reverse or a pause takes the sound away, but a silent playhead carries on, drawn as a dashed lilac line on the waveforms. When the trick ends (you let go of the jog or the pad, end the loop, turn reverse off or press PLAY) the track carries on from that line, on the beat and the phrase, as if it had played on. In slip mode a hot cue plays only while you hold it. SLIP blinks while the track is held elsewhere; switching it off then also brings the track back. Slip only works on a deck that's playing: on a paused deck, scratching and hot cues find a spot as usual.

Scratching follows your hand closely. openDJ smooths a controller's jog the way Mixxx does when you hold the record or push it at a steady speed, so the sound doesn't wobble. When your hand changes speed quickly, as in a baby scratch, a quicker filter takes over, so the record keeps up: about 10 ms behind your hand, where Mixxx's smoothing alone is about 26 ms behind. The audio buffer (Settings › Audio) comes on top of that, so a smaller buffer feels tighter still.

Vinyl mode (Settings › Decks) decides what touching the top of a controller's jog does. On (the default), it grabs the record so you can scratch. Off, the top bends the tempo like the rim does, so brushing the jog doesn't stop the track, as CDJ mode does on a Pioneer player. The DDJ-FLX4 and DDJ-FLX6 follow it, and a controller's own VINYL button still switches it for its deck.

Pitch bend nudges a deck's beat into line by ear: it plays a little faster or slower while you bend and springs back when you stop. Turn a controller's jog rim, drag round the on-screen jog's rim, or hold « or » beside the jog (2%, or 4% with Shift). ← and → bend the deck you started last, the one you're mixing in.

Censor plays the deck backwards while you hold it, then carries on as if it had played forwards, to bleep a word. Shift-click and hold PLAY while the deck plays, or hold SHIFT and PLAY on the DDJ-FLX4.

Sync and quantize

SYNC sits over the tempo fader. It stays on while it's lit: the deck follows the master deck's tempo and keeps its beats in step, at half or double tempo when that's closer. Press it again to let go. Shift-click SYNC to match the tempo and beat once, without staying synced, as SYNC does in VirtualDJ.

The deck that synced decks follow shows a small MASTER under its key. openDJ picks it by itself, the deck that has been playing longest, and hands over when it stops. Click MASTER on a deck to keep that deck the master (it fills in), and click it again to let openDJ pick.

Right-click SYNC for quantize. While it's on, cues and loops are set on the beat, and play, CUE, hot cues and jumps land in step with the other playing deck. The same menu sets the step: 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 or 1 beat, or 4 to land on the same beat of the bar. Cues and loops snap to a beat at most. Settings › Decks › Quantize sets whether quantize starts on for every deck.

Keys

Key lock shows on the tempo fader: while its line is lilac, moving the fader keeps the track's key. It's on from the start; right-click the tempo fader to switch it off and on (Settings › Decks › Key lock on at start sets how decks start). The + and − beside the deck's key shift it a semitone at a time, and clicking the key lists every shift with the key it gives.

The track list shows in lilac the keys that mix with the track playing now. Settings › Decks › Key mixing picks which ones count:

• Harmonic (4 keys): the same Camelot number, or the next number up or down with the same letter. 8A mixes with 8A, 8B, 7A and 9A.
• Fuzzy (6 keys): the letter doesn't matter, so 7B and 9B mix with 8A too. This is fuzzy keymixing.

A key one semitone from mixing gets a small +1 or −1 in a dimmer lilac. With Match key on load (Off, ±1 or ±2 semitones, ±1 by default), a track loaded while another deck plays is shifted by that much, with key lock on, so it mixes. At ±2, keys two semitones away are marked +2 or −2 in grey.

Auto reset on load

Loading a track puts its deck back to normal, so the last track's settings don't carry over. In Settings › Decks, under Auto reset on load, each of these can be switched off (all are on to start):

• Effects: the deck's effects switch off. Their beats and dry/wet stay as you set them. An effect that also plays on the main mix or on another playing deck, such as a shared Beat FX, keeps going.
• EQ and filter: EQ, kills, filter and sculpt go back to the middle.
• Gain: the gain knob goes back to 0 dB (or the track's own gain, if its info sets one). Auto gain still levels each track.

Mixer

Between the decks, each channel has four knobs down its outer side, its gain, and a channel fader beside the main level meter. Under the faders are the headphone CUE buttons and the crossfader.

The menu over the meters picks what the four knobs do:

• EQ: high, mid and low, and the Color FX filter knob, with a small ▾ beside it to pick the Color FX.
• STEMS: the level of each stem.
• SCULPT: a low-pass, a sculpt band with its frequency and cut or boost, and a high-pass, after PlayDifferently's Model 1.

A controller's EQ knobs follow the same choice.

Crossfader curve (Settings › Mixer): Smooth for blends, Linear, or Scratch, where both sides play at full level until the very end. With Scratch, Cut-in sets how close to the end a side opens fully: 0.5%, 1%, 2% (the default, under a millimetre on most controllers) or 5% of the crossfader's travel.

The crossfader can be switched off, so it no longer fades either side: right-click it, or use Settings › Mixer.

Master, phones and mic

The MASTER button in the top bar opens the output levels: Master, Phones, Booth, and Cue / Mix, which blends cue and main in the headphones. Its Ableton Link switch is described in Ableton Link. Audio Settings… opens the outputs in Settings. Levels are kept between runs.

The arrow on the MIC button opens the microphone, with ON, a level and one MIC FX slot of its own, which the decks' effects never touch. Auxiliary inputs play on a deck from the Jam source. Choose the inputs in Settings › Audio: + under the inputs adds a second and third auxiliary input, and each auxiliary input takes a pair of channels (stereo) or one (mono).

If the sound device goes away (an audio interface unplugged, or a dock disconnected), the decks stop where they are and stay usable: you can load, cue and seek, and a message says what happened. openDJ plays on that device again as soon as it's back, or pick another one in Settings › Audio.