Pitch Control

On a DJ deck, such as the Technics 1200 pictured above, you will find a pitch control - this is either in the form of a rotary knob or a slider, and as its name suggests it allows you to control the pitch of the record that you are playing back. You'll want to use a deck that features a pitch adjustment range of at least 8%, and more than this if possible.

You'll need to use pitch control extensively if you want to beat match your vinyl as quickly as possible - although it is possible to DJ without using pitch control, more complex beat matching tasks will require you to be comfortable with using your pitch control slider. So, you should start getting used to how it responds, and start practising with it as quickly as possible.

Pitch control actually adjusts the speed of the platter rather than the pitch itself, as certain digital processes do. Because the pitch of a sound is directly related to its frequency (measured in Hertz, or number of vibrations per second), lowering the frequency will also lower the pitch. This is what 'pitch control' does - it slows down (or speeds up) the platter rotation by a certain amount. This reduces (or increases) the number of times the record will spin past the needle in one second (i.e. the frequency) and therefore the pitch will drop (or rise). When using pitch control to reduce the pitch of a track, however, it is important to remember that this also causes the tempo (beats per minute, BPM) of the track to drop also. On the other hand, if you want to increase the BPM count of your track, you can do so by giving the pitch control a bit of a boost in the + direction.

Read more about Pitch Control here...