Deck controls
Pitch bend
Pitch bend is a momentary speed change used to correct phase — nudging the jog wheel or holding a bend button to push a track forward or drag it back without altering its tempo setting.
In practice
Bend to fix where a track is, not how fast it runs — a touch on the platter, released the moment the kicks agree.
The two gestures are a nudge on the jog wheel’s top surface to pull a record back, and a push on its edge to send it forward, or the dedicated bend buttons if you prefer a fixed amount. Keep corrections small and frequent rather than large and occasional: a big bend is audible as a wobble in the drums, several tiny ones are inaudible. If you are bending constantly in the same direction, the problem is tempo and the fader is the right control.
Phase
What bend fixes
Tempo
What the fader fixes
Momentary
How long it should last
Where these come from: Deck controls and technique convention, not catalog figures — the amount a bend applies varies by player and by jog sensitivity. For what we can measure, see the tempo half of the same job.
Why it matters
Tempo and phase are different problems and pitch bend solves the second one. Two records can run at exactly the same BPM and still sit a fraction apart; the pitch fader would fix that by making them different speeds, which is not what you want.
It is also the tell that separates a mix that is beatmatched from one that is locked. A DJ riding a mix by ear is making tiny bends continuously, and the mix stays together because of the correction rather than because it was ever perfectly aligned.
Frequently asked
What is the difference between pitch bend and the pitch fader?+
The fader changes the track’s tempo and leaves it changed. Pitch bend changes speed momentarily to move the track forward or back in time, then returns it to the set tempo.
How do you fix two tracks that are out of sync but the same BPM?+
With pitch bend. Same tempo and wrong position is a phase problem, so nudge one deck until the kicks coincide instead of touching the tempo.
Why do I keep having to nudge in the same direction?+
Because the tempos are not actually equal, or a beatgrid is slightly off. Repeated corrections in one direction mean the fader or the grid needs the fix, not the jog wheel.
Related terms
Beatmatching
Beatmatching is lining up two tracks so their beats land together — matching the tempo, then nudging the phase until the kicks coincide. It is the base skill every other mixing technique sits on top of.
Pitch fader
The pitch fader is the slider that speeds a track up or slows it down, usually by up to 6 or 8 percent. It is how two records are brought to the same tempo before they are mixed.
Sync
Sync matches one deck’s tempo to the other automatically and holds it there, using the beatgrid the software calculated. It removes the arithmetic of beatmatching, not the decision about which record follows which.
Beatgrid drift
Beatgrid drift is a grid that lines up at the start of a track and slides out of alignment later — the tempo the software stored is close to the real one but not equal to it.
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