Turntablism
Reload
A reload is pulling a track back to its start and dropping it again, usually seconds after the moment the crowd reacted to. It is native to jungle, drum and bass, garage and dubstep.
In practice
A reload answers a reaction that already happened — if the room did not move, do not pull it back.
Give the drop a few seconds first. Pulling the record the instant it lands cuts off the reaction you are responding to, and the whole point is that the room hears itself. Mechanically it is a spinback into a re-cue, so have the cue point set before the drop rather than hunting for it under pressure — a memory cue at the drop is worth setting on anything you might reload. Once a set is a convention in some rooms and twice is a statement; three times is a different kind of statement. It belongs to bass music, and it lands oddly in a four-to-the-floor set where the room is not expecting to be asked.
A few seconds
Wait before pulling
Cue set first
Not under pressure
Once a set
The usual ceiling
Where these come from: Performance convention in bass music, not catalog figures — nothing we store describes what a room did. For what we can measure, see the exit it is built on.
Why it matters
It is the one DJ move whose value is entirely social. Mechanically it is a spinback followed by a re-cue, and nothing about the audio is improved — what it does is acknowledge a reaction that already happened and give the room the same moment twice.
Which makes the timing rule strict. A reload has to answer something the crowd did; called for a record the room has not responded to, it reads as an interruption, and two in a row reads as a DJ playing to themselves.
Frequently asked
What is a rewind in a DJ set?+
The same thing as a reload — pulling a track back to its start and dropping it again in response to the crowd. Also called a wheel up or a pull up.
When should a DJ reload a track?+
Only when the room has already reacted, and a few seconds after the drop rather than on top of it. Reloading a track nobody responded to reads as an interruption.
How many reloads is too many?+
One in a set is normal in jungle, drum and bass and dubstep. Two is a statement. Beyond that it stops acknowledging the room and starts talking over it.
Related terms
Spinback
A spinback ends a track by throwing it backwards out of the mix — by hand on a platter, or with the reverse and brake controls on a player that has none. No beatmatching required.
Brake
A brake is a controlled slowdown to a stop, either by killing the turntable motor or with the brake control on a player. The pitch falls with the tempo, which is the whole effect.
Double drop
A double drop lands the drops of two records at the same instant. Done right it is the biggest moment a DJ can manufacture; done wrong there is no way to hide it.
Hook
The hook is the part of a record people remember — the vocal line, the riff, the moment that makes it that track rather than any other. Everything else in the arrangement exists to set it up.
Explore: Mixing guides · Double drop · Energy arc · All DJ terms