Effects & processing
Vibrato
Vibrato modulates pitch up and down at a set rate — the wavering a singer or a string player adds to a held note. As an effect it is subtle at low depths and seasick at high ones.
In practice
Pitch modulation on a whole mix wavers the drums too, which sounds broken. Use it only on isolated material.
Keep the depth low and the material clean. On a breakdown with only a pad and a vocal it adds movement; on a full arrangement it makes the kick sound like a fault. If the mixer applies effects to the master rather than per channel, this is one to leave alone entirely — and if you want the sound on a whole record, pitch-riding the fader by hand gives you something related and far more controllable.
Pitch
What it modulates
Low
The depth that works
Isolated
The material it needs
Where these come from: Effect behaviour and club practice, not catalog figures. For what we can measure, see the volume version.
Why it matters
It is the effect with the narrowest usable range on a DJ mixer, because pitch modulation applied to a whole mix affects everything including the drums, and drums that waver in pitch sound broken rather than expressive.
Where it does work is on isolated material — a vocal, a lead, a breakdown with nothing percussive in it. That is a narrow window, which is why it appears on mixers far more often than it appears in sets.
Frequently asked
Why does vibrato sound wrong on a full track?+
Because it modulates the pitch of everything, drums included, and drums that waver in pitch read as a fault rather than an effect.
Is vibrato the same as a pitch bend?+
No. A bend is a single deliberate movement; vibrato is a continuous oscillation around the original pitch.
When should I use it?+
On isolated material — a breakdown with a pad and a vocal and no drums. That is a narrow window, which is why it is rare in sets.
Related terms
Tremolo
Tremolo modulates volume up and down at a set rate. It is one of the oldest effects there is, and on a DJ mixer it is usually offered tempo-synced so the pulse lands on a division of the beat.
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.
Pitch shifter
A pitch shifter moves a track up or down in pitch without changing its tempo. It is what key lock does continuously, exposed as an effect you can push in whole semitones.
Beat FX
Beat FX are the effects section on a DJ mixer that locks its timing to the detected tempo. Every delay, echo, roll and gate is set in beat divisions rather than in milliseconds, so one setting stays musical across records.
Explore: Pitch and tempo calculator · Pitch bend · Tremolo · All DJ terms