Effects & processing
Wet/dry
Wet is the processed signal, dry is the untouched original. The wet/dry control sets how much of each you hear, and on most DJ effects it is the only depth control there is.
In practice
Ride the wet control rather than switching an effect on: an effect that arrives is a move, one that appears is a mistake.
Set everything else before you engage, then bring the wet up over a bar or two and take it down the same way. Most effects on most records want far less than feels right in headphones, because the booth is quieter and less crowded than the room. If you are unsure, set it lower than you think and leave it there longer — a subtle effect held for eight bars does more than a loud one for two.
Over a bar
How fast to bring it in
20–30%
Wet level that still reads
Lower
Than it sounds in headphones
Where these come from: Conventional effect settings, not catalog figures. For what we can measure, see the routing that changes what this means.
Why it matters
On a DJ mixer this one knob is the difference between an effect that is a move and an effect that is an accident. Almost nothing else about the unit is worth adjusting mid-mix; the wet level is what you actually perform with, and it is the only parameter that should be moving while a record plays.
It also decides whether an effect reads as musical. The same delay at 20% wet sits inside the record and at 80% sits on top of it, and the second one is heard as equipment rather than as music — which is occasionally what you want and usually not.
Frequently asked
What does wet mean on an effect?+
The processed signal — the part the effect created. Dry is the original, unprocessed sound, and the wet/dry control balances the two.
How wet should a DJ effect be?+
Usually less than it feels in headphones. Around a quarter wet is enough for a delay or reverb to be heard in a room without sitting on top of the record.
Why does 100% wet sound wrong on a send?+
It does not — on a send it is correct, because the dry signal is already in the mix through the channel. It is only on an insert that fully wet removes the original.
Related terms
Send and return
A send takes a copy of a signal to an external effect; the return brings the processed version back into the mix. The original keeps playing, so the effect is added alongside rather than replacing it.
Reverb
Reverb is the sound of a space — hundreds of reflections arriving after a sound and fading. As a DJ effect it is used to smear the tail of one record into the arrival of the next.
Delay
Delay repeats a sound after a set time. On a DJ mixer that time is locked to the detected tempo, so the setting is a beat division rather than a number of milliseconds and the repeats land on the grid.
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: Mixing guides · Send and return · Score a transition · All DJ terms