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DJ Software Trick: How To Censor A Track On The Fly

Here's how to manually "bleep" out explicit parts of a tune while it's playing using just your computer keyboard.

Even though the occasional swear word is prevalent in pop and dance music these days, if you’ve ever DJed at a school function, a corporate show or an all-ages party, you know you’re expected to keep the lyrics of your music squeaky clean. Doubly so if it’s a family party (and you have conservative relatives) or it’s a non-secular event.

That’s what those “clean” edits of songs are for: back in the old days where radio was the dominant form of “streaming” music, there was no way you could get songs with cussing or dirty words to air, so labels would often provide stations with a version of the song that bleeped out the cussing, often replacing it with a short rewind or a sound effect.

You can do something similar with your DJ software: most DJ apps have a keyboard shortcut that you can use to censor any naughty words that shouldn’t be heard by an eight-year-old at a party, and the great thing is that you can do this in real-time. No more worrying about bad words coming out of the speakers!

Of course, I had to learn this the hard way – I DJed a wedding a few years back and I accidentally dropped the “explicit” version of a tune. Parents were covering the ears of their kids and giving me nasty looks until I changed the music.

Check out the video to find out how to do it.

Watch this on YouTube.

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Joey Santos: Manila-based Joey Santos is the Managing Editor of Digital DJ Tips. A DJ since 1999, he ran a successful recording studio for many years, and is a music producer and sound engineer too. He is the tutor for our Dance Music Formula and Music Production For DJs courses.
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