Creative Tips for Pioneer FX: Spiral Effect

In a DJ set, having predictable control over your mixer or controller’s effects unit is critical. So when an effect like Spiral shows up on a mixer, it’s often avoided because it’s initially confusing and unpredictable. In today’s tutorial, learn how to make the most of Spiral’s pitch delay effect found on Pioneer mixers and the XDJ-RX.

Tips for using Spiral successfully:

This effect is a total pain if you’re not careful with it. In order to make sure you succeed, remember these key points:

• The beat marker (on the LCD below # of milliseconds) shows you if you’re pitching up / spiraling up (to the left) or pitching down (to the right).
• If you change the direction you’re going, it might take a bit for the effect to catch up if it’s all the way spiraled down
• If the level/depth knob is all the way to the right, the effect won’t ever naturally decay, even if you disable the effect. It will quickly become a sample wash, which can sound awesome, and you can continue to adjust the spiral up or down until you turn the level down slightly.
• The effect on/off button is your release button – use it when you want to release the effect and let the spiral fade out. This sounds way better than just turning down the dry/wet knob.
• When you want it to act as a resonator, use the X-Pad to quickly change the effect time to 10ms. Then adjust from there with the time knob.

If you’ve got additional questions about using Spiral, let me know in the comments.