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Teaching my friend to beatmatch...

Hey guys,

My buddy just got his setup a week ago and I have been trying (and I stress the word trying) to teach him to beatmatch. IT seems hopeless. He understands where to throw it in and what to do, but he can't distinguish the two tracks from each other when they start to gallop (when the beats slowly become unmatched).

He'll throw the track in, it will be matched and the beats will slowly begin to become unmatched obviously because the pitch isn't matched. So he knows the he either needs to slow it down or speed it up to match them, but he can't hear which track is slowing down or speeding up. He can't distinguish between the two tracks.

I just automatically know if the track i'm throwing in is too fast or two slow which i guess comes with practice, but how do you teach someone to be able to reconize what to do with the track that your mixing in? I mean he'll throw it in, realize that one is faaster than the other, take a guess and adjust the pitch (usually the wrong way, like if the track is too slow he will make it slower cause he doesn't know which track is slower).

How can I help this guy?

~Seany G

you said yourself, it takes practice
hell, j-spot has had tables for the longest time and he still doesn't know which is going slower or faster

just tell him to keep at it and one day everything will just click

Maybe it's too obvious to work, but if the two tracks are getting out of sync, just give record B a slight push..

If it gets worse, track B is faster.. If it improves, it's slower... Maybe this helps !

ya, try that, you should have them matched in your headphones before bringing them out laud, so that gives you the chance to match them "experimentaly"

quote:

Originally posted by basd Maybe it's too obvious to work, but if the two tracks are getting out of sync, just give record B a slight push.. If it gets worse, track B is faster.. If it improves, it's slower... Maybe this helps !

yep, that's the ticket. Except, i prefer to drag my finger on the pitch dots instead. this way, you know the record is going to slow down a set amount, and you can feel it with your fingers.

if it sounds better after the drag, then he'll know it's too slow. move the pitch down a bit and repeat until perfectly matched.

if it gets worse, then he knows it's too fast, and can speed up the pitch until it gets better, then move it back (to about halfway between where it was and where he moved it) capiche?

I prefer dragging fingers rather than giving the record a push , because some records are slipperier than others, like one sided promos, lightweight records, or slightly bowl shaped records.

also, this method sometimes skips your needle if you are not very gentle.

The most important thing is, after teaching him to beatmatch, tell him NEVER to touch the platter or record if it's playing live, as you can hear it. tell him to use the pitch fader to fix these small errors.

I grab that little iron thing in the center of the platter and i squeeze it hard... That slows the plat down very softly.

I find that about 9 out of 10 times when I initially beatmatch the record is usually running slower. As you ride the pitch fader up, and get more in the ballpark, line up the beats and wait for them to gallop... Then give the record a push, if it continues to make it better each time you push, keep moving the pitch fader up slightly... unless you pass your mark, then you'll know pretty quickly that it's time to slow it down a bit.

Getting 2 records in the ballpark of each other is the easy part of beatmatching... It's all the fine-tuning that can be the tricky thing, to make sure it's matched perfect. And being able to do all this quickly for that matter.

I thought of one more thing... Match up 2 songs for your friend so they're perfect, then either push or slow down one of the records, and see if he can figure out how to fix it... Do a couple hundred of these exercises might be able to give him more of an ear for it.

People bring up this question quite often. And the answer always is: just keep practicing at it. The more you mix, the more your ear becomes trained. Believe me, we all sucked at one time, heck, I've gotten so frustrated sometimes I've been tempted to rub my decks on my butt, throw them out the window and slice off my cat's head with my vinyl.

But alas, tell your friend to keep at it... It's all worth it in the end.

quote:

Originally posted by basd Maybe it's too obvious to work, but if the two tracks are getting out of sync, just give record B a slight push.. If it gets worse, track B is faster.. If it improves, it's slower... Maybe this helps !

That's the way I've been doing it since I started. It's just logical and you instantly know what you need to do. I do what John does and slow the platter down.

quote:

Originally posted by Blithe heck, I've gotten so frustrated sometimes I've been tempted to rub my decks on my butt, throw them out the window and slice off my cat's head with my vinyl.

lmao! I've trainwrecked it up too, but i don't think i was ever ready to cut off my poor kitty's head with a vinyl!

Re: Teaching my friend to beatmatch...

quote:

Originally posted by Seany_G Hey guys, My buddy just got his setup a week ago and I have been trying (and I stress the word trying) to teach him to beatmatch. IT seems hopeless. He understands where to throw it in and what to do, but he can't distinguish the two tracks from each other when they start to gallop (when the beats slowly become unmatched). He'll throw the track in, it will be matched and the beats will slowly begin to become unmatched obviously because the pitch isn't matched. So he knows the he either needs to slow it down or speed it up to match them, but he can't hear which track is slowing down or speeding up. He can't distinguish between the two tracks. I just automatically know if the track i'm throwing in is too fast or two slow which i guess comes with practice, but how do you teach someone to be able to reconize what to do with the track that your mixing in? I mean he'll throw it in, realize that one is faaster than the other, take a guess and adjust the pitch (usually the wrong way, like if the track is too slow he will make it slower cause he doesn't know which track is slower). How can I help this guy? ~Seany G

I am thinking could your friend actually be You!! Joking

No what the guys have said is all very relevant, here are the links to two good guides to Djing and beatmatching that your friend could print out and read

http://www.clubdjforum.com/beatmatching.html

and

http://members.shaw.ca/djXact/mixing.htm

Hope this helps

Good luck

Turbotrance

a method i used helping my friend was letting him listen to me beatmatch.. by playing both records full vol out of the mixer, sure it sounded like shit but he could hear the records falling out of time, how fast and what id do when one became too fast or too slow.

anyway, try it :P

My solution to this is to listen to Record 1 alone on the headphones, and get into the groove, and quickly switch to record 2 between measuers or something. Once you have record 1's beat in your head, quickly panning over to record 2 lets you hear it's beat alone, and it is much less confusing. I switch back and forth like this until there is no seam in the beats when I switch.

I hope the helps/makes sense.

Re: Re: Teaching my friend to beatmatch...

quote:

Originally posted by Turbotrance I am thinking could your friend actually be You!! Joking

No budy this isn't for me. My beatmatching needs work but I have always had a good ear for it and I was taught by a good DJ. I just don't know how to teach this to my budy. It just clicked for me one day and I haven't had much trouble since.

Thanks for the links and all of the advice guys.

Re: Re: Re: Teaching my friend to beatmatch...

quote:

Originally posted by Seany_G It just clicked for me one day and I haven't had much trouble since. Thanks for the links and all of the advice guys.

Thats what happened with me... I had 2 months of being REALLY frustrated with my beatmatching, and then one day I did ONE perfect mix, and everything worked from there...

Now, I can usually beatmatch two songs within 30sec, and when I'm mixing breaks, I sometimes do some live mixing (which makes peoples jaw drop when you do it!!) .. but that's taken a lot of practise and I've had to know my records inside-out...

Practise is all he needs... just playing every day (or every week if he doesnt have the time), even if the two tracks aren't matched every time it's still good experience..

Good luck!

i am also trying to teach my friends to beat match, and even though ive had my decks 6 mo and can beat match quite easily, i find it hard to teach them too.

one good tip is to beat match it for them beforehand, so then they just have to practice dropping in at the right time and adjusting it to be in sync. then they can hear the difference if its just out and get used to it.

Seany_G just let your friend learn himself!!!!He aint that useless is he?

its the best feeling when u work it out yourself, better then getting taught by anyone.

Yeah thanks for all of the advice guys!

I just showed hima few of your tips and he just had that first mix. You know, the one where everything clicks and there's no stopping him from now on.
he's slowly starting to get it.

Thanks again!

~Seany G

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