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Beat matching???
I'm new to this and I was wondering if any of you DJ's out there could give me any tips on beat matching. Or is it all just practice, practice, practice...
Write down the beats per minute on the vinyl.
One key thing to do is make sure the measures and even the sections of the songs are lined up when you are beat matching. You can also try using sounds other than the drums to key your beat matching off of which can help.
Once you can get songs matched well and you are you have both songs playing, keep them synched without the headphones and just listen to them as you're mixing. It will seem hard at first but it gets easier to do over time, you just need to train your ears.
It is just practice practice practice. One day everything will just click and you'll wonder why you had problems with beatmatching in the first place. But whatever you do, DON'T start messing with BPM calculations and crap like that. Mix by ear.
Beat Scratching
Also, you can try sort of scratching the beat
on your cued record. Find the first beat in the
cued record and hold it. Wait until 1measure before on the
playing record you wish to start the cued record and do
little scratches to the time of the beats in the playing record (backwards for the one). Then forward on the 2, backwards on the
three, then forwards on the 4. Kind of help the record to get up to
speed on the 4 with a little push. With a little practice you should be able to do this pretty accurately. Until then you can always use pitch bend (if you have it) to get it sync'ed up perfect. If not, lightly touching the label (if you were too quick) or quick tweaks to the spindle (if you were a little too slow) will work.
headphones vs monitor
Skywarp is 100% correct. It's just practice. Don't mess with all that bpm shit. I tried that when I had just started, and it just holds u back... its all in the ears.
One thing I am interested in (and if I don't get many replies in this forum I may try a new thread), was how many people use the headphones to play one track and beatmatch against the monitor, or have both tracks cued in the headphones. I generally use the monitor to get them about 1% close to each other and finish off the match with both in my headphones, seems quickest and most precise for me that way. How about yall?
skywarp is right dude! also if you want to want to learn! use the pitch to beatmatch as well! and dont use BPM counters caues it only messes up things! the way i started to beat match was start out with 2 identical records and start beat matching! for example get 2 of the same records and learn how to beat match with different pitch and stuff like that. thats how i learned at first! when i got my tables i got 2 old records and learned! the more you practice to more your ear will become prefect and you will hear things before you hear it on the monitor.
ok, maybe i didnt make myself quite clear... when i said beatmatching w/ the monitor i met the record your going to mix in should be playing in the headphones in one ear (you only have ur headphones covering that ear), and u use the other monitor-facing ear to listen to the monitor. that way you have one record playing in one ear, and the other n the other. many ppl i've run n2 find this way easier, especially if ur just starting, bcuz ur able to distinguish between the 2 records more easily.
personally, this only gets me w/n a proximity, and at that pt i have both playing in the headphones and finish the subtle pitch shifts that way.
i was merely wondering if in general most ppl do this, or strictly one way or the other.
is this clearer?
vision thats the way i do it too, sometimes i dont even bother with the moniter at all. i keep both sides of my headphones on then use the cue mixer to match it up before i actually go into the mix.
izzy, i have no idea what you're talking about?
but i have a shit mixer with i think just split cue monitor (vestax pmc-3a pro)
so... huh?
it just has the little crossfader to monitor both...
anyways yeah fuck the writing bpm, i started that at first but too troublesome
but its a LOT of work and practice, if you practice making a tape which is so friggin hard to make perfection, it improves your live mixing immensely.
live mixing becomes easier as opposed to making a perfect tape
its a lot of practice, im almost there meself 
patticus, I think you explained what i tried to say a bit better... i have that crossfader that only affects the headphones where you can hear both songs together, match'em up then do the mix with the real crossfader.
as patticus also said 'live practicing' is really benifical, pretend you are actually giving a show and have to hit it all the time, it kinda forces you to get better. make tons of tapes, put on shows for your friends.....
One last thing I thought of to add, do not be afraid to touch the record. Spin it up, slow it down, get your greasy hands all over it if need be. Sooner or later you will get used to different methods of manipulating the vinyl. There is no right or wrong way. Experiment as you are learning and figure out which ways you like best.
Here's a method that I do that seems to work great and is fairly easy to pick up.
1) Start the new record out slightly faster than the one currently playing.
2) touch the platter until you get a beat to hit at the same time.
3) Obviously the new song will be faster, so slow down the pitch control based on how long or hard you had to touch the platter.
4) repeat steps one through three until you don't have to touch the platter any more and it stays in sync. I usually wait about 30 seconds to a minute and if they're still in sync, you're done.
Now you're not going to be perfect, so you'll need to practice pitch corrections as you're mixing too. And, sometimes you might touch the platter a little too hard, so you'll need to know how to spin the record faster by either manually pushing on the label part of the record (which is dangerous if you have a warped record or a record with a slippery label) or by twisting the metal post in the center of the platter.
I hope this helps!
DJ Adam Smith
I've had decks for a few weeks now, and I'm still struggling with beat meatching. That said, I can't offer you much advise on how to get better, but I can share a few things I've learned about learning.
So many people will tell you to count BPM's and figure out pitch adjustments. Might as well trade in your equipment for a math book and a slide rule and go back to school. Eventually, you're going to want to get to the point where you want to be able to mix by ear, so why not start learning that way now. Don't learn something just to make you feel better now and then have to reteach yourself how to beatmatch.
Something that fouled me up was cueing. When I started, I couldn't be bothered with the idea of starting the record I was bringing in on a precise spot in the song. As other people have said, try mixing somethng other than beats to start and just get the concept of bringing in another song and having it sound good. That's where I'm at.
Above all else, just stick with it and practice.
Practice Practice PRACTICE....mix using ur ears...pretty soon youll be able to mix songs you've never heard before....
ive actually had 5 different songs synced at the same time.....but ive been at it for a long time...
remember ur 4 beats.....4 is the magic number....1234..1234..1234..mix in 1234....
FIVE SONGS?
that's wack/
what is that, 2 turntables and 2 cds and a ...... what, radio? 
did it actually sound good
or was it a jumble of noise
Hehe yeah same reaction here.
What kind of music do you mix Liquid?
Hmm btw i would go for 16 beats instead of 4, cuz most tunes spin in 16 beats.. with only counting 4 you could end up in mixing 2 beats insimultaniously
| quote: |
| Originally posted by patticus FIVE SONGS? that's wack/ what is that, 2 turntables and 2 cds and a ...... what, radio? did it actually sound good or was it a jumble of noise |
) but its on the edge, and u should carefully choose your records...)
hm yeah interesting still, i know about acapellas but its a little pushing it
yeah i actually prefer 32 beats now i think about it..cuz its 8 bars, and your transition will sound perfect then
anything less than 16 will mess you up BIGtime.
but what do you mean having 2 beats simultaneously, isnt that the point of beatmixing? haha
I just want to thank everybody for their reply. You all have been very helpful and I really appreciate it. Thank you!
I always drop on a multiple of 16 bars (usually 32) because that's the normal size of a section of dance music before the arrangement changes - so many tracks have a 16 or 32 bar intro before a hook kicks in and ideally you want to get the outgoing track to finish at the same time as the next track is kicking in.
I also mix purely on headphones - partly because I have no spare monitor but also because I can't get both beats inline (even if they are matched) without listening to it on headphones (slight delay through monitor due to more electronics and distance from ear so incoming record is always ahead).
Are there any automatic beat matching mixers out there?
I would just like to know..
would make mixing a lot easier!
| quote: |
| Originally posted by DJ Darchinova Are there any automatic beat matching mixers out there? I would just like to know.. would make mixing a lot easier! |
nah, yall have it all wrong... the best method to mix is quite simple:
Just play a cd, and whenever the track number changes, thats when u exchange one of the records. Hell, then u wont need a fancy auto-mixer... much less 2 turntables... damn, this could start a whole DJ revolution...
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