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Posted by Eric Siefer on Dec-04-2004 02:58:

Changing BPM during the set?

Ok, I've only been DJing for less than a year now. So this may be a stupid question.

What's the policy on Changing BPM during the set?
Is this considered tacky, do-able, or just plain retarded?

The reason I ask is that I have some records that are just too fast for my regular set, and would like to get people movin a little more after the first part.

How would I go about doin this if its not too tacky?
Slowly increase the pitch while the record is goin?, Match off beats while others are faster(Ie, if the bass kicks are 2 diff speeds but the hi-hats/cymbals/something else are matchable) then fade accordingly?

If this makes sense to anyone let me know.

Posted by Cheetah86 on Dec-04-2004 03:27:

There's a bunch of threads on this already. But, to answer your question, yes, if that's the direction you want your set to go in. If people want to dance faster and/or you want to play faster tunes, its perfectly fine to speed up your tempo throughout the set. What you can do is gradually speed up the playing record(before it's beatmatched of course), and if you do it gradually enough, no one will notice. Do this as much or as many times as you need throughout the set. You can also increase the speed of the playing record to match that of the incoming record, as you said, although since it has to be gradual, it could make beatmatching take longer than you'd like, so make sure you have plenty of time to do it if you want to do it this way.

Posted by onceler on Dec-04-2004 05:28:

beatless breakdowns are good points for this as well.

Posted by Vero on Dec-04-2004 05:42:

quote:
Originally posted by onceler
beatless breakdowns are good points for this as well.

yeah if i feel my set is a little slow i will usually wait for a breakdown and speed it up there. if there isnt a beat its very hard to notice a pitch change. if you are gonna do a dramatic increase +/- 3.3 or more this is gonna change the octive of the track so be careful there. try to plan the octave change around a 16 or 32 count if you can so that it will flow better if that makes any sense.

Posted by on Dec-04-2004 06:37:

Posted by DannyO on Dec-04-2004 07:30:

quote:
Originally posted by Vero
if you are gonna do a dramatic increase +/- 3.3 or more this is gonna change the octive of the track so be careful there. try to plan the octave change around a 16 or 32 count if you can so that it will flow better if that makes any sense.

Thats a good way of doing it, you just gotta be gradual, if you change it to much even in a breakdown, when the beat comes back in, it can be very noticable that its been increased, sometimes this sounds ok, and adds to the set, other times it can sound like crap and ruin the atmosphere, just make sure your timing, track selection, % increase and method all work together.

Posted by Trunker on Dec-04-2004 12:23:

quote:
Originally posted by Vero
yeah if i feel my set is a little slow i will usually wait for a breakdown and speed it up there. if there isnt a beat its very hard to notice a pitch change. if you are gonna do a dramatic increase +/- 3.3 or more this is gonna change the octive of the track so be careful there. try to plan the octave change around a 16 or 32 count if you can so that it will flow better if that makes any sense.

I can change the tempo without changing the pitch... can you not do that on TTs?

Posted by djxtension on Dec-04-2004 13:46:

quote:
Originally posted by Trunker
I can change the tempo without changing the pitch... can you not do that on TTs?

Some tt's, like the Numark TTX-1 (i think...) can do that.

But generally speaking: NO.

Posted by Mr.Mystery on Dec-04-2004 15:12:

You can move the pitch for about 0.4 at once before it gets noticeable.

Posted by dj chex on Dec-04-2004 16:08:

I've also found that changing the pitch will make a noticable key change in the vocals. People will just notice vocal changes more than anything else.

Posted by scAza on Dec-04-2004 16:20:

like some1 else said, its perfectly fine to change speed up or down in a set, try not to keep thinking there's these "rules" to DJin! (aside from obvious things like.. play gr8 music and mix well lol)..

as long as it doesnt sound shite, then change the speed, either gradually, or wait for a beatless breakdown, or even a breakbeat one can sound good. vocals tend to NEVER sound good if u change pitch as theyr playin tho so avoid that..

other than that.. do wotever u want

Posted by Vero on Dec-04-2004 17:00:

quote:
Originally posted by Trunker
I can change the tempo without changing the pitch... can you not do that on TTs?

yeah pitch lock is a feature found mostly on CDJs, it allows for a digital "stretch" of the song to slow it down for speed it up without changing the pitch. only that one numark TT named above can do that with vinyl, because it has a digital audio processor in it.

but for all of us with true analog TTs we must give mind to the pitch.

Posted by Eric Siefer on Dec-04-2004 19:03:

Thanks everyone for all the input, I appreciate it.

Posted by sandstorm03 on Dec-04-2004 21:07:

quote:
Originally posted by Vero
yeah if i feel my set is a little slow i will usually wait for a breakdown and speed it up there. if there isnt a beat its very hard to notice a pitch change. if you are gonna do a dramatic increase +/- 3.3 or more this is gonna change the octive of the track so be careful there. try to plan the octave change around a 16 or 32 count if you can so that it will flow better if that makes any sense.

it actually sounds good if u jump +3 on the 64th/128th beat?