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-- how do i figure out the BPMs of songs?

how do i figure out the BPMs of songs?

Alright i have no equipment and no software...but for the moment im just studying alot of this shit...how would i figure out the bpms i mean is there a program or do i just listen...i sounds pretty impossible (for starters) to figure out the bpms of songs without learning how to do it first dont you think

take your watch.
look at the seconds hand.
put on a song.
when the seconds hand hits 12, start counting the beats of the song.
wait 15 seconds.
multiply that by 4.
thats the BPM.


Why are you so worried about BPM?

Just take a guess.

There are plenty of programs that calculate the bpm. One of them is Traktor. I think you can get a demo version for free.

count how many beats there are in one minute
>: )

quote:

Originally posted by CosmoKid Why are you so worried about BPM?

+1?

i used to think knowing the BPM of my tracks would unlock some hidden talent i had...

peh

turns out knowing the BPM just told me how many kicks per min the track was playing at 0% pitch... fat lot of help it was...

if you want some usefull information check out the thread on Harmonic mixing, bpms are just a bunch of numbers that as soon as you learn you move on to the next thing and forget anyways resulting in perfectly good mixing/learning time blown away

Harmonics thread
^Gold mine right there

A lot of mixers will do it for you. Or search on google for "bpm counter", you'll find tons of javascript and/or VB programs that will do it. Or any of the other things anyone else has said.

^ true.. you can always buy a mixer that has a built in BPM counter or my an external counter, i think they have one that you can plug you headphones to and it gives you the bpm of the chane you're listening to...


even still, alot of bpm counters are in accurate anyways and in no way do they aid your mixing... unless you do have a good one and you want to fine tune a mix within a tenth of a beat or whatever....

theres a couple threads regarding BPM counters, look it up... to save you some perfectly good time though they arent all they're made out to be

ask anyone here who owns one, most if not all dont use them and have them covered

quote:

Originally posted by Exodus17 ask anyone here who owns one, most if not all dont use them and have them covered

yeah, i don't actually cover mine (i have a denon DNX-1500). I use it just as a very general guide to where my set is, or where a track is if it's a new one. Sometimes it's hard for me to tell if i'm around 125 or arond 130 BPM...or in trance's case if it's around 135 or around 140, mainly if i'm mixing tracks i don't know very well. But for the most part I don't use them...i never had them until I got this mixer a little under a year ago.

Dont use bpm counters!

quote:

Originally posted by Mike123 Dont use bpm counters!

+1

I think its important to know your BPM is you're going to be doing harmonic mixing. You don't want to pull a track that is in the same key or a complimentary key and when you get it pitched up the key has changed because of the difference in pitch. It doesn't help you mix though or beatmatch, thats what your ears are for. It helps me quite a lot in set programming.

quote:

Originally posted by r5a +1

+2

I would suggest finding the key of your music is more important.

i dont really ever know the BPM, i just do whatever sounds right.

BPM in my opinion is very useful, esspecially if you are beginner. if one track is 140.0 BPM and the other 138.8, you can guess what the difference is and adjust the pitchbend. this will give you more time on other stuff like messing around with EQ or something on the currently playing track. another good thing is that when you know your records BPM, you can already see the speed of it (i write the BPM on the record label) and if it is an impossible mix that you would find too complicated, look at playing something else.

i have the Roland MC-303 groovebox at home and that is how i find the BPM of the song. in your case, i would also recommend counting with a watch.

DJ ICE777

steal a signal from canadian sattelite/digital cable and watch bpm tv.

thx

maybe its just cuz im learning still but i thought BPMs was the key to mixing. i mean isnt the key objective of mixing to match the beats before you worry about any other aspect of mixing? maybe im wrong and inexperienced but its just what i figured.

quote:

Originally posted by hiram maybe its just cuz im learning still but i thought BPMs was the key to mixing. i mean isnt the key objective of mixing to match the beats before you worry about any other aspect of mixing? maybe im wrong and inexperienced but its just what i figured.

It is, but you need a lot more accuracy than just the number of BPMs.

Basically, if you have both tracks at 136 BPMs, for example, and you mix them together, they'll be sort of close in tempo, but for all intents and purposes, they'll sound way off. One could be at 136.2BPM and one could be at 136.8 BPM or something in reality, even though the BPM counter says they're the same thing...because the BPM counter isn't accurate enough. Really if you were going to mix using measurement of BPMs you'd need at least two decimal places accuracy....If we had BPM counters that said something like "136.27 BPM", and were accurate, then you could do what you're describing and use the BPM counters to mix. But no BPM counter does that. Most BPM counters aren't even accurate in what they say...like, if the BPM counter says 136 BPM, it could be anywhere between 134 and 138 in reality.

So basically, what everyone's saying, is that they're useless other than getting a general idea that you're close. You need to use your ears. You don't need to know the number of BPMs, you just have to get the two tracks to be the same tempo, regardless of what that tempo is. And that's why it takes practice to be able to beatmatch.

i do use my ears=)

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