Is this a bad Habit ?? - TranceAddict Forums

TranceAddict Forums (www.tranceaddict.com/forums)
- DJ Booth
-- Is this a bad Habit ??

Posted by Arsalan on Jan-13-2003 07:02:

Is this a bad Habit ??

Basically it's when im beatmatching....

I have Live playing from my speakers, pretty decent and I listen to the cue track through my headphones.

Now I know the easiest way to tell if the cue track is faster or slower by listening to it from one ear and listening to live from other ear. usually i don't have a problem with that and i could easily tell which one is faster and slower..

But the way I do it is that i still have some of the Live track come through my headphones to align the beats perfectly therefore my mixes sound flawless and i can easily fix my mistakes faster.

Now i just want to know is this a good or a bad habit?? or it doesn't even matter...

I never mixed in a club so i don't know maybe the live track would be too loud therefore it would be a pain to bring it in the headphone also and match it up... know what im saying....

Any info would be great

Thanx in Advance.

Posted by mikefasssy on Jan-13-2003 07:11:

I take you it mean the pan cueing knob thing. I do that. So it must be ok

Posted by M�bius on Jan-13-2003 07:22:

Here's the golden rule to DJ'in
Whatever works best for you is fine
but I would suggest you practice beatmatching in other ways so that you'll be prepared for different situations because the sound in every club is different.

Personally for me I rarely use the cue fader simply because it gets too loud in the headphones and I don't like that. It's even worse in a club because you tend to turn your headphones up to a higher volume to match the volume of the monitors, and the monitors are usually pretty loud so that you can flood out the sound that's bouncing off the walls from the dancefloor speakers.

Posted by Arsalan on Jan-13-2003 07:30:

I could beatmatch fine in many wys it just takes a bit more, i learned with headphone on so it's really easy for me even if i had headphones on both ear, 1 ear only cue or maybe even live. But you can't do Live that's just crazy!

Posted by M�bius on Jan-13-2003 07:33:

I don't exaclty know what you meant by "you can't do live that's just crazy!"

What I do is listen to the cued up track on my headphones on one ear and match it to the live track coming out of the monitors with my other ear.

I very rarely listen to both tracks on my headphones, the only time I do that is if the monitor is shit and the only way to mix is in my headphones.

Posted by DjObscene on Jan-13-2003 07:52:

everyone has there own way to beatmatch...do whatever works for you...if it works don't worry about it but yea i do agree practice different ways of doing it

Posted by Spin Doctor on Jan-13-2003 13:14:

For playing at home then do which ever gives you best results. However, not many club mixers have a headphone mix on board. So essentially if you�ve only learnt to cue using headphone mix you�re screwed when you play on a mixer with split que or monitoring of just one channel.

As DJLocoMoco said, most times, even if you have got a headphone mix you hardly ever use it. Crummy monitors / no monitors are about the only time you�d really need it. Besides, when playing out the live track is powerful enough for you to hear with out having to add a bit to your cueing.

Anyway here�s a tip for you all that�s really helped me out. When cueing have you monitor as low as it is possible to beat match with. I used to cue with the volume of my ears up really, really high thinking it was helping me out to hear the beats. In actual fact this was just confusing me and giving me ear ache. Turn down the phones to the point where you almost can�t hear enough to mix with. At first it�ll seem weird but give it a bit of practice and I think you�ll find it helps. Anyhoo, give it a try and see how it works for you, helped me out loads!

Posted by Nrg2Nfinit on Jan-15-2003 11:41:

if the mixer supports it.. what i usuall do is have the monitor speakres blasting "live" in my face

then i have my headphones set to 70/30 percent cue/live in my ears
I find this works very nice.. then i put my cue 50/50 to hear what it will sound like mixed live

bring it back to 70/30 and then mix.

Posted by Arsalan on Jan-16-2003 06:46:

quote:
Originally posted by Nrg2Nfinit
if the mixer supports it.. what i usuall do is have the monitor speakres blasting "live" in my face

then i have my headphones set to 70/30 percent cue/live in my ears
I find this works very nice.. then i put my cue 50/50 to hear what it will sound like mixed live

bring it back to 70/30 and then mix.

i do exact same thing man but i don't the last part because you need to hear how everything is going on live. i leave it at 70/30 on headphones and check with my headphones every little bit to see if everything is fine.

Posted by shao on Jan-17-2003 00:53:

quote:
Here's the golden rule to DJ'in

That sounds good to me

Posted by Acid John on Jan-17-2003 02:55:

for me,

1. when i have both headphones on, live track on one ear, cued in the other, i have really good beatmatching.

2. when i have the cued track on one ear, and the other headphone off, my beatmatching is a little worse (a very little) but when i begin to mix the tracks, i can hear the transition best, without fully taking the headphones off.

3. when it is blend cueing (both tracks on both ears) it helps when eqing so i can find what sounds right, and i have the tightest beatmatching because the beats are actually overlapping in the headphones, i dont have to put it together in my head.

i normally use method 2. maybe method 1 if needed. i only use method 3 when im not really sure about how its matched up or EQed. (rarely ever happens)

Posted by Nrg2Nfinit on Jan-19-2003 13:43:

quote:
Originally posted by DJLocoMoco

but I would suggest you practice beatmatching in other ways so that you'll be prepared for different situations because the sound in every club is different.

yes i always use the cue fader.. but i went to spin @ a club a couple of days ago .. and guesswhat?! they didnt have a cue fader.. so my matching suffered a bit

i practice now with my monitor and a knob to sample in the live.. because most mixers have that

Posted by Arsalan on Jan-20-2003 08:03:

quote:
Originally posted by Nrg2Nfinit
i practice now with my monitor and a knob to sample in the live.. because most mixers have that

what do you mean ? Just hearing live with one ear and cue in the other ear ?

Posted by Nrg2Nfinit on Jan-21-2003 00:18:

quote:
Originally posted by DJ Arsalan
what do you mean ? Just hearing live with one ear and cue in the other ear ?

sorry maybe i confused you

i sample a small amount of live into my earphones while i am cuing the track in my earphones at the same time

Posted by Arsalan on Jan-21-2003 06:03:

quote:
Originally posted by Nrg2Nfinit
sorry maybe i confused you

i sample a small amount of live into my earphones while i am cuing the track in my earphones at the same time

okay so im not the only one

Posted by benfica88 on Jan-21-2003 22:45:

Posted by itsamemario on Jan-22-2003 09:45:

quote:
Originally posted by DJLocoMoco
...I would suggest you practice beatmatching in other ways so that you'll be prepared for different situations because the sound in every club is different....

thats true... but what do u do if you fuck up your headfones?

ive done a couple o mixes without headphones just to test it.. and it worked really nice, since i knew the record really well... but it does look really fucked when u got yur head like an inch away from the pickup trying to hear the hihats and claps