Know your records

ive been using denon twin cd players for years and they have no bpm readout.

Ive never used a bpm counter- period.

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Originally posted by jago i have just recently sent 2 axis 9's back to the shop as 1 was faulty, and bought 2 denons instead, nice!!!!! Know the problem is there doesnt appear to be a bpm readout, so i dont know how fast the tracks are going to run at. is this normal with the denons to have no bpm, or can it be accessed? and if it is normal, help required on how to pick the right speed of track.

That's one crutch you do not want to pick up. If you start depending on the counter to tell you how fast your tracks are going then you're SOL if and when you get to a club and they have no BPM counter. I know this may sound obvious, but the best way to do it is to use your ears. You know how fast you want the tracks to go so all you have to do is pitch accordingly until you hit the ideal speed.

EDIT: Also BPM counters aren't usually very accurate. All the one's I've seen always seem to change their a bunch of times during a track.

Never, under any circumstance rely on a BPM counter. You practice with those and like Wraith said, you're shit out of luck when you play out. I don't even know why mixers or cd decks include them on their equipment. I much prefer not to even see that annoying readout at all.

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Helping girls make bad decisions since 1979

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Never, under any circumstance rely on a BPM counter.

Right.

I actually put stickers over the BPM counters on my mixer.

sooooooooo, as a novice, what do i need to listen out for through my headphones, as i am new to djing and cant tell through headphones which beats are out.

As a novice, that is exactly what you should be listening for in your headphones. Learning how to distinguish between the two different beats of songs and figure out if the incoming song is slower or faster. If you have soley relied on BPM counters in the past this is going to seem very alien to you at first. More than likely you will have trouble telling which song is moving faster or slower and why trainwrecks are happening. But adjust, keep listening and soon your ears and brain will adapt and learn to pick it out without even thinking. I never thought I would understand it or would get it when I first picked up DJing. Now, it's more of an automatic thing and it makes mixing so much more fun. Just practice a lot. I know everyone on here says that a lot -- that's because that's the only way. Forget those counters.... They'll screw you in the end.

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Helping girls make bad decisions since 1979

thanks dirk, gr8 words, your right, i need to get a decent pair of headphones first, the ones i have are shite, just bid on a an panasonic pair, dont know what there like, there looked all right.

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Originally posted by Dirk W. As a novice, that is exactly what you should be listening for in your headphones. Learning how to distinguish between the two different beats of songs and figure out if the incoming song is slower or faster. If you have soley relied on BPM counters in the past this is going to seem very alien to you at first. More than likely you will have trouble telling which song is moving faster or slower and why trainwrecks are happening. But adjust, keep listening and soon your ears and brain will adapt and learn to pick it out without even thinking. I never thought I would understand it or would get it when I first picked up DJing. Now, it's more of an automatic thing and it makes mixing so much more fun. Just practice a lot. I know everyone on here says that a lot -- that's because that's the only way. Forget those counters.... They'll screw you in the end.

Good words of advice.

I never thought I'd be able to get the hang of it either but here I am a month later and I can actually mix tracks together relatively well. It's just a matter of adapting your brain and your ears to listen to the differences b/w the 2 tracks. It's hard at the start, but when you get the hang of it's pretty satisfying to get your tracks to match up well.

u shouldve bought cdj 800's or 1000's instead of denon's.. i know the rotating wheel on the denon is cool, but all it does is spins around, so wat. i would reccomend u send ur denons bak to the shop, and get cdj 1000's, if u cant afford the 1000's, get the 800's. good luck.

Another thing with bmp counters is the fact that most of them only measures up to .1. This will never be accurate enough if you want to hold a mix for more than 15 seconds (which I'm assuming you want). A good Dj should be able to beatmatch to atleast 0.05 accuracy and often even more is required for a mix.
Becoming dependent on the bmp counter is the worst choice a dj can make and it will make the learning curve even steeper as it wont train your ear.

Peace, Dj Dissent

I hate the BPM counter on my mixer and I put a piece of tape over the readout as recommended. But do you think that people would use BPM counters if they were 99% accurate? Or would they continue to rely on themselves? If a BPM counter is 99% accurate, then essentially all the skill is in the composition of the tracks together and the levels (hi, mid, lo) Add scratching if youre into that I guess?

If this was the case, the guy in this comic would be closer to being correct!!!

Maybe if people didnt have to worry about beatmatching (well some DJ's dont i guess ) there would be some kind of evolution in the art, people would do crazier and cooler things that would seperate them from the rest of the pack. Just a thought