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.

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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.

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?

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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?

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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.

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If God is the answer, it must have been a very stupid question.

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

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what trainspotters are.

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.....

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If God is the answer, it must have been a very stupid question.

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.