hey guys ive only been djing for a about 2 months so don't flame me for asking this

at the moment when i beatmatch i use 1 headfone on my left ear n the and my other ear free to hear from the speaker

this is fine and all and i can get them beatmatched relativley well but the thing ive been doing occasionaly (which i think is cheating) is that before i drop in the track i make it so both songs play thru the 1 headfone im listening on my left ear.
i do it that way so i can get the beats perfect together before dropping it in

is this cheating? should i stop this technique now and just try and train my ears to learn how to get them perfect with 1 song playing in the headfone and 1 in the speaker?

also

at the moment when the beats are nearly together i don't always get it right which way to push the jogwheel when the beats get slightly out of sync

i usually get it right becoz if im speeding up 1 song all the time to keep up with the one playing i know that song is slower.
im only going on the fact that if they were in beat before and they are out of beat now then that song is still slower so i have to speed it up.

the thing is i sometimes without realising move the pitch slider too far so that the slower song is now the faster song and i can't tell. i just think the slower song is still too slow so i move the jogwheel forward creating the beats even more out of time

to minimise this ive been quite conservative on my pitch increments making sure i don't make the slower song actually faster coz otherwise when they get out of beat ill think that song is still slow

is this technique okay?

will my ears naturally over time be able to differentiate this so i can be a bit more aggressive on my pitch increments?

cheating is playing a pre-mixed cd and acting like you are mixing.



everything else is not cheating. So just don't worry about whether you are cheating or not and create a good set.



and teh second part just takes time. You will begin to recognize which song is slower and faster pretty easily but it takes lots o practice. So just keep on doing what you are doin

quote:

Originally posted by tongaface this is fine and all and i can get them beatmatched relativley well but the thing ive been doing occasionaly (which i think is cheating) is that before i drop in the track i make it so both songs play thru the 1 headfone im listening on my left ear. i do it that way so i can get the beats perfect together before dropping it in is this cheating? should i stop this technique now and just try and train my ears to learn how to get them perfect with 1 song playing in the headfone and 1 in the speaker?

I don't think there is a way to "cheat" beatmatching unless you are a certain bass player for New Order who plays off of a mix CD... Mix the way you want to as long as you are the one doing the mixing.

As for the "both tracks in headphones" thing, I do that sometimes too to make sure that things are lined up. At a gig the headphones only help a little since you will need to figure in delay to the speakers. Even if the tracks sound perfect in the headphones you may still need to make adjustments when you play the mix out.

quote:

at the moment when the beats are nearly together i don't always get it right which way to push the jogwheel when the beats get slightly out of sync i usually get it right becoz if im speeding up 1 song all the time to keep up with the one playing i know that song is slower. im only going on the fact that if they were in beat before and they are out of beat now then that song is still slower so i have to speed it up.

This is likely an ear problem. Your ears need to be trained to pick out two separate tracks, instead of one big soup of music like what you are hearing. It takes time, but soon it will 'click' and you will be able to separate the two tracks in your head. This is where you see DJs with one ear in the headphones and one near the monitor. They are listening to two tracks at once, and when both tracks are in different ears it is easier to separate the two in your head.

quote:

will my ears naturally over time be able to differentiate this so i can be a bit more aggressive on my pitch increments?

Yes. It just takes time and practice (lots of it) before your ears get trained.

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cheers for that, that was really helpful
i think im gunna try and do more mixing without the '2 songs playing in the headfones' coz that might help me a bit more when it comes to hearing 2 seperate songs instead of 1

thanx

I always mix with both tracks playing in the heaphones, with the headphones on both ears, because i can never be as accurate using split cue, ie, one ear - live sound, other ear - cued channel. Its just whichever way you feeel more comfortable using, and how you learned, and it certainly isnt 'cheating'.

Also remember that it's good to learn to mix with different styles (as in keeping headphones on both ears or using split cue etc) since all the places have different mixers and stuff. Some places may not even have monitors so you'd have to try get it mixed well with one ear on headphones and one ear listening to some mad delay, if you wouldn't be able to use the headphones on both of your ears at once.

Badly explained, but I hope that it's understandable

cheating?

it's called mixing in headphones, pretty standard technique really.

when you bring a track in though in a club I would recommend listening to the monitors.

i almost never use split-cue unless i absolutely have to. i like my tracks blended in the headphones.

a huge +1 to what adam said though, it's imperative to use the monitors when mixing in the club, especially to maintain the levels of the tracks (which i still struggle with)

The is no right or wrong way to cue or beatmatch and as long as your doing it live then there is no way you can cheat if your mixing two songs together.

I almost only ever mix in my headphones, my mixer has a pot that fades between cue and master which makes it really easy but that being said I sometimes when I have two tracks matched, I take off my headphones and bring it in listening only to the master out comming from the speakers.

Just go with what you feel most comfortabe doing and what you find the most success with.

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quote:

Originally posted by Boomer187 cheating is playing a pre-mixed cd and acting like you are mixing. everything else is not cheating.

+ ∞


I'd even go as far as to say that playing a pre-mixed CD and walking off (as long as you're not pretending you're mixing) isn't cheating. Of course it's only going to work if:

a) the tracks on the CD and the way that CD is mixed suit the time event, crowd and how they're going to react over the course of the CD

and b) the crowd aren't going to get angry seeing you disappear from the booth or if they recognise the CD

Both of which are pretty impossible to tell in advance and extremely unlikely to be the case anyway... plus if it was mixed by someone else then it probably doesn't quite fit your sound, but I still wouldn't call that cheating - just a bit fucking stupid.

If the crowd enjoys it, does it matter?



I always mix live, select my tracks on the fly and do all of my tricks etc live, but that's nothing to do with "cheating" - it's because of the flexibility... if you do as much as possible live, you've got much more control to tailor your set to the event and the crowd you're playing to. There is a certain amount that you have to be honest and upfront with the crowd as well of course - because of the history of DJing people expect these things to be done live and you don't want to lose their trust, but if you're playing to a crowd who don't know the difference then I don't think that even comes into it.

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Last edited by Stu Cox on Oct-31-2007 at 09:22