Just a quick question from a beginner:

I'm using two CDJ-1000 MK3's with Serato. I've noticed that Serato displays the exact bpm of the song prior to dragging it in to play.

For precise beatmatching, Does anyone note the exact bpm of both songs you want to mix- take the difference between them and figure out a percentage, and then adjust your CDJ pitch slider to represent that percentage?

Does anyone do this, or is it all by ear?

I often work out quick estimates for such in my head to get the incoming track in range, then I do the rest by ear. I am using vinyl only, though, no Serato or CDJs.

Thanks for the reply. I'm going to test it out and see how accurate the + and -'s are, %-wise, on the MK3's by taking the bpm readout on Serato and setting each CDJ so that, mathematically, they should be perfectly beat matched.

I think it's good to be able to do it by ear, but perhaps this way would be good to use as a crutch with two tracks that are difficult to mix together.

A lot of my vinyls are in the 138 BPM range, and, for example, I know that if I want to get them down to around 136, I have to slow them about 1.5%. So, if I am mixing two tracks that I know from experience are about 2 BPM apart, I automatically adjust the pitch slider by about 1.5% and then fine tune it by ear. Obviously this won't get you dead on every time, but it will start you out closer and give you a little more time to fine tune things.

Well, in Serato, it has a section at the top which is very useful if you want to do fairly accurate beatmatching. As long as the lines are pretty much aligned, you're good.

writing down the bpm's that serato reads to find the exact pitch adjustment is not going to always work. serato is just a program and uses some sort of algorithm to figure out the bpm. that means some songs may have something that could throw it off by a small amount. for the most part (not all songs, though) songs are created at whole number bpms like 127.00, 128.00, etc. i use the bpm analyzer from mixmeister and a good amount of the time it'll read them out as maybe 127.01, or 128.11.

generally you should practice to be able to do it by ear. it should come to you naturally, eventually. sooner or later after playing so much, just after hearing a couple beats you could easily spot which track is too fast/slow and do the proper adjustments.

your ears are better than any piece of software in existence or that will ever be there..
i generally dont recommend a DVS for someone who cant beatmatch by ear, its kinda like cheating

quote:

Originally posted by djkoolaide Well, in Serato, it has a section at the top which is very useful if you want to do fairly accurate beatmatching. As long as the lines are pretty much aligned, you're good.

I didn't even know that. I've been looking at the vertical lines, and reading it that way.

quote:

generally you should practice to be able to do it by ear. it should come to you naturally, eventually. sooner or later after playing so much, just after hearing a couple beats you could easily spot which track is too fast/slow and do the proper adjustments.

yep

quote:

Originally posted by stan229 your ears are better than any piece of software in existence

yep

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d(-_-)b.N1

quote:

Originally posted by Sukhoi29SU I didn't even know that. I've been looking at the vertical lines, and reading it that way.

The top (orange and blue) lines are the tempo match display. The lines in between the two main waveforms are the beat match display.