Thinking about getting into DJing, so this is probably a very noob question. How do DJ's go to the next song if it has a different BPM? Don't you have to play with the pitch to get the BPM the same so that you can transition into the next song smoothly?

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Originally posted by bo0ga Don't you have to play with the pitch to get the BPM the same so that you can transition into the next song smoothly?

Yep. You adjust the incoming track's pitch so that it matches the outgoing track.

Right but, if I start a song that's 130 bpm, theres only so many songs that are 130 or around there (127-133). What if I want to put a few higher tempo songs that are 138-140 or so? How do I transition to that? I wouldn't want to make those kinds of songs 10 beats slower, it would ruin how the song sounds.

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Originally posted by bo0ga Right but, if I start a song that's 130 bpm, theres only so many songs that are 130 or around there (127-133). What if I want to put a few higher tempo songs that are 138-140 or so?

Well, you could always play a track at 130, then 132, then 135, then 138. Or you could do something different then just straight mixing from one track to another to drastically change the tempo.

Wouldn't I have to make the next song match the previous one? How would I gradually work my way up? For example, if I start a song that has 130 BPM, I have to make the next song 130 BPM or the beats won't match. How would I mix into the next song if its 132? Does the BPM always have to be exact?

You can gradually move up the tempo of the playing track as well if you need to. You could take a track at 130 and move it up to 131 without it sounding bad, then mix in a 133 track pitched down to 131, move it up to 132, mix in a 132 track, pitch it up a bit to 133/134, etc etc etc.

Going from 130-138 is too big a jump to do all at once whilst keeping it smooth, but smaller nudges over several tracks will sound just fine.

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Originally posted by Sadface You can gradually move up the tempo of the playing track as well if you need to. You could take a track at 130 and move it up to 131 without it sounding bad, then mix in a 133 track pitched down to 131, move it up to 132, mix in a 132 track, pitch it up a bit to 133/134, etc etc etc. Going from 130-138 is too big a jump to do all at once whilst keeping it smooth, but smaller nudges over several tracks will sound just fine.

simplest explanation...no joke

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so another words, when a song is playing, you can slowly change the pitch to increase its BPM by 1 or 2? Or you can mix it into the next song thats 1 or 2 beats faster?

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Originally posted by bo0ga so another words, when a song is playing, you can slowly change the pitch to increase its BPM by 1 or 2?

Yes.

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Originally posted by bo0ga Or you can mix it into the next song thats 1 or 2 beats faster?

You can adjust track a to match the speed of track b. You still need to have both tracks at the same speed, otherwise it won't work.

You can mix songs with drastically different bpms smoothly without beatmatching. It is done during space/breakdowns using eqing, filters, and echo. If done right jumping from 125 to something like 135 you can get an incredible crowd response. Also jumping down after a heavy/fast track to something slower can be a breath of fresh air. Doing these kind of transitions once or twice a night is alright and shouldn't be frowned upon (when spinning edm that is). Mixing hip hop drastic bpm
changes happen all the time but scratching is most commonly used. I can scratch from 125 to 100bpm no problem and it sounds great. I also like to echo out on a vocal clip and scratch into various bpm tracks.

There is no right or wrong way to DJ develop your own style.

Just avoid trainwrecks. People would rather hear a fade in/out than a trainwreck. Fading in/out is pretty lame so trainwrecking is pretty much humiliating (we've all done it tho)

Last edited by discobiscuit on Jul-19-2010 at 01:10

quote:

Originally posted by discobiscuit You can mix songs with drastically different bpms smoothly without beatmatching. It is done during space/breakdowns using eqing, filters, and echo. If done right jumping from 125 to something like 135 you can get an incredible crowd response. Also jumping down after a heavy/fast track to something slower can be a breath of fresh air. Doing these kind of transitions once or twice a night is alright and shouldn't be frowned upon (when spinning edm that is). Mixing hip hop drastic bpm changes happen all the time but scratching is most commonly used. I can scratch from 125 to 100bpm no problem and it sounds great. I also like to echo out on a vocal clip and scratch into various bpm tracks. There is no right or wrong way to DJ develop your own style. Just avoid trainwrecks. People would rather hear a fade in/out than a trainwreck. Fading in/out is pretty lame so trainwrecking is pretty much humiliating (we've all done it tho)

Complicated explanation...no joke.

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