quote:

Originally posted by r5a +1

+2

I would suggest finding the key of your music is more important.

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quote:

"One Raves to Chill. One Chills to Rave Anew."

i dont really ever know the BPM, i just do whatever sounds right.

BPM in my opinion is very useful, esspecially if you are beginner. if one track is 140.0 BPM and the other 138.8, you can guess what the difference is and adjust the pitchbend. this will give you more time on other stuff like messing around with EQ or something on the currently playing track. another good thing is that when you know your records BPM, you can already see the speed of it (i write the BPM on the record label) and if it is an impossible mix that you would find too complicated, look at playing something else.

i have the Roland MC-303 groovebox at home and that is how i find the BPM of the song. in your case, i would also recommend counting with a watch.

DJ ICE777

steal a signal from canadian sattelite/digital cable and watch bpm tv.

thx

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Happiness is an occasional episode in the general drama of pain.- Thomas Hardy

"Have nothing in your home unless you know it to be useful or believe it to be beautiful." - John Ruskin (He was talking about records!)

quote:

Daniel Boorstin: The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance -- it is the illusion of knowledge

maybe its just cuz im learning still but i thought BPMs was the key to mixing. i mean isnt the key objective of mixing to match the beats before you worry about any other aspect of mixing? maybe im wrong and inexperienced but its just what i figured.

quote:

Originally posted by hiram maybe its just cuz im learning still but i thought BPMs was the key to mixing. i mean isnt the key objective of mixing to match the beats before you worry about any other aspect of mixing? maybe im wrong and inexperienced but its just what i figured.

It is, but you need a lot more accuracy than just the number of BPMs.

Basically, if you have both tracks at 136 BPMs, for example, and you mix them together, they'll be sort of close in tempo, but for all intents and purposes, they'll sound way off. One could be at 136.2BPM and one could be at 136.8 BPM or something in reality, even though the BPM counter says they're the same thing...because the BPM counter isn't accurate enough. Really if you were going to mix using measurement of BPMs you'd need at least two decimal places accuracy....If we had BPM counters that said something like "136.27 BPM", and were accurate, then you could do what you're describing and use the BPM counters to mix. But no BPM counter does that. Most BPM counters aren't even accurate in what they say...like, if the BPM counter says 136 BPM, it could be anywhere between 134 and 138 in reality.

So basically, what everyone's saying, is that they're useless other than getting a general idea that you're close. You need to use your ears. You don't need to know the number of BPMs, you just have to get the two tracks to be the same tempo, regardless of what that tempo is. And that's why it takes practice to be able to beatmatch.

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-Jon
www.DJjoncaserta.com - - mixes and whatnot (melodic progressive house and trance)

i do use my ears=)