What I do is beatmatch the incoming record to the track currently playing, flip over the record, and preview the a capella track to make sure it flows correctly with the playing song.

It works best if you have three decks. One for the current track, another for the incoming instrumental track, and a third with the full incoming track. The following is my mixing process:

If only two decks are being used, you have to beatmatch a record on one turntable (deck B), take the record off deck B to put a duplicate deck A instrumental record on, readjust deck B to the same speed as deck A, mix out, put the deck B record on deck A, readjust deck A to the previous speed of deck B.....yeah.

However, I doubt vinyl is used much my way. With CDs and time-coded vinyl these days it is more cost effective to just buy the song once and burn multiple copies.

quote:

Originally posted by Scolomon morillo has his assistant set every one of the songs on his cds at the same tempo. Pretty good to be good at mixing when EVERY song is the same exact speed.

No, he does not. I have heard him wreck mixes various times when looping/throwing acapellas.

quote:

Originally posted by Stu Cox Not convinced that's true, but either way - still takes a good ear to know what works with what and he still rocks the crowd, so personally I couldn't care less. I don't know why people have this obsession that DJs should have to beatmatch live - if Ableton had been invented before Francis Grasso had the idea of speeding up and slowing down records to get them in time, you'd think it was completely ridiculous that you'd want to make a DJ's life unnecessarily harder like that... surely the easier it is for him the less likely he is to fuck up your good night out by trainwrecking it? There's so much more to mixing than beatmatching anyway, even with that out the way there are still 101 ways you can fudge a mix by deciding to mix at the wrong time, letting things clash, etc.

I have watched how he spins from the 2nd floor of pacha NYC where you can look down. Its obvious from observing him he isn't beatmatching. It's true. Just because he wrecks a mix, doesnt mean everything isnt beatmatched. It just means he is retarded

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Good thread! Plz keep something like this coming, it's a benefit for all of us DJs

quote:

Originally posted by Scolomon I have watched how he spins from the 2nd floor of pacha NYC where you can look down. Its obvious from observing him he isn't beatmatching. It's true. Just because he wrecks a mix, doesnt mean everything isnt beatmatched. It just means he is retarded

right....

quote:

Originally posted by Scolomon I have watched how he spins from the 2nd floor of pacha NYC where you can look down. Its obvious from observing him he isn't beatmatching. It's true. Just because he wrecks a mix, doesnt mean everything isnt beatmatched. It just means he is retarded

Well fair enough, it wasn't me who said he must be beatmatching if he wrecked a mix...!

The point of my post was very much the rest of it, i.e. "who gives a fuck", which I stand by.

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yes,i suppose he wouldnt be able to do so much stuff on the fly if everything wasnt the same tempo. He makes the most of it and he does a lot of crazy mashups of acapellas and songs and even two or three songs at once so at least he makes the most of it, and isnt just lazy playing one cd into the next

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quote:

Originally posted by Scolomon morillo has his assistant set every one of the songs on his cds at the same tempo. Pretty good to be good at mixing when EVERY song is the same exact speed.

I'm not sure I buy this - not that I'm a huge morillo fan or anything (he's good if you're in to that and sometimes I am), but it just seems that someone with that much experience in DJ'ing wouldn't have a problem beatmatching for 10 secs or so before a mix.

I saw cassius at Pacha ibiza (where you can look down on the DJ booth too from only about 9 foot away) and I too thought he wans't beatmatching when I first looked. In fact he was just able to match in under about 5 secs which meant you missed pretty fast.

Also, I've seen morillo play vinyl in sets often too - he's gotta beatmatch that hasn't he?

And how do you know he has his assistant do it? Sounds like you heard this from someone rather than observing it.

quote:

Originally posted by DJ RANN I'm not sure I buy this - not that I'm a huge morillo fan or anything (he's good if you're in to that and sometimes I am), but it just seems that someone with that much experience in DJ'ing wouldn't have a problem beatmatching for 10 secs or so before a mix. I saw cassius at Pacha ibiza (where you can look down on the DJ booth too from only about 9 foot away) and I too thought he wans't beatmatching when I first looked. In fact he was just able to match in under about 5 secs which meant you missed pretty fast. Also, I've seen morillo play vinyl in sets often too - he's gotta beatmatch that hasn't he? And how do you know he has his assistant do it? Sounds like you heard this from someone rather than observing it.

He doesn't do it because he isnt capable of beatmatching. He does it because its way easier to mix things like acapellas in on the fly. You are right I heard it after I started asking around because I noticed there is no possible way he was beatmatching after I observed him (on a few occasions). I know what it looks like when someone beatmatches, even if it's quick, as I DJ too.

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It's rare that I use acapellas live. If i have a track that will layer will with a given acapella, I'll usually make a re-edit ahead of time. I do have a couple CD's of classic acapellas that I like to throw on from time to time though. What I usually do is edit them an add some very subtle hi hats to make beat matching quicker/easier. That is particularly helpful because vocals are almost always off-beat, so making some edits ahead of time and adding soft percs makes it easier to find the right place to throw it in.

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Temporarily retired from the world of DJing.

quote:

Originally posted by Stu Cox I don't know why people have this obsession that DJs should have to beatmatch live

While I agree with you completely on there is MORE to beatmatching, i'm asking this more as a question than arguing your point:

Isn't that one of the foundations of being a good DJ? Being able to take a fresh track and beatmatch it? Whenever i play house, i've noticed i really don't have to do much beatmatching, they are usually within 126-130, usually 128. With trance, I find the range to be larger. You are obviously a good DJ (not being sarcastic), so i'm asking you, do you sort of already know what to adjust pitch to (how else would you beatmatch as oppose to live?)

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