Heya Ezbeats

I think that answer to your local record store not actually knowing what the hell you were talking about. (Shame on them not you).
I get to speak to a lot of DJs and beleive me, there are a lot of DJs on this forum who should be playing out but aren't if their knowledge is anything to go by. Naturally it takes more than just a music theory knowledge, but if you ask all the top DJs they will all know something about it. You can't be at the top and not know it.. unless of course you are a woman with a beautiful face etc. Take DJ Rap for example, very nice looking lady but she aint all that as a DJ (Someone who has been doing it as long as she has and still train wrecks twice in one evening is not acceptable).
I see it all the time when I play. There will be some resident who thinks he is the sh*t but in actual fact he just is sh*t. Your average TA forum reader pays more attention to the finer points than your average DJ and that's just a fact. What do you think brought you here in the first place.

On the other hand I don't mean to disrespect resident DJs either as there are some damn good ones out there and after all they are the guys who keep your club packed every weekend (assuming that it is).

And it is fair to say that you learn loads about music as a DJ... people tend to dismiss you as someone who just plays other peoples and there is no skill to it. Well we all know different.

Cheers
Nem

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https://www.mixcloud.com/Calvin_Karass/

quote:

Originally posted by SUNWmsf During my learning time of DJing, I didnt have any help cuz i didnt know any other DJ's personally. I guess I am one of those "self-taught" DJs

I feel the same way, I knew no other DJ's when I started so it was just me in the basement teaching myself for hours!

I had been listening to the music for a couple years before I started spinning so I was familiar with song structure etc. already. It probably took me a couple months to beatmatch and a couple more to really have it sound decent.

I've been spinning for almost a year and I've got beatmatching down for the most part, Sometimes my tempos are still a tiny bit off so thats one thing I've got to work on.

The most important thing I've found is being able to hear if a song is too fast or too slow and correct it, this took the most time for me to learn

quote:

Originally posted by ezbeats why would a local dj working at a record store just tell you to 'get the 2 songs going, and kinda pull one in and the other out'. what type of foul treachory is that?

that has got to be one of the saddest things i've ever heard man.. pull one in and the other out!? mixing is a little bit harder than that my friend. the dude at the records store must have just been lazy or maybe he's not good at mixing himself. but mixing is about feeling the music, not "pulling" songs into each other. you can't mix unless you really feel that the two songs connect. i'm glad you've gotten help from one of your friends because four months is a long time to mix with dropping beats! keep up the good work... we wanna hear some mixes!

pEy

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There's no problem that I can't fix.. cuz I can do it in the mix. -Indeep-

quote:

Originally posted by VIO well, believe it or not it's true. arsalan posted that he was able to beatmatch his first time as well. remember that trainwrecking and having to making small corrections when the tracks go slightly out of phase are two different things. a trainwreck is a ruined mix. i never said i didn't have to make corrections to the tracks while they were playing but i didn't come close to trainwrecking. mixing records is *so* easy. i could easily tell if two tracks were even slightly out of phase especially with the studio monitors that i use. i started producing two years before i started djing, but the tracks i produced weren't really tracks meant for djs. they were still electronic but not really your standard dj fare. about three months before i started djing i used to load up a bunch of pvd, digweed, sasha and other dj's full sets on my computer and listen to them when i went to bed and let them play all night. i'm sure that helped me train my ear to tell when the beats were even slightly off. as for phasematching that's really easy too. that comes natural for anyone who's produced or was a musician before they started djing. djing in general is just really really easy. once you know how to beatmatch everything else is just cake. about 3 years ago paul oakenfold's agent told paul that djing was easy and that he was just playing other peoples music, no big deal. paul challenged her to play a live set at a club. she practiced for three months and ended up rocking the club. needless to say, oaky lost the bet. anyone can do it. i've never really understood why people are so enamored by djs. all we really do is play two tracks at the same speed and blend them together. it's the easiest job in the music industry. djing is just like anything else. some people pick it up really quickly and some take a bit more practice. just because i was able to do it the first time doesn't make me a better dj then everyone else, i just had lot's of musical training before i started that i'm sure contributed to it. also, i didn't have to learn how to dj i watched some djs and it just "clicked" with me. besides, i never said that i've never trainwrecked. i just didn't then. i was having a good day.

my friend beatmatched first time also, i had had my decks for a month and was utterly shite! he asked to come round and have a go and he beatmatched first time and just smiled at me, i was pig sick!

quote:

Originally posted by Luke Terry i still cant

quote:

Originally posted by VIO hhhmmmm... i ask because i was able to beat match the first time i tried. in fact the first time i every tried to mix i was able to spin/mix 4 trance tracks in a row beatmatched and phase matched pretty well. it completely blew away everyone who was there. i just never had to try, i just knew how. it rarely takes me more then 16 beats to lock up two tracks pretty well. i'm not trying to come off as arrogant or say i'm cool because of that. i'm just curious if anyone was able to beatmatch their first time.

bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahaha, my ass man. i guarantee your trannies lasted about 2 secs. i don't care if you studied piano for 7 years, that has nothing to do with beatmatching, neither does "reading up on it." i'm sorry man, but i gotta call bullshit here.......and laugh...bwaaaaaaahahahaha

quote:

Originally posted by VIO djing is just like anything else.

So your telling me it's just like riding an ostrich and fucking a turkey at the same time!

If it's like anything else how come everyone in the world can't fucking do it. It does take some skill and practice. I know people who have studied piano for more than seven years and still can't spin for the life of them.

It is not as easy as you make it out to be, you can't just read how to do it and step up to the tables and throw down 4 straight.

exactly dude, the fact remains that your brain has to get accustomed to hearing the two beats so eventually it can differentiate the two and also tell by what degree one is faster or slower. dj'ing is a mostly mental (and i think emotional) skill. you really can't read, "get the beats aligned by adjusting the pitch" and suddenly viola, you are up there with pvd.

i said before, that before your ears are trained you can't even hear your own trainwrecks. this isn't really something i just made up you know. if somehow, you managed to get the songs beatmatched, well maybe it was luck, i don't know. i do know that it's a hard thing to do.

i have heard sets and seen many djs that are not exactly wonderful, and they have been spinning for quite a while. it's obviously talent related.

it just pisses me off when people say, anybody can dj.

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MissCreant.com

quote:

Originally posted by DJ Digityl bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahaha, my ass man. i guarantee your trannies lasted about 2 secs. i don't care if you studied piano for 7 years, that has nothing to do with beatmatching, neither does "reading up on it." i'm sorry man, but i gotta call bullshit here.......and laugh...bwaaaaaaahahahaha

call it what you will but there are other in this thread who stated that they were able to beatmatch their first try. are all of them bullshitting as well? why would i bullshit anyway? read every post i've ever posted, i never write bullshit. whether or not i could beatmatch my first time has no bearing on my skills now. listen to any of my promos and see if you can find any beats even slightly out of phase. as i stated before, i don't think being able to beatmatch my first time makes me cool or a better dj then everyone else. in fact i've never mentioned my skills in a single thread so i'm obviously not trying to say i'm the shit or anything to that point. the fact of the matter is i could beatmatch my first time, there is such a thing as being natural and with the other posts on this thread i'm not the only one so it's not as rare as i thought, and that's cool. if you don't want to believe me then that's your prerogative. as for being able to tell when the beats are even slightly out of phase that's just something you learn as a musician. i also used to play guitar and sing in a metal band years ago. you have to learn to stay on beat when you're playing the guitar (or the piano or every other instrument) and it's no different then keeping two beats in line whilst mixing. so, think what you want as long as it makes you happy. cheers.

p.s. don't forget to tell everyone else who posted that they could beatmatch the first time that they're just bullshitting too.

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www.takamine-entertainment.com

It takes talent, passion and practice for a dj to beatmatch, not a lot of people have the patience of practicing, not a lot of people have the talent of djing there are many people that were just looking at a dj one time in a club and they wanted to be like him, they djed for a year and voila, they soled there decks and no more dj for them.... Thats what I call lack of passion..

P.S. Nice website VIO

Last edited by BlInX on Nov-21-2003 at 16:04

I have to side with Vio on this one. It seems like some people can't accept that some people just have a more natural feel for some things than others. Now while keeping things in a realistic perspective I will freely admit that my matching was no means perfect (and still isn't having heard some live mixes played back to me) I grasped the principles of it first time and built on it.

Just like Vio I had prior musical experience. I used to be a drummer and a bass player in a metal band (not at the same time obviously). I have also played bass in a ska/reggae band. Things that have been really valuable to me as a DJ. Music is all about being tight and understanding time signatures etc. DJing is slightly different but a lot of the principles remain the same in terms of key/scales and pitch.

Saying that, I have a friend who has never played a single instrument in his life but is clinically the best beat matcher I have ever seen. From first time onwards too. His tune selection leaves a lot to be desired but that's a different matter. That also suggests that beat matching is not the be all and end all of DJing very far from it in fact.

I'm sure certain posters have naturally ability in something else whatever it may be. Sports and so on. Some people have a musical ear, others are artistic and so on.

Just because someone was better at something to start with, does not mean you could not become as good or better. But Vio was just asking a question out of curiosity nothing more so take it for what it is and be a little polite from time to time.

Let it be said
However Misscreant does have a good point too. It is a subjective experience as whilst you think you may have been in time back then, perhaps if you heard it now you would look back and think 'DAMN that sucked'. As we progress as DJs our expectations rise to sky high proportions and we become our own worst critic.

Cheers
Nem

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https://www.mixcloud.com/Calvin_Karass/

it took me 3 months to learn how to beatmatch. i was using a really low quality pair of stanton direct drive tables so that set me back. everytime i would touch the record, the platter would stop. it was very frustrating. after a couple months of messing around, i bought a book called how to dj (properly). that helped me out a lot.