Could someone tell me if beatmatching mixers are any good. I have been Djing for 2 ytears on and off, i'm really into trance but only have a dj in a box set up. When i was younger i bought it for my first set up and thought id progress further.But as Girls and Football started taking over, i didn't bother carrying on but now i would like to get back into it. So could someone tell me what the cheapest/most decent mixer (with beat matcher on) is and where to get it from. Cheers all.
Dan

I'll just answer the first sentence. You can search for the rest. Beatcounters on mixers - Stupid and useless for beatmatching reasons. Not even accurate.

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Trance...a state of mind.

I take it you mean mixers with BPM counters on them. Many cheap mixers have them, but as the previous post said, and as I, and many others believe, BPM counters are a waste of money (even though it's really only the cheaper mixers that have them). They teach you to rely on something you may not always have there in front of you if you use a different mixer or DJ in a club for example... and they are never fully accurate, so if you are going to rely on them, they don't work very well.

My advise - forget BPM counters.

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"I played 12.30 til close at 3am at the club (Antro), following on from an Australian dj,
which seemed unusual in deepest Texas." - Judge Jules

Waste of time and space in my opinion. Often used to sell sub par junk. I carry a roll of black insulating tape with me to stick over them if I come across them. Don't even like to see them.

Trust me, nothing available at the moment goes up against a well trained ear. Beat counters can be missleading on certain kick sounds and even if the records are in the same BPM, there is also a skill involved in getting the tracks synchronised too.

Best of luck
Nem

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

pioneer djm-300.

like the elitest arses said above. The counters aren't the most accurate. But they can put you in the right area to begin fine tuning your mix. There's nothing wrong with using all available help when you're just starting out. After you've mixed for awhile you'll find that you don't even look at the things.

quote:

Originally posted by failsafe pioneer djm-300. like the elitest arses said above. The counters aren't the most accurate. But they can put you in the right area to begin fine tuning your mix. There's nothing wrong with using all available help when you're just starting out. After you've mixed for awhile you'll find that you don't even look at the things.

Actually there is a problem with using all the available help when you are just starting out. You start to RELY on the extra help. Get you ears trained to hear what spot on mixing sounds like. If your BPM counters both say 140 one might be 140.1 and the other might be 140.9.. that is almost a complete beat off.. which with translate out over the period of a mix. I would recommend staying away from BPM counters. Hell I am starting to get annoyed with my BPM led's.. But I am just to lazy to put tape over them...

quote:

Originally posted by failsafe pioneer djm-300. like the elitest arses said above. The counters aren't the most accurate. But they can put you in the right area to begin fine tuning your mix. There's nothing wrong with using all available help when you're just starting out. After you've mixed for awhile you'll find that you don't even look at the things.

By all means disagree but you don't need to call me or the other guys above 'elitist arses'.

I also have to agree with DJ Lazy in that using them will possibly hold you back rather than help you. But hell what do I know, I just do this 3 or 4 times a week for a living...

Nem

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

quote:

Originally posted by DJ Lazy Actually there is a problem with using all the available help when you are just starting out. You start to RELY on the extra help. Get you ears trained to hear what spot on mixing sounds like. If your BPM counters both say 140 one might be 140.1 and the other might be 140.9.. that is almost a complete beat off.. which with translate out over the period of a mix. I would recommend staying away from BPM counters. Hell I am starting to get annoyed with my BPM led's.. But I am just to lazy to put tape over them...

Ahhh yes, you are learning well my young apprentice.

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Originally posted by Prodigy Child Ahhh yes, you are learning well my young apprentice.

I've got a awesome teacher... cheers..

Agree with the BPM thingy, but I sometimes look at it on my DJM300 when starting a set to make sure that for instance the first track is around 130bpm, then taking a look every now and then if I want to increase the bpm over a longer period of time.

If you were SOLEY matching via the beatcounters your mixes would be so awful you'd have to develop some sense of timing in your head. It's really a moot point if you use beat counters or your ears to get the records within 1bpm of eachother before you begin to fine tune.

quote:

Originally posted by Rememberence_ I take it you mean mixers with BPM counters on them. Many cheap mixers have them, but as the previous post said, and as I, and many others believe, BPM counters are a waste of money (even though it's really only the cheaper mixers that have them). They teach you to rely on something you may not always have there in front of you if you use a different mixer or DJ in a club for example... and they are never fully accurate, so if you are going to rely on them, they don't work very well. My advise - forget BPM counters.

Great answer
I had djm300 before and used the bpm counter only to get an small idea on what bpm the tunes had. after that i turned of the bpm counter and used my ear instead because the counter are not accurate at all.

now I have djm500 and are not using bpm counter