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need help with some DJ questions
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| Luminar88 |
| first off, i'm spinning trance (well trying to) and my friend who hasnt used them in about a year, gave me his Numark CDMIX2 and i guess i'm just so new to it and amature, but i cant for the life of me match any tracks to save my life, everything just results in total trainwreck. i was wondering how (other then practice practice practice) i could help aleviate this situation. would a BPM counter help? im totally new to DJing and i just dont know where to go, and i dont know anyone who djs. the kid i got them from was never good at it and naturally of no help. thanks in advance. |
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| Salem |
| Im not a believer in bpm counters, em, u dont need them. Just giver and in a while, u will start to do better.:cool: |
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| DJFreaq |
| quote: | Originally posted by Salem
Im not a believer in bpm counters, em, u dont need them. Just giver and in a while, u will start to do better.:cool: |
+1 |
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| i got big pants |
| bpm counters help...but from what ive seen, they're all just ballparks. not worth it though in my opinion. you'll get it down, don't worry |
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| Luminar88 |
| alright then onto my next question. whta methods would you suggest to matching beats better? the longest i can hold a solid "match" to which you can only hear 1 disticnt beat liek you're supposed to is like 5-10 seconds at best. DJ Virgen was awesome enough to show me on the computer with acid pro that you hav eto line up the first beat and adjust pitch from there to make it work, but i cant seem to do that with the decks. |
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| DannyO |
| Honestly man, there isn't really any other way than just practice followed by more practice. |
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| i got big pants |
| dont get me wrong...its frustrating as hell when your learning to beatmatch. but in the end after all that practice is done....and when you can beatmatch a song in 5-10 seconds...feels good :) |
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| Derivative |
CD mixing?
ok.
i take it you know to set your cue point right at the beginning of the first kick drum. just enough so the click is coming through and nothing else.
right. now. when you listen to the tune thats playing you will notice that it is built in a fairly uniform structure.
you will notice that it is comprised of loops of 4 kick drum beats. with a snare or clap on the 2nd and 4th beat. thats a bar. a phrase consists of 4 bars and you can typically tell when a phrase ends because theres some sort of audible cue - such as a short snare roll or a skip in the kick drum or some hihat fills. ok?
you want to cue off your track on the first beat of a bar or phrase. it doesnt matter. but do not drop it in on any old random beat - you will really start to feel it going weird if you do that.
also, if you miss the cue slightly - say you the beat hits and you cue off too late, just wait for the next bar and cue it off there. its not worth trying to save it if you cue it off and its too early or too late.
right. the first thing you will notice once you cue off cleanly is that if its going out, it will start to slide into noise. you need to learn this part on instinct. i cant really describe how to do it - everyone works it out differently. but if it starts to go out, push the pitch up. if it gets worse really fast. stop it. and bring the pitch back to where it was. cue off again on the first beat of the bar/phrase and lower it. if its right, it should slide into noise slower. again. stop it and re cue on the beginning of the next bar, bring the pitch down again but in a smaller amount. keep doing this until it takes bloody ages for the beat to slide out. now you are getting somewhere. overtime and with practice you can get to the stage where you will be able to do this extremely quickly (in seconds practically) and you will get to the stage where you can beatmatch perfectly - i.e. it doesnt slide into noise cuz its perfectly in time.
thats the principle anyway. when you first start out it will take you ages to beatmatch. in many cases over 5 minutes. and even then it wont be really tight. thats normal so dont fret.
once you get used to how the pitch slider reacts you'll begin to zone in on the correct pitch much faster. after say 6 months you should be able to get a tune fairly in time in the space of lets say 3 minutes. the breakdowns always phuck you at this stage. you will be cuing off and suddenly it'll break down. and you still havent got it beatmatched. and you stand around looking like a lemon for a minute and a half. thats normal too. i still do this sometimes. this is often why it takes so long to beatmatch when you first start out. you know when you are getting good when you can get it pretty much beatmatched before the first breakdown. alot of good DJ's start to notice they have shed loads of time to spare so they can go off, have a beer, get back behind the decks. cue off. next record. beatmatched in 30 seconds. go off. have a fag. come back like 4 minutes later. cue off. etc.
if you want all the elements of the song to line up once the track is beatmatched you have to cue off at the beginning of a new phrase NOT bar. the reason for this is that most songs typically have a uniform amount of phrases (2 or 4) then a breakdown and build up lasting 2 or 4 phrases) then another uniform amount of phrases. very rarely is there any exception to the rule in trance (in psytrance there are regularly non uniform numbers of phrases so be warned if you spin psy). |
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| Luminar88 |
| no i dont know how to set que. i have no idea what the loop buttons or the que are for. im just lost |
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| sw1 |
| The cue buttons allow you to monitor the individual inputs, eg. CD1 and CD2, in your headphones' left earpiece while you hear the main program in the right earpiece. The newer Gemini mixers use a cue crossfader which do the same thing. You try to match the beats in the left earpiece to the beats in the right earpiece. |
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| Luminar88 |
| ive tried screwing with the buttons, and it doesnt seem to play only 1 in one earpiece. i dunno, i guess i'll figure it out eventually. |
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| Mike123 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Derivative
CD mixing?
ok.
i take it you know to set your cue point right at the beginning of the first kick drum. just enough so the click is coming through and nothing else.
right. now. when you listen to the tune thats playing you will notice that it is built in a fairly uniform structure.
you will notice that it is comprised of loops of 4 kick drum beats. with a snare or clap on the 2nd and 4th beat. thats a bar. a phrase consists of 4 bars and you can typically tell when a phrase ends because theres some sort of audible cue - such as a short snare roll or a skip in the kick drum or some hihat fills. ok?
you want to cue off your track on the first beat of a bar or phrase. it doesnt matter. but do not drop it in on any old random beat - you will really start to feel it going weird if you do that.
also, if you miss the cue slightly - say you the beat hits and you cue off too late, just wait for the next bar and cue it off there. its not worth trying to save it if you cue it off and its too early or too late.
right. the first thing you will notice once you cue off cleanly is that if its going out, it will start to slide into noise. you need to learn this part on instinct. i cant really describe how to do it - everyone works it out differently. but if it starts to go out, push the pitch up. if it gets worse really fast. stop it. and bring the pitch back to where it was. cue off again on the first beat of the bar/phrase and lower it. if its right, it should slide into noise slower. again. stop it and re cue on the beginning of the next bar, bring the pitch down again but in a smaller amount. keep doing this until it takes bloody ages for the beat to slide out. now you are getting somewhere. overtime and with practice you can get to the stage where you will be able to do this extremely quickly (in seconds practically) and you will get to the stage where you can beatmatch perfectly - i.e. it doesnt slide into noise cuz its perfectly in time.
thats the principle anyway. when you first start out it will take you ages to beatmatch. in many cases over 5 minutes. and even then it wont be really tight. thats normal so dont fret.
once you get used to how the pitch slider reacts you'll begin to zone in on the correct pitch much faster. after say 6 months you should be able to get a tune fairly in time in the space of lets say 3 minutes. the breakdowns always phuck you at this stage. you will be cuing off and suddenly it'll break down. and you still havent got it beatmatched. and you stand around looking like a lemon for a minute and a half. thats normal too. i still do this sometimes. this is often why it takes so long to beatmatch when you first start out. you know when you are getting good when you can get it pretty much beatmatched before the first breakdown. alot of good DJ's start to notice they have shed loads of time to spare so they can go off, have a beer, get back behind the decks. cue off. next record. beatmatched in 30 seconds. go off. have a fag. come back like 4 minutes later. cue off. etc.
if you want all the elements of the song to line up once the track is beatmatched you have to cue off at the beginning of a new phrase NOT bar. the reason for this is that most songs typically have a uniform amount of phrases (2 or 4) then a breakdown and build up lasting 2 or 4 phrases) then another uniform amount of phrases. very rarely is there any exception to the rule in trance (in psytrance there are regularly non uniform numbers of phrases so be warned if you spin psy). |
I've read books that do not describe it this well. Very good description. |
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