General Mixing...

Ok, so i'm fairly new to DJ'ing and I jumped straight into Traktor which I have a few questions on.

Atm it is only a bedroom hobby but will it be frowned upon (in your opinions) if I were to turn up at a gig with a laptop, soundcard and midi controller only? does it matter that I'm not beatmatching in the typical way of listening and instead using Traktor's visual aid to beatmatch? What to do if the laptop crashes during a gig?

And finally, does anyone have any particular mixing techniques they'd like to share? currently i'm just looping the end of one track, beatmatching the new one and then xfading over - seems a bit boring!

I had a lot of the same questions when I first started and the more I get into Traktor using the Sync functions the more I want to learn proper beat matching... my level of performance is not upto a stage where I can justify letting the sw do it for me because I have so much other stuff going on... ie controllerism

I recently stumbled upon this site http://www.recess.co.uk/index.html
I recommend checking it out and learning the basics and foundations of DJ'ing first, this way you can know what to do no matter what... also always have a backup plan... eg some CD's for a CDJ setup, especially if its going to take a while to get your laptop setup all connected etc and you want to keep the flow of the music going...

I am trying to learn to beatmatch at the moment, its not easy and takes lots of practice, but apparently once you get it, its like riding a bike.. ie once you learn you never forget... (I hope)

It is definitely worth learning how to beatmatch by ear, just like any other musician trains their ear. Just pick some songs with a good beat (Minimal Techno is good, repetitive and big bass beats) and get practising. I'm starting to get better at it myself after some decent practise. For mixing, I usually try and incorporate bit of cued songs intro into the last few minutes of my current track. Hardly the beat jumping that Ean does, but I just set cue in point at something interesting like part of a vocal or sound and then play around with the cue pause and some effects like delay while cutting with the cross fade.

Personally when i go to clubs I'm there to get into the music and get down on the floor not to watch an overpaid monkey throw cds in player... I kid I kid...

I do however want the dj to beatmatch (and phrase) properly, read the audience (specifically me) and know how to build up a set and send me on a dancing frenzy where every build and drop is a new and exciting release of tension. I don't care about how he does it as long as its dope-nasty.

However now-a-days I really feel the era of the "Superstar DJ" (where some DJ takes a clubber on magical sonic journey into a state of trance akin to a religious awakening or someshit) is being replace with the rowdy drunk houseparty vibe (see Justice/ed banger). So I really don't care for DJs who use tons computers like BT, analogue hardware like Simian Mobile Disco, Ableton like Sasha, or just straight up vinyls like Fatboy Slim (who I heard is using Serato from now on). I've seen all these DJs rock major major festivals and important big city clubs. As long as the crowd is entertained it doesn't matter what medium the dj uses.

This of course my humble opinion. Many a dooshbag might talk smack to you about your gear (what I like to do is offer to help carry their record crates out of the club when its closing time and then pretend to throw out my back and simply grab my UDG bag and hobble away smiling...)

I might add that I have Dj'd many a house party and small club/bar/establishment with nothing but my Macbook, Vci-100, and my soundcard, and it has always been a fun time (I usually get tons of complements, mostly in the form of girls screaming with hands in the air and the occasional pound from a punter) As long as there is booze, babes, and loud music the party is sure to be a success. I actually have gotten quite a few compliments as well as curious party people eager to see how I'm doing it all with just my unassuming mac.

FTR I stopped using the phase meter and the sync (neither are 100% reliable) the very day I played about with Traktor. I learned to beatmatch on cdjs so it feels more comfortable to do it by ear for me, after a lots of practice it will only take a minute to sync up both two tunes, eventually beatmatching will feel automatic and you'll catch yourself instinctively pitching and bending without hesitation. However if you take the time to beatgrid all your tunez more power to you... I for one think that shit is way more time consuming than beatmatching :)

I agree, as long as the end product (that is, the master output) is good, it really doesn't matter so much how the DJ does it.

I use Traktor with a BCD 3000 and occasionally a sampler and a synth, but I have gotten some bad remarks when I just showed up with my macbook and my BCD. but if you can lay down a great mix using that equipment, you've proven your point very well :-)

personally I don't beatmatch by ear (although it's definitely a great skill to have), because I like to have the extra time to concentrate on phrases, EQ's, effects and so forth. I look at it quite pragmatically: why spend more time on something that the program can do for me quite reliably while I could be setting up the next transition? and personally I'm not so conservative to think that this "takes all the skill out of DJing".

the advantage of Traktor and other similar programs is that we can do so much more with the music that can't be done with CDJ's or vinyl. let's use that opportunity.

in my opinion beatmatching is totally overrated. anyone who can play an instrument is able to learn beatmatching in less than a month.

a drummer needs even less than a week, i suppose.

While I agree that beatmatching isn't necessary per se, as long as the mix is tight, I would vehemently disagree that its overrated! beatmatching is vital if your not using software with a sync function. What if your system fails, or a something unforeseen happens to your laptop? Do you just pop in a mix cd and look like a chump? Or bust out a cd wallet and use your god given ears and put all the hard work you did learning to beatmmix to the test.

I think beatmatching is easy (once your ears are trained and adjusted) and fun and I still do it because my ears are much more reliable than traktor's sync button. Its widely accepted that traktor's bmp counter isn't perfect nor is it reliable, and that silly ass phase meter has a goddamn mind of its own... If you properly grid your tracks thats all well and fine and I support anyone who takes the time necessary to get a grid right on. But beatmatching can teach you proper phrasing, it can help you learn the structure of your tunes, and IMHO its the most basic thing you can do to advance your art form.

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Originally Posted by robota

in my opinion beatmatching is totally overrated. anyone who can play an instrument is able to learn beatmatching in less than a month.

a drummer needs even less than a week, i suppose.

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I've played two instruments, and i can drum a tiny bit, and it took me around 3 months to get beatmatching right and I'm still learning the skill more and more each day. It's like snowboarding or any kind of skill for that matter, you can learn to do it relatively easily but your constantly refining the skill and learning from it... as well as training your ears....

Beatmatching is, to me, a necessity. I don't think that every mix needs to be beatmatched, and there are tracks that mix perfectly, but knowing the ins and outs of the technique can also allow you to truly understand the usefulness of the sync button.

I am in the process of a massive overhaul to grid and properly tag all of my tracks I DJ with. This is a huge pain in the ass, but it has to be done. I can beatmatch by ear, but I'd rather take the time to focus on looping, effects and the actual mix without having to worry about the beat running out on me.

But, I think that learning to beatmatch can easily lead to other techniques, like mixing on levels, cue jumping, and a general understanding of how sounds mesh, one on top of the other, in a much more detailed way than if you are just using the sync button and letting it go.

Not every DJ needs to know how to beatmatch, and it is not anywhere near as important as mixing, but I do think DJs should at least understand how it works.

Enough of the "Beatmatching, is it safe for children?" flame threads. Yes, it's useful, and so is a sense of musicality, tonality and flavor. Both can and should be exercised, but they are purely technical skills.

The single greatest tip I can give you is... KNOW YOUR TRACKS.
Seriously. Get to know your collection inside out, all the intros, all the breakdowns, all the loop points, all the hidden samples. Get to know them to the point that you hear a new track and you can picture in your minds eye which track should follow it,and maybe three others that might fit. The problem of integrating heaps of new material into your knowledge base comes later - initially stick to what you have while you learn to mix and sequence.

When I had only a few tens of tracks, throwing together a mix was easy. I knew all the music back to front, I knew what went with what and when to beatmatch and when to just crossfade on an ambient outro. These days, with music so readily available it's much, much harder to piece together a perfect set and to know which tunes to pair and sequence.

So, immerse yourself in your collection. Listen obsessively, use the shuffle on your iPod to bring up pairs you never considered, and if they work or surprise you in a good way, write them down. No shame in taking notes, many professionals still do.

DJing has never been about the technical aspects like beatmatching. it has always been about playing the tracks that will make people dance. before beatmatching was possible, was it still DJing? yes, because it was about the music.
that being said, i firmly think that beatmatching is something that is necessary to learn. even if your not that great. i am working on beatgriding each track in my collection so that i can spend my time looking at where i want to go with the night, what track would be great, how do i want to bring it in, what effects am i going to use and where, if the track goes well, where do i need to loop so that i can bring it back in.
beatmatching was just a tool used to keep the energy of a night going, now that beatmatching is a common place (anyone with any musical ability can do it if they put their mind to it). now that it has sort of gone and past, we need to look at what is next.

I think you can't be a real DJ if you don't know how to beatmach...
I started DJing with Virtual DJ an a Hercules DJ Console...At that time I couldn't beatmatch at all...Then I got CD Decks and that's when I started learning it, and now it's being automatic. The thing I've noticed is that it helped me not only beatmatching, but mixing on cd's without any visual wafe forms of bpm allowd me to listen much more to the music, and really develop my feel for mixing...plus now i can mix a track from traktor with a track on a cd without any problem...and you get much more satisfaction when you know you've beatmatched by yourself

i never said that it wasnt important. but i see so many people saying that if you cant beatmatch perfectly, you cant dj. i also remember when people said if you werent using vinyl, you werent a real DJ. shoot, i remember saying that.

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Originally Posted by freshcity

I might add that I have Dj'd many a house party and small club/bar/establishment with nothing but my Macbook, Vci-100, and my soundcard, and it has always been a fun time (I usually get tons of complements, mostly in the form of girls screaming with hands in the air and the occasional pound from a punter) As long as there is booze, babes, and loud music the party is sure to be a success. I actually have gotten quite a few compliments as well as curious party people eager to see how I'm doing it all with just my unassuming mac.

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That just about sums it up. After 12 years of playing in many clubs around the world big and small from Rio de Janeiro to Ibiza I can honestly say doing less is usually better. Especially these days, play rocking tunes- pay attention to the crowd and mix well- you will get hired again.

Now once or twice in the night, whip out some mad skills like grabbing a beat and completely re-arranging it controllerism style and people will be amazed. Then the rest of the night, just let the songs play them selves and everyone will go home happy AND impressed.

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Originally Posted by eangolde

That just about sums it up. After 12 years of playing in many clubs around the world big and small from Rio de Janeiro to Ibiza I can honestly say doing less is usually better. Especially these days, play rocking tunes- pay attention to the crowd and mix well- you will get hired again.

Now once or twice in the night, whip out some mad skills like grabbing a beat and completely re-arranging it controllerism style and people will be amazed. Then the rest of the night, just let the songs play them selves and everyone will go home happy AND impressed.

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im gonna have to agree 100%

Beatmatching can be both necessary AND overrated, y'know. :) By that I mean that it's one of the fundamental tools in a DJ's toolbox, but it's myopic to think that DJing is ABOUT beatmatching. The seminal Larry Levine (sorry if I misspelled that) was reputedly not much for beatmatching, but he made a room so crazy that nobody cared.

I show up at gigs with a controller, laptop, and soundcard, and lay my stuff down and believe that what I do there speaks for itself more than any lame defense I'd care to offer. I taught myself to beatmatch for a couple of reasons. The main one was because it is WAY too easy for a laptop DJ to rely on his eyes and not his ears, and that way lies madness. The club is listening more than watching, folks. I don't care how big moby locked-in your display says the thing is, if it sounds wrong and you can fix it by nudging a deck and messing up all the pretty lights, that's what you do.

I also knew early on (especially before laptopping was becoming more common) that I'd be following vinyl DJs, and what did I think I was gonna do when the guy handed off on me? Bring down the houselights and play Wagner and fake my way in with some epic Tiesto-break opening?

But you don't even need turntables or CD players to learn to beatmatch. If it's too easy to cheat using your DJ app, bring up tracks in WinAmp and imagine they're the outgoing DJ and he's got the room all hands-in-the-air for your lame digital ass cuz he's the nicest DJ on the face of the planet, and you bygod better match to him with your blinkylightz DJ app or everyone will head for the bar or the jungle room. Never underestimate the learning motivator of fear of public ridicule.