Beatmatching is HARD

[Jo3]

so you understood the principle of beat matching in 15 minutes.

I find it very difficult to distinguish one track from the other when deciding weather to increase or decrease the tempo, it must take years to be in the situation where you can beat match and bring any track in every time without it sounding like a complete mess.

[Patch]

AND it's not that it's easier with vinyl. It's just that with vinyl all you've got is the audio, your headphones, and your brain.

Those are the the only 3 things you need to beatmatch - everything else is just an aid.

Vinyl, CDJ's, Traktor/Serato with the display off - it's all the same. Just tempo adjustable audio.

Now stop reading interwebz and get those headphones on!

[Patch]

I find it very difficult to distinguish one track from the other when deciding weather to increase or decrease the tempo, it must take years to be in the situation where you can beat match and bring any track in every time without it sounding like a complete mess.

This.

It starts off taking 16 or 32 beats to decide which track is too fast/too slow. Soon it only takes 8, then 4, then 2, etc...

Same as anything - it just comes with experience. It's not even practice. It's not something you can focus on and improve with effort. It just comes with time.

It's pretty awesome when you realise that you can beatmatch with practically NO effort, and in practically no time.

But beware - once you can beatmatch, you try to beat match real life. If I'm driving along in the rain, I usually end up trying to get my windscreen wipers in time with the music, or making my indicators flash in time with the car in front of me.

It takes over your life.

[djcaptainshawn]

Just started learning on my Traktor S4, turned the phase meter, BPM, track BPM (deck and browser) and beatgrid/large waveform off. I think I'm slowly making progress, but I reckon my ears need a lot more training. I'll stick with it though, I've fancied getting away from the sync button for a while - not that I've got anything against it, but it'll just make some things a lot easier if I know how to beatmatch

I started doing the same thing a few months ago, now I can beatmatch 95% of the time. When I first started I did the pan idea that was mentioned (great minds think alike) and it helped a lot. The only difference is that I leave the track BPM turned on. Its a good feeling to be able do this manually, but I still plan on using sync

[popoff44]

Yes, beatmatching is hard. That said, with the right amount of training a monkey could do it. Not that I have anything against monkeys...

The best way to learn to beatmatch is to simply watch other dj's do it. If you don't have any dj friends, just watch some videos on YouTube or elsewhere. That's really all you need aside from practice.

[popoff44]

But beware - once you can beatmatch, you try to beat match real life. If I'm driving along in the rain, I usually end up trying to get my windscreen wipers in time with the music, or making my indicators flash in time with the car in front of me.

It takes over your life.

So very true!

[jdog667jkt]

But beware - once you can beatmatch, you try to beat match real life. If I'm driving along in the rain, I usually end up trying to get my windscreen wipers in time with the music, or making my indicators flash in time with the car in front of me.

It takes over your life.

holy shit true-er words haven't been spoken

it can get reaaaaally annoying especially when you're listening to 140 bpm stuff and you're trying to walk in beat with it and it's just too fucking fast!

Seriously it's becoming an issue...

[Coldfuzion]

But beware - once you can beatmatch, you try to beat match real life. If I'm driving along in the rain, I usually end up trying to get my windscreen wipers in time with the music, or making my indicators flash in time with the car in front of me.

It takes over your life.

The mark of a true DJ .

[mostapha]

tl;dr.

I started on vinyl. It just takes time.

The mark of a true DJ .

I can't count the number of times I've turned off my turn signal sitting at a light because it was out of time with the car in front of me just enough to bother me…and if I'm in a line of turning cars, who cares?

[Rokku]

That's funny...I've been doing this for years (beat matching in life) and it drives my wife nuts! I'm so glad that other people do it.

I did find beat matching easier than I thought it would be, but I'm chalking that up to years of experience as a bass player who has always been very serious about having solid internal time.