Beginner DJ, few questions

[squidot]

Yeah I was at a friends party and I was watching the DJ do his thing, and at one point he let me take the reigns and showed me what each knob does, basically the bare basics. I found hitting auto sync was very boring and took out of majority of the experience in mixing.

To practice manual beat matching, does it just involve cuing to the right time on the next track?

i find it a little odd that your first time on the decks you found it to be boring because of sync. i hate to tell you but manual beatmatching isn't going to add a level of excitement to mixing, really. it least it doesn't for me, but i guess everyone is different. it will just add more time into auditioning songs and lining them up for you next mix. plus once you get it down after some practice you should be able to get the beats pretty close in a fairly quick amount of time. also, since you have never djed before that, how do you know that using sync is taking out the majority of the experience of mixing? you have no experience in beatmatching to compare it to.

with that said, i feel that every dj should learn how to beatmatch. start by using sync to get used to picking the right songs and honing the moods that need to be created. it also gets you up to speed on phrasing and how to keep your levels/eq nice and smooth without worrying about drifting beats. once you are more comfortable with that you can turn sync off and go old fashioned depending what gear you get. a lot of controllers give you this option by including pitch faders and jog wheels. after that you could try your hand on cdjs, but the real king is a set of turntables. the best is to try and keep 2 warped records in time...whoooooo, now that can be a little exciting! constantly on the edge of a trainwrecking suckas!

to answer your question, beatmatching is simply keeping the beats running at exactly the same tempo and nudging them (or riding the pitch fader) as needed. you need to have them drift as little as possible. hitting the cue at the right time is about phrasing: http://www.djtechtools.com/2009/01/2...e-perfect-mix/

[LoopCat]

i find it a little odd that your first time on the decks you found it to be boring because of sync. i hate to tell you but manual beatmatching isn't going to add a level of excitement to mixing, really. it least it doesn't for me, but i guess everyone is different. it will just add more time into auditioning songs and lining them up for you next mix. plus once you get it down after some practice you should be able to get the beats pretty close in a fairly quick amount of time. also, since you have never djed before that, how do you know that using sync is taking out the majority of the experience of mixing? you have no experience in beatmatching to compare it to.

with that said, i feel that every dj should learn how to beatmatch. start by using sync to get used to picking the right songs and honing the moods that need to be created. it also gets you up to speed on phrasing and how to keep your levels/eq nice and smooth without worrying about drifting beats. once you are more comfortable with that you can turn sync off and go old fashioned depending what gear you get. a lot of controllers give you this option by including pitch faders and jog wheels. after that you could try your hand on cdjs, but the real king is a set of turntables. the best is to try and keep 2 warped records in time...whoooooo, now that can be a little exciting! constantly on the edge of a trainwrecking suckas!

to answer your question, beatmatching is simply keeping the beats running at exactly the same tempo and nudging them (or riding the pitch fader) as needed. you need to have them drift as little as possible. hitting the cue at the right time is about phrasing: http://www.djtechtools.com/2009/01/2...e-perfect-mix/

You get a tone of satisfaction from learning beat matching! It can be hard having to actually learn your music and take time figuring out the tempo and phrasing opposed to downloading a thousands mp3's and syncing them all together without caring.

Doing things the hard way is the best way to learn. Nothing wrong with sync for advanced DJ's or people just wanting to have a bit of fun but anyone who wants to make a profession out of DJing should be pretty dam good at beat matching to save their own ass when technology fails.

[squidot]

You get a tone of satisfaction from learning beat matching! It can be hard having to actually learn your music and take time figuring out the tempo and phrasing opposed to downloading a thousands mp3's and syncing them all together without caring.

Doing things the hard way is the best way to learn. Nothing wrong with sync for advanced DJ's or people just wanting to have a bit of fun but anyone who wants to make a profession out of DJing should be pretty dam good at beat matching to save their own ass when technology fails.

sure, i agree that learning something is very satisfying (including beatmatching) but to me that's not the most important part. i think it's far more satisfying to learn how to phrase properly and get a mix that isn't clashing between that and being out of key. there's also a difference between something being satisfying and exciting, but eh, semantics. both of those feelings are fleeting after you get the skills down and it just becomes part of what you have to do to mix properly.

i would say that if someone is downloading a thousand mp3s and syncing them without caring, then maybe they should examine why they are djing. i would argue that beatmatching adds little to making someone care about music, but again that's my experience and i generally don't want to worry about that when i'm djing any more. i've been there and done that, and for the most part it's over though i do like to get my records out and go old school every now and then for sure.

i also don't think that doing things the hard way is necessarily the best method for everyone to learn. maybe for you it was, but maybe for someone else it won't be. maybe some people already have enough to deal with in the beginning and would rather not worry about banging their head against beatmatching on top of all the other stuff. it's a personal journey that every person needs to figure out on their own. i'm currently teaching my gf how to dj using my vci-400 ege and i think that's what is best for her. if she had to try and fumble around with records at this point she would just get frustrated and give up i think.

i'm prone to agree that all djs should know how to beatmatch, just in case they ever need it (much like learning how to drive manual in a car). it's also a good way to respect the history of what we are doing, but i don't think it's absolutely necessary in today's day and age.

[loverocket]

I totally agree, unfortunately it seems that the latest trend is for DJs to let the last DJ's track play out and then they start their set. It totally sucks and breaks up the vibe for me. I love to hear DJs mix into other DJs.

WTF ? Is this really going on?

Thank god I play with real DJ's that mix out of my tracks. That's one of the funnest parts. Especially, when they're sizing you up and you rock a mix out of their track without looking at their screen (BPM). Then they disconnect and give you the "Respect" look.

>

[DemiAlex]

I totally agree, unfortunately it seems that the latest trend is for DJs to let the last DJ's track play out and then they start their set. It totally sucks and breaks up the vibe for me. I love to hear DJs mix into other DJs.

So current Dj's tend to let a song play out until it's near the end, and just sync another track? Isn't that just the same thing as having an ipod on shuffle?

I always thought mixing contained a track that plays until a certain point, then another track plays overlooping the current playing track?

[SirReal]

Yes, I've seen/heard quite a few "newer" generation DJ's and even some pretty popular DJs fade out the previous DJs track and start their set. Once they're into their set they're beatmatching whether with sync or by ear makes little difference. Sometimes it's becuase the promoter doesn't know how to program a night, ie. a house DJ playing at 124 BPM into a Techno DJ wanting to play 128-130. Other times it's just that the oncoming DJ doesn't want to "take the time" to progress from the previous DJ's sound to their own (I think this is a bit of a cop out, personally. Good DJs can smoothily mix out of anybody and get to the groove they're trying to lay down IMO) Just an observation I've been seeing more and more in the last few years.

[DemiAlex]

I'm kinda stuck on what controller to get. I was considering the numtrack pro, and the s2 but the s2 seems like it's overpriced for what it offers.

I really wanted to get the Denon Mc2000 as a previous user mentioned, seems like the perfect controller for a beginner, but does anyone have a due date for its release?

What about the Hercules Console RMX? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...SIN=B0018CEOA6