Who taught you how to beatmatch?

I learned on my bcd3000 by riding the pitch fader and the nudge buttons. I understood how to beatmatch, count bars and phrases, but those little jogwheels and the faders weren't enough to make it stick. Once I got turntables, my beatmatching clicked, and became 100 times easier. Personally, I think having a medium like a record makes beatmatching so much easier. Having the pitch, the side of the platter and the top of the record to make adjustments really sped up the learning process.
Played on cdjs a month or so ago for the first time, and found that I can beatmatch the easiest on those, but don't enjoy it as much as vinyl. Maybe if I had some rotating platters

You need 2 ears to beat-match. We've all got those.

BUT - you also need 2 BRAINS to beat-match (a bit more difficult - as we've onyly got 1 brain).

You have to be able to listen to 2 audio sources, and differenciate between them completely. This wil only come after a lot of practice (took me a coup eof years - but I imaging it could be done in a few months).

You're effectively re-wiring your brain. It CANNOT be done overnight.

Play 2 songs together to a non-Dj, and they'll hear a mess of noise. BUT - play 2 songs together to a DJ, and they'll hear 2 distinct trains of sound.

There's a great diagram in "How to DJ properly" I'll try to find it and post it up.

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Originally Posted by zestoi

tho pro probably labeling as slow/medium/fast or something would be enough.

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Absolutely not. You couldnt mix a 115bpm tracks into a 105bpm track. Would sound awful either way. Yes you could match them, but either one of them would be way too fast or way too slow.

Not my kind of music either, but its one of the genres I had to play to earn top dollar in Malia!

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Originally Posted by Patch

You have to be able to listen to 2 audio sources, and differenciate between them completely. This wil only come after a lot of practice (took me a coup eof years - but I imaging it could be done in a few months).

.

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That was the hardest part for me. When I figured out how to do that it became a lot simpler. The next thing was figuring out if the song was a bit ahead or a bit behind.

Beat matching is like skiing, there are different techniques that you can learn at different levels of experience. All of them will get you down the hill, some faster than others. I've been a digital dj since the get go, but I don't like having my tracks locked together with the synch button. my first technique was using the pitch fader and the cue button, cueing the track on the one, and listening to if it takes off fast or lags behind, and then adjusting it accordingly. once I got my hands on a controller with jogs, I quickly picked up how to bend the track while adjusting the pitch fader for quick results. The principal of listening to two tracks simultaneously is a given, but finding your technical preference for execution is where you can really refine your technique.

Bought some technics about a month ago and taught myself. As long as you can listen and distinguish tracks, it's not too hard and comes with practice.

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Originally Posted by The Mighty FV

Disappointed by those who 'struggle without a bpm counter' - as I don't count that as genuine beat-matching.

I learnt 15 years ago from the captain of our basketball team, first time I'd seen turntables. He had them in his basement, they were absolutely fucking awful decks but as I knew no better they were the best thing in the World ever ever ever.

From there I mixed every day, slowly progressing onto using CDJs in my sets too, then just CDJs and now CDJs & Traktor.

Still got my Technics though, some things you never sell.

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so if its not genuine beatmatching, explain how knowing the bpm actually matches the beats on top of each other....

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Originally Posted by carl

Ive watched the videos and read a lot but after months I still haven't mastered beatmatching without looking at the BPM readout.

How did you learn?
I hear a lot about how people were mentored or learned from a friend.
Im craving to be able to play strictly analogue.

I don't have anybody that I know that knows how so I'm kind of in a hole

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My best friend in H.S. has a sister that was dating a club DJ. We hung out in the booth when he played and I would always ask him questions. One day, I guess he finally got fed up, he asked if I wanted to learn. He worked with me for about 6months 1-2times a week. Took another 3mos after that before I had my first gig. This was back in the late 80's so the only option was vinyl and more vinyl. I started out with a Numark DM1800 mixer and a set of Tech 1200 MK2.

Here's how I got started.

1) Learning to count beats. Put a record on (guess now its MP3) Get a stop watch. Count up and down beats for 15sec. Multiply by 4 and you have your BPM

2) Put on same song. On the two separate decks pitch at 0. Start one song. Then about .30 secs in, try to beat match the other song into it. It is easier to match the beat if you grab a down beat and move it back and forth as you hear the down beat of the other. When you're ready, let the song go and just nudge fwd/back accordingly.

3) once you have mastered that, try different songs. repeat.

I taught myself using a mixtrack pro... The pitch faders sucked ass, like.. seriously, but even then I could beatmatch after a while. Then I switched to the S2 and I'm sometimes amazed by how fast I can beat match two songs. Like, I would start guessing for a few seconds and then check the screen to confirm that I'm doing it right and there I am, only a few decimals away and with a perfect phase meter status! Granted, I've been dj'ing for a little more than a year and I used sync for the first 6 months.. so it was like 6 more months until I actually semi-got it. I think that I'd still suck on real tables, but since I have none around there isn't much that I can do.

The Beginner write up on DJForums before it died was really good.