Who taught you how to beatmatch?

[deckard26354]

train your ears first and then use the tools u have available when they are.

Completely agree with this one. Again, my tuition was with out any tools. Simple belt driven t-tables. Can now near enough by ear guess the ballpark of the BPM of a record.
But saying that I now use all the lovely tool's Traktor has to offer.

[zestoi]

Completely agree with this one. Again, my tuition was with out any tools. Simple belt driven t-tables. Can now near enough by ear guess the ballpark of the BPM of a record.
But saying that I now use all the lovely tool's Traktor has to offer.

cool. i'd never tell anyone to not use a bpm readout if it's there or the sync button if it helps when actually playing out - but training your ears without any of those cool tools is not a bad idea at all...

[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.

[Liambo]

I'm fully self taught. Over a period of a few years i became a strong mixer using vinyl and a very strong mixer using CDJ's.
Eventually got my fourth residency 2 years ago and the head DJ (which is a friend of mines) helped me out with the finishing touches to my mixing i needed.

Now i'm a very happy DJ!

[djproben]

My dad, I found his old turntables, he was amazed they still worked, 2 original Technics 1210's...he picked back up like it was nothing and taught me...Once I got a controller, he called me a cheater lol.

coolest dad ever

[DarkHouse]

i went to a dj school called Dj Mix Club, back in the day when they were the authorized Technics dealer so it made sense to go there.once there i was taught by a man named Shane Halcon...Now other half of the First State duo!

[Mr_Moo]

maybe useful if u have a massive collection of records. i had a few hundred i guess - but mostly knew which were tempo's that would go together. when i selected the tunes i'd take for an event i'd already have selected records that are in the right ballpark and i knew would go well together so wasn't bothered before i put the record on and started to beat match how far apart the bpm's were as i knew it wasn't going to take me long to get them in sync. only takes a few seconds to get within the right ballpark.

Have you ever tried mixing R&B? And I dont mean just cutting it in, short mixes over 5 - 15 seconds. The tempo's for different tracks range from 60bpm - 160bpm! Impossible to mix in unless you knew the approx bpm for each track. Each time I bought a new single (mp3) I used to run each through Mixmeisters BPM counter and write that down on the piece of paper in my CD wallet. Then I'd know what goes with what and can pick the next track based on the BPM.

Ps. You cant rely on the BPM counters for R&B on Pioneer CDJs, certainly not when I worked in Malia, Greece. 2006/07. So Im guessing they were mk1s and mk2s came out shortly afterwards...

[backtothefront]

Self taught on Soundlab DLP1 TT's (belt drive) in the early 90's - interestingly it took me a few weeks to adjust to Technics when I swapped. Although I understood the construction/phrasing of house music and the transition from track to track (from listening to mixtapes, no Youtube then!); I reckon it took me a few months to really grasp beatmatching and it was only when I saw a mate practising the penny dropped in terms of cueing the release. Then it was all about practice and plenty of it. Eventually it becomes 2nd nature and you don't really think about it.

Someone earlier mentioned 1997 for D&B, totally agree, there was some good stuff around then. My mate was a keen D&B DJ around then and got some good warmup gigs for DJ Krust, Mickey Finn, Dom & Roland, Ed Rush, Optical etc.

Interestingly IMHO D&B as a genre has developed well and maintained excellent quality output to the current day whereas some dance music genres have been up and down.

[zestoi]

Have you ever tried mixing R&B? And I dont mean just cutting it in, short mixes over 5 - 15 seconds. The tempo's for different tracks range from 60bpm - 160bpm!

nope - not my kind of music. i guess in that case u at least need to have some idea of what tunes even *can* be mixed with each other. tho pro probably labeling as slow/medium/fast or something would be enough.

[backtothefront]

Completely agree with this one. Again, my tuition was with out any tools. Simple belt driven t-tables. Can now near enough by ear guess the ballpark of the BPM of a record.
But saying that I now use all the lovely tool's Traktor has to offer.

Spot on, agree totally with this. It becomes second nature, without any cues/bpm information I can usually beatmatch a track after around 16 bars, you just sort of know whether it's slower or faster and how much you need to move the pitch control and quick platter adjustments to get it in sync.

Having said that, the controls within Traktor are great and allow for more tinkering in the mix without having to worry so much about drifting beats but I believe beatmatching is an elementary skill every DJ should try to attain as it's invaluable if you have to resort to non-digital DJing at some point (especially at a gig, which will happen!).