How many of you digital DJs never learned to use CDJs or TTs and can't beatmatch?

[DennisHuiberts]

I started out with turntables and timecode vinyl. I first came in contact with DJ'ing through a friend of mine who used CDJ's. I noticed the advantages of CDJ's; you could burn your music to CD's (even illegally downloaded music for when you were out of money) and didn't have to go record shopping to get your music and buy a vinyl with four tracks and you were only going to play one of those tracks.

Still I thought that vinyl had something special and appealed much more to me than CDJ's. So I bought turntables, a mixer and Traktor Scratch Pro and got the best of both worlds (FYI I buy my music from Beatport, so don't be h8in' ). I can beatmatch, even without phase-meters or BPM counters, but since my taste of music shifted from house to more techy stuff, the power of 4 decks and the extra creativity that could be unlocked with syncing became too appealing to me, so I sold my mixer and bought my VCM-600. I still have my turntables and timecoded vinyl, but I have to say, with pain in my heart, that my turntables are gathering dust at the moment.

I really don't give a sh*t if someone uses vinyl, CD's, midi-controllers, sync or a panda-board (). It's the performance, charisma and the selection of songs that a DJ has.

To be quite honest, I'm getting a little fed up about you bragging about your new gear and the things you want to buy, Xone. It's like your posts on djforums all over again. I would really like to hear a mix or production or whatever from you so that you can show your skills. If I win the lottery tomorrow, I could buy 10 Xone:4D's if I wanted, but that doesn't say anything about my skills at all.

And even if you weren't that good and you just like the buttons and the lights and everything, that would be fine with me. It's just the undertone of some of your posts that I get an itchy feeling from.

[rdej47]

When I first started learning a year ago I had a VCI 100 and was dependent on the sync button. I spent countless hours beat gridding tracks and I hated it. It took the fun out of getting new tracks because I knew I would have to go through this annoying process everytime. It sucked as well because if the sync button didn't work on a track I had to find one that did work when I hit sync. It was only 5 months ago that I decided it was time to learn the real thing so I wasn't dependent on the computer. Yes I use the sync button to get the BPM's matched but from there I pitch bend until it's in the right spot. Anyone here has to admit being able to beatmatch is going to be key in the next year here where I believe there will be an oversaturation of Digital DJs with DJ Hero being released. I don't think sync is a bad idea but if your dependent on it then it really takes the fun and challenge out of playing.

[kevinmcdonough]

hey

I've already answered this here in that I can beatmatch fine, but am interested in the direction this thread is taking so jumping back in

Firstly what do people mean by manual beatmatching? To me it means doing it ALL by ear. Whether on vinyl, CDJs or laptop it means no BPM counter or phase meter or anything similar, just using your ears and listening to the two songs and deciding if the incoming song is a little fast or slow, adjust the pitch slightly and listen again, adjust the pitch a bit more and listen again, and rinse and repeat until you home in on the pitch needed to get them matched.

Not that i'm criticising people who use those aids in any way i use the sync button whenever I can, but just curious as there seems to be a variance in the answers on here.

Secondly, while I totally agree that technology moves on and people will evenually never have to beatatch manually, just as many people have never used Vinyl or 8 track tape etc lol, do people REALLY think we're there right now?

To me, even with Traktor/Serato etc there are still a huge amount of skills that while the software makes them far easier and quicker its still a big help to learn the manual way, and beatmatching I would say is key to this.

Partly because as we all know some tracks just wont beat grid or sync properly because of tempo changes or whatever, but partly just because the experience and practice you tend to get when you learn to do it manually gives far better mixes. Lining up phrases/8 counts/verses/choruses to have things coming in and out properly and understanding the musicality of the mix as well as just the technical aspects.

Again, I use sync all the time and would never look down on anyone else who does, but I just feel that being able to manually beatmatch makes me better at using the sync and that it will be the case for another few years yet.

thoughts people? :P

k

[BradCee]

while I totally agree that as technology moves on and people will eventually never have to beatmatch manually,

if producers agreed a standard speed for each genre no one would need to bother either?

[kevinmcdonough]

if producers agreed a standard speed for each genre no one would need to bother either?

lmao

No I just mean the technology will do it for you, reliably and every time!

[BradCee]

sorry man, to elaborate Perhaps you did misinterpret.. you see whats being displayed is a controversial topic that egotistical dj's like to harp on, it's needles to the community & is brought up to distinguish the "real dj's" from what a lot of them call "microwave dj's". while you should always pay your dues, it's counter productive to slanders those who are in the process. I personally couldn't careless what people think or say to/about me, but bringing up the nonsense to a place like this, it's just in bad taste & im going to call it out.

i interpreted "How many of you digital DJs never learned to use CDJs or TTs and can't beatmatch?" as - you can't beatmatch properly if you haven't done it on tt/cdj and being on a simliar slant to the tt vs cdj debates of old - "ooooh the cds do the work, blah blah blah" -fuck off

also i'm just fed up of the constant 'look at my turntables and vinyl, bet half of you don't know what this is, and are confused by it' mentality

[BradCee]

lmao

No I just mean the technology will do it for you, reliably and every time!

i know, i was joking, but can you imagine if that was the case? all this would be pointless

[TWD]

I started out with nothing but the sync button, and did that for several years. However, I was always envious of timecode setups, and eventually got one of my own.

I am not quite where I would like to be in my beatmatching abilities. I can do it, but I have to know the BPM of the two tracks. Once I know that I can estimate where the pitch slider needs to go. Then it's just fine tuning. Run the two for a while and figure out which one trends faster. If I don't know the BPM I can still do it by oscillating the pitch slider back and forth, but it might take the whole 5 minutes of the song to get it right.

But I never use the sync button. The phase meter is more than effective. The sync button just makes me feel dirty. I really don't think it's all that difficult to learn. It just requires a little bit of effort. So why not? If anything it allows me to avoid the whole "you're not really a DJ" argument. More than worth a little bit of practice.

[MrBitches]

Beat matching is easy. i started out on turntables (time code set up) 3 years ago, i learned quick, i also learned quick that luggin turntables to partys was a pain in the ass. So i went with a VCI 100 and it has open up my creativity with its options, but i still beat match on it by ear, i even mapped the sync buttons to a more suitable function to my taste.

[belchman]

if producers agreed a standard speed for each genre no one would need to bother either?

naughty one-forty