Beatmatching is HARD

[bartboy]

I picked up a Stanton Str8 80 for about 75$ and my local record shop was closing I did get a banging deal on all his EDM/Dance music. I pretty much had the run of the place he hadn't been opened in years so it was all at least 5+ years old but man for 25$ I picked out 200 records if not more. He told me he let me have the whole lot for a grand but I didn't have the money or the place to put that many records. Sad to see when the last few record stores finally close down. At least around here.

[jfd6812]

I picked up a Stanton Str8 80 for about 75$ and my local record shop was closing I did get a banging deal on all his EDM/Dance music. I pretty much had the run of the place he hadn't been opened in years so it was all at least 5+ years old but man for 25$ I picked out 200 records if not more. He told me he let me have the whole lot for a grand but I didn't have the money or the place to put that many records. Sad to see when the last few record stores finally close down. At least around here.

Its always sad when another of the last few record stores close-but that is a pretty sick deal you got there. nice job.

[CaptainMidnight]

I first learned with doubles (2 of the same record), then I learned how to beat match with headphones (play one song out loud, and match up the other song in the head phones), then I learned how to throw in a song in and find the tempo in a few beats.

Then Sync came out.


but besides all that, its not just tempo matching..timing is HUGE.


practice.

[timgkelly]

sorry if this was already said, I didn't read the whole thread.


I'm pretty sure what helped me beatmatch when I first started was my really shitty headphones. Actually, they werent headphones, they were shitty walkman type headphones. All you could hear was the snare.

another tip, don't listen to the song while beatmatching. get to know the structure of the hi-hats, or just the snare drum and use that. Its a lot tighter than any bassy noises i find. (I mean the notes them selves don't last as long)

[exokinetic]

I find using my equipment to beatmatch tracks to random audio sources where I have no BPM reference, or control, is rather fun.


A lot of times I route Pandora through my 4 channel mixer when I wake up in the morning, and just start playing music through my system...


Almost always it will get to a track where I just have to go over and mix in the track thats in my head.


Its really fun to take that track I was thinking of, and start beatmatching it into the Pandora stream, often times into a track I am listening to for the first time.


That usually starts my practice session, and helps me find more music that I like, but have never heard of.


Another great one, a lot of cartoons have Drum n' Bass theme songs, and EDM type music that plays during the show...

Its rather hillarious to beatmatch a track into a TV shows theme song

[djproben]

got it down in about umm 45 mins...

Umm, no, you didn't. Maybe you were successful in matching two songs, but actually learning to beatmatch successfully all the time and using your ears to do so will take days and months of practice. You'll get better if you practice more often for less time than if you practice, say, once a week for several hours at a time. But even then, you'll eventually get it. It's just a motor skill and it just involves training your ears and hands to work in tandem. But no, you're not going to master it in 45 minutes. If you set your expectations unrealistically you will be disappointed.

[DJ5DollaHolla]

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

LOL u beetmach?

[mostapha]

Why would you turn off BPM? If you had vinyls the should have the BPM written on them.

Why? It takes a lot longer to count BPMs manually than it does to just start matching. It takes me 15-seconds to count out a BPM +/- a couple…it takes about 5 seconds to get that close just playing with a fader.

Well it did the last time I used CDJs…which was a while ago. I'm probably a good bit slower now.

My problem now is that the pitch faders just suck on the Numark Mixtrack and just can't make fine adjustments so it's quite frustrating (or maybe I just suck altogether lol)... Guess I'll need more practice but it's definitely not an easy thing to do...

IDK how exactly it's done on the mixtrack or how you have it set up, but manual matching with straight MIDI is a bitch unless you limit your tempo range to a couple BPM.

IMO, Ableton is best set up for matching manually because it has gross and fine adjustments. Then again…I think the xone:dx works the same way with a dual-resolution encoder.

But I just don't see the point of matching manually with a controller. Either set your grids correctly or get tables…but that's just my opinion…who am I to judge?

Umm, no, you didn't.

+1. That being said…if you have a good sense of timing and are mixing top40 or hip hop the way a lot of people do…I could see learning it in under an hour. It doesn't take much to keep a couple songs matched for a few bars.

[bigbeatzz]

I learned the old way with 2 vinyl records. That being said times are different. Try this:

- Load 2 house tracks that have just a kick on the intro
- Cheat at first and adjust the tempo faders based on traktors read out.
- Start one deck
- Take the second deck and start it but hold down the platter on you S4 or whatever you use.
- Begin to scratch the kick on the deck you are holding to the beat of the track that is playing.
- Once you feel you are scratching in sync let it go. - Hopefully your 2 songs will be in sync
- If the track is off nudge it forward or backwards slightly to get it in range.


After you can learn to mix 2 songs with the bpm cheats you can now try without looking at the screen. Load 2 tracks move your screen and start to adjust your tempo. Every time you make an adjustment try and scratch it in to line up the beats. If it drifts keep trying.

Once you get it your going to feel great. I remember the day I learned how to mix, it was about 20 years ago. What an awesome feeling.

[theory28]

thats actually a really good way to learn it.

if youre using any other decks you could use the cue boton instead