Beatmatching by ear

[keithace]

dropping the second record on beat is ESSENTIAL...if not...you are already chasing the first beat around...

[sss18734]

Intentionally setting an incorrect beatgrid is a decent way to learn to beatmatch by ear. That way, any visual cues you have are useless.

[Shishdisma]

The best way to learn to beatmatch is to set the BPMs evenly, cue up a track at the first beat of a measure (use the waveform, or scrub until you find the beginning of the measure), set the temp cue point, and tap (and hold) the cue button on the first beat of a measure of the playing track. If your timing/latency is right, they should be smack in time, if it's off, you either press play and nudge the track in time, or let off the cue button and wait for the next measure on the playing track to re-cue. Which method you choose depends on how strict your bar structure is, and how much you missed it by (eg, slight phasing: nudge, double-beating: re-cue).

The old method of "blindfold yourself, throw two random tracks on, and slap the pitch fader until it works" is a relic from the vinyl days. You'll never play on analog vinyl, and the above method is standard, and extremely easy, for CDJs. Anyone who says you'll be at a disadvantage for using a quantized BPM display is either bitter, or doesn't know what theyre talking about (Rekordbox).

[shr3dder]

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Dude. Wow. That is not beat matching at all. It's a slow version of sync. It's Not hard to train your ears, if you need the BPMs your being lazy and won't learn.

Not every CD deck is a 2000. BPM Counters are quite often wrong. Wow.

Don't listen to that guy, you'll learn nothing.

and for the record the above method is not standard you don't just slap the pitch fader till it works, eventually your ears just no what to do. Ask any DJ who doesn't snyc if they do that and I guarantee they'll say no.

[Shishdisma]

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Dude. Wow. That is not beat matching at all. It's a slow version of sync. It's Not hard to train your ears, if you need the BPMs your being lazy and won't learn.

Not every CD deck is a 2000. BPM Counters are quite often wrong. Wow.

Don't listen to that guy, you'll learn nothing.

and for the record the above method is not standard you don't just slap the pitch fader till it works, eventually your ears just no what to do. Ask any DJ who doesn't snyc if they do that and I guarantee they'll say no.

Every single CDJ released in the past few years supports quantization (Rekordbox), and no piece of equipment I've ever played on couldn't hold a tempo +/- 2 BPM. Unless you're hauling around a crate of vinyl with you in case the club you're playing at only had 5 year old CDJs and your laptop vaporizes, learning to ride the pitch fader is a waste of time. As I said, anyone who says otherwise is either clinging to vinyl, or just doesn't understand that tempo isn't an arcane science beyond mechanical comprehension.

[zestoi]

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Dude. Wow. That is not beat matching at all. It's a slow version of sync. It's Not hard to train your ears, if you need the BPMs your being lazy and won't learn.

+1 what shishdisma said has nothing to do with learning how to beatmatch by ear really...

find your cue point on either a kick drum of hat (personal preference i guess and depends on the tunes as to which is easier), learn to drop it in in time (just by pressing/holding the cue button as shishdisma says if you're on cdj's or a controller) and you can train your ears to get the bpm in the right ballpark very quickly. rinse and repeat a few times, how much u ride the pitch fader is all down to personal preference and what works for you. the important thing just being to learn to hear when the tune is behind of ahead of the beat and too slow/fast.

[dayvue]

I found this very helpful when I was learning.

Use headphones while listening to his, the stereo splitting is important.

[zestoi]

Every single CDJ released in the past few years supports quantization (Rekordbox), and no piece of equipment I've ever played on couldn't hold a tempo +/- 2 BPM. Unless you're hauling around a crate of vinyl with you in case the club you're playing at only had 5 year old CDJs and your laptop vaporizes, learning to ride the pitch fader is a waste of time. As I said, anyone who says otherwise is either clinging to vinyl, or just doesn't understand that tempo isn't an arcane science beyond mechanical comprehension.

you're missing the point of this thread, which is how to learn to beatmatch by ear. i'm not "clinging" to anything... learning to beatmatch by ear is still a very useful skill. lets not turn this into another sync verses quantize verses anything else mental masturbation session. personally i tend to just use sync now with my controllers but could also jump on a deck and mix.

[Shishdisma]

you're missing the point of this thread, which is how to learn to beatmatch by ear. i'm not "clinging" to anything... learning to beatmatch by ear is still a very useful skill. lets not turn this into another sync verses quantize verses anything else mental masturbation session. personally i tend to just use sync now with my controllers but could also jump on a deck and mix.

I'm not sure what you mean, what I said was beat matching by ear, on a CDJ. If you're talking about limiting yourself to 70s technology and manipulation, then I guess you'd be right. "Tempo matching" and "beat matching" aren't exactly the same thing, since the existence of an accurate BPM readout on virtually every modern CDJ makes the blind tempo part of it mostly irrelevant. It's still being matched by ear, it's just not done vinyl style. If 1200s had a pitch indicator, we wouldn't be having this discussion.

[zestoi]

I'm not sure what you mean, what I said was beat matching by ear, on a CDJ. If you're talking about limiting yourself to 70s technology and manipulation, then I guess you'd be right. "Tempo matching" and "beat matching" aren't exactly the same thing, since the existence of an accurate BPM readout on virtually every modern CDJ makes the blind tempo part of it mostly irrelevant. It's still being matched by ear, it's just not done vinyl style. If 1200s had a pitch indicator, we wouldn't be having this discussion.

i'm not talking about limiting anything to anything (tho not entirely sure that phrase makes sense )

a pitch indicator wouldn't help on a 1200 - unless u mean a bpm auto detect gizmo.

it's not "by ear" if all you're doing is looking at the bpm's - tho i guess u are talking about using your ears to be able to hear when they're in phase. the OP was asking about how to really beatmatch by ear anyway which isnt quite what you're talking about. tho i do see your point.

bpm readouts and sync buttons are great tools - but personally i like knowing that if something goes wrong i'm not going to end up with a train wreck.

oddly enough there's another thread atm that seems to be the usual "you're not a dj unless u can do it manually" verses "sync"... these seem to come around way too often. as with most things in life the truth is somewhere in the middle