Beatgrids.. The right way!
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  1. #1
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    Default Beatgrids.. The right way!

    Hi All,

    First let me say wow! This seems a very nice and vibrant site/community.. I'm glad I've found it! Let me tell you guys a little bit more about myself before I get started.. My artist name is Double and I'm a Tokyo-based urban electro beatmaker/producer. I've been making beats for over 15 years and I've been recording and mixing artists for close to ten years now. I absolutely know nothing(or next to nothing) about Digital DJing.. I always thought things like "that's cool" or "must be complicated".. Untill a few days ago.. I went to one of my artists home studio and he showed me the S2+F1. That was it! I'm hooked! I went to the shop and bought the exact same setting! Now you must be thinking I'm crazy but hell.. You only live once! And It's really cool to be able to "perform my beats" with the remix decks(sort of like ableton but inside a DJ software). Now here is my question(s).. I don't quite get the beatgrids/sync as it works differently from logic flextime or pro tools elastic audio. How do move the markers individually? Or i can just nudge the whole thing? Traktor place the downbeat marker automatically after analyzing a song, correct? How come whenever I a have a intro that is little longer than usual, the dowbeat it never starts when the first kick drum starts? Is this normal? How do I move the marker? Is there any step by step, easy to understand proven method or video tutorial on how beat sync works "the right way" somewhere online? Please post the link if you have one ;-)

    Thanks in advance!!!

  2. #2
    Tech Guru SirReal's Avatar
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    Traktor's beat grid is not "warpable" or flexible. It's purely a grid based on a constant BPM. You can change where the one lands but putting a beatgrid on a track that's not a constant BPM is near impossible. You can use Ableton or maybe logic or protools to "warp" a track into a constant BPM but may take some of the "swing" out of the track. As for Beatgridding tutorials, there's quite a few. A search of this forum or on Youtube will probably answer any questions you might have. Or maybe some of the other awesome folk here can help you with a specific issue.
    "Walking the fine line between Stupidity and Genious" My Soundcloud ---- My Mixcloud
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  3. #3
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    check youtube for beatgridding tutorials.

    go into grid, in advanced mixer, and if u hit the trash can while on the 1, itll delete the beatgrid. then you can line up with a kick or waveform on beat. then add the new grid but hitting #1 cue.

    sync is, as it sounds. it will sync the 2 tracks on beat at a same bpm. you can x2 or /2 to double/half to get bpms to match. then with 1 track going, and you hit play on deck 2 itll match the beat grids itself. if you have sync off, youll have to match by ear either with cue or hitting play, and then using the jogs outring and turning to match the beat. the orange bar above the waveform shows if your matched, or ahead or behind.

    hope that helps a bit.

  4. #4
    Tech Mentor rdale's Avatar
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    Here is one from DJ Techtools. I prefer to set grids to the first kick drum in the measure where the drop starts instead of the snare even on break beat tracks as it makes more sense to me. But the rest of the tutorial talks about things that are important like moving the grid by stretching it and offsetting the whole grid.

  5. #5
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    @ Sir Real

    Thanks for the explanation. So, basically you're saying that Traktor doesn't compress or expand audio.. It just snaps the transients to the beatgrid using the track's bpm? I think I had all wrong before;-P So.. Do I just blindly trust traktor bpm detection or there are any methods to make sure the track has a correct bpm value(other than listening with the metronome on)?


    @rdale

    Thanks for the video man, I'll check it out later!

    @ Moe Hawk

    It does helps thanks! So if delete the beat grid and I hit cue #1 on let say the first kick drum that will become the beat marker(or downbeat), correct?

  6. #6
    Tech Guru djproben's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rdale View Post
    I prefer to set grids to the first kick drum in the measure where the drop starts instead of the snare even on break beat tracks as it makes more sense to me.
    Yeah this is one thing I hate about that video; I think it encourages too many people to use bad practices. Setting the grid on the snare when the snare is not on the "one" (and it's usually not) renders Traktor's beatcounter pretty useless (and it's even worse if you have some grids set on the snare and others set on the kick).

    And whenever this topic comes up I feel obligated to pimp my own video about it...
    "Art is what you can get away with." - Marshall McLuhan

  7. #7
    Tech Guru SirReal's Avatar
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    ^^^^^^Atta Kid^^^^^^ Thanks for posting.
    "Walking the fine line between Stupidity and Genious" My Soundcloud ---- My Mixcloud
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  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Double View Post
    @ Moe Hawk

    It does helps thanks! So if delete the beat grid and I hit cue #1 on let say the first kick drum that will become the beat marker(or downbeat), correct?
    Correct. if you look to the left of the garbage can/delete, youll see a drop down that will said Grid, thats how you know you are setting a grid. then After the 1 is set, it will switch to Cue points. But theres a few different options in that drop down for types or cue/grid points.

    the newest traktor seems alot better at getting pretty close on the grid compared to the old 2.1 version i had. i always zoom in and check. sometimes the intro of a track doesnt have a good count so sometimes search further down the track for a good 4 beat to find and zoom in and grid off of. once you set a grid its always good to go down the track in sections and check other beats to see if they are still lining up correctly. Then Lock the grid once you're done, with the little lock icon to the left of the BPM.

    just search youtube and i think Native Instruments and Dubspot have a few 3 part tutorials that show you around the software and will really help out to learn everything quick.

  9. #9
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    Thanks, I'll have a look on YouTube;-)

  10. #10
    Tech Mentor DJ 2 Cut's Avatar
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    I really like this one that DJ tech tools made. The mapping if for an S2/S4 but it can be tweaked for any controller. I really like that it makes the process quick and reliable.

    http://www.djtechtools.com/2012/07/2...n-mapping-tsi/

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