Beatmatching is HARD
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 
got any old dj friends? practice on vinyl. if you can beat match analog with no digital assists… than you’ll do just fine. i totally use sync now, but the ear will always tell you when it’s off and need to adjust the beat grid, or simply nudge it in real time off the sync.
What he said.
I started on the S4 as well, but was taught beat matching by DJTT members on Vinyl. It was much easier, and made a lot more sense when doing it on the S4.
Hell, if you don’t have any DJ friends with vinyl go and look for the closest record store and see if you find any cool people there spinning (if they have gear out) or just talk to people and try to find someone with vinyl who can help you out!
What makes it easier on vinyl?
It takes away all the crutches, and extra jazz and it leaves you with three things. The mixer, your 1200s, and your ears. It’s a completely different feel. I felt so lost without a screen in front of me.
The difference is night and day. And it’s super easy to learn how to beat match on vinyl. Took me about 15 minutes to learn. Perfecting it is a slightly different situation .
Beatmatching is not hard.
Learning to beatmatch is hard. It goes like this:
Geddit?
Pretty soon you won’t even need to wait until the downbeat to decide whether to pitch up or down, you’ll just adjust on the fly, hitting cuepoint and adjusting the tempo until the tunes are in time.
You CAN’T learn to do this quickly. People that tell you they learned to beatmatch in a day are liars. You need to be able to learn to listen to, identify and separate 2 individual audio signals in parallel.
This only comes with time and practice.
The best way to practice is to do it all through the headphones. Mute your main out, and pan each deck to one side of the headphones. Tune 1 in your left ear, tune 2 in your right ear.
Pretty soon, you’ll be able to listen through each ear separately. It’ll take time, and it’ll seem impossible, but it will come.
Right now, your brain processes everything you hear as a single sound. You need to train your brain to process separate sounds individually. Easiest way to do this is to separate the audio into 2 streams, 1 going into each ear.
Easy, innit?
I don’t believe you could beat match in 15 mins.
Learning is a completely different thing then perfecting. Learning is understanding what you have to do. Perfecting is getting it right. You learn math, you practice to make it perfect.
Oh, I know how to do it, it’s just the learning to do it that gets me. I’m impatient… but as I said, I’ll stick at it.
I still don’t get why it’s easier with vinyl - the way I’m doing it at the moment is without any of the visual aids from traktor, as I said in my first post I’ve disabled the phase meter, BPM, tempo, track BPM, beatgrid and waveform…
You can be TOLD how to beatmatch in 15mins (maybe).
Just like you you can be told how to do a kickflip on a skateboard in 15 mins. Doesn’t mean that you can do it after being told.
I think realistically, you could understand the theory of beatmatching in 15mins.
Training your brain to separate the 2 audio sources can only be done with LOTS of practice.
so you understood the principle of beat matching in 15 minutes.
I find it very difficult to distinguish one track from the other when deciding weather to increase or decrease the tempo, it must take years to be in the situation where you can beat match and bring any track in every time without it sounding like a complete mess.
AND it’s not that it’s easier with vinyl. It’s just that with vinyl all you’ve got is the audio, your headphones, and your brain.
Those are the the only 3 things you need to beatmatch - everything else is just an aid.
Vinyl, CDJ’s, Traktor/Serato with the display off - it’s all the same. Just tempo adjustable audio.
Now stop reading interwebz and get those headphones on!
This.
It starts off taking 16 or 32 beats to decide which track is too fast/too slow. Soon it only takes 8, then 4, then 2, etc…
Same as anything - it just comes with experience. It’s not even practice. It’s not something you can focus on and improve with effort. It just comes with time.
It’s pretty awesome when you realise that you can beatmatch with practically NO effort, and in practically no time.
But beware - once you can beatmatch, you try to beat match real life. If I’m driving along in the rain, I usually end up trying to get my windscreen wipers in time with the music, or making my indicators flash in time with the car in front of me.
It takes over your life. 
I started doing the same thing a few months ago, now I can beatmatch 95% of the time. When I first started I did the pan idea that was mentioned (great minds think alike) and it helped a lot. The only difference is that I leave the track BPM turned on. Its a good feeling to be able do this manually, but I still plan on using sync
Yes, beatmatching is hard. That said, with the right amount of training a monkey could do it. Not that I have anything against monkeys… 
The best way to learn to beatmatch is to simply watch other dj’s do it. If you don’t have any dj friends, just watch some videos on YouTube or elsewhere. That’s really all you need aside from practice.
So very true!
holy shit true-er words haven’t been spoken
it can get reaaaaally annoying especially when you’re listening to 140 bpm stuff and you’re trying to walk in beat with it and it’s just too fucking fast!
Seriously it’s becoming an issue…
The mark of a true DJ .
tl;dr.
I started on vinyl. It just takes time.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve turned off my turn signal sitting at a light because it was out of time with the car in front of me just enough to bother me…and if I’m in a line of turning cars, who cares?
That’s funny…I’ve been doing this for years (beat matching in life) and it drives my wife nuts! I’m so glad that other people do it.
I did find beat matching easier than I thought it would be, but I’m chalking that up to years of experience as a bass player who has always been very serious about having solid internal time.