Digital DJ’s don’t beatmatch? Well what would you call beatgridding? Discuss
It just occurred to me that beatgridding (while much simpler) is still a form of beatmatching.
Grids don’t always conveniently set themselves perfectly and often times when I’m at a gig, I have to manually shift the grid of a song to make the mix sound “tight”.
It’s the same fundamental as traditional beatmatching in the sense that you have to hear how tight the mix is, but it’s (obviously) more convenient because you don’t have to do it on the fly, and once you have it synced it stays locked.
Before I get any pompous “I learned on vinyl” type responses, I should distinguish that I learned on vinyl over 14 years ago, but it just occurred to me now that beatgridding is the same fundamental as the traditional beatmatching.
I find beat gridding a tedious affair I can see what your getting at but it depends what type of controller you are using when I had a vci100 hitting sync would match the bpms and yes I would have to nudge the jogs to keep it on time as some tunes would go out of sync.
Been using a m8s x1 rec and if its not gridded properly its all hands on the laptop not great mid set tbh felt out of control
For me I find I have much more control with a Cdj pitch Fader and jogs
I will not start on about good old techs for fear of sounding Pompous
For riding the pitch, absolutely. I also had the VCI-100 and manually beatmatching was really hard due to the pitch fader being a whopping 2 inches long.
If I had to beatmatch manually (unquantized tracks) I would just hit “sync” to match the tempo and adjust the beatmatching through the jog wheel.
Well I don’t know if this counts or not but I’ve been doing music for a long time and although not an xpert there were somethings you had to be able to do if you were going to put out music that people enjoy. When doing multiple sets you had to be able to beatmatch your songs so that it sounded good, whether you were doing it live or in the editors booth. To that end I think beatmatching and beatgridding is the same thing, you are getting the beats to matchup so that your transitions don’t sound like a dying animal of some sort. I have never used vinyl and came unto the DJ scene using casette tapes and cd’s (no beatmatching going on there, just making sure the music played lol). When I started using my CPU and DJ software I had to start using skills I had not used in a long time (matching up the beats) so that the music flowed. Even with a sync button there is some matching up to do because not all songs sync to the right BPM. So I continue to use my pitch and jog wheel to match up the grids when they don’t sync or if I nudged them out of sync by touching the wheel etc. In doing so I’ve found out that you have to match up the right grids otherwise the music still sucks. Just last night listening to some mixes and matching them up some songs I was beatgridding was out of sync so I had to regrid. So in saying all that if you are going to be a DJ you have to understand how to match up your beats with and without a program’s help, It’s the only way to go.
Beatgridding is made in the calm and comfort of your room. You are focused, effective. And if you fail, start again.
Beatmatching is made in the fury of the night, several drinks in the stomac. Some bitches make it hard to focus on the music. And if you fail, you’re in trouble.
No you aint, you just get out of jail as quick as you can and carry on..
Ive had this discussion a million times and my favourite example is Boy George… There were nights he couldnt beat match for toffee yet he had the crowd eating out of his hand with sublime and beautiful track selection and order of play..
So if a new DJ just does beatgridding, and his laptop craps out in the middle of a gig. All he has is a CDJ and some CDs. Will he be able to beatmatch???
This actually happened to me last NYE. Traktor froze. So I switched my CDJ from MIDI to CD mode and popped in CDs instead (I always bring back up CDs with songs for my set burned on them or a thumb drive). Can anyone who did not learn to beat match by ear do this? I think not.
Technology is great, but the basics wins throughout time.
Again, beat matching AINT the be all and end all of Dj-ing…
Its nice to be accomplished in the art, dont get me wrong, but it aint essential, especially if you think for one minute beat matching holds a higher priority over track selection and timing.
Id rather hear some inspired choona with the odd beat clash over night of seamlessly mixed drivel everytime
I agree. Beatmatching happens in your head via your ears.
Setting up beatgrids for proper quantizing (quantization?) happens on your screen and is seen by your eyes prior to even dropping a track to beatmatch.
Or at least that’s how I do it.
I hear you, and I respect your take… but my ears and brain are too technical in that regard and when I hear a trainwreck, I’m going to wince regardless of whatever panty-dropping banger DJ whatshisface didn’t effectively beatmatch in thereby demolishing his transition. I’m weird like that.
No, youre just a DJ - We are a weird old bunch for noticing shit like that when the rest of joe public just get on with it and dance their arse off!
Even though i say i dont try to judge, if its obviously crap i do, and ill normally get the hell out to where someone can play is on the deck duty… but if the set is first rate with the odd fluff, i mostly ignore the fluffs and focus on the high points and get on with the dancing!
And as i typed that i just remembered our last really big night this year when my mate was on decks dropping This:
taking a Vitamin E half an hour before being due on wasnt a real good idea in retrospect, it came up like a freight train just as the opening bars came over the pa… luckily the roof came off and the dancefloor went mental just as he was on the point of collapsing … fpmsl
)
