I am creating a mixer to teach me how to beatmatch, what factors should I consider?

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
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1

I am creating a mixer to teach me how to beatmatch, what factors should I consider?

well…that question is pretty vague, let me clarify..

I am creating a DIY MIDI mixer for a school project. I do not know how to beatmatch and I want to stop having to use the sync button.

So for my project I am going to create a mixer that will be designed “to teach me how to beatmatch”. Don’t get me wrong…I can learn how to beatmatch on my current mixer but when I get frustrated it’s just too easy to click the sync button.

Anyways…Here is what I plan on doing;

1)Designing my board without sync buttons

2)Adding a “Tap” button to each channel

  1. Designing the pitch faders to be long for more precision (any recommendations on length?)

4)Using precise rotary encoders for the jogwheels

5)making jogwheels large

6)Implementing a 4-digit display on each channel to display BPM.

5)I am currently searching for a silicon LED button (for cue button) that can be tapped to press down that way I can tap to the beat.

Any recommendations? I’d love to hear everyone’s suggestions.

Thanks.

2

You are designing a controller and not a mixer, is that right? There is no need for a tap button, display etc., because you are supposed to learn beatmatching by ear. The most important part is the pitch fader, 10cm should be fine. Large jogwheels are not even that important but nice to have, however a rotary encoder is not the right tool for a jogwheel.

3

…just don’t do that and save yourself a load of time.

Learning anything takes discipline. If you haven’t got the discipline just to not press a button you may not have the discipline to stay the course and learn the skill.

4

Where you born without ears. Would take substantially less effort to just learn properly

5

Ditch the BPM display. If you try beatmatching with your current mixer/controller and just wind up pressing sync, you’ll look at the BPM values and just increase the pitch faders to get them matched when you’re in a hole. Lose that and force yourself to just listen.

You don’t need big jog wheels. Just something that allows you to slightly and quickly nudge forward and backward.

6

Yeah…building a controller to learn to beat match is a very complicated way to learn a simple skill. It’s kinda like building a baseball stadium to learn how to throw a baseball. I can appreciate your ambition but I think the K.I.S.S. method should be applied here.

7

watch at least 10 Youtube videos on beatmatching.

then don’t use the sync button and don’t look at the BPM’s.

practice like this for 2 weeks at least 1 hour a day.

come back here and let us know how you’re doing.

see you in 2 weeks.

8

Here’s an idea, just unmap sync from your current controller

9

Or just stick some electrical tape over the buttons?

10

Alright look…We are to choose a project in one of my classes and this is what I decided to go with…I suppose I did forget to mention that. So to clarify, I am designing a DIY mixer regardless. I’m simply looking for suggestions on what features I can add to my own DIY mixer that will theoretically help me in the process of learning how to beatmatch.

I’m going to do without the BPM display, I’m going to add buttons for cue points on each channel, and I’m going to use long pitch-faders (anyone have any recommendations on length size?)

If anyone has any suggestions and/or creative ideas that they think would be cool to add I would love to hear them.

P.S. yes…I was born with ears… :unamused:

11

Thank you for your reply Laserbeam, I am currently looking for an ideal encoder to use. I was told using an Optical encoder may be the route I want to take. Do you have any suggestions? I am looking to ideally spend around 10 dollars for each encoder.

12

Thank you for response, and for actually answering my question and helping me out lol. I appreciate the feedback.

13

When I was learning on my first controller, I mapped the sync button to “unload track”.

Worked perfectly and got me out of the habit VERY quickly.

14

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There are easy ones that do not think hard but the opposite, wish you success