So.. I’ve owned turntables in the past.. but it’s been 10 years. Starting back in '96 I was young, mostly interested in getting blazed and grooving out to the music I was spinning.
F.fwd now just got a set of M3ds… am into drum n bass now.
I use traktor + dvs.. and “manual” beatmatching using traktor’s bpm readout is fairly easy. I really have no problem getting beats on sync if bpm is ok, and traktor tools are pretty good at showing if a record is speeding away or slowing a match.
But… turning my screen off and playing two different bpm records and trying to match bpm perfectly is a very difficult, lengthy task!! Would take me a whole record if at all as of now. wow. I think if I had no help with bpm recognition it would take years before I would do anything more than try to match the first 8 bars before a switch..
when i spun vinyl, i used a trick i learned from z trip… id bpm each record and right it on the record sleeve, then would pack my crates starting at like 90 bpm and then progress up to what ever until my crate was full, then id start a new crate at the last bpm reached… this way i could real easy go thru my crate ramping up bpms knowing i wouldnt have to look to hard for the next record… every once in a while i to thro down an all vinyl set and tbh is well hard sometimes but oh so rewarding
i’ve be thinking similar of late, had some TT’s over 10 years ago when i was 14-17, only played for the pleasure of my bedroom, mates bedroom’s and friends parties. Then i had an 8 year break till a few year ago I got a numark IDJ2 jus to piss about on. Took a bit of practice but u soon get ya ear back for beatmatching, i now have a kontrol s2 and traktor. If u didnt really beatmatch before or were never really good at it, jus practice practice practice, you can turn off all the visual clues on traktor like phase meter & bpm etc (even think u can turn the waveform off) and just keep playing till you get better. I am enjoying my S2 but i’m hankering for a dvs set-up myself, just stifled by funds at the mo.
Yeah, I still haven’t gotten the flair for pure vinyl yet. And I have a bunch of vinyl that I really want to get good at mixing (most of it is 1998-2003 DnB - what got me into this in the first place).
It’s easy to get distracted with the waveforms and BPM. I can, within a couple seconds now, get things straight using the visual aides from Serato. But when I do it just by ear… it takes a lot longer. And I actually have a much more difficult time with DnB than I do most other genre’s. (I mainly spin breaks now anyhow).
Listen - beat matching by ear is easy. But you CAN’T learn it quickly. You just have to put in the hours. Your brain has to get rewired from listening to sound as this thing that is in the air, surrounding you, to hearing 2 separate sounds and differentiating between them.
One day, it literally “clicks” and your brain suddenly understands it all as clear as day. It’s just like riding a bike - once you can do it, you can’t imagine NOT being able to do it.
Yep, this, exactly > Practice. It is exactly like riding a bike after a while, its difficult to explain but it just sort of sticks with you, you cue the incoming track, instantly hear whether its faster or slower, adjust the pitch, re-cue, double check the pitch etc etc etc. It genuinely becomes 2nd nature. That’s not to say you will never ever trainwreck a mix again however, it will definitely happen!
I use all three methods interchangeably. To check if the cue is slower or faster, I use split cue since you can focus on the cue in comparison to the master track much easier (this is also the same as using 1 ear + monitors but it removes the very slight delay and is easier to hear, personally). To double check that the beats are almost perfectly aligned, I use the mixed cue; you can hear what the matching beats will actually sound like and perfect them with minute changes.
Still working on beatmatching with pure vinyl. Right now Im working on doing CDs/CDJs and I’m still learning those. The localized beat counters are annoying and tempting, but I know I should be able to match without looking so I try to avoid using them for minute differences. Hoping to get good enough to “move up” to using my technics to master beatmatching.
A mate taught me a trick when I first started playing clubs… intentionally run a deck slightly faster so you know you just have to slow the platter every 20 seconds or so (slowing to me seemed like the gentlest most precise way to manipulate the platter), It will get you by for a couple of months until your hearing develops. after a little while you do just intuitively know how to do it and instead of having to adjust the platter every 20 seconds, it will become 40, soon you will be able to match tracks well enough to mix in under 4 bars then small adjustments to get it perfect. Just keep at it as skills take time to aquire. don’t know if it’s because I know my old vinyl so well but beatmatching seems much easier on vinyl then dvs, and I really like the different feeling different vinyl has (some sticks to the spindle, some is loose, some is heavy, others light) it keeps you on your toes.
I dunno I tend to speed up a record lot easier then slowing.
I mix it all in my headphones, however when it get tricky I split cue to isolate thing then mix in my headphones.
I wouldn’t say beat matching on vinyl is easy…it take a ton of practice, It just means it gets easier once you learn more and more. Add that on top of a stressful club environment and actually mixing in the song, you gotta be on point.
I for the most part ride the pitch a lot, then do little fixes to the platter. First I determine is whether the track I’m bringing is faster or slower. I get a good estimation in my head of how off it is, if its 128 and I’m playing a 125 I can hear that immediately. If it 126 and 127 that’s much trickier, that when’s drop and listen to the track and try to fix it, if what I did makes it worse I know do the opposite.
depends what im mixing, if its vinyl then its both ears full cue to make sure nothings out, switch to one ear then slowly work the crossfader across, then once the crossfaders over the halfway im purely listening to booth out to make sure it sounds ok.
CDJ’s, its both ears on untill track is matched and phased then its on booth for full EQ mixing.
and im the same as synthe1c, i tend to make the track im bringing in that slightly bit faster so i can keep it in phase by slowing it down.
I don’t do it like that anymore, it was just so I was in control when mixing in clubs before I knew intuatively how to beatmatch, It’s a way to give yourself more confidence so you don’t have a trainwreck that only takes 30 seconds of listening to determin if your fast or slow, I just made sure I was always fast so there would be no suprises on the PA which when your nervous and not listening properly is very unforgiving.
i learned as a one ear can one ear monitor dj and ill stay that way… i cant mix in my earfones for some reason, but i been dj’n for like 15 years or sumptin like that and that way has never failed me
I’m the opposite, I need to be iimmersed in the sound to match properly, If I mix in split cue or with only one earphone on and the other listening to the PA i will match it so it sounds perfect then when I bring it in the match is always off! doesn’t matter which ear I use either… maybe my brains wiring is out of whack or something
The funny thing is, its harder to beatmatch with timecode, traktor is VERY sensitive.
I eventually got my pure vinylist mate on traktor for a spin. This guy is an old hand on the decks and I regularly spin with him b2b vinyl to dvs. He found it hard to keep two records matched on my setup for any length of time.
I have like no moral objection to using beat sync.. even with dvs.. but if I’m at home practcing there is no reason, might as well try to learn and keep trying..
