Tips on headphone cueing/nudging jogwheel for next track (manual beatmatching)

DJ Software & Apps Traktor
1

Tips on headphone cueing/nudging jogwheel for next track (manual beatmatching)

Hi I been playing with the s4 quite a bit and pretty familiar with the EQ/effects/loops etc and been doing mixes comfortably. Now getting into the next phase that is trying to get into beatmatching manually without phase meters/sync and just wanted to ask a question about cueing in general. What’s the proper way to do it? Do you guys do the cue mix with both tracks on in your headphones to beatmatch before dropping the next track into your set? Or do you put the next upcoming track in one side of your headphones (left most side of your cue mix toggle) and try to beatmatch with the current track being played on the speaker output? Any good tips on beatmatching other than dropping it on the first beat? How do you guys nudge the jogwheel as well? is it more like a trial and error basis? I still can’t really grasp a track is slower or faster even though the BPM is matched the same.

My style is mostly underground minimal house/techno/deep house. I find I can get techno to beatmatch easier but deep house and minimal house is much harder to get the beat in place when I try to do long transistions.

Thanks for the help and much appreciated!

2

People do both of the headphone cueing methods you described. Jog wheel nudging will be trial and error at first, but with practice you’ll soon automatically know which way to move it just by listening and dropping the first beat.

3

Thanks for the reply. Which method would be better though or do you have to mix it up? Is there anyway in the traktor s4 and traktor to emulate CDJ look too?

Cheers,
K

4

To emulate CDJ look, take off all visual cues except for starting BPM and ± % bpm change. Go into browser mode so the waveforms are small, and leave your laptop to the side so you aren’t staring at it.

I am in the same position as you, but the trial and error nudging is becoming more and more instinctive. It is all just practice.

5

Im guessing decks layout from full to small? Is there also anyway to like set the BPM numbers to whole numbers instead of showing the decimal points like cdj200s.

6

I would just turn off BPM completely, as many BPM readouts on CDJs are terribly inaccurate and useless.

7

True that would be the next step for me, pitch riding. Past couple days I am getting the hang of the small visual interface with BPM readouts and some manual beatmatching/nudging on the jog wheels. Been mostly doing it by ear now with the visual interface toned down to small waveforms. More or less CDJ style.

8

With Traktor I find it impossible to use the old way of one headphone on and one off, like I did with vinyl.

There is a marked delay between what comes out your headphones and what comes out the speakers with Traktor. It’s very annoying

9

Considering that it can only output audio channels in sync with one another, I don’t see how you can blame Traktor for that kind of delay.

It’s much more likely to be some other device in the chain causing the delay like some DSP.

10

It’s obviously something to do with the soundcard. If I have what’s playing out the speakers in the headphones, there is a delay. It’s only slight; but when I do vinyl, and it’s all analogue, I can focus in exactly with the timing.