When I first started I just straight up used sync. As I got better, though, I just naturally picked up how to beat match by ear.
I hardly ever need to do it manually, though. Almost all of my music is either pre-gridded or labeled correctly. And if it isn’t, the “tap” feature on Traktor will detect it correctly 95% of the time in a matter of seconds - it’s instantly obvious if the software messes up your grid.
There are some tracks that give Traktor a hard time on the fly, though. Beatmatching by ear is helpful then, I suppose, but it’s a situation I rarely encounter.
I use sync, I’ve kind fo naturally learned how to beatmatch in it’s most basic form, if it’s a genre I’m really used to and things are cued up.
But IMO it IS a dying skill, and the argument that “because beatmatching is dying means that everyone will DJ / no skill will be involved” is so incredibly stupid and ignorant in itself. Of course people will innovate, new skills will be formed. Yes, basic Djing will be a whole lot easier, but that means the bar will be higher for whats expected of a DJ. Promotors/Club owners aren’t stupid, just because beatmatching is easy now doesn’t mean they’ll hire just whatever shmuck picked up a controller, a new standard will arise.
And also it creates time for DJs to dabble in production, outside of pure hip-hop DJ’s, I think the future of DJing is controllers and production.
And really, why so much fighting/bickering? I ski, I mostly do park skiing (Controller?), but I still love to ride powder and slopes (vinyl/cdj?) every now and then, because it’s fun. Hahaha I making a really far out analogy, but park skiing is sort of new and this freestyle skiing is really blowing up. Some, very few, people are saying this new skiing isn’t “real skiing” cause it’s not crusing down the side of a cliff face, but mostly people just accept it as different and everyone rides whatever they feel like, no strife, more often than not people love it because there are so many kinds of skiing to explore. All love(:
Or maybe this quarreling is just spawned by online forums no matter WHAT the topic is.
being in control of your audience and playing the right track at the right time makes you a good DJ, how u do it doesnt matter, wether you synch, beatmatch or cheat.
Valid point. So, in your opinion using sync is fine but pre-recorded is cheating? I’m not taking a piss, I’m genuinely interested. These threads always interest me. I’ve come from vinyl, through cd’s and now to controllers and an external mixer. While I have no problem beat matching, I find myself using sync more and more. I used to think “using sync” was cheating but now I can honestly say I’m mixing for much longer periods. I used to mix 2 tracks about 1 to 2 minutes, now I very rarely have only one track playing at a time.
more like cheating out the audience, but who cares, only other djs care, vinyl djs said, when cdjs came out that they are not real djs bc they can see bmp counters, now controllers came out, cdj guys think that they are cheating bc of sync and are not real djs, its technology, move on. nobody will ever win this debate.
How do you set accurate beatgrids if you can’t beatmatch by ear?
Beatmatching by ear isn’t a dead skill, even in todays digital “sync button” world. Traktors grid detection is absolutely horrible and I never trust any autogrid traktor lays down.
Whenever I get a new tune I get traktor to analyse it and then I almost always have to correct its transient detection.
After that I go it a few seconds of playing with the metronome.
Having accurate beat grids is going to be more and more important as the world of producer and DJ collide. You just can’t make accurate use of the Remix decks if you don’t have accurate beatgrids.
The software isn’t there yet, I look forward to the day I don’t have to grid anything manually. Until then, learn how to beatmatch by ear.
The only real cheating is prerecording mixes and standing up there and turning knobs to act like you’re doing something. The BPM counter is a tool. You can still have 2 songs with the same BPM not beatmatched so I really don’t get what you’re talking about. It doesn’t take a genius to hear a train wreck. What do you think the pitch control on the side of a turntable is for, you bring the BPM of the record you’re trying to mix in to match the BPM of the record thats playing. 20+ years ago I would use an electronic metronome to time out every record and write the BPM on a sticker and stick it on the record sleeve or write on the label. All my records were in BPM order because without keylock you couldn’t go anymore than + or - 3 bpm or else it didn’t sound right. It would have saved me a lot of time to have a BPM counter back then. Using the tools and technology that make it easier for you to mix music live isn’t cheating. It allows for more creativity. I would have killed for keylock in 1990.
People fail to mention that Traktor has 2 sync modes, by beat or by tempo. Syncing by tempo will just bring your track to the same tempo as the master track which is the same as moving a pitch slider, only its faster. Beat syncing only works if the grids are right but even if they aren’t you can nudge it if the tempo is right.
IMO all of you who talk about not looking at the BPM counter, not wanting to do a gig without knowing how to beatmatch by ear or not wanting to offend anyone or not honoring the “art” of DJing need to stop worrying about what other people think and do you. The people you are worrying about offending aren’t paying you, so who cares if they are offended. The club owner, bar owner or more importantly the crowd listening to you could not carry any less about whether you beat match by ear or hit the sync button. They will care if you train wreck and sound horrible. You are not proving anything to anyone by not taking a gig because you don’t think you can beatmatch by ear. You’re just leaving the gig and the money for someone else.
All this talk about laptop failing, controller failing, cd scratched, record warped, lightining striking, zombies attacking your S4…more nonsense. Sh*t happens no matter what you use.
Quite easily, really. If it’s obvious the beat grid is off, using the tap function gets the grid right 95% of the time… and then it’s very obvious if it still can’t get it right.
At that point, you simply lay down a grid marker at the downbeat of the song, and watch the beatgrid line up with the correct bass lines that you hear. Use the expand/contract buttons until the beatgrid visually and audibly lines up with the beats. Making adjustments every bar instead of every beat is a bit easier.
This worst case scenario takes 10-20 seconds and happens to me maybe a few times a month.
That is easy for each individual track. I was describing how an entire collection is beatgridded together. How do you know that two tracks when played with sync are actually in sync?
I’m not entirely sure what you mean. Are you wanting to have your entire collection perfectly beatgridded? I don’t really see the need to have more than your top ~500 songs done.
Bingo. A lot of the people in here saying that they can’t beatmatch by ear, but CAN beatgrid a track are making this exact mistake.
These people should listen back to their mixes very carefully and try to understand that their transitions may not be properly beat matched.
BUT - how do you expect to be able to recognise that if you can’t beatmatch by ear??? They may SOUND matched close enough - but listen back to them in a few years time and you’ll hear how bad you were…
Something to bring up, is this thread comparing beat matching on vinyl or using a DVS/CD/Controller? What I’m getting at is are you beat mixing just on ears 100% vs ears plus some extra tools?
From beat matching on vinyl, it’s one of the tougher skills to get down. You could have your record collection beat counted, but it’s not as accurate as watching the BPM rise or fall from pitch adjustment on a DVS system. At one time, I spent hours counting the BPM’s of all my records, thinking it would be a big help for mixing. It was nice as a starting point, when I searched, I could find something that was in the same BPM range. But even two songs that were the same BPM rarely matched up at 0%, they would start to drift and ironically caused more grief (the 1200 pitch dead zone).
I think one of the most important skills in dj’ing is knowing when two songs are drifting and how to correct. If beat gridding is 100% and locks on correctly, it’s a good skill to know how it works. But just matching up two songs at the same detected BPM will not always sound correct.
Personally I like to check the detected BPM of the song trying to get somewhat close to the song playing. Then play and beat match by ear, this song is 130bpm, song playing now is 133bpm, so I need to increase the pitch a slight amount. If I’m not getting the beat down, I’ll look at the waterfall (on SSL) or adjust the pitch to match the BPM’s down to .00. I’ve noticed that being off by .01 will sometimes still drift.
Again, I’m not a professional DJ, never formally trained so what I do may be 100% incorrect.
Being able to beatmatch by ear is one thing. Being able to feel a song’s tempo (if you can bob your head to a beat, you can do this) is completely another. The latter is the only thing necessary to set a proper beatgrid.
Not saying the former isn’t helpful sometimes, if you have a song that cannot be gridded correctly. It’s come in handy on occasion. But its pretty rare that this is necessary.
I will try and give a few examples to illustrate what I mean.
Unaligned beat grids causing a “clang” or a “gallop”.
Two tracks causing a flanger like effect when being blended.
Two tracks percussions being unaligned at a point where their sound waves are interfering with each other in a way which dulls them both and sounds flat.
