A little help with beat matching please.

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DCypha

Greenlighter
Joined
May 17, 2008
Messages
42
Hey there guys,

Just wondering if anyone would be able to give me some pointers on beat matching and DJing in general? I've been mixing for a few months now but I just can't seem to get the beat matching right. Like i would line the tracks up and it would sound good for a sec and then slip out of time again. I try to ride the pitch control but can't seem to get it right. I'm mixing drum and bass and dubstep. I know they are hard genres to mix but I love them.

i'm running 2 Technics 1200s and a 2 channel mixer. All tracks are on vinyl.


Would appreciate any pointers or advice you guys can give.

Thanks in advance.
 
You don't have the BPMs matched. If you have the BPMs matched it'll stay in sync for more than a second. And well, even if you do have the BPMs matched its still going to go out of sync, thats why you touch the platter lightly or ride the pitch or pinch the spindle, etc. etc.

Go out and buy 2 copies of the same record and practice transitioning from one record to the other. It'll be easier because you'll know they are the same tempo. Try pitching down or up the 2nd record and the match the tempo of the first record. Do this again and again until you can match the tempo of the first record. Don't do it by sight though do it by ear. It takes a hell of long time but you can do it. Its the old school skill of DJing.

You could always mark your records for tempo and go from there. But generally the idea is to practice enough so you can do it by ear, and you can just tell a record is roughly 170 BPM etc.

Its never a good idea to try and match records with huge BPM differences, which is basically sticking with one genre until you get good enough with beatmatching. Like you wouldn't want to take a 155 BPM record and pitch up to a 170 BPM record. You'll fuck it up. Later on you'll develop a skillset where you can match different records but starting out its just harder.

So then like you said trying to mix drum and bass with dubstep is going to be really hard ~with 140 BPM. To keep things simple I would simply use dubstep as a Breaks thing, where you might use it as a drop, ie. a quick cut and then go back to drum and bass.
The crowd or the house party won't give a shit if it doesn't sound perfect. But if you start getting into mismatched hats,etc. where it all starts to sound like noise then thats no good. It might be a good idea to take a look at turntablists and scratching in a loop or a kick from a dubstep record and then cutting into that record. Like developing a routine, etc.

Good luck, fuck around, and have fun!
 
Yeah, I'd agree and say to switch over to a 4x4 beat like house. Once you get the basics it will be a lot easier to try and mix downtempo stuff, as there is a good amount of difference in the two styles.



I never really liked the "play two of the same track" idea, best to just grab some house as it's nearly ALL 128
 
^ I wouldn't recommend to switch to another style he maybe doesn't even like... DJing is about the music you love after all. At least I don't want to see myself as a human jukebox ;)

OP, some advices:

1) get the cuepoint right, this will make it easier to beatmatch, because the similar elements are roughly on the same spot. count the beats on the track playing. lets say, you're looking at a part 4 bars long, you will drop the next record at the first beat of the next part.

2) if you already know which record is faster, roughly adjust the tempo before cueing

3) after cueing, immediately work the pitch fader to adjust the tempo as exact as possible. focus on both tracks as good as possible. if you hear it slipping apart, slightly spin the record in the appropriate direction (or rater put pressure on the platter if it's too fast). If you fuck it up anyway, cue again and repeat.

4) after adjusting the pitch, cue again, let the track play for few bars in your headphone, so you can adjust the pitch and phase (the beats have to be overlapping) once more, and then, if everything seems alright, you can start to fade the track into the master channel.

5) even after all that, while you're in the middle of the mix, you still have to pay attention to the beatmatching. turntables never pitch 100% accurately, so be prepared to adjust tempo and spin/brake it, while mixing the track with the first one. Do this only in small fractions though, because if you spin it too fast, people will notice and it will sound not as good. That's why it's important to beatmatch as correct as possible while cueing. Otherwise your tracks will stay in time for some beats/bars but then it will fall apart quickly.

4) when you've reached the point where the track you're mixing is louder than the one before, adjust the tempo of the -first- one. if two records are in the mix, always spin/brake/pitch the one which is not as loud in comparison.

5) count bars and get a feeling for how the music works. timing is as important for mixing as beatmatching

i hope, this helps. and don't worry, it took me couple of months of practising as well to get it somewhat right, and after 4.5 years of spinning, I still learn stuff. playing vinyl is more like learning an instrument than most other forms of DJing imo. so keep it up and stay motivated. :)

one more thought: how is your monitoring, which headphones do you use? having good sound quality is pretty important as well, as you will hear more clearly where the beats are.
 
Count count count.

Count out loud, count in your head.. it doesn't matter. Just make sure you are counting the beats, it can make things much easier.
 
If it's going out of sync, then you've not got it beat matched. Problem is beatmatchings not something you can be taught, you've gotta learn it. It's mainly just training your ears, so try to work out whether the incoming track is faster or slower, then adjust the pitch accordingly. I find dnb easier to mix than house, it takes longer for it to drift out of sync

Folley said:
I never really liked the "play two of the same track" idea, best to just grab some house as it's nearly ALL 128
Click to expand...

No it isn't :?
 
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House is generally 120-130bpm. It's definitely not "nearly all" at 128. Deep house especially can often be as low as 120.

I've been learning to DJ since March, and I wouldn't say I'm much good yet, but I learned using house music.

Mixing two of the same tracks together is definitely a good idea, especially on vinyl which most people would agree is the most difficult way to mix. After that start mixing similar sounding songs from the same artist together (recently i've been practising by mixing all the tunes from Ed Rush & Optical's 'Wormhole' album)
 
Bagseed said:
^ I wouldn't recommend to switch to another style he maybe doesn't even like... DJing is about the music you love after all. At least I don't want to see myself as a human jukebox ;)
Click to expand...

People don't like house music?? ;)


Deep/tech house is generally quite a bit lower, but that has a completely different vibe to the electro house type tracks out there. It was just a suggestion anyway, I find 4x4 beats to be better for practice as you'll hear if it goes off beat relatively fast. At the end of the day it's best to use what you're comfortable with, if you're going to mainly mix DNB/dubstep you'd probably want to practice with that instead. I just know quite a few people who said they learned with house music as it's typically very structured. Another trick I use, like weirdfish, is to mix songs from the same producer/label. They'll usually have similar phrasing and may even be produced to match with each other.
 
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