any dj's that can help?

[mufc802]

I am just starting djing and am trying to learn to beatmatch. What is the best way to set-up the headphones to cue the music? Should I have the music that is playing through the speakers also playing through the headphones or just the cue music only through the headphones? The mixer allows me to choose the volume of the music I want to hear through the headphones that is playing through the main speakers, but I am not sure what is the normal way of doing this?

I saw a tip that said put the tempo onto max for the song you are trying to mix so you know it will be faster than the current playing song rather than guess whether it is faster or slower, would you say this is a good technique?

(Please keep this in GD, I never get replys in the music section.)

 

[mufc802]

I am using a traktor kontrol s2. (controller)

I just can't match them up, even if I do for a second I have no idea how you get the bpm exactly the same so they move out of sync again.

 

[mufc802]

if you're on traktor you can see which is going faster.. in fact you don't even need headphones when using that....

I know but I try to not look at that and learn by ear.

 

[mufc802]

It's taking me around 5 mins just to get them beatmatched using the platter and tempo stick. Atleast I've done it without the help of the BPM counter and phase meter and got it within 0.02bpm.

How much practice is it going to take for me to be able to beatmatch in 10 seconds?

 

[mufc802]

I've also found that the sync doesn't always match the beats properly, a few times it seems to have matched with the offbeat and sounds terrible.

 

[mufc802]

I need a bit of help on Traktor. When I load a track into the deck, no matter what the tempo stick is set to, the original song bpm is loaded unless I move the tempo stick slightly, then it goes to what it should be. How do I get it so when I load a track, the bpm automatically goes to whatever the tempo stick is set to rather than the track original bpm? The reason I am asking is because say the track I load is at 170bpm, I start to beatmatch and adjust the tempo stick, it suddenly jumps to 175bpm because that is what the speed of the last track that was just playing on that deck, meaning beatmatching takes longer.

A simple solution would be to always remember to flick the tempo stick slightly every time I load a track, but sometimes you could forget..

 

[mufc802]

You will find some music harder than others to beatmatch. Happy Hardcore is really easy to mix and quite fun as its 4/4...very easy to hear any clashes and great for cutting in and out.

I've just had another go on the mixer and my beat matching seems to be improving. I do mix Happy Hardcore or UK Hardcore whatever the correct way of saying it is, I just match the kick drum. When I mix tracks by the same artist I find it easier as the drums are similar if not the same drum sample used so they are easy to match up. Some tracks are difficult to match though as the drums sound so different, occasionally I end up with one track a whole beat behind the other.

I still don't know how to use samples yet I'm just working on beat matching and using the FX which I have to say are excellent.

by tempo stick do you mean the pitch fader ? which is in percentage like on turntables... its not setting BPMs its setting a percentage of the tracks original BPM

Yes I mean the pitch fader. I think I put it to 6% as this gives me 10bpm each way which my tracks all fall within. It's just wherever the pitch fader is positioned, when I load the next track it will always be at original bpm unless I nudge it slightly and it will jump to the bpm it should be according to the pitch faders position.