Beatmatching advice please

Sinny

Sinny

Sinny

Soldato
Joined
21 Feb 2007
Posts
9,512
Location
Cheshire
Hi all,

Well after having my mixer for a month or so and have some songs I think mix together pretty well (Electro House) I'm finding it really hard to beatmatch properly.

I use Traktor LE and find it increasingly difficult when I have a "sync" symbol and the tempo displayed in front of me.

Any tips, links etc to help me beatmatch better?

Thanks
 
TFleming said:
Do you mean when you dont't have a sync button? I don't understand. What is your set up?
Click to expand...

I have the sync button on my controller, It takes me ages to beatmatch something so more often than not I just use it.

I use a Reloop Digital jockey 2 Interface edition.

My problem is I don't really know how to beatmatch, are their any good guides you can reommend?
 
You've just got to use your ears and adjust the pitch and speed of the turntable you're bringing in. Use your fingers to lightly touch the rotating platter to bring the speed down and adjust the pitch IF you have to. It's just a matter of doing that until what you hear coming out of the speakers, matches the beat of what you can hear through the headphones of the turntable you're adjusting the speed and pitch of.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+beat+match&aq=f
 
Sinny said:
I have the sync button on my controller, It takes me ages to beatmatch something so more often than not I just use it.

I use a Reloop Digital jockey 2 Interface edition.

My problem is I don't really know how to beatmatch, are their any good guides you can reommend?
Click to expand...

I see. Well beatmatching isn't really a problem with traktor, there isn't a need to do it manually, but if you want to learn how to do it without the sync button there are a few things you need to do.

Firstly, more often than not if mixing the sam genre there will only ever be 1-6 BPM difference so you usually know scale of how much you need to move the pitch controller. The pitch control slows and speeds up the track. With your headphones, find a kickdrum - aka the beat, and cue the track right on the beat. Now you need to count the beats in the other track, count in 4's i.e. 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4. On one of those beats press play on track that is cued. Now you have two tracks beatmatched for a very short period until one track gets ahead of the other. To make them the same, adjust the pitch tuntil you start hearing it come closer together, the track you are mixing in will either need to be speeded or slowed. If it sounds messed up, hit cue and start it again. Aswell as the pitch control, use the jog wheel to get both tracks at the same beat again until they are the same and you no longer need to move the jog wheel and pitch. Many DJs never get it spot on so if you hear it coming slightly out, move the jog wheel to put it back in place.

Traktor has a few nice features to help you. First of all the BPMs are shown and secondly it has a feature so you can see how far out the beats are. This is located above the tracks outlay and has a red vertical line in the center of it. When you move your jog wheel towards the same speed as the other track, you'll see it move. The aim is to have no yellow bar moving which means its beatmatched, this point is represented by the red line. I also find looping the track helps massively as it speeds the process up.
 
LOL video's on youtube 90% click the sync button and then advertise the video title as beat matching..

cheers for the advice guys, I'll keep at it!
 
just listen to the tracks, leave the at 0% pitch shift and see what is going faster, then adjust the one you won't have live until it fits.

this is why i prefer using serato with turntables, because it's the same as playing with vinyl; which is how i learnt to beatmatch.
 
on that controller you want to be using the pitch bend buttons really, its easier than trying to manipulate the jog wheel initially.

generally set your pitch fader at the same point as the deck youre mixing into, as they will usually be around the same tempo at 0 pitch, then press your start button at the beginning of the phrase, 8 beats to a bar, 8 bars to a phrase etc, dont try mixing in unless youre starting at the beginning of a phrase. Then just use the pitch bend buttons to keep it in time, either plus or minus, and gradually adjust the pitch fader when you get it in time and wait and see if it goes out and repeat until they are in sync.

You will find it easier at home if you dont put the headphone on completely over one ear and have the phones volume quite high, the snares pick out easily without all the other sounds confusing you from the original tracks tempo
and practice practice practice

you wont be doing it very fast for a while, it will take you a bit to be able to tell easily if your track coming in is faster or slower at first, so dont expect to become good at it overnight, but you will get to a point where you can get it in time within 8 bars with a lot of time beatmatching under your belt

and if youre using a dvs like you are (traktor) dont look at the tempos on screen as you beat match, you will adjust the tracks according to vision rather than audio, just close your eyes and do it, trust your ears
 
If you want to learn how to do it by ear, it's better to practice on a pair of turntables. That said, if you are going to go digital I really like ableton. Yes you need to prepare your tunes beforehand with a bit of warping which is dead easy but I really like the way it eshews the traditional turntable mimicking interface. It never works as well as a pair of turntables imo
 
It's not something you pick up instantly, but practice definitely makes perfect. I hadn't touched vinyl turntables for over a year, and it only took me 2 transitions to get back in to it.

Something I found easier (mainly due to how turntables work) was to have the next track that you will be bringing in faster. It's much easier to control the slowing down of a record slightly compared to speeding it up. This meant I could cue the record, and as soon as they start to go out of sync, touch the platter slightly to slow down the new track and resync them, then adjust the pitch down a tad. Keep doing this until I don't need to pitch down the new record any more and viola!

Alternatively, if you can be arsed and don't trust the sync button in software, just pitch shift all your tracks in Audacity/Sound Forge/etc so that they are the same BPM. :p
 
Memorise this!

NewBeatMatchingGuide.png
 
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