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tips on beat matching?


styga
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^ one thing no one has mentioned so far that may really piss you off:

...the closer you are to getting it right the harder it is to tell which track is too fast or too slow... Especially if you're using two copies of same beat...

Are you using headphones in classic DJ style? i.e. one ear monitoring the tune you are trying to match, the other ear listening to the speaker that is playing the tune you are already playing? this way at least you have the option of singling out which way to nudge...

The reason bpm counters cannot be relied upon is because they only display integers/whole numbers. This means if one tune is 128.3 bpm and the other is 127.8 they will both display as 128. That's why you need to train your ear.

and giving up for the night is fine. No one is cracking a whip mate. When I had had enough beatmatching I would scratch shit out of stuff, even if it sounded rubbish. Or i'd go massacre some innocents on GTA.

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trust me mate, when you nail it it will be best feeling, then you will wonder how you found it so hard in the first place, once it all clicks its like having a mini epiphany just keep at it, and remember that you will get fatigued doing it mentally and aurally, so take a break, and have another go later on :)

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haha yeah im gunna give it another crack tomorrow since i dont have tafe, so im looking forward to a day of failing miserably haha. yeah like i got two of the same songs beat matched from what i thought it was and i was so happy hahaha but just trying to get two different songs matched is a big challenge

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for some reason this came easy to me once i learn one little trick, slow the song down that your cueing first then slowly speed it back up slowly, so you don't get confused, this way you will know which one your cueing in

and what helped me, was i put the master at about half volume in my ear (and put both cups on so you don't get confused with the speaker noise) and the cue at full volume, this also stops confusion on which kick is the cued one and which kick is the already playing one

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what is pitch bend?

i know i probably should know this and ive heard it a few times. but i remember reading about it and imagining a temporary change in pitch but never understood why you would need that.

it's the plus and minus buttons on CD players are pitch bend... sorta like nudging the platter. when you hold down the plus button it speeds the track up, but when you let go it goes back to the pitch you've set with the pitch control.

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^ i explain it to students as follows:

1) the pitch fader is like setting cruise control in a car. it will stay at whatever speed you set it.

2) nudging the platter or pressing a pitch bend button is a temporary increase or decrease in speed when needed, just like stepping on the brake or accelerator in your car - once you take your foot of the speed returns to where it was set by cruise control, or in this analogy the pitch fader.

To take the analogy a step further the idea of beatmatching is to get your car (which represents 4 beats of a bar) exactly alongside another car, driving at exactly the same speed so the bumper (or 1st beat of each bar) reaches the next white dash on the road at exactly the same time of the other car, and continues to do so until you stop it.

To do this you set your cruise control exactly the same speed as the other car then accelerate or brake until your bumpers are perfectly lined up. Of course in beatmatching you dont know the other cars speed so you actually brake and accelerate to keep up with the other car while altering your cruise control so you need to brake and accelerate less and less to keep in line.

If you extend the analogy even further and imagine a train pulling loads of carriages then each carraige represents a bar of 4 beats and you can start to explain phrase mixing. But this wont make much sense to many of you and i've still not managed to think of a way of explaining this theory with pictures.

+ rep to anyone who understands this nonsense and can correctly point out at which point the analogy falls apart. ;)

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Nice one dim i know the theory of pushing/ slowing the platter while moving the pitch, i just didnt know what "pitch bend" was. I havent used pioneer cdjs and i dont think the rmps ive used a couple of times had them. Or if it did i didnt know which button did it

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^doesnt sound like it helped that much then ey?

if two songs have more than about a 12 bpm difference i find the standard technics picth fader wont go far enough. what you using?

other idea: use two tunes you've heard mixed before. Pick one of your fav mixes from some other djs mix and get those two tunes and try with them. At least you'll know what you're listening for.

did anyone mention patient practise yet? you'll get it tho.

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i swear the two songs ive been practicing with are like impossible to beat match haha

ramirez resso - funky noise - original mix

miles - cotton club - club mix

could you have picked 2 harder songs?? lol

both have next to no kick in the beggining lol but this isn't impossible :) i managed it (ill upload for you :) )

man it wasn't easy, two very short songs and not alot of beats to match off...

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dude look on the first page,

benni benassi - satisfaction

desintaion calabaraia

yeah gandy, these two fit like gloves goof.

or put your hand up for detroits with destination calabria.

...be sure you get the full mix so you get the 16 bars or so of just drums as intro.

If it takes longer than that intro of just beat to do restart it from beat 1 again. This way you'll not run the risk of bass and other instruments confusing things plus you get loads of practice cueing and counting in.

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ok then:

1) have a track (tune 1) you know well playing.

2) cue the next track (tune 2) so it's going to start from a 1st beat, make sure this track has a long intro of just beats.

3)drop the pitch fader (on tune 2) real low so you can pretty much guarantee it is slower than tune 1.

4) count in tune 2 and start it on the first beat of a bar on tune 1 so you know the two first beats of the bar were simultaneous.

5) listen very carefully to that first bar of tune 2. was the first beat of the next bar before or after the first beat of the next bar on tune 1?

6) do not let tune 2 play longer than the one bar.

7) re cue tune 2 and try again. If you are sure the first beat of the second bar of tune 1 is coming before the 1st beat of the second bar of tune 2 then you know tune 2 is too slow.

8) speed it up a little.

9) repeat steps 4 - 7.

10) only play the first bar of tune 2 everytime but keep going trying really hard just to concentrate if that first beat of the second bar of tune 2 is before or after the first beat of the second bar on tune 1.

11)As the tunes get closer in speed you will not notice any problems after only 1 bar of playing and they will sound matched, but slight differences in speed will become clear after more repetitions of the bars. This means as you get closer you'll have to leave them playing together longer to have a chance to hear if they slip or not. At this point you are fine tuning and may be able to use nudge technique to get them to "sit" together.

12) If none of this helps maybe wait until i finally get round to recording and posting my own beatmatching tutorial vids and watch that.

I have not failed yet to teach beatmatching but this is the first time I've done it without being able to see what you are doing so this a learning curve for me too mate.

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