tanzmausi Posted May 12, 2012 Share Posted May 12, 2012 Ok so first admission, i´m only a bedroom dj at this stage. When I'm playing around, I cue both the song playing and the one I want to introduce, in my headphones. I rarely have the luxury of using my speakers because the house is really open, people can hear you sneeze from end of the house to the other So my question is, am I cheating by using headphone cue all the time? Is this a function on most mixers? Should I be listening to the song playing "to the crowd" only on the speakers...? i´ve tried it a few times and I must admit I found it much more difficult. Appreciate any feedback/opinions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaz Posted May 12, 2012 Share Posted May 12, 2012 im not sure what you meen dude? your meant to cue in your headphonesjust so we are clear, you have track A playing out, and you getting track B ready by Placing the cue at the start of the song or desired place in your headphones...you dont want that going threw your speaker or the crowd (if you were live) would hear a scratchy cueing noise (vinyl Mode) or a stuttering beat (CDJ mode) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch Posted May 12, 2012 Share Posted May 12, 2012 Jaz what i think she means is when he is beatmatching track b in her headphones, she also has track a playing in her headphones. @OP, I do it all the time, especially when your playing somewhere that has no monitors. Much easier to have both tracks in your headphones then try and judge all the feedback from the main speakers when there is no booth monitors Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaz Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 Oh Ok then yeh both in headphones Is good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eggssell Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 i think he is also a she. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 i think he is also a she.Realised this after I wrote it lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eggssell Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 i use both ears only to maybe fine tune the beatmatching but take the other off when in the mix as i dont have split channels on my mixers headphone output so want a clean sound of what im brining in Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SolDios Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 Yeh, I wouldn't concider it cheating. It's a basic mixer function that even the mdex has.Becides you wouldn't want the croud to hear you getting the next song in the right starting position/beat matching/etc... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattus123 Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 yea from the sounds of it, ur using the headphones to cue and beatmatch track B before you bring it in and fade out Track A. in which case, thats perfectly fine.. in fact thats what your meant to dou wanna sort out track B and get it all matched up to track A in your headphones, so that when you actually do the mix, it sounds smooth as to the crowd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonnyB Posted May 14, 2012 Share Posted May 14, 2012 Jaz what i think she means is when he is beatmatching track b in her headphoneslol make up your mind bro! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyman Posted May 14, 2012 Share Posted May 14, 2012 I use the headphones to fine tune my beatmatching, but as soon as I'm satisfied I usually take one ear off or rely soley on the monitors.By doing this, I have more control over the levels of the tracks playing. This can be difficult if you don't know your songs well, but 9/10 times it works a treat for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanzmausi Posted May 15, 2012 Author Share Posted May 15, 2012 So just to clarify, yes I'm listening to both tracks in my headphones.For example, when I can use the speakers, I would have track A playing through them "to the audience" , also have both tracks playing in my headphones, and then when I´m happy i´ve got track b ready to be introduced, I take my headphones off altogether and make any (hopefully minor) adjustments.I just had to think to myself, when I was out and recognized what the other dj´s were doing, why don´t I do that? I guess it´s a different ball game playing out and about. Hope I didn´t confuse anyone too much! Thanks for ill the replies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaz Posted May 15, 2012 Share Posted May 15, 2012 yep. thats what i do Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russell Posted May 15, 2012 Share Posted May 15, 2012 So just to clarify, yes I'm listening to both tracks in my headphones.For example, when I can use the speakers, I would have track A playing through them "to the audience" , also have both tracks playing in my headphones, and then when I´m happy i´ve got track b ready to be introduced, I take my headphones off altogether and make any (hopefully minor) adjustments.I just had to think to myself, when I was out and recognized what the other dj´s were doing, why don´t I do that? I guess it´s a different ball game playing out and about. Hope I didn´t confuse anyone too much! Thanks for ill the replies Generally you want to train your ears to listen to two things at the same time. It's fine getting your tunes matched in your headphones but you should be monitoring the incoming track to ensure it's not running out of time. That will be a lot harder if the only way you've learned to beatmatch is by playing both tracks in your headphones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaz Posted May 15, 2012 Share Posted May 15, 2012 splitting the headphones can also help, eg, playing track in right ear, cueing/mixing in track in left ear, very usefull when using vocals as the master track can often over power the vocals without a beat on the mixing in track Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russell Posted May 15, 2012 Share Posted May 15, 2012 ^^ thats assuming the mixer has the functionality to split the headphones of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaz Posted May 15, 2012 Share Posted May 15, 2012 yep Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SourceRaver Posted May 15, 2012 Share Posted May 15, 2012 Having the cued track in one ear and the live track in the other helps with beat matching. You train your brain to listen to the beat from both tracks in different ears and you can detect if one beat Is not aligned with the beat of the other track. With both tracks in both ears its more difficult to work out which beat happens first especially if they sound similar. You start to notice it badly when your on a treadmill and the person next to you is running at a slightly different pace! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GREMM1S Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 Funny how everyone uses different methods, i havn't tried splitting them but generally dont have issues with cueing two tracks in the cans.Out of interest does anyone leave their cans on throughout the mix and switch over the knob from cue to master?I dismissed this when i started out but playing in clubs and competitions where you have no booth monitor or youre behind the speakers in a little room, i think it can help quite a bit to leave the cans on, although not the best idea on a big system as you wont get an accurate representation of the music being pumped to the audience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russell Posted May 16, 2012 Share Posted May 16, 2012 Any club that doesn't have monitors aint worth shit... factWhen I'm mixing I use 1 cup over 1 ear with the cue'd track playing. When I bring it in I have said cup half on my ear so I can mostly hear the monitors. Good to hear a bit of the headphones when the levels are still low on the incoming track. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GREMM1S Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 yeah of course, have rarely found one without but plenty with useless ones.I generally flick the cans off once ive hit the next track in and happy with the matching, but especially for doing mixtapes i think headphones is better as majority of people will listen to them on headphones or pc speakers anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonnyB Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 the way i mix now is by incoming track in headphones, 1 ear cup off and then using the booth monitor to beat match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottie Posted May 17, 2012 Share Posted May 17, 2012 I prefer beatmatching in my headphones and then when everything's where I want it to be I just listen to speakers and work from there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GREMM1S Posted May 18, 2012 Share Posted May 18, 2012 Is good to have both on cue for abit to match levels as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonnyB Posted May 20, 2012 Share Posted May 20, 2012 Is good to have both on cue for abit to match levels as wellthis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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