Help with beatmatching?

MVP

New member
I need some help beatmatching and transitioning into my other songs. Do u guys have any advice or tips to help me out.
 
Study the mixtapes from DJs you love. Notice all the little details. Are they matching on the kick drum, or the snare? Slam switch, or crossfade. Maybe they'll EQ it in. Just study, study, study. If you can find a DVD of DJs just mixing it will help a lot. Maybe Product Placement or Brainfreeze Breaks by Shadow/CutChemist? I know those two gave me a lot of new ideas.
 
word i'm still learnin too what I do though is, if the next song im playing doesnt start off with a kick is, just eq it for instance if it starts of a guitar riff i like R. Kelly's ROCKSTAR is I gradually fade out the initiall song on the channel 1 and turn up the volume on channel 2 slowly so the song Im mixing in song with out bass works somewhat seamlessly although sometimes it doesnt work that way...you just have to know yor records!!! beatmatchin is essential though something that you must learn and Know how to do!!!
 
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thanoblepimp said:
word i'm still learnin too what I do though is, if the next song im playing doesnt start off with a kick is, just eq it for instance if it starts of a guitar riff i like R. Kelly's ROCKSTAR is I gradually fade out the initiall song on the channel 1 and turn up the volume on channel 2 slowly so the song Im mixing in song with out bass works somewhat seamlessly although sometimes it doesnt work that way...you just have to know yor records!!! beatmatchin is essential though something that you must learn and Know how to do!!!

What? im confused now
 
Word!!! what you do is when your about mix in your next song depending on what the intro is like if its just and instrument like a guitar on R Kelly's Rockstar you could just equ it to the point where you don't have any bass and just gradually turn up the volume of Rockstar or kut it up what I me an by turnin it up is like you turn it up so you can still hear the other song to but the guitar licks are on top of the other song fading out... Where from homes maybe we could teach each other I'm in PA...
 
hey i think i get what ur saying. Like when ur mixing it in, u keep the mid sec. low on the original track and on the track ur bring in u put the mid. track high. And u bring it in slowly and then bring the low and high.
btw im in LA right now if u want to hit me up
 
word!!! thats it thats somewhat of a easy way of Beatmatching alot dj's dont like that they think its cheatin but the traditional way is to match your kicks and snares which is sometimes hella hard to do... Just keep practicin like me there are also some records that come with the bpms on them like thas compilation joints like Fillin the Gap so thats another way too... But I reside in PA and go to school here fulltime and have gig so I dont have as much time as I would like to practice but I do though when I can ...I mixed for a lil bit last nite and it was dope>>> I mixed Kanye's "can't tell me nuthin" is about 80 bpm'swith "Good Life" which is 85 bpm's>>> TI's "Big things Poppin" 84-85 bpms>>> Becks "Loser" 85 bpms >>>took the tempo up a lil with House of Pains "Insane in the Membrane" which is like 100 and sumthin bpms, but like all Dj's say, after a while you get to know bpms by ear... just keep practicin... homez and you will get it!!! Also check out the dvd "Scratch" its gives some tips too...



"Life iz as Life iz Lived"
 
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i think watching what they do is pretty good too..get up to the stage and just study what they are doing...i learnt alot that way.. and listening to mixtapes..
 
if you want to get the basic idea of beatmatching.Get two copies of the same record(instrumental preferably)and practice throwing in the same beat so you can get used to keeping it on time with each other.then you can practice mixing just instrumentals(you won't have to worry about trainwrecking the vocal tracks).Its what i would recommend
 
roro said:
i think watching what they do is pretty good too..get up to the stage and just study what they are doing...i learnt alot that way.. and listening to mixtapes..

hey, would other DJ's be ok with this. Theyre not gonna let a random guy just watch what hes doing, right.
 
Adjusting the Tempo can screw up the note of the beat.....

all those are pretty good tips to start with and I myself use somewhat of those procedures to mix my tracks. But now I got another question but i don't think there's gonna be a clear cut answer (kind of juss looking for a feedback or some tips). Let's say Deck 1 has a BPM of 100 and Deck 2 has a BPM of 108, I know you can change the tempo of the 2 decks to make the BPMs match, but when you mess around with the tempo the note of the beat becomes off. So even if you got 2 tracks running at the same BPM they might still sound weird when you're trying to cross-fade because one side of the track is not even on a note. Now my question is........are there any tricks or strategies out there that can help me with actually adjusting the tempo to a note?? I know this is the part where people say "juss keep practicing and listen to the beats". But if you have any other suggestions bring em' on...
 
you know i've been experimenting trying to makes mixes on the computer in soundforge (cuz i found out how to chop and screw something and i figured i'd give the mixes a try in my spare time) ne ways i never thought of eqing something in i was just crossfading. I'm a give that a try.
 
as many people have said... practice... it took me HOURS with the same two tracks to figure out how to beat match...

years to perfect... now i can do it with my eyes closed (or in a dark @ss club lol) there is no short cut... however...

Here are two things you might want to try -

----Get doubles of a song (two of the exact same track) play one and then beat match the other track with it... then speed one track up (with the pitch, and repeat) this should help you get the feel for what it should sound like (when the track is perfectly matched you'll hear a flanger sound)

----Try House -
Hiphop is actually really hard to start learning (beatmatch wise) pick up some house tracks and match those (the beat hits a little more consistently which makes it easier) once you get it down... switch back to hiphop.

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cliffnotes at the bottom

To answer your other question about pitch and octive- this also comes with time, as a rule you never really want to mix songs that are too far apart in BPM because (as you have discovered) it just doesn't sound natural.

Word of advice dont start mixing songs by "BPM" because the BPM is not always accurate, some songs that are really fast will be read really slow 140 bpm read as 70 bpm or viceversa, if your using a BPM machine, or it's part of the program your using if that goes out, then you will be screwed... it's nice to use as a reference but dont become dependent on the BPM.

there is software or turntables that will change the tempo and pitch so you wont get that chipmunk or screwed sound... however it's expensive and your much better off mixing songs that are closer in BPM.

You'll learn what works for you, however when i'm in the club i'll speed something up a lot faster than i'll slow it down. i.e. if a song is 95 BPM and the other is 102 i'll speed up the 95 rather than slowing down...

going down lower then about -3 is going to be noticable and up about +4/5 the same. so you want songs to be within that range, again different songs work better with one another.

----cliff----
listen to other dj's that you like, see what they mix, go home and try and do what they do... once you get good enough then start doing things on your own. the best advice is to practice and dont give up... no one is good when they first start.
if you can find a dj that will teach you.
 
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i was practicing a lot today and i actually think i was getting my transitions between my songs better. I did the same song trick u talked about.

going down lower then about -3 is going to be noticable and up about +4/5 the same. so you want songs to be within that range, again different songs work better with one another.

That was some good advice, made since when i was djing.
 
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