I still have no idea how to beatmatch

Tomix

New member
Every video on YouTube either has a way more complicated controller than me or doesn't really make sense. I've got a Hercules Air DJ Controller.

Any tips?
 
Well that controller is garbage.

The easiest way is:
1) load the same track on both virtual decks
2) have the pitch slider at almost exactly the same position except deck 2 slightly higher (slower)
3) start the 2 decks playing simultaneously.
4) the tracks should start on beat at the very start but soon deck 2 will start to lag.
5) now move deck 2s pitch slider down (faster) - the tracks will,soon be matched again before deck 2 starts to be ahead.
6) keep moving the speed of deck 2 just above then below etc of deck 1 and listen so you know what a track sounds like when it is faster or slower.

Use the softwares bpm display to help confirm when the bpms are the same
 
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Learn to count time. Most dance music is in 4/4 time, if you can count bars and beats-you're off to a good start. The rest is simply keeping both tracks in time with each other and transitioning between tracks. You have to listen to both tracks to know when to slow down or speed up to maintain sync and not trainwreck.
 
Use sync mode.

Hahaha, no. Your controller has nothing to do with beatmatching to begin with.

Next up, the type of music you use will be a big helper. Start with some good ol generic house (even if you don't like it) music as it's almost all 4/4 and the kick which is easiest to hear is what is keeping time, and not the snare/clap like in hip hop.

So load a track into A, and then another on to B and somewhere in whatever software you are using it will more than likely say something like 128 BPM which means beats per minute. You want these two numbers to be the same, and this is accomplished by adjusting your pitch faders. After you have your two numbers the same, start track A. Every time you hear the kick (sounds like a kick drum), tap your foot. This is the tempo of the song, and generally won't change through the duration of the track. Even when the kick goes away, tap your foot to the same tempo to get used to it. Do this over and over and over again until you can do it in your head. After you nail that, and you can figure out the tempo, you're gonna need to start counting. 4/4 time signature means that there is 4 beats in each measure, and 4 measures in each bar (4beats/4measures). So count as you tap your foot, 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 etc. Eventually you'll need to count which bar your in, but that's called phrase matching and you can google that.

When you've got this all down, then you're almost ready. For your controller, I can assume you can make cue points on atleast one button. On both tracks your going to use, on the very first kick of the song that's going to mark the tempo, put in a cue point smack dab at the start of it (you can google a picture of proper cue point placement). Then get your song started on deck A. Now while deck A is playing, start track B and use your cue point button and push it every time you hear the beat of deck A. If you've done it right, when you let track B continue to play then congratulations! You've beatmatched!! After practicing using the cue button method and getting the basic concept, then you can play with the jogwheels and do all the fancy unnecessary stuff. If while you're playing the song they slowly track off beat, then you'll need to adjust one or the other with your pitch faders to slow or speed one up in very very small increments (or big depending on how badly it's screwed up).

I hope all this makes things a little more clear. It get's much funner and creative after this, but it's the back bone of mixing and until you learn the basic concept, you can't do much anything else. And you're not doing this in a club, so you don't need your fancy headphones to cue things in or anything like that. Just practice practice practice!
 
If you're not playing on a Pioneer CDJ setup, then do not beat match. The beat-matching skills you learn on this device will the retained, although it will not apply that well to actual CDJ beatmatching as the play button is a lot more responsive and is perfect for beatmatching. So if you're good at it on a Traktor S4 MK2 then the matching skills will not transfer over, as the traktor play buttons have a worlds difference in consistency. If you have sync available, use it. There is no reason not to, this is no longer an age where beatmatching is required, we can instead focus on more involved transitions, rather than getting transients to blend.
 
If you're not playing on a Pioneer CDJ setup, then do not beat match. The beat-matching skills you learn on this device will the retained, although it will not apply that well to actual CDJ beatmatching as the play button is a lot more responsive and is perfect for beatmatching. So if you're good at it on a Traktor S4 MK2 then the matching skills will not transfer over, as the traktor play buttons have a worlds difference in consistency. If you have sync available, use it. There is no reason not to, this is no longer an age where beatmatching is required, we can instead focus on more involved transitions, rather than getting transients to blend.

What a shambles. Do you know what youre even saying?
 
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