What's more important in beatmatching?

[DJ Maxed]

I would like to see everyone's opinion. Should you line up the beats and then slow down the bpm? Or vice-versa?

[DJ Elroy]

Why not do both? I always cued up the first beat on the incoming and dropped it to the first in the new measure and fine-tuned it from there. Sometimes I had to re-cue and do it again, but usually I was able to catch it up and was fine.

But whatever, get your beats on line first, re-cue from where you want to drop then throw it in. They'll both need to be on for a transition to sound smooth.

[DougMore]

Depends on how quickly I need to make the transition. If I have the time, beat match and then phrase match.


If I'm down to the last minute, I'm making pitch adjustments as I go. But I'll have my phrase lined up (hopefully)

[Sigma]

The correct answer is the first one, and before you do either of those things you should set the gain.

When you are initialy beatmatching the tracks, it makes no difference at all if they are properly phrase matched. You're just doing it in your headphones to get both tracks at the same speed (or as close as you can). Once you've done that, you would re-cue the song you're bringing in next, then bring it in at the correct time and that's where phrase matching comes in. Once the track has been brought into the mix, you would then listen for any drifts and make adjustments where necessary.

The only time you would ever do it the other way round is if you had literally no time before you need to drop the track in, but then to be able to do that you need to be able to beatmatch fast and accurately and if you can do that, you should rarely - if ever - be pushed for time.

[ben mills]

I beatmatch within a loop, so once I cue it up and throw on the one, I never have to recue and it stays phase matched.

[AYoo]

??? i believe they're equally important??? but beyond that i think song selection and programming are up there as well. in fact they should all be tied into a bundle. ha!

[l0ckd0wn]

The correct answer is the first one, and before you do either of those things you should set the gain.

This. Assuming everything has to be done manually, the gain should be matched before anything else is done.

After gain, matching the actual beats is next in priority. Even if you miss the point you want to drop the track in, you can still pick another later phrase and have everything sound exceptional. If you are still trying to match the tracks after they've been brought in, everyone is going to hear your nudges and track manipulations.

I beatmatch within a loop, so once I cue it up and throw on the one, I never have to recue and it stays phase matched.

This is very one dimensional mixing though if you are only mixing within the constrains of the loop. Not dogging you, just stating a fact.

??? i believe they're equally important??? but beyond that i think song selection and programming are up there as well. in fact they should all be tied into a bundle. ha!

No, they really should not be compared in this sense. Beat vs Phrase matching may be "equally important" after both are very firmly within reach or a persons skill, but without having both tracks matched on beat, all other creative elements of mixing are tarnished. Going back to what Sigma said as well, if the two or more tracks gain are not properly matched, it very much detracts from anything you are trying to do musically.

Along the same lines, phrase matching can be done with basic awareness of the style and genre you are mixing, and being able to count to 8, 16 or 32 is all that is really needed.

Gain and then beat matching, then move on to getting creative and artistic with the actual mixing. Deliberately mixing different tempos for short periods or short segues is another matter entirely and implies you already know how to both beat and phrase match, at least IMO.

[Sigma]

Here's why I think you should do it the way I mentioned - and I'm not saying you absolutely can't do it another way - but here's some further explanation anyway: -

1. Gains first. The reason you would do this is because you use a "busy" part of the song to set the gain, which isn't necessarily the beginning of the track, or the beginning of your in point for the transition. Get this out of the way first.

2. Beatmatching second. The reason you would do this is because you might want to mix in a song from its beginning. If you wanted to do that and you did phrase matching first, you would be dropping the track into a live mix (i.e. so the crowd hears it) before it's beatmatched and I don't see why you would ever do this out of choice unless you were seriously pushed for time. I can drop a track into a mix and quickly beatmatch it, but it doesn't sound as clean as if I beatmatch it first, plus it's more of a risk.

If your in point for a mix isn't the beginning of the song, you could phrase match first, beatmatch as it approaches the in point, then bring it into the live mix, but what if you make a mistake and it's not beatmatched by the time you hit the in point? You're giving yourself 1 chance to get it right and every DJ will make mistakes sometimes.

Also, if you're doing the phrase matching first, that means that you're potentially standing there waiting for the right time to drop the track in - you could have got the beatmatching done in that time!

3. Phrase matching last. If you have the gain and beatmatching sorted, it's just a case of dropping the track in at the right time - you've already done the ground work.

This all ignores EQs of course, but in almost all cases the above is a more effective use of your time that produces better results, as there is less risk.

Regarding using loops for beatmatching, it's not a bad way to do it, but if your loops aren't 100% bang on then it may not be as accurate as not using them. Unless you're using vinyl only, re-cueing is only a case of pushing a button as long as you can be bothered to set up cue points. Even if you can't, it's really no hassle to re-cue and you'll have plenty of time to do it in this order.

[RikkiGTR]

Beat matching first.
You can get away with a mix that isn't perfectly phrase-matched, but if it isn't perfectly (or as close as perfectly) beat-matched, it'll sound like a train wreck.
Nothing sounds worse than "ba-doom ba-doom ba-doom..."

[Andrew B]

1. Gains first.

2. Beatmatching second.

3. Phrase matching last.

That's pretty much it. Welcome to DJing! EQ as necessary.