Beatmatching, is it a must?

[DJ Difficult]

If you don't want to learn those 4 basic skills of DJing (beatmatching, phrasematching, EQing & gains) you are a lazy wannabe dj who will suck. Period.

[DJ Rhodyn]

You gotta create emotion within the tempo. Slow and ambient means Sad or just calm for a build up. As someone mentioned above, Gaps are needed for the DJ to get the party going.

[Puregroove]

If you don't want to learn those 4 basic skills of DJing (beatmatching, phrasematching, EQing & gains) you are a lazy wannabe dj who will suck. Period.

Does this also apply to rock and roll djs for example, or rare groove, or dub reggae, etc. ?

[ImNoDJNo]

Does this also apply to rock and roll djs for example, or rare groove, or dub reggae, etc. ?

Maybe not so much the first, but definitely the last 3 are still relevant.

[KLH]

Yeah, guitar driven genres don't work well when beatmatched. There are usually too many harmonic clashes.

Unless it's a beat-driven genre, beat-matching doesn't make sense as there may not be a beat.

[DJ Difficult]

Of course all music don't have to be beatmatched but it's still a skill that you have to have.

[longmorris]

Imagine 9 floor building. Imagine, it is the new year evening and on the 9th floor, there is vip room, where hot girls are waiting for you so, you bought some of the very expensive beverages and you're so happy with all of this! ^^ suddenly, you realize that elevator won't working..i'm sure you'll use your holy legs function called "walking"and go up the stairs! Not trying beatmatching?? oops! elevator is broken and you won't meet any angels up there!

[manythings]

There are lots of different ways to transition from song to song, genre to genre. So in theory, no it is not a must. BUT, I believe that being a GOOD or BETTER DJ involves knowing how to beatmatch. It's just another weapon for you to use in your arsenal. Despite how easy people think "SYNC" is to use, you still have to know how to line up tracks on the 1 beat... Pressing sync is just going to adjust BPM, it won't create a good beatmatched transition. I've heard/seen terrible "DJs" try this (watching them from behind their laptop screen/equipment) and it is a disaster.

I do think beatmatching is important to being a good DJ, that's all.

[navydiver]

There are lots of different ways to transition from song to song, genre to genre. So in theory, no it is not a must. BUT, I believe that being a GOOD or BETTER DJ involves knowing how to beatmatch. It's just another weapon for you to use in your arsenal. Despite how easy people think "SYNC" is to use, you still have to know how to line up tracks on the 1 beat... Pressing sync is just going to adjust BPM, it won't create a good beatmatched transition. I've heard/seen terrible "DJs" try this (watching them from behind their laptop screen/equipment) and it is a disaster.

I do think beatmatching is important to being a good DJ, that's all.

I stand by my opinion that Beatmatching is only for DJs to assess other DJs and use as ammo to sling mud. It also depends on what type of DJ you are. Perhaps for club DJs it is more a real thing to Beatmatch. For most mobile DJs, the hard truth is most customers would not know a good transition from a bad one if it hit him/her in the face (unless that customer has a modicum of DJ experience). To each their own though as I know I shall be frowned upon horribly for thinking such impure DJ thoughts

Nobody has ever come up to me and said: Wow man, you really beat-matched the snot out of that last transition!

Conversely, nobody has ever said: Wow man, your beat-matching sucks!

Come to think about it, in all my years of DJ-ing I have yet to hear anyone mention anything regarding beat-matching to my face in person period. I only ever read about it in forums like this. Guess that is a fair indication of how important it really is for us bottom dwelling mobile DJ types

[dlove]

beatmatching house is easy. Try beatmatching different genres and tempos together, it's much more interesting.