Hey my fellow earthlings
I just bought me an American Audio Versadeck today and I'm finding manual beat matching abit of a challenge. I was so dependent on syncing in VDJ that the transfer of what I've learnt to this controller/media player is tricky most of the time.
Any advice is welcome on how to beat match properly, all I'm trying is to listen to the tempos and the timing at which the next song comes in
One love peoples!
i think there is a guide in the beginner section.
EDIT:
aaah not entirely true but a pretty long thread that might be worth reading up on
http://www.djforums.com/forums/showt...t=beatmatching
Last edited by Era 7; 05-12-2012 at 02:15 PM.
Originally Posted by The Blackest
the unit should display some sort of bpm, try to base off of that first, after that it just takes practice feeling if the new song your mixing in is either faster or slower than the song currently being played
those bpm counters on the displays throws me out abit, i just rely on what i'm hearing and try to mix it in from there, other then that i know i don't really know
I'm still a noob, never played at a club or any parties but really wanna make this dj'ing happen
This guy and his YouTube videos were quite helpful for me. What helps most is to fully understand what is that you're doing when you practice. The analogy of two cars driving next to each other is a perfect way to put it. Use the BPM counters as a starting point, but trust your ears for fine tuning.
Here's how it's done: -
1. Track 1 is already playing out of the speakers.
2. Select track 2, set the gain, then cue it up in your headphones.
3. Drop track 2 in, but only in your headphones. I like to use the 1 ear cup method, so you'd be hearing track 1 playing out of your monitors and track 2 in one ear cup of the headphones.
4. Now comes the tricky bit. Unless the tracks are the exact same BPM (unlikely!), track 2 will either be too slow or too fast. What I usually do is use one hand on the record (or platter if you're using digital gear) to try and keep the track in time - so I'm either giving it a little push or putting pressure on it with my finger to slow it down - and then with the other hand I'm adjusting the pitch slider accordingly. You can do it solely with the pitch slider, but you'll figure out a method that works well for you. It really doesn't matter how you do it, as long as you can eventually do it accurately and quite quickly.
5. If you mess up step 4, just cue up track 2 in your headphones again and start over. Also, if you think you've got the pitch about right, cue up the track and try dropping it in just in your headphones again. When you're just learning, you might have to repeat this a few times and each time you do it, you'll get closer and closer to getting the pitch right.
6. Once the pitch is as close as you can get it, you can drop track 2 into the mix for real (i.e. out of the speakers), but that's not the end of it. You would then pay attention to the tracks to make sure they're not drifting apart due to the pitch being slightly out. If they do start to drift apart, you would make the necessary adjustment to bring them back in line. Again, this takes practice as you may find that you adjust the wrong track, or adjust a track the wrong way (e.g. you speed it up when you should be slowing it down) which makes things even worse, but it all comes together with experience.
So yeah, just practice that and don't worry about how long it takes, or that you're trainwrecking. Over time you'll get better and better at it until it becomes like second nature. Also, the videos above are very helpful and basically demonstrate what I've just said (so I kinda wasted my time typing this really, lol).
@sigma lol it was worth reading thanks for the input and everyone else
I've only got my Versadeck today and I've already began trying those steps you mentioned already, there are possibly other methods maybe but from looking at those BPM counters, its not reliable from my short experience in my view
Wackest advice ever. Fuck that shit. Use your ears.
DJM-850 | Technics 1210 M5G x 2 | CDJ-900 x 2 | RCF 312A MKIII x 2 - Soundcloud
1-v-1 Battle Record: 1-0 / 1-v-1-v-1 Battle Record: 0-1
A) The BPM alone is not good enough to get things in sync.
B) Use your ears.
DJM-850 | Technics 1210 M5G x 2 | CDJ-900 x 2 | RCF 312A MKIII x 2 - Soundcloud
1-v-1 Battle Record: 1-0 / 1-v-1-v-1 Battle Record: 0-1
Lolwut dude I would so rep you again for that. I'd only trust a BPM display on a CDJ if it was a song that's been analyzed by RekordBox and has a quantized tempo grid.
PS: As for beatmatching: Just use your ears. If you REALLY need to cheat that bad you can just divide Track B's BPM by Track A's BPM. ie: 128/125=1.024... So you increase the pitch fader of the 125 bpm by 2.4%. Again, you should always use your ears, but this trick can be used when you know positively know the BPM of both songs.
Last edited by Atomisk; 05-13-2012 at 04:48 AM.
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