Confused about manual beatmatching. Nudging and all that stuff.

adit, post: 21072, member: 2099 wrote: Had a longer practice session today and it all make more sense now! Finally able to beatmatch tracks with discernable beats (thump thump thump) in a minute. After only 2 days, that’s not too bad, huh? Problem comes with tracks with subtle or complex beats. They still frustrate me. There’s no “guiding thump” if you know what I mean. Any particular tips or tricks to conquer this?

That is pretty awesome. Very nice. I know people that take at least a month to get the basic beatmatch down.

Mixing to beats that are not “off the bat” compatible, is actually not very easy and every DJ has other tricks he uses.
The one I described above, with EQing out is one things.
You can also experiment with putting the second track in a loop, either at a breakdown spot – so you have no or less beat to worry about – or at a buildup that you can blend in.
You can also make a punch in mix, like many hip hop DJs like to do.
Then you can also experiment with effects like Echo/Delay and Reverb to mix up the beat and even double or half time the beat buildup for a blend.
These are just a few options, there are many more and all of the above can be combined also (I use EQing and Reverb/Delay a lot).
Take a straight Techno Song and maybe a Hip Hop that are roughly the same BPM from the start and try to experiment to blend over from the one style to the other in your practice sessions. This will soon lead to success.

adit, post: 20991, member: 2099 wrote: 1. I just move the slider with feeling to beatmatch. So it’s a trial and error process. Sometimes I don’t know which track is going faster so I just slide it up and down and hope for the best. So, is there any good tips of how to do this? I’ve browsed some articles and Youtube vids but they all seem vague. I want something concrete.

It feels a lot like trial and error, but the more you do it, the easier it gets. Eventually you just get instinctual on it all.

That’s the best way I can say it. I started by trying to just get 32 beats held, then 64, 128, etc…now I go for 1-2 minutes and can get things ready to match in 10 seconds or less.

The nudging and such is mostly about adjustment. So you have them both at 130 BPM, and you know it’s right, but things sound off…you nudge to get the kick drums on the right spots.

adit, post: 20991, member: 2099 wrote: 2. OK, let’s say I’m finally able to make 2 tracks rather in sync. When I’m at this stage, I usually cheat and look at the monitor to do some beatgridding with the jog wheel (the BPM of the two tracks are still different but only a bit, is this okay?). My question is, how do you do this without looking at the beatgrid? How should I know whether to nudge the wheel clockwise or counter-clockwise, or if I have to nudge it at all?

Why is it cheating? You have the tools, use them.

I only say not to fully trust the visuals, as they will lie sometimes. However, I don’t see an issue with using the visuals. Don’t let “purists” and old farts tell you how to “keep it real”. Their thinking is obsolete…and mind you I came from that time.

adit, post: 20991, member: 2099 wrote: 3. When monitoring a track with headphones, do I have to start it at a beginning of a phrase the master track, or can I just start randomly?

I would phrase match when you’re figuring it out. You might decide this tune doesn’t work for you and thus look for another.

adit, post: 21042, member: 2099 wrote: OK, so this occured to me. I was mixing a song in, and then I cheat and look at the monitor. The bpm matched, the beat is gridded, but alas the mix gallops. What’s the cause of this and how to fix it?

The BPM was probably incorrectly detected. Traktor isn’t perfect all the time at this.

Remember that you could be mixng those 2 tunes together for over a minute (several minutes for some genres) so they have to stay in phase that whole time. You can nudge the jogwheels to assist but as a rule the less you have to touch them the better.

adit, post: 21072, member: 2099 wrote: Had a longer practice session today and it all make more sense now! Finally able to beatmatch tracks with discernable beats (thump thump thump) in a minute. After only 2 days, that’s not too bad, huh? Problem comes with tracks with subtle or complex beats. They still frustrate me. There’s no “guiding thump” if you know what I mean. Any particular tips or tricks to conquer this?

this is where we get the chance to show how clever we can be 🙂 by finding “a way” to transition. One thing I like is manually pushing or rewinding the “going out” track for a measure, and adjusting the spin speed to match the new tracks tempo. You wouldn’t want to do it all day, but for 4 or 8 it’s doable.