Learning DJ Questions

Andy Taylor, post: 8135 wrote: Also how did you learn to beat match…

Funnily enough, from a video done by the bloke from DJing for Dummies. 😀

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and is having tracktor telling you bpm of a song cheating and something i should learn on my own?

It’s not cheating at all. Lots of traditional DJs note down the BPM of their songs on the sleeves or labels of their records. Unless you’re using sync you’ll still have to beatmatch even if you do know the BPMs.

You can slowly and imperceptibly (over the course of a few minutes) bump up the BPM of the currently playing song to match the incoming tune (and you can also lower the bmp of the incoming song… meeting somewhere in the middle). As long as the difference in BPM isn’t too much (I don’t go over 6%) you just use pitch lock and do your blend.

Definitely use the BPM readout on Traktor—that’s what it’s there for! Use it!

And remember, you don’t HAVE to do seamless beatmatching all night long. I really recommend Phil’s course (which will get you up to speed MUCH faster than the DJing for Dummies book), which demonstrates a number of transitions. You can simply fade a song into the next (with the right phrasing), cut in on the beat, do a spin-back, or even let a song fade out completely before starting the next. Focus on getting the right tracks in the right order and not just matching songs because they have similar BPMs.

Phil offers an online course in DJing. Take a look into it. The videos are quite nice.

Link Phil?

another key detection program that is very good, been using a LOT lately is beatunes…

Hi – the course is being prepared for its public launch at the moment, and will go on sale again 1 November. If you’re on our mailing list you’ll hear about it; if not go and sign up: http://www.digitaldjtips.com/join.

I think Key Lock will help you here, it lets you change the pitch significantly and keeps the key (how the tune sounds) the same. For example to go from a 120bpm to a 130bpm. the 1st track is playing, bring up the tempo to 125 slowly over tune or at like a breakdown/drop/ build up. then have the second tune at 125bpm then beat match it. the tunes are then in the mix together.

Michael M. Hughes, post: 8312 wrote: Keylock is a great feature. But don’t push it too far—over 6% or so it can really start to affect the quality of the sound.

It depends on the gear and the soundquality of the musicfile.
On my Denon S3700 with a AIFF/WAW file I can pitch a lot more than 6% before it sounds bad.
That goes for 320 MP3s as well…. In about 90%-95% pitch it start sounding really bad.