Why Beatmatching is Important

Sure. In addition, learn your tracks so such BPM changes are not surprises.

Sometimes I jam with a buddy of mine. We both have an S4 each, hooked up to a mixer that is connect to his monitors. It’s when we are switching between us I find beatmatching most challenging (and fun). That’s when I really appreciate the skill and art of beatmatching. Traktor has so many features to assist beatmatching. You don’t need to use Sync when you have digital BPM display and you can see if you’re ahead or behind. And then push or pull the jog to line tracks up. You really don’t need your ears (in many cases) 🙂 Great post Luky

I use sync when I’m mixing house or electro. It is right most of the time and allows to mix more than two song and play around with the effects for smoother transitions.

On all style, and specially “man-drummed” songs, I beatmatch per ear, and forget about the effects. Just trying to keep them in time and count my 16 measures correctly for a nice melody transition 🙂

Indian Cosmic, post: 30823, member: 2667 wrote: Anyone who calls himself a dj should know how to beat match

Man, am i tired of trying to explain all over again why i dismiss such narrow-minded statements as yours, so i’ll just quote my post from yesterday in a differend thread. Your snobbish comment might even have a point if the world only consisted of beat-driven dance music. But sorry, the world outside of my own four walls is a little bigger than that. Read and learn:

Groschi, post: 30745, member: 3845 wrote: (…) i’m always baffled by how much more importance you edm-guys tend to award to beatmatching and how little is talked about a much more important issue, the one that DJing, regardless of the genres you’re spinning, is truly about. Of course you’ve already understood my point: It’s all about the music itself.

Beatmatching is only one of many tools that helps you to program and present your music more effectively and creatively. It’s pretty essential in some genres and ridiculously unimportant or even contraproductive and inappropriate for others.
I can only agree with Frank Broughton and Bill Brewster when they say in their handbook on DJing that beatmatching is a rather boring and dumb (albeit difficult and skillful) procedure to go through and a rather uninteresting topic to talk about, just as if they want to get it out of the way and get to the more fun parts.
And you can be sure: there are many of HipHop-DJs looking down on the EDM-folk just because you don’t scratch like crazy all the time, which is just as stupid as a position.

I always read those post as if some of you make a black-and-white distinction between those who do (beatmatch) and those who don’t. The beatmatching DJ is an anmbassador of the true craft, an honorable fighter for exquisite taste and for the good of the scene. The non-beatmatching “so-called“ DJ is a complete fraud with no passion whatsoever for what he does, and who only wants to rip off people for his worthless services at wedding receptions and other boring events.

But the world is not that black and white. Although i really don’t like the music played on such occasions, the typical wedding DJ has incredible abilities when it comes to animating and entertaining a crowd. They have an exceptional knowledge on all genres of music that ever gained wide popularity and thus could appeal to certain parts of the audience. And they have a great feel for their crowd, their moods and their needs. Because of these skills, 99% of all poeple there won’t give a cr*p about if they can beatmatch or not.

Now let’s take a look at underground culture ok? My point is that it’s a lot bigger than many of you think.
There are venues and events where they play mainly alternative & indie stuff, northern soul, rare grooves, walls of experimental white noise, obscure old garage rock 7”s or even shellac records.
Thing is, the overwhelming majority of these DJs don’t beatmach, but still the audience is smart enough to tell a guy who bought a couple of northen soul compilations and thinks he can pull it off now apart from someone who was breathing these sounds all of his life.
And also the indie crowds tend to be pretty sophisticated and demanding. They can smell from a distance of some kilometres if that guy’s music is his life or if he’s just replicating the billboard alternative charts.

So please, stop worrying so much about beatmatching, guys. People will notice if you’ve got what it takes (and that may or may not include beatmatching) in your particular genre of music anyway. And there’s no need to be afraid of those who don’t, because they won’t take away any of your precious status.
(…)

Terry_42, post: 30837, member: 1843 wrote: Beatmatching is a boring and skill thing to learn Groschi I agree, but it is a basic tool.
In any genre you can come to the situation where you need it. Last wedding I did I had the wedding walz going on and they folks loved so much walzing around, that I wanted to extend it. So I had to manually beatmatch the 3/4 of the next walz into it to blend it together and even pick a harmonically matching next walz.
I did not use beatmatching before or after that on this wedding, but I was glad I could do it at that time.

It is the same today as a carpenter does no longer need to manually fit the kitchen table to the legs of the table, he has CNC gear to do it for him. But he still needs to learn it. It is a basic skill he needs.

Also we do not talk about something hugely complex. I see it with many students, that beatmatching is something that you explain and within a week even the worst anti-talent can do it. It is just that many DJs do not want to put a weeks effort in learning a basic skill.

To compare this to scratching is totally wrong. Scratching is a performance art and has nothing to do with basic DJ skills. Easily distinguished by the fact: Scratching can get you laid and beatmatching not so much…
Compare it to a guitar player: Playing chords is a basic thing, but actually not needed if you play lead guitar (you play riffs right). However playing chords is a basic skill and you can ask any lead guitar player that they can do it…

Yes in todays world you can get away in many things without learning the basics, but it is a thing that can haunt you sometimes…

I have to disagree strongly. If i’d see any application for beatmatching in my particular niche (which is Indie Rock, Garage, Oldschool Punk &-Hardcore etc.), i’d already have taken the time to learn it. Sure there are some rare cases where i actually could pull that of, but i woudn’t like it personally. Every time i hear someone beatmatch underground rock styles it sounds kinda wrong to me, even if it’s in the remotely danceable realm or on the borderline between indie and dance music. In a rather dance-centric set i could see that, but with the more rock-centered selection i’m spinning, i’ve never been in the situation where i thought “Man, if only i knew how to beatmatch this transition would be so much better”. This kind of music isn’t so much about transitions as each song is designed to work on its own. All i’m supposed to do is to avoid any uncomfortable silence between them.
Apart from that, the tempos are all over the map and i would feel severely limited in my programming if i had to think too hard about playing songs in a compatible BPM range. To make things even more BM-incompatible, most of the songs start and end apruptly and their song structure works best if it’s left alone.
IndieRock/Punk is definitely not in the realm of beatmatching. If beatmatching is part of creative expression, then the decision not to do it is just as valid. I prefer to use my spare time for discovering new and old obscure music, as this is what truly sets you ahead of the game in indie-land.

Lukynumba7, post: 30867, member: 1744 wrote: Like Terry_42 said before, its not really essential as much with sync but everyone should still know how to do it. Even if you use software with sync, software screws up. Case in point, my Traktor grid points got all jumbled up causing sync to be useless. Technology isn’t exactly 100% fool-proof otherwise IT guys would be out of a job right about now. However, it really comes down to what you’re playing and how you mix personally.

If you play lots of house tracks with 128 bpms and intros and outros, you’d probably want to learn how to beatmatch in the case that software messes up or you have to eventually play without software (vinyl or CDJ’s). But if you play music where the tempos are all over the map and just cut from song to song anyway, its really not essential.

Also, part of the reason (my belief) beatmatching even exists is to seamlessly connect two songs (or more) without losing a beat for the people who are dancing to your music. To be honest, if you were dancing and all of the sudden you weren’t going the same speed as the music, you’d feel quite awkward. Its like if you were driving 30 mph and the speed limit suddenly changed and you didn’t notice. All the cars around you are going faster and you are going slower.

I get what you’re saying, but that’s really not my problem here. This forum is pretty much populated by EDM-DJs and i totally get your point for this range of styles. But set foot into several rock-/indie-venues and you’ll discover: no one uses beatmatching there. And it’s also not about using the sync button either, which just does exactly the same semi-automatically. We simply have no use for both, because this music is not made for it and if you try, it will sound really bad; it doesn’t suit the flow of this music at all. That’s why most indie-djs rather prefer a faster paced and less smooth style based on quick drops and fades. The same thing also applies to dozens of other styles outside the EDM-Range.
I really don’t wanna downplay your skills and your abilities to beatmatch. I do get that it’s an essential skill in the EDM-game. I’d just wish you guys would look a bit beyond your own cultural horizon before you dismiss DJs in other genres, where things tend to work a bit differently, and where techniquies essential in one genre not necessarily have to apply to others.

I heard this amazing Beats in Space mix with all 45 singles in one hour, classic funk and R&B. No beat matching, but it was one of the best mixes I’ve heard in four months. It’s the contents, stupid :-).

No problem at all with your statements. I understand what you’re talking about. I know that different styles of DJing require different sets of skills and it’s only natural that you’re concerned about it. It was another user’s comment that inspired a major facepalm on my end.