Tips for learning to beatmatch vinyl

[free spirit]

take 2 records, and attempt to have both playing at the same time, in time for as long as possible. Once you make it to the end of the track without fucking up then you can beat match.

ps it is maths, 1234,2234,3234,4234,5234,6234,7234,8234,1234 etc

Always mix in on the 1 at the start of the 8 bar cycle (which 99% of dances music follows, even d&b, breaks etc)

Learn to scratch the first beat to hold it so that you can drop it directly on the 1, and do practice runs in your headphones in advance to properly check it is in time.

Then learn how to recover it when it starts going out, learn to instantly recognise which deck needs what doing to it, and what touch it needs to sort it out. Fuck the pitch fader only thing IMO, as you have to remember exactly where it needs to return to, rather than just being able to nudge it up slightly, and give the record a slight nudge.

also brush fluff off the needle at every change of record, and give every record a quick clean before putting it on.

also, could you please post on my mates facebook page where he regularly bangs on about how electronic djing is no less skillful than actually djing using decks.

 

[ska invita]

I used to use the term 'jigsaw mixing' when playing tunes that had very very specific mix points, i.e. the mix would fail or be lame if you were a phrase out. Getting two tracks to break or drop together or one break to top out just as a different track dropped was sometimes head-scrathingly difficult but very worthy when it worked. I used to spend hours searching for perfect mixes and them jigsaw them all together.

reminds me of this Jigsaw 4 track EP where all the tracks were built to mix into each other (thats what i thought it was about anyway)

 

[stuff_it]

Get really good tunes, blend the starts together.

*shrug*

 

[sim667]

take 2 records, and attempt to have both playing at the same time, in time for as long as possible. Once you make it to the end of the track without fucking up then you can beat match.

ps it is maths, 1234,2234,3234,4234,5234,6234,7234,8234,1234 etc

Always mix in on the 1 at the start of the 8 bar cycle (which 99% of dances music follows, even d&b, breaks etc)

Learn to scratch the first beat to hold it so that you can drop it directly on the 1, and do practice runs in your headphones in advance to properly check it is in time.

Then learn how to recover it when it starts going out, learn to instantly recognise which deck needs what doing to it, and what touch it needs to sort it out. Fuck the pitch fader only thing IMO, as you have to remember exactly where it needs to return to, rather than just being able to nudge it up slightly, and give the record a slight nudge.

also brush fluff off the needle at every change of record, and give every record a quick clean before putting it on.

also, could you please post on my mates facebook page where he regularly bangs on about how electronic djing is no less skillful than actually djing using decks.

I totally understand the counting principal, my struggle is literally just judging which record is fast and which is slower....

My needles have arrived...... It says something about setting the weight so it balances, but I can't seem to get it to do that.

I'm going to ask my housemate to show me

 

[ska invita]

I totally understand the counting principal, my struggle is literally just judging which record is fast and which is slower....

My needles have arrived...... It says something about setting the weight so it balances, but I can't seem to get it to do that.

I'm going to ask my housemate to show me

best way to set needle is set weight so the tone arm floats in mid air then add aroudn 2-3grams to that

to set anti skating get a record wit ha blank side (no grooves) and adjust the setting so that the arm neither slides forward or back. if you dont have a blank record jsut stick it in the middle

theres videos on youtube on this

 

[keybored]

Nice... but faaaaaar beyond beatmatching

 

[sim667]

I can't get it to float in mid air though..... the cartridge is always heavy

 

[sim667]

Oh yeah free spirit what group is this on on facebook?

Maybe I should do a mix on digital and then try and do the same mix on vinyl and post it up there

 

[tbtommyb]

I made a mix yesterday that was more or less beatmatched but I mixed in and out in all the wrong places. I did it again today and my mixes were better timed but my beatmatching was shit .

i've noticed that if i'm a bit sleepy i just can't do it properly.

 

[chemn]

I can't get it to float in mid air though..... the cartridge is always heavy

Even with the counterweight at the very end of the tone arm?

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I can't get it to float in mid air though..... the cartridge is always heavy

Is the weight on the right way round? I.e. is it backwards?

Post a photo!

 

[free spirit]

I totally understand the counting principal, my struggle is literally just judging which record is fast and which is slower....

My needles have arrived...... It says something about setting the weight so it balances, but I can't seem to get it to do that.

I'm going to ask my housemate to show me

nudge the record slightly you think is wrong, and be ready to nudge it twice as far back the other way if you've guessed wrong, then adjust the pitch accordingly.

You'll soon sus it out, and it'll teach you how to rescue it if it's fucking up.

You should be able to tell within 1 beat if it's better or worse than before, then make the second nudge to get it back in time if you've gone the wrong way.

 

[sim667]

Even with the counterweight at the very end of the tone arm?

Is the weight on the right way round? I.e. is it backwards?

Post a photo!

Its as I bought it...... they were being used before I bought them

I can't post a photo today, but will tomorrow

 

[chemn]

Its as I bought it...... they were being used before I bought them

I can't post a photo today, but will tomorrow

You will need to adjust the counterweight and anti skate in the way ska invita describes... Unless the previous owners have glued the weights in position or lost the original weights!

 

[sim667]

No its all there.

Im probably just being an idiot.

 

[ska invita]

No its all there.

Im probably just being an idiot.

 

[lunatrick]

The best way to learn is to buy two copies of a record you really REALLY like (as you will be listening to them over and over) and learn how to mix them together.

so just start the first one, and drop the second one after maybe 32 bars. play with the eq, drop the bass on one replace with two etc etc. in every combination.

This is a fool proof way to learn to mix.

do this every day for a few weeks, then once comfortable start introducing new tunes. recording your self all the time also really helps as well, as if you step back and just listen it's really obvious what works and what doesn't..

 

[sim667]

So as far as setting my needles up, I thought I had it sorted, and we were playing on them on saturday, but not actually mixing, just doing a selection.

Anyway I pulled one record back to find the start and the needle just flew off the edge of the record.... the heads I got had 2g weights on them which I took off when I couldn't work out how to set them off, but will putting them back on stop that skate. The weight at the end of the arm and the anti skate is set as how it recomended in the pamphlet.

Also my mate said one of them was only outputting in mono...... is there an easy way of checking that as he does tend to be a bit dopey at times and he set it all up as I was cooking a lot of hungover people a fry up.

 

[danski]

Also my mate said one of them was only outputting in mono...... is there an easy way of checking that as he does tend to be a bit dopey at times and he set it all up as I was cooking a lot of hungover people a fry up.

Yeah, it will only be coming out of one speaker if that's the case, providing your speakers/amp are set up to play stereo

 

[tbtommyb]

Also my mate said one of them was only outputting in mono...... is there an easy way of checking that as he does tend to be a bit dopey at times and he set it all up as I was cooking a lot of hungover people a fry up.

Does your computer have an input? I was trying to record some tracks with Audacity and noticed on the waveform thingies that it was only recording properly in one channel.

I gave the needle a wiggle and that seemed to work (and probably fucked it long term).

 

[sim667]

Does your computer have an input? I was trying to record some tracks with Audacity and noticed on the waveform thingies that it was only recording properly in one channel.

I gave the needle a wiggle and that seemed to work (and probably fucked it long term).

It doesn't annoyingly. The guy I mix with does though.

 

[sim667]

So my freind has lent me some of his drum and bass.... nero and that ilk, which is good.

I've got 6 vinyl in total, and I think ive worked out a good process for me.

1. Straight to the middle of the tune, tap out the bpm so I know if its ridiculously out of time, so I can get the speed in the right place.

2. Jump back to the beginning, find the start of the drums and go from there. This working for me with the tunes with the more standard drums, if I get to something hectic, I get totally thrown (like a technical itch tune he's lent me)..... I guess I'll get over this with time, I was exactly the same when I started using traktor, even with the sync if it had a funny beat in it or something.

I actually really like using vinyl, it slows my whole process of mixing down (but at the moment thats to the point I some times run out of tune) and makes me think about it more, but the actual mixes themselves are a lot simpler than I can do otherwise..... but again, practice I guess. I reckon I could get it on CDJ's really quickly now. I've start manually trying to do it on my traktor now just to get my ear used to it, the patented sim667 book over the laptop screen technique.

 

[lunatrick]

to be fair D&B is one of the easiest genres to mix, because they all follow the same same pattern and the bpm is pretty similar (hard house too). You'll get the odd tunes which is a pain (no amount of practicing will help) but generally you can lock on and get that fader in the middle.

 

[Moronik]

I actually really like using vinyl,

Keep it up mate! It will be hard, and you will feel like giving it up. But keep at it. Eventually something will just 'unlock' in your mind and it will suddenly flow much easier. Practice every day even if only for a few mins

 

[stuff_it]

The Mr seems convinced he can teach me to beatmatch. Now just to afford some replacement records and decks... I've only ever been "Dj Last-man-standing" or "Dj still-out-on-Tuesday", but since most events now finish some time during the actual weekend I suppose I ought to learn.

Glad to hear DnB is easy to mix though - wasn't relishing having to listen to yet more techno or house to learn.

 

[ddraig]

it's not that bloody easy!

 

[sim667]

Yeah it's not that easy. I can mix tunes on vinyl now but I'm no where near a set. I need to speed up how fast I get it all in time.

 

[ManchesterBeth]

1. Get some really monotonous techno like this so you can learn how to cut with it and apply fx.


2. Wack the pitch right down. Don't do the reverse because you'll get confused as you'll be hearing the record you're mixing out of lagging behind the hyper-speeded up one you're trying to mix into. Also, you can hear more nuance in a slowed down record, which makes the pitch adjust way easier.

3. Adjust without touching the platter, use your ears. If you hear a clap on evry beat then you're ever so slightly off and you need to pingpong it.

4. If you're using digital cue on beat 3 or 4 of the preceding bar because there's generally always latency.

5. Don't use the crossfader, control the individual channel volumes.

6. Throw your records in and out, Mills style. You'll sound like shit but if you're going to make a mistake/are making a mistake you can zip to the next record real quick.


This is how I taught myself on university CD decks in the space of a couple of weeks. I'm probably really rusty now, though, mind. So don't take this advice as gospel.

 

[tbtommyb]

2. Wack the pitch right down. Don't do the reverse because you'll get confused as you'll be hearing the record you're mixing out of lagging behind the hyper-speeded up one you're trying to mix into. Also, you can hear more nuance in a slowed down record, which makes the pitch adjust way easier.

people give this advice a lot but i don't see how it helps (for me at least). yes you beat match but then both records end up a half bar or a few beats out of phase with each other so there's double the confusion. whereas if you start at nearly the right speed you know they're going to be roughly in phase and there's only the speed to think about. but obviously if it works for you...