Beatmatching

Beat matching is the foundation of mixing. Beat matching is matching two songs' tempos and combining them together. Songs that have different tempos need to be matched before mixing them together. A complete mix is when you begin with one song, slowly bring in the next song, and slowly take out the first song. Fading the second song in and the first song out makes it seem as though the music never ends. By continuously repeating this procedure, you can keep the music going all night without a break between songs. The audience, therefore, never loses their enthusiasm.

The most important thing, when beat matching, is to learn your songs very well. Listen to and mix your songs continuously until you know when the music changes throughout each song. You will notice a pattern and start to understand a song's structure. Beat matching is hard to do, so try not to get frustrated. It may take a couple of months before you will have a perfect mix, but once you have mastered this technique, you will be able to do wonderful things with music.

BPM Calculation

It will be easier to mix two songs together if their tempos are nearly the same. The tempo is the rate or speed at which the song plays. A song's tempo is measured in Beats Per Minute (BPM). It is not necessary to know the BPM of a song to mix it, but it can be helpful.

Some DJs write the BPM on their records and CDs. Knowing the tempo helps you decide how much to move the pitch adjustment higher or lower while mixing. You can buy a beat counter that hooks up to your mixer. The beat counter will tell you the exact BPM of any song. Remember to set the pitch to "0" before you time the song, so you have the true tempo.

To calculate the BPM yourself, you need a stopwatch. The stopwatch should be accurate to one-hundredth of a second. Play the song. On the fourth beat of any bar, start the stopwatch. On the next beat, begin counting the beats of the song in your head. Stop the stopwatch when you get to 64 beats counted. You can also count to 32 beats for a good estimate, but counting 64 beats will be more accurate.

Beat Matching Basics

First, set the mixer's channel faders as low as possible. Next, turn the equipment on in this order: turntables and/or CD players, mixer, amplifier. Later, when you finish mixing, turn everything off in the opposite order of which you turned them on.

CAUTION: Do not unplug any of the cables from the mixer or amplifier while any of the equipment is still on. This can cause damage to your speakers.

Start on channel 1. Set the crossfader all the way to the left. Begin your first song at "0" pitch, so you have enough room to change the pitch around while you mix. Play your first record or CD to check the volume levels. Raise the song's volume, so the output just touches the first red light on the LED output display of the mixer.

Now, you must learn how to cue up a song. Cueing a record or CD is when you bring the song up to the beat where you want to mix it in. Cueing is done in the headphones. Set the headphone cueing dial to channel 2. Now you will hear the second song in the headphones. Play your second song in the headphones and cue up the first beat. After you find the first beat, hold it there so you know where the song begins.

Cueing Records: When you put the needle on the record, realize that you do not have to use the cueing lever. Put your fingers on the vinyl, but be very gentle. You do not have to press hard at all. Pull the record up to the first beat with your fingers and hold it there. When holding a record still, the platter underneath should still be moving. If it is not, apply less pressure.

Cueing CDs: Cue the first beat of the song using the search buttons. Pause the song you want to cue. When you get to the first beat, hit the cue button. This will save the position of the first beat. To check your cue point, hit play. To return to the cue point, hit pause and then cue.

Now it is time to match the beats of both songs. Count off the beats of channel 1 in your head.

For Records: You need to begin the second song on the first beat of any measure. With the second record cued, you now have to throw it in. Throwing is when you give the record a slight push to start it out. When the first record starts a new measure, throw the second record in on the first beat. Throwing a record takes some practice to get it just right.

For CDs: With the second song cued, hit play on the first beat of a new measure to start the song.

Now you must listen carefully to see if you need to speed up or slow down the second song's tempo to match the tempo of the first song. The whole key to this part of beat matching is being able to hear channel 1 in one ear and match the other song's tempo to it in the other ear. To do this, listen to the cued song in one ear of the headphones and listen to the song playing aloud with your other ear.

It might take awhile to learn when you need to move the pitch control up or down. The pitch or tempo adjustment is used to control the speed of the song. When you move the pitch control, move it only one number away from where it began. By moving it only one number away at a time, you can zero in on the correct pitch much faster. After you have moved the pitch control once, cue up the record or CD again. Repeat the beat matching procedure until both songs have the same tempos.

When you think the songs are beat matched, check again one last time. Let the songs mix together for eight measures or so to make sure the pitch is as close as it can be. There will be many times when you think both songs are matched and when you mix them, they are still slightly off beat.

Once both songs' tempos are matched, cue the second song one last time. Be sure the volume is not too high when bringing the mix in. If the volume is too loud, it will drowned out the first song and will cause it to lose rhythm. Now start the song on a new measure just like before. If everything still sounds good in the headphones, start to slide the crossfader into the middle slowly.

When you slide the crossfader into the middle, both songs will play out loud simultaneously. After the songs have played together for a couple of measures, start to slide the crossfader over to channel 2. Now, you will hear channel 2 only. This completes your first mix. The trick is to make the beats fit perfectly together so that you cannot tell the first song even ended.
During the mix, if the two songs sound like they are getting off beat, you have to make corrections. If you do not make the right corrections, the mix can come apart completely.

For Records: You will either have to push or pull the record you hear in the headphones to keep it in time with the other song. If the song your mixing in is too fast, pull the record. If it is lagging, give the record a slight push. After you have corrected the mix, move the pitch adjustment accordingly.

You have to get a feel for how much pressure to use to keep the records together. To push a record, grab the record on the label with one finger and slightly tug the record forward. To pull a record, gently rub your finger along side of the turntable platter to drag the record.

For CDs: Use the pitch bend to push or pull a song on a CD player. To push a song, press the forward pitch bend button. To pull a song, press the backward pitch bend button. Hold the pitch bend button momentarily to change the pitch. When you take your finger off the button, the song returns to the set tempo.

If the mix is getting off track, turn the bass level down. This gives you some time to make corrections, without removing the entire song. When you're back on track, turn the bass back up. Keep listening to both songs throughout the whole mix. This will be tough at first because you will not be comfortable with beat matching. Some mixers have a feature where you can listen to both songs in the headphones at the same time. This is useful because you can mix the two songs in the headphones to hear what it sounds like before you play it out loud.

If you want to speed up a song while it is playing to the crowd, speed it up in parts. Move the pitch control up a little every four or eight beats. Try not to slow down a song while it is playing out loud because it makes the song lose rhythm.

The basic concept of mixing must be learned, before all the tricks like scratching can be accomplished. You will notice that the amount of time it takes to beat match two songs will decrease as you PRACTICE. Practice beat matching until your mixes are very close. Mixing will become second nature to you. You can always improve your mixing. When you are comfortable beat matching, do not just mix songs together continuously. There is much more you can do.