beginners

How to beatmatch by DJ Reborn

the dj rebron guide to that basic beat match

the easiest music to learn beatmatching with is some very minimal four/four house. or anything minimal.

(the more there is going on in the tune the harder it will be to hear what is goin' on when learning …. on the other hand there is a lot more cover-up with something intense like drum and bass which means you can get away with a lot more).

seek out some very minimal four/four type stuff to start off with.

put on the first record and pitch your deck down to around -2. turn it up to a reasonable volume on the monitors and just listen to the way the track is structured, generally the basic kick drum will be structured….

[1]-2-3-4-[2]-2-3-4-[3]-2-3-4-[4]-2-3-4-and-so-on [four beats to the bar = a four/four beat].

now put the second rekkid onto the other deck and set the headphone monitoring so that you can only hear rekkid two in the headphones.

the biggest mistake to make at this stage is to have the headphones too loud. always set the volume in the headphones quieter than the monitors so that it doesn't drown out the tune you're mixing into. the quieter the headphones the closer the beatmatch.

find the first beat of record two and 'scratch' the record back and forth over the first beat. set off the first tune and start to count [1]-2-3-4-[2]-2-3-4-[3]-2-3-4 ... etc etc scratch the first beat of record two forward on beat 1 of each bar and backwards on beat two of each bar. release record two on the first beat after you've counted to 8-2-3-4 [ie on 9 of [9]-2-3-4] you should be able to tell after only a little practise whether the tune you've just released is going faster or slower.

if you are unsure set the speed of tune two to +8 and follow the above steps. you will be able to hear that rekkid two [in your h/phones] is way to fast. rewind the rekkid back to beat one and now set the pitch to -8 and follow the same steps again. you will be able to hear that the tune in your headphones is way too slow. the correct speed must be somewhere in between these two speeds. now it's just a question of splitting the difference between the speeds and narrowing down the gap between too fast and too slow, using the pitch shifter until you've got a beat match. just keep taking the record back to the first beat when things get a bit blurry and start afresh. the closer you get to the correct speed the longer you should stand back and let the records play. there is always a temptation to adjust as soon as it sounds a bit out but just be patient and stand back and don't touch anything. if you leave it a bit longer it will be more obvious whether it's too fast or too slow.

this doesn't just happen overnight so it means practise practise practise practise practise practise practise practise practise practise practise practise practise practise practise practise practise practise practise practise practise practise practise practise phew!