Beat matching with long beat-less intros

C

Cynapse

New Member
Joined
Oct 10, 2013
Hi Guys,

When playing gigs I am finding it really hard to beatmatch when im using a song with a long intro and no stable beat ie most calyx & teebee songs, abyss VIP etc It is fine when you can plug your laptop in but when DJ'ing on cdj-1000's and the like I find it very difficult to get locked.

Does anybody have an tips as to how to do this?

Cheers!
 
with songs like this I don't start the song from the very beginning, I cue the song to the first stable beat I hear then match it from there
 
well one possibility would be to set cue points 16 bars from the drop or from the drop, beatmatch that and then just recue the thing.
Another possibility would be to add faint hihats to the intros before you burn the cds
another one is to abuse the 0.6% trick, which basically means that a 0.6% pitch is ~+1bpm at around 179bpm (not exactly, but it works more or less some fine tuning is needed). So if you've got a say 174bpm tune (most dancefloor stuff, a lot of ram releases) and you wanna mix in a 172bpm tune (most of neuro/techy stuff) with a long beatless intro you get the 174 one up to 3% and the 172 one up to 4.2%.

most people don't like to use the last one though, but can be helpful in such situations
 
cele said:
well one possibility would be to set cue points 16 bars from the drop or from the drop, beatmatch that and then just recue the thing.
Another possibility would be to add faint hihats to the intros before you burn the cds
another one is to abuse the 0.6% trick, which basically means that a 0.6% pitch is ~+1bpm at around 179bpm (not exactly, but it works more or less some fine tuning is needed). So if you've got a say 174bpm tune (most dancefloor stuff, a lot of ram releases) and you wanna mix in a 172bpm tune (most of neuro/techy stuff) with a long beatless intro you get the 174 one up to 3% and the 172 one up to 4.2%.

most people don't like to use the last one though, but can be helpful in such situations
Click to expand...

Don't know why but never thought to recue it just beatmatch it from where I can, will definitly have to give this a go
 
If I have traktor plugged into the CDJ's I just set a cue point 16 beats before the drop and thats fine however its more on CDJ's with no easy way of storing hot cues that it becomes difficult. I like the %'s idea but will take a while getting used to it...

How would you recue it after beat matching it? Think im being an idiot but cant get my head around how that would work?

The worst has got to be chords - biting point....nightmare to line up!
 
Cynapse said:
If I have traktor plugged into the CDJ's I just set a cue point 16 beats before the drop and thats fine however its more on CDJ's with no easy way of storing hot cues that it becomes difficult. I like the %'s idea but will take a while getting used to it...

How would you recue it after beat matching it? Think im being an idiot but cant get my head around how that would work?

The worst has got to be chords - biting point....nightmare to line up!
Click to expand...

Get the beats matched in so BPM is right and then re-load it so when you drop it again both tunes should be locked in
 
Cynapse said:
If I have traktor plugged into the CDJ's I just set a cue point 16 beats before the drop and thats fine however its more on CDJ's with no easy way of storing hot cues that it becomes difficult. I like the %'s idea but will take a while getting used to it...

How would you recue it after beat matching it? Think im being an idiot but cant get my head around how that would work?

The worst has got to be chords - biting point....nightmare to line up!
Click to expand...

I worked out that in modern Dnb each 16 is around 22seconds for the first, then 44 secs, then 1min 6secs, then 1min 28secs approx.

So fastforward to these times and where beat comes in, make a cue point, beat match, then hit the track back button to go back to the beginning and "recue".

HTH
 
Russla-DJ said:
I worked out that in modern Dnb each 16 is around 22seconds for the first, then 44 secs, then 1min 6secs, then 1min 28secs approx.

So fastforward to these times and where beat comes in, make a cue point, beat match, then hit the track back button to go back to the beginning and "recue".

HTH
Click to expand...

Thats a good tip...cheers man. Looking forward to going away and trying some of these. Russla your brixton mix was sick btw another star is a tune.

http://www.mixcloud.com/Marg123/
 
Has anybody ever thought of cutting the track using some sort of software at 16/32 bars before the drop and burning the newly cut tune onto a CD and using that?
 
Ive seen people burn cds at certain tempos but never to shorten the intro. Could be done but would be a pain.
 
Cynapse said:
Has anybody ever thought of cutting the track using some sort of software at 16/32 bars before the drop and burning the newly cut tune onto a CD and using that?
Click to expand...

Been doing that for years, had bare haters, was branded a cheater, but now everyone does it due to the increase in Serato/Traktor DJs
 
Cynapse said:
Has anybody ever thought of cutting the track using some sort of software at 16/32 bars before the drop and burning the newly cut tune onto a CD and using that?
Click to expand...

I've done this with a few 64 or +64 bar intro tunes, if you only have 2 decks long intros like that are really slowing your mixing speed down. Only been doing this for a few tunes though as I like my intros, but sometimes its neccessary

you could just save cue points at 16/32 bars before the tune drops on a usb stick and then plug that in but i'm too lazy for that
 
Russla-DJ said:
Been doing that for years, had bare haters, was branded a cheater, but now everyone does it due to the increase in Serato/Traktor DJs
Click to expand...

You were clearly cheating I hope you accept that you were wrong although obviously now you were right. Doesn't mean that you were right all along though because for a long time you were very very wrong. I hope you learnt your lesson.
 
Papa Jaro said:
You were clearly cheating I hope you accept that you were wrong although obviously now you were right. Doesn't mean that you were right all along though because for a long time you were very very wrong. I hope you learnt your lesson.
Click to expand...

:shit_happ
 
There's almost always something there to cue off. A lead or a chord change or a hat every 4 bars. I've gotten to the point now that I play so much minimal and half time that I have started to dislike tunes with straight beats in the intro. They usually just make for boring mixes IMO.

The most annoying tunes are the ones that have an extra bar or 2 before the drop, but the chord changes still happen in time. You can't start the tune 2 bars in because it won't be matched even if it drops in time. 2 examples of this are:
ASC - Reality Check (Method One Remix)
House of Black Lanterns - Me, You, Metropolis

I've heard Villem mix Me, You, Metropolis really nicely. I'm going to have to go back an listen to how he does it.
 
I've found skipping ahead to beats and getting it locked, then just cueing from the start, and depending on the speed and accuracy of your release you should be pretty much ok, tighten it up if necessary when you reach beats.

I realise that whole post is one big sexual innuendo. No poon intended.

And afeks right, almost always something to cue off
 
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