I've chopped this page into two (and a half) parts. The first is Basic Mixing , for the complete beginner, then further on, is Matching beats , again for the novice, but it may help to see the process I go through when matching beats, to see if it's any different than the way you do it. The half is where I've included a small section on mixing with CD's. The reason it's small is because it's the bare minimum needed to mix on Cd. (oh yeah, and it's really all I do on CD's. Scratching on CD's? My arse you can!) Click HERE to get it.

Of course, not all of you have a Graham to copy, I think the best thing to do is find on of these now prolific Mix CD's that are getting released every day that is suited to the style you want to play, listen to that, get some of the tunes, and try to re-make it yourself. By having a set that you know can mix well together, you won't get into the problem in the beginning of tunes that just aren't compatible with each other. You'll learn more about tune placement that about beat-matching by copying someone, but you still have to beat-match to do it!

I know a lot of them are done on computer nowadays, but the principle is just the same.)

Anyway, onto the basic beat-matching part (finally):-

The most common way, and most simple, is described below.

Firstly, get two copies of one record. It's a good idea to use an instrumental and one that has a strong bass drum intro. I used Robert Miles, Children when I checked this out, which doesn't really apply intro wise, but it was the only tune I had two copies of.

I'm left handed, so I tend to always start my mixes from the left-hand side. Therefore, the left deck will be deck A and right deck will be deck B. Leave the pitch control alone, centered, a green light (Or similar) will go on when it is at 0. Start deck A and let it run. You're not going to have to worry about deck A until it runs out (deck B should be running by then).

At this point it helps to know about musical structure, bars and such. If you are a big follower of music, you'll already have an idea of the structure of a tune, and should know when all the changes are going to occur in the specific tunes your using.

Anyway,

Through winding the record back or forward (use your finger to pull or push the record round the plate), find the introductory opening bass drum. Once you've found it, push and pull the record across the needle, as though trying to scratch, so you're comfortable with where it is on the record (It's also advisable to do this to check if it is a worn record, which the needle can suddenly jump out of the groove, making your night a bit annoying.) Click HERE to hear a Real Audio sample of this.

Once you're comfortable with moving the record, position the intro so it is just behind the needle (So that when you let go the intro starts immediately.) Most people have the deck running while they do this, but I've seen a few who don't like it moving (weirdo's).

Can I stress AGAIN here that the only time you press the STOP/START button when setting up the mix is if you're happy with where you've left the needle on the tune, and want to leave it at that point without having to find it again. You leave it there (having pressed stop) walk away, light a cigarette, swig your drink or wipe the palms of your hands on your combats, then come back to the deck, press STOP/START to get the deck going again while holding the record itself stopped, make sure the needle is still in the right place again, and you're off.

Basically what I'm saying is that you don't find the part you want to start the tune from, stop the deck motor, then press start when you want to start the tune in the mix - it's very difficult to start the tune in time this way. What you do is when you want to start the tune in the mix, you hold the record still with your finger, while the motor is running and the turntable is turning under the slip mat - then when you want to start the tune, you just let go - and because the deck is running underneath the record, it 'should' start up instantly to the speed the deck is running at.

You should know the structure of the tunes you're using, you'll know when things change, when a bar ends etc. etc. Wait until one of the bars ends, and release deck B on the first beat of the next bar. A few things might have happened.

1) You got nervous, twitched, and sent the needle out of the groove (Don't worry, start again)
2) You let it go too fast - oops! See below.
3) You didn't let go in time - oops! See below.
4) You dropped it in perfectly - Hey, you're a natural - do it again smart ass!!

Some will advise that it's nice to do a small scratch with the tune before releasing it - a kind of rhythmic thing which gets you into the feel of the tune and makes the release timing a lot more accurate. Click HERE for a Real Audio example of this (in stereo with one deck on each side).

Correcting a record that is out of sync is easy. There are two ways of doing it. It all depends on the situation.

If I've dropped the record in incorrectly, I will either place my finger on the side of the deck (where all the 'bumpy' bits are)and apply pressure, slowing it down. Or I'll help the record to go faster by placing my finger on the label of the record and giving it a little push. There is another way though, I know a lot of people who will grab the center spindle on the deck, and either really grip it to slow down, or spin it round to speed up - your choice on how to do it.

If the record has gone out of time halfway through the mix, I still tend to do this, but some people swear by 'riding' the pitch control, but then all the work you did cueing up the record in the first place is virtually useless (even if it was wrong in the first place - doh!) It may also help, if you find you are always behind when dropping in a tune, to give it a little push when you start it (called THROWING) - sometimes, it's the added oomf that the deck needs to get it up to full speed (Happens more when using 45rpm tunes).

So, you've now learnt how to drop the tune in correctly, and it is running at the same time as deck A. Make sure the channel level on deck B is lower than A and slowly bring the crossfader towards the middle. This is the acid test. Unless you have a fader/rotator on the mixer, which helps you mix inside the headphones, you will not know until now how successful your attempts at matching the beats were. Hopefully, both tunes are running together perfectly, no maintenance is required because both are locked in sync (If however they aren't, just slow B down or speed it up as described above). Once the fader is in the middle, increase the level of B while moving the crossfader all the way to the right. With any luck, you should have successfully mixed between the two tunes, and the control of the levels means that there were no distortions or clashing of Bass drums and that the final level (volume) did not change much from the original.

So for the rest of the day, just keep mixing between A + B then B - A then A - B and so on. Remember that to get a nice flow to the mixes you need to match the beats placement in the bars:-

If you try (in this case) counting in 8's, then look at mixing the two decks like this:-

A - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

B - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

is what you are looking for,

A - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

B - 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6

Is undesirable - to say the least. Some records might work out of time, some people do it if they're in a rush, but frankly it mostly sounds pish!!

So there you have it. The bare minimum required when it comes to beat mixing. This is what everyone should strive to do when they first start. It's hard to concentrate on this for too long, you'll get pissed off with the tracks you're using, get bored and want to get into some heavy mixing, but believe me, without being able to do this well, it's going to take a long long time until you can mix like a pro.

Keep doing this until they're matched. I recommend letting them both run together for a while, for even though they sound in sync for a couple of seconds, after twenty, they can be badly out of sync! This does depend on how much time you have until you need to mix, but it does help. Sometimes, these adjustments are as fine as just tapping the pitch controller with your finger, so than it moves almost a millimeter. Of course, some records were actually recorded with a human error on them, knocking tunes slightly out of sync for no apparent reason. Work out what tunes do this, and then, leaving the pitch control alone, slow it down, or speed it up with your finger, as described above.

The BPM250 by Gemini can help matters by having BPM counters for the two main channels built in, with an LED display to show when tunes aren't matched.

Finally in this section, be careful when you are adjusting tracks while mixing (I.e. while both are audible.) Though it's normally better to adjust the tune that is about to come in, it's not always advisable. Take for instance a tune with piano hooks running through it. If you speed it up, it sounds bloody awful, suddenly goes out of tune, for half a second, then back into tune as the extra speed wears off. Or tunes with low melodic bassy intros, if you try to run that at the same time as a bass beat, slowing down the bass melody to keep it in time with the beat will make it go all wonky, out of tune. This is why we all practice, so that we can learn what tune needs what kind of special attention.

Try to always keep a tape in your machine, recording your practice sessions. Not only does it help you improve, or put you in your place if you think you're better than you are, but mixes that you throw together by accident end up working far better than you first thought, and you'll end up using some of them the rest of your life, an event which wouldn't occur if you didn't tape your practice sessions. It's sometimes better than practicing in front of your friends too, they'll either be too polite and tell you you're great, or know nothing about what you're trying to do, not get it, and tell you you're great, both things you don't need when you're a beginner.