Dj'ing Techniques FAQ

(If you've cocked up, and didn't want to be here, click HERE to get back to the FAQ menu page)

Calculating Bpm's

If I leave two records playing together for a long time, they always seem to go off a bit. I try to give a push or brake to record B, but I don't know which one to do. Do you have a technique for realising whether it's faster or slower?!?

I don't have separate equalisation for the two channels so when they are even the slightest out of sync I get a BOBOOM as opposed to a nice solid thumpin' BOOM. What's with this?

I'm often confused on when I've got a perfect match, i.e the beat may stay together and i think right, I've got it on and then it starts to drift

Also i often find myself correcting the tunes when I'm mixing and they aren't really that much out of line and it sounds worse in the end, any advice?

How do I take out the beat of a tune, leaving only the vocals, or the other way round?

What are different techniques and styles of Dj'ng? I know the different kinds of music: like house, trance, hip hop, jungle, but can you explain a little more on those.

When "In the Mix", what do you do with your headphones?

What are your views on beat counters?

Why do my needles keep jumping?

Is there something wrong with my turntables coz i will be beat matching and the beat match will be perfect, then when i back cue and put it into the final mix it will go out of sync. I also noticed it happened more with a particular song.

How to Count Bpm's of your tunes:-

The principle behind this is simply to count the bass drum hits for thirty seconds, then multiply by two to get the amount of hits in a minute - the " B eats P er M inute"

It's important, though, to make sure your calculations will be the same as that of a bpm counter that you might end up using one day. To accomplish this, simply start the stop watch one beat before you start counting. I.e. the beats are going
1,2,3,4, 1,2,3,4, 1,2,3,4, 1,2,3,4...........

Start the watch on a 4 - and count from the 1 - for thirty seconds, then double your result.

Chances are the beats won't stop dead on the 30 second mark - so try and work out the extra is under half a beat, half a beat, or over half a beat. Round up (or down) to the nearest half or whole. (I.e - you've counted 68 beats in 30 seconds, the 68th beat happened just before th watch hit 30seconds - it took about half a beat to reach the 30 second mark. So count it as 68.5 - making the final figure 137bpm - as opposed to 136 if you didn't take this into account)

So, back to the point about trying to keep the way you count the same as the way machines calculate Bpm's:- The thing is, when I first did it, I started counting from the point that I started the watch. This is fine if you're never gonna use a counter, but doing it this way adds on an extra 2 bpm. So I'd use a counter, find out that I'm running at 140 bpm, grab a record which I'd counted at 140, but in fact it was only 138. Ok, it's not the end of the world, but it left me confused - for a while.

Experience. I know it's a really annoying answer, but (especially if it's beats we're talking about, not breakdowns) you get to know the two different sounds that the cued beat makes if a) It's too fast, or b) it's too slow. Try cueing it up wrong on purpose, so you can judge for yourself. Of course, this only really works if your mixer has a headphone mix (which I'm sure it will - but I thought I'd better mention) If you can learn the two different sounds, it WILL make life easier on you.

If it's long breakdowns you're mixing through though, you just have to REALLY concentrate. Continually monitor in the headphones, switching between channels, checking the headphone mix. Look out for any kind of rhythm to the breakdown. Sometimes there'll be an underlying bass tune, or quiet hi-hat, which can really help you out.

Trust your decks too. Sometimes you just think "ah, it must be going out...." and adjust when it's not needed. Just concentrate - a lot!!

2) Coz you don't have EQ's, lower one of the channel faders. You shouldn't have the two channels up at the same level anyway, but take the incoming down a little more than normal. This will take some of the power out of the bass drum, and hopefully conquer the problem. The simply raise the level of the incoming while taking out the level of the outgoing slightly. I know what you're thinking "Doesn't the X-fader do that anyway?" Yes, to a point, but there will be a moment (when the X-fader is in the middle) that both channels will have their full power flowing through the mixer competing with each other - at the same time. And that sounds bloody awful!

The main thing, I think, is just concentration. If you let your mind wander, the beats will begin to wander too. Funny....

But, the actual physical way I do it is this:-

Record 1 is playing through the amp, record to is going to get cued up. If your mixer has a headphone mix (which if it doesn't, explains part of your problem!!) close it off so that all you can hear is the cued tune. Go through the beat matching (in this case using single eared monitoring (one headphone on, one off) process, till you think you have the tune in-line. Now mix in the playing tune THROUGH THE HEADPHONES!! Don't bring it in to the main mix to check if it's Ok. If you bring in the playing record very slightly, you will be able to hear the two tunes together. Move the knob/slider across a little further, then back again, all the time checking that the bass drums of both tunes occur at the same time.

There's a different sound for if the cued tune is too slow than the sound for if it's running too fast. I really recommend trying to learn what both of these sounds are, it will help you beat-match a lot quicker, and help you correct errors properly. (Yes, I know this was said above, but people may have skipped that one!) Now it's just a matter of really concentrating through the mix. A lot of people take off their headphones once the mix has started, and listen it, adjusting any errors, through the monitors. It's one way to do it, but I tend to leave my headphones on, changing the cued record to the outgoing one, once the mix favours the incoming.

You can't. I've had quite a lot of people write to me and ask about this one, most of whom will quote a time when they have seen this done.

But what they've heard isn't the original tune which has been Eq'd well, it's either an accapella version of the tune, which might be included as a mix on the record, or it could be a re-recording, either from the master tapes for personal use, or (the one I've done) got someone I knew with a similar voice to sing into a dat player, then burnt it onto CD. I know it's cheating, but it's a way round it.

The reason you can't EQ everything out is (mostly) this. If you take out any of the ranges, say the bass so you can lose the bass drum, you're also taking out the bass timbres of the vocals. If you take out the Hi end to lose the hi-hats, you're also taking out the hi end timbres of the vocals etc. etc. Even the most complicated of mixing tools won't do this will - at all. Yes, some expensive units can help you isolate a frequency, but you've still lost the timbre surrounding that frequency that makes a vocal come alive.

So simply, either look for an accapella or drum only track, or record it yourself.

When "In the Mix", what do you do with your headphones?

The way I do it is that when I'm setting up the beat-matching part, I'll listen to the incoming tune clean in the left ear, and have the right ear open to the monitor in the Dj booth.

Then, when I'm about to start the mix, I move the little headphone mix slider very slightly, so I can just hear the live tune as well as the incoming tune (though I stress the incoming tune is by far the dominant one, I only 'bleed' the live one in very slightly) If you wonder why I do this, it's to catch any slips in the timing before they're heard through the amps.

Then, when I start the mix, I go through three things. 1) I listen to it through the headphone and live, 2) I listen to the mix purely live (then switch between both styles, just to check the mix) and then once the incoming tune becomes dominant in the mix, I switch the cued signal in the headphones to that of the outgoing tune.

What are your views on beat counters?

Why can they help? What do they do? I hear you ask. Well.

All a beat counter does is measure the BPM's of a record for you - so you have a visual readout that tells you the record is currently running at (say) 135 beats per minute. Now, stick on your second tune, run that through the beat counter, and look at the readout. say it says something like 130Bpm, you then know you have to increase the pitch to match it. Then, when the figure hits 135Bpm, you know you've got the mix sorted.

Sounds like a great deal, huh? Well, there's two problems to using counters. The first is a technical one, the second a human nature one.

1) Most counters have a basic fundemental problem in that they only go to whole numbers (i.e. 135Bpm) But, the difference having that one decimal place can make (i.e. 135.6Bpm) can be massive. 0.6 of a beat in a minute may not sound like much, but if you're into some seriously long mixes (guilty) then this means that you're losing over half of a beat in one minute - which can make your mix sound awful. So - if you're looking at counters for precision reasons, try looking for one that goes to a decimal place. There's not many of them around, the Red Voyager is a good double counter that measures to the decimal point for each deck.

2) The other problem comes to reliance. Let's consider little Barney (not the dinosaur, figment of my imagination)

Barney has just bought decks. He tries to learn to beat-match for the first couple of weeks using just his ears (then found he should use his hands......sorry - bad joke). But, after not being the new Tall Paul after this fortnight, little Barney decides he can't do it, and instead of working at it, decides to get a beat-counter to help him out.

After a couple more weeks of looking at the counter as a reference to whether to speed up or slow down his tunes, Barney is becoming competant at beat-matching. He gets thrown up from time to time when the counter can't handle the beat patterns (counters don't like D+B much!) but, when the counter works, he can get the beats matched 80% of the time.

Bouyed by the massive improvement in his mixing over the past two weeks, Barney then spends the next 12 months practising, referring to the counter for each of his mixes, getting them to sound sweet and liquid. One morning he wakes up and finds a letter from a club he'd applied to work in, "come work for us, your demo was awesome". "Yippee" says Barney. (is this pissing you off yet? Or are you just reading this like a bed-time story)

So, Barney packs up his headphones and his records, and runs like the wind to the club, where he will be able to show the world JUST how good he is as a dj.

He unloads all his records, walks into the booth, and has a look around. A cold chill races down his back as he searches vainly for a beat counter. "Surely all clubs have a beat counter on the mixer" muses Barney. "That it is not so," a haunting, Alec Guiness style voice booms from the ceiling, "you'll find that in the small to mid sized clubs, more often than not they won't have a counter for you to use. Just use the farce young Dj(di)"

So, while wondering what his brother had put in his coffee to make him hear voices, young Barney approaches the ones and twos, starts to mix, and then feels like committing suicide! The mixes just aren't working. With no way to reference the beats of the two tunes, and having not learnt to mix without a counter, young Barney is completely lost when it comes to mixing with this set up.

"Why was I so intent on taking a short cut!!!" Barney screams.

"Because you took the easy way out, and turned to the Red Sounds side young Dj(di)."

Moral of the story? Well, if you have the discipline to know that you still have to learn how to beat match conventionally without a counter, then they can be of aid to the novice to expert Dj, but if you think you'll end up just reading the display for the rest of your life, give it a miss, you'll still learn how to mix after a time of practise, and you won't get thrown up like Barney.

1) Check that your anti-skate isn't way off, set it at 0, then see if that helps, set it full one way, then full the other way, see if either of them help.

2) Make sure that you're cueing the record back and forth in the curved direction of the record. If you push and pull in a horizontal, rather than a curve, this'll make the needle jump.

3) (I said two - oops) Don't be too heavy handed, have a light touch.

4) (I'm on a roll) How old are your needles? If they're really old, then that might be the cause.

5) If you're using Stanton 500's, they're prone to skipping becasue of the angle the needle comes down from the cart. I know a lot of people who'll bend the needle back so it's almost flat with the cart - but that's dangerous.

Any more info on this one, then please get in touch.

Is there something wrong with my decks? As after I beat-match, and wind back the record, the beat-matching isn't right. This is more pronounced on certain records.

1) You didn't acutually set the beats right in the first place (sorry, but that's always an option - though unlikely from what you say)
2) There's something iffy with your decks (who knows, the TT-200's are nice decks, though I've not heard what they're like in terms of reliability.
3) An actual drift in BPM through the two tunes you're using. This is 'probably' the most likely solution.

I've come across this a lot in the past. You set up the pitch-control for the beat-match - and properly might I add - but if you're doing it over the beginning to the tune you've only just mixed in - when you want to mix out it it - you're three minutes+ into the tune. (and depending on how much time you take to do the match, you might be a little way into the new tune too).

Either through a warped/badly pressed piece of vinyl (you said it happened more pronounced on a certain tune), or, perish the though, slightly tired motors on your decks - or, hell, just a slight increase in BPM that the artist intended - you come back to mix the thing, and it's just that little bit off - but enough to really mangle your mix.

I think that's probably the solution - or at least it's the way to address the problem.

So, how can you get round this? All I do, is I set up the original beat-match like normal, but when I'm about to do the mix, I'll quickly check (about 30 seconds before I want to mix) that everything's still lined up adjust if neccessary - and I'm off.

HOWEVER (this is the final piece of info).

If you've done this re-checking, you then back cue and let go, and the beats STILL start to slip - I'd either say 1) You've not taken long enough to set up your beat-matching, in which case, really concentrate - or 2) Your decks ARE a bit squiffy.

The only way to check this out for sure is a beat-counter. Get one that goes to a decimal point, and just to several tests. Remember it'll flit around a bit by about half a BPM, but you should get an indication of something going wrong after the back cue (ie, play the tune - it's at 136, if you back cue and let go - you'd still expect it to be at 136 - it it's way too slow now - I'd have a look at the decks).

Hope this helped.