starting to dj

[yek]

i hope a dj thread is appropriate on this message board

anyways i was wondering if learning to beat match with some kind of bpm counter would be a good idea, or maybe it is frowned upon.
i was thinking that might help me a bit, the mixers with them are generally cheap, actually i was thinking one where you tap to the beat, i had one on my yamaha rm1x
if yes what is a good hardware product that is cheap and won't necessarly do bpm for me but allow me to tap
thanks

[Sir Ruff]

yeah, a beat matcher would get you roughly in time, but even 1 bpm difference between songs can mean they are out of sync after a few seconds. Better just to get your hands (and brain!) dirty and learn the old fashioned way.

One pointer-try to touch the record/platter as little as possible when you are initially getting the song in sync. instead of slowing or speeding up using the record, use the pitch bend to make quick up down sweeps. That speeds things up dramatically, and keeps the torque even (especially noticable on cheaper decks).

[ramos]

if you buy a mixer with beat counters, cover them up with tape. they aren't always accurate anyway.

Start off buy mixing straight up 4/4, something like house or techno, with a kick drum on each beat.

Tap your feet to the beat, so you can pick up the best if you get confused.

practice practice practice until you pull your hair out, one day it will just come together and you'll realise how easy it is. talk to other dj's, go watch a few at a bar/club and most of all, have fun and listen to all types of music.

[RobotHeroes]

I've never owned a beat counter or a mixer with one. My first mixer, cheap gemini in the 90s, had a red light that would roughly blink to the beat on each channel. That got covered by tape or a sticker because it was off.

I know a guy with a Pioneer DJM-400, it has a tap tempo and a sampler built in, that he seems to like. Still you shouldn't totally rely on counters because you never know when you will show up somewhere and the mixer doesn't have one(unless you have a portable device with one I think they make them in keychains too). Also if you put a sticker inside the sleeves of your records with the bpm you won't need to count on the fly. Adjust the pitch and prepare for your mix. Training your ears will save you from trainwrecks too. After mixing long enough you can tell if things will start falling off and even when you hear others mix.

For years I only mixed by ear and never bothered to count bpm's. I already knew my style of music, what to mix with what, when to mix in/out by ear and by looking at the grooves. It wasn't till recent years that I started to look at bpm's for tracks which makes it a lot quicker to pitch right and mix. Knowing bpm's for tracks you own helps and knowing by ear will bail you out on the fly.

Roland DB30 Metronome/Beat CounterI would probably trust that over the one behringer makes. It's the only other one I could find running a search. I remember there being more beat counters available than behringer and roland/boss though.

[premieklovn]

I just bought some DJ-equipment. 2 basic Numark CD-players and a mixer (I think it's a package called Fusion 222). Probably cheap stuff but it gets the "learn-to-dj"-job done.

I find it much easier to match beats by using ears instead of the BPM-counter. First it seems like the counter can never decide what BPM I'm tapping. It goes from 122-153 and then from 153-135 when I'm actually tapping tightly a 130BPM 4x4.

[esqoner]

yooz yer eerz yeehawww

and as mentioned above, the speed sliders vs the fingers/platter/pin


i bet there are some youtube videos out there...

still wish i had my decks...meh.

[pflosi]

u can also think of what records would fit to what others, before u go doing a gig. u can choose some that have similar bpm (mostely, if u dj one style of music, u already have more or less same bpms), and in my opinion more important: u can choose those that fit harmonically.