Hi guys, when you guys beat match, do you use your ear with listening or use with auto bpm counter at mixer. I tried with just auto bpm match but did not work, i'd to with my ear listening.. please advice...

The beatcounter on the DJM mixers is only there to serve as a guide. Use your ears, they're much more accurate!
Stu

do you have both ears?
are they both attached to your head?

if answer is yes to both questions, use your ears.
auto BPM counters will not get you far. it is there as supplemental reference.

Yup, as said before....always use you're ears!! they're the things that will be with you no matter where you play...DJM's..CDJ's may not though!

What would you do then?

RobHimself

Oh...by the way...a good set of headphones really does help!

I use Sennheiser HD25's....but the "best headphones" argument could go on forever...

Go to your local store and use a few different sets...see which suit you best!

Rob Himself

Yep, as somebody mention the BPM counter is only a guide. And very helpful indeed.

As for beatmixing : use your ears.

Remember modern dance music as we know it, is Mathematical or boils down to a science.

Beatmixing takes lots of practice. I have been doing for about ten years and still mess up sometimes.

DJM600 is a great analogue mixer. I love the sound.

The Pioneer HDJ1000 is the best "cans"
I have used. The Sony's are nice and Sennheissers HD25 do not impress me.

My mixing has improved exponentially because of the HDJ1000's.

They are comfortable ... I wear glasses except when I am sleep or in taking a bath(so I know what I am talkling about).

They are really loud ... you can go deaf.

And I do not work for Pioneer or sponsored by them.

Your transitions will be much tighter if you mix with your headphones don't rely on monitors.

Im curious.

how do you use the head phones?

both right and left on and taking them off as needed or only one ear?

and do you listen to both tracks playing or split cue to beatmatch?

I grew up DJing without monitors so I'm an "in phones" kinda guy but there are so many ppl who can't do it, they need a monitor in order to mix!

I have been beat mixing for over 20 years. I started out using head phones that only had one can,and I used monitors to mix with. About 1 year ago I started using head phones with 2 cans and using the mixer to split the 2 inputs and I find this is much better to mix with. I still from time to time slid my phones off my ears as I,m in to my mix.

I use both BPM counters on my 1000s to get the beat fairly close fairly fast. You still have to use your ears to get it on beat though.
They both might be set at 128bpm's but one might be 128.2 and the other might be 128.9. The counters don't read that accurate and it won't take long for the beat to go off track.

Dutch.

Theres noway you could use the counters to lock a mix, well with the stuff i play anyway. Well it would lock, but drift. Use the counters to get you roughly in the right range, then match in the headphones. Oh and stay clear of VBR Mp3's files! they 'move'!!

use your ears. beat counters are never completely accurate and if you begin to rely on them you will have difficulties down the road

pratice every day m last use your ears....

yeah i finally got it, Now i don't use my headphones to beat match. I use my ear and eye.. i love it, it's so annoying wearing my headphones at all time.. Now I am free..

DJ Breezee, can you expand on your comment about not using any headphones when beat mixing?

Use mostly headphones to beat-match, then listen to my monitors to know exactly what sound the crowd feels, the sound differs a bit with real speakers

in order to beat-match :
1° cueing track only to adjust the cue point and set the trim to 0dB
2° add some "master" to my headphones to adjust the pitch
3° launch the track at the right moment

This message has been edited. Last edited by: G r i b o u i l l e,

I always take the cans off for the mixthru and just listen to the monitors, probably because I've never had good headphones!

But also, I cue with one ear. The other is always listening to the main mix on the monitors, so that I'm subconsciously following where that track has got to, where the next 8th or 32nd bar is, how long till the breakdown/end (before the days of waveform overview!) etc... and will also hear if there's a problem -- if you have both cans on, the floor could go quiet and you might not notice!