XDJ-RX Beatmatching

It can emulate a club set up as long as you don't use sync

It's still not really proper beatmatching though, is it? The controller still tells you what speed the tracks are playing at. I don't want to sound like one of those old school pains in the arse, always banging on about vinyl being the one true DJing method, but if you had to go from an XDJ RX to a pair of 1210s, you'd struggle. I have an XDJ RX, and I've not used vinyl for 8+ years, but I am happy to use the sync function on them, as it makes my job easier, and means I can focus more on the mix than worrying about whether it's beatmatched or not. If your tracks have been analysed in Rekordbox before playing them, then you're never really beatmatching, in my opinion.

Thanks for the replies. Ryan Reid, I get you man, vinyl was the first and still is the original way of beatmatching I get that, but nowadays, you're mostly going to see a cdj setup and that's exactly what I want to learn to play well. In no way whatsoever am I looking to use sync. I know the screen tells you the mostly everything. What I have been doing lately is using the tempo fader to get the BPMs close to the same speed and after that, cover the screen and go by ear from there. What I'm trying to get at is if the beatmatching process is similar to the cdj setup. I purchased the RX to practice at home at get the feel of it so when I get a gig, I would feel just as comfortable with cdjs. I know I could've even went for the 1000's but I had already ordered the RX and have it in my possession so I'm trying to make the best of it.

You don't have to be able to beatmatch if the equipment you're going to be using has the sync function. Just use it, that's what it's there for! That's the point I was trying to make, although admittedly not very well. It's not as if you will ever really be beatmatching, so what's the point in trying to make it harder for yourself? The equipment nowadays negates the need to be able to beatmatch, the good stuff does, anyway. I went from a pair of Numark NDX 900s to the XDJ RX, and while they did have a beat counter on them, they were far from accurate, so I still had to use my ear to beatmatch. You're not going to be playing on shitty Numarks in a club though, so use what you have to the best of it's ability. It's not as if you're going to say "I'd better not use the echo effect to exit an effect, as you can't get that on the XDJ RX". If it's there, then use it!

Way back in the day...we would put a sticker on our vinyl covers with the bpm on it. We had to manually count the beats of course, but we logged it nonetheless. So even with vinyl we had our "cheat sheets". You may be putting too much emphasis on the wrong thing. Just because you know the bpm doesn't mean you can't manually beatmatch properly.

Yes, but on the XDJ RX, assuming you've analysed your tracks in Rekordbox beforehand, then it tells you exactly what speed both tracks are being played at, so if they're both playing at the same speed, then they're pretty much beatmatched. You only have to sync up the beats, but that's just a nudge on the platter which I would hardly class as beatmatching. I still have to line up the tracks using the grid adjust when I'm playing using the sync feature, which is as much beat matching as what I just referred to there.

@Alexandra Guerrero

I think your way of learning is better and more proper then what was suggested by some other users here in this topic. Meaning - don't use sync!

To use sync you have to prepare your tracks in RekordBox, which is not really hard, but it can be hard to align the grid exactly to the beat. So, when you use sync option the tracks will be aligned, but because of the little details and errors in the grid itself you will most probably hear the "tctc" in your mixes - meaning the tracks were not perfectly beat matched. Only without sync you can beat match them perfectly.
But this is just my opinion.

As for the question about the platers:
yes, they behave exactly like any other Pioneer CDJ equipment, so if you exercise on XDJ you are good to go in any club (where they have Pioneer equipment of course - which is like 90% of the cases).

The only difference is the robustness of the platters.
XDJ platers are quite good, but not as robust as CDJ1000 for example (and XDJ ones are smaller).
This only means that on XDJ you are going to use platers "gently" and on 1000's you will use the platers with a bit more push...at least i have such a feeling.

Behavior is maybe similar to turntables when you compare Technics and Omnitronic.

BR