Beat Matching

&

The 8 Count

    Beat matching is the art of taking two beats, or a beat and a vocal and setting them to the same speed.  The speed of a track is displayed as a number representing the beats per minuet that play during the course of a track.  If the track selected is a very long mashup or mix set itself with many bpms involved in the course of play from start to finish, the BPM displayed will likely be an average during the length of the track. 

   By setting the two tracks to the same BPM you can be easily mix them together using some basic mix techniques.  The first technique you should familiarize yourself with is the 8 count.  An 8 count occurs when 2 steps have passed.  A step contains four meters.  Meters in this case is a unit of musical measurement.  A basics techno bass beat is usually an 8 count with the first hit of each meter being a bass drum, thump, thump, thump, thump.

     

     The 8 count is essential to being a well rounded DJ in my opinion. Like knowing how to read a map even though you can mostly rely on a GPS. 

     When it comes to mixing your set as a DJ you simply need two tracks with the same bpm and similar or compatible style such as two house tracks or two dubstep tracks (although with experience you can VASTLY stretch you definition of compatible and similar style tracks potentially getting to a point where your making mash-ups of everything).  To get started mixing lets start by playing track one. As it plays que the second track up to a 4x4 Bass drum beat, also known as a four on the floor beat. Now just wait for a build and at the right moment hit play on the second track as you move the crossfader from  track one to track two. If all went well then congrats, you just swapped out the next section of that song with another's 4x4 Bass line! This is just the start of getting crazy behind the wheels of steel, digital or otherwise.

Learning how to drop a track (meaning to play a new track in your mix) at the right moment will later allow you to manipulate looped beats to your advantage as well as Advert and Transition type samples.  If you have never mixed before I highly recommend starting with house music and trance in order to get yourself comfortable in your setup. After that it would probably be easier to then learn how to mix hip-hop and rock genres as some of the rules mixing change slightly based on the genres.  

Next week We'll be covering transitions as well as how to get out a tight spot if your systems fails you live or you get caught in a bad loop. Until then happy mixing, this is Dj-Jay Singing off.

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Check this out if u gotta sec too: rolling stones 25 DJ's that rule the world http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/the-25-djs-that-rule-the-earth-20121109