CD Dj advice

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CD Dj advice
Posted on: 20.07.2013 by Cecilia Strader
I have just go into DJing. I have been a producer for over 9 years in Trance, but now I want to give Djing a try, I have Numark NDX 800's i bought used that are in good condition and i have a CD collection of Trance.


Before read any further, I Do not want to DJ with Serato, or Midi controllers or iPods. I am very picky about Equipment especially in the Digital age where quality suffers for convenient benefits. I only would like to DJ on CD or Vinyl as this question has to do with CDs.
My questions are:

1) Most importantly, should I burn CDs with individual tracks or multiple tracks? (I know so far that I been burning my CD at the lowest speed possible for my burner, to prevent CD errors.) I been burning multiple tracks on CDs for practice so far.

2) I been brning with Verbatims since i herd they are best for the price, any other CDs i can look at for stable rotation and quality?

3) Beat Matching tips. Allthough the Numark NDX 800 tell you the BPM readout, i prefer to not use that as I been so far told that they can be incorrect and I also believe music is about hearing, not seeing. So pretty much i covered the BPM readouts with tape. I use the pitch bend and jog to get in sync, but are there any other tips for beatmatching?

Thats about all right now, so experianced Djs in CDJs if you can give me pointers and tips? Again, i am new to this but not new to the music as I been producer for a while, but i rather ask people who have DJ skills for a while.

Thanks!
Augustine Mitzen
22.07.2013
Originally Posted by superfox
I have just go into DJing. I have been a producer for over 9 years in Trance, but now I want to give Djing a try, I have Numark NDX 800's i bought used that are in good condition and i have a CD collection of Trance.


Before read any further, I Do not want to DJ with Serato, or Midi controllers or iPods. I am very picky about Equipment especially in the Digital age where quality suffers for convenient benefits. I only would like to DJ on CD or Vinyl as this question has to do with CDs.
My questions are:

1) Most importantly, should I burn CDs with individual tracks or multiple tracks? (I know so far that I been burning my CD at the lowest speed possible for my burner, to prevent CD errors.) I been burning multiple tracks on CDs for practice so far.

2) I been brning with Verbatims since i herd they are best for the price, any other CDs i can look at for stable rotation and quality?

3) Beat Matching tips. Allthough the Numark NDX 800 tell you the BPM readout, i prefer to not use that as I been so far told that they can be incorrect and I also believe music is about hearing, not seeing. So pretty much i covered the BPM readouts with tape. I use the pitch bend and jog to get in sync, but are there any other tips for beatmatching?

Thats about all right now, so experianced Djs in CDJs if you can give me pointers and tips? Again, i am new to this but not new to the music as I been producer for a while, but i rather ask people who have DJ skills for a while.

Thanks!
1) it's about finding the balance, i used to fill my CDs but i quickly found out it's a bit limiting as i often wanted to mix two tunes from the same CD. Some people make doubles, but i personally just burn less tunes per CD, between 4 and 8 for one. I just pick tracks i know i won't mix for one CD. Sometimes i burn singles or albums on a separate CD too

2) Verbatim's are fine as far as i know, i've been using a lot of brands and i don't really find em too different, had some issue with memorexes, but that was on my old Pio 100s one of them is a bit picky. They all worked fine on newer CDJs

3) Listen. When you get your track roughly beatmatched, just get it in phase and listen for a bit. As the difference in the tempo is smaller it takes longer time for tracks to drift apart, so when you believe you got em right, just listen for 4-8 bars and see if they really are in sync. I used to do this a lot, rushing my mixes and in the end it sounded like poo.


edit: this pretty much

Originally Posted by DISaS73R
It's kind of hard to explain, but what I meant is that if you need to nudge the track, then it's going slower/faster than the other one, so you also need to adjust the track's tempo. Basically, beatmatching would go like this:
1. Play the track
2. Nudge it since you may have not played it at the perfect moment
3. If it's still not in sync, nudge and then adjust the pitch fader
4. Repeat 3 until you have the tunes in sync (or at least quite close)

As for labelling, you could just have a piece of paper for each CD which has the tracklist, including key and bpm (or whatever information you wanna have) for each tune.
as far as labelling goes, i number my CDs then write down the tracklist on a piece of paper and that's it
Cecilia Strader
21.07.2013
Originally Posted by SlvrDragon50
You can nudge the track if the two track BPMs aren't too far off. Say it's maybe a 0.05 BPM difference. Rather than trying to perfect the BPM, you can just keep the tracks layered on top of each other by pushing one track ahead or slowing the other track down every now and then.
Ok so you are saying that using the jog to nudge the track is more effective when the BPMs are near matched. What i usually do is use the jog to nudge when i hear them starting to match up but cant match up using pitch bend. I am new so yes, i may not be doing this right. Thanks for sticking it out with my armature stuff.
Cecilia Strader
21.07.2013
Originally Posted by DISaS73R
1) Individual tracks would cost you quite a lot. It's common to burn five tracks per CD or ten tracks per CD, but have two copies of each CD. (I prefer the latter)

2) Don't quote me on this, but as far as I know, the majority of CDs are pretty much the same. I've heard about a couple of brands which are not desirable, but I don't remember which ones.

3) The most important thing for me is that every time you have to use the jogwheel, you also have to use the pitch fader to correct the overall speed. It's also a good idea to check in your headphones if the tracks are indeed beatmatched by turning the cue knob to cue+master.

THanks for responding. THanks for your advice to.

As far as beat matching goes, I am using my headphones most times and doing the CUe+Master so i can hear what i am doing. But you say that using the jog Wheel i have to use the pitch bend to correct it? I am a bit confused cause usually my jog will allow me to nudge the track but automatically speed back up to the set tempo/pitch bend. I really am not good at beat matching yet as i only been doing this about 1 month so it is a bit frustrating to try and get 2 tracks matched, and i refuse to use BPM readouts first starting out, i dont want to get use to looking at BPM reader as a way to match tracks, rather do it the real DJ way.

I also have another question


Lableing CDs

Is there anything i should use as a standard for marking my CDs, for now I am putting the Genre of music, average BPM range as I do tap out a few songs on the CD to find a mean BPM. I try to put the Key of the songs, but usually since i burn 5-10 tracks a CD its a various Key.

I also would like to know what i should be marking them with, I know some Markers are heavier on CD and can, over time damage the CD so right now im using a Extra Fin Point Sanford Sharpie (Black). I also thought about labels, but labels I would believe would throw off the balance of the CD while in the player and also start to peel off, so i didnt invest in a label maker. I know there is Lightscribe, but i didnt do that for the simple fact that Lightscribe CDs dont come readily available like Verbatims do and they are more expansive. I looked into a full CD labeler but that seems to expansive to keep buying the "Special" paper to do it. I am not cheap, but i dont want to invest in things that will not work well with what im trying to do, and i dont want to risk making my CDs unstable especially if DJ live and something were to go wrong with the CD. Just trying to cover all areas as I am a very picky person when it comes to quality and Audio if there are right ways to do things, I'd rather know then be sorry when a CD Skips or becomes unstable in the player.

THanks!!
Cecilia Strader
20.07.2013		I have just go into DJing. I have been a producer for over 9 years in Trance, but now I want to give Djing a try, I have Numark NDX 800's i bought used that are in good condition and i have a CD collection of Trance.


Before read any further, I Do not want to DJ with Serato, or Midi controllers or iPods. I am very picky about Equipment especially in the Digital age where quality suffers for convenient benefits. I only would like to DJ on CD or Vinyl as this question has to do with CDs.
My questions are:

1) Most importantly, should I burn CDs with individual tracks or multiple tracks? (I know so far that I been burning my CD at the lowest speed possible for my burner, to prevent CD errors.) I been burning multiple tracks on CDs for practice so far.

2) I been brning with Verbatims since i herd they are best for the price, any other CDs i can look at for stable rotation and quality?

3) Beat Matching tips. Allthough the Numark NDX 800 tell you the BPM readout, i prefer to not use that as I been so far told that they can be incorrect and I also believe music is about hearing, not seeing. So pretty much i covered the BPM readouts with tape. I use the pitch bend and jog to get in sync, but are there any other tips for beatmatching?

Thats about all right now, so experianced Djs in CDJs if you can give me pointers and tips? Again, i am new to this but not new to the music as I been producer for a while, but i rather ask people who have DJ skills for a while.

Thanks!
Hellen Mindrup
22.07.2013		^^^ Pro advice, saved me the typing. I'll just add one thing....

When finishing a blend and selecting the next song, these are my personal steps that might help you out since I am still learning in a sense..

When I usually go to blend I will get the next track ready asap once the new song plays, that way you can have time to cue it and what not so you won't rush later. I will play the song in my headphones and monitor it for at least 4-8 bars so I will know the two songs will stay on beat.. Also, I use this time to properly set my trim so I know I won't be overkill or too low with the next track.

Once you do this, back to your cue point because you are now ready and can wait for the appropriate time to start blending.
Augustine Mitzen
22.07.2013
Originally Posted by superfox
I have just go into DJing. I have been a producer for over 9 years in Trance, but now I want to give Djing a try, I have Numark NDX 800's i bought used that are in good condition and i have a CD collection of Trance.


Before read any further, I Do not want to DJ with Serato, or Midi controllers or iPods. I am very picky about Equipment especially in the Digital age where quality suffers for convenient benefits. I only would like to DJ on CD or Vinyl as this question has to do with CDs.
My questions are:

1) Most importantly, should I burn CDs with individual tracks or multiple tracks? (I know so far that I been burning my CD at the lowest speed possible for my burner, to prevent CD errors.) I been burning multiple tracks on CDs for practice so far.

2) I been brning with Verbatims since i herd they are best for the price, any other CDs i can look at for stable rotation and quality?

3) Beat Matching tips. Allthough the Numark NDX 800 tell you the BPM readout, i prefer to not use that as I been so far told that they can be incorrect and I also believe music is about hearing, not seeing. So pretty much i covered the BPM readouts with tape. I use the pitch bend and jog to get in sync, but are there any other tips for beatmatching?

Thats about all right now, so experianced Djs in CDJs if you can give me pointers and tips? Again, i am new to this but not new to the music as I been producer for a while, but i rather ask people who have DJ skills for a while.

Thanks!
1) it's about finding the balance, i used to fill my CDs but i quickly found out it's a bit limiting as i often wanted to mix two tunes from the same CD. Some people make doubles, but i personally just burn less tunes per CD, between 4 and 8 for one. I just pick tracks i know i won't mix for one CD. Sometimes i burn singles or albums on a separate CD too

2) Verbatim's are fine as far as i know, i've been using a lot of brands and i don't really find em too different, had some issue with memorexes, but that was on my old Pio 100s one of them is a bit picky. They all worked fine on newer CDJs

3) Listen. When you get your track roughly beatmatched, just get it in phase and listen for a bit. As the difference in the tempo is smaller it takes longer time for tracks to drift apart, so when you believe you got em right, just listen for 4-8 bars and see if they really are in sync. I used to do this a lot, rushing my mixes and in the end it sounded like poo.


edit: this pretty much

Originally Posted by DISaS73R
It's kind of hard to explain, but what I meant is that if you need to nudge the track, then it's going slower/faster than the other one, so you also need to adjust the track's tempo. Basically, beatmatching would go like this:
1. Play the track
2. Nudge it since you may have not played it at the perfect moment
3. If it's still not in sync, nudge and then adjust the pitch fader
4. Repeat 3 until you have the tunes in sync (or at least quite close)

As for labelling, you could just have a piece of paper for each CD which has the tracklist, including key and bpm (or whatever information you wanna have) for each tune.
as far as labelling goes, i number my CDs then write down the tracklist on a piece of paper and that's it
Olin Easley
21.07.2013		It's kind of hard to explain, but what I meant is that if you need to nudge the track, then it's going slower/faster than the other one, so you also need to adjust the track's tempo. Basically, beatmatching would go like this:
1. Play the track
2. Nudge it since you may have not played it at the perfect moment
3. If it's still not in sync, nudge and then adjust the pitch fader
4. Repeat 3 until you have the tunes in sync (or at least quite close)

As for labelling, you could just have a piece of paper for each CD which has the tracklist, including key and bpm (or whatever information you wanna have) for each tune.
Cecilia Strader
21.07.2013
Originally Posted by SlvrDragon50
You can nudge the track if the two track BPMs aren't too far off. Say it's maybe a 0.05 BPM difference. Rather than trying to perfect the BPM, you can just keep the tracks layered on top of each other by pushing one track ahead or slowing the other track down every now and then.
Ok so you are saying that using the jog to nudge the track is more effective when the BPMs are near matched. What i usually do is use the jog to nudge when i hear them starting to match up but cant match up using pitch bend. I am new so yes, i may not be doing this right. Thanks for sticking it out with my armature stuff.
Gaynell Rydberg
21.07.2013		You can nudge the track if the two track BPMs aren't too far off. Say it's maybe a 0.05 BPM difference. Rather than trying to perfect the BPM, you can just keep the tracks layered on top of each other by pushing one track ahead or slowing the other track down every now and then.
Cecilia Strader
21.07.2013
Originally Posted by DISaS73R
1) Individual tracks would cost you quite a lot. It's common to burn five tracks per CD or ten tracks per CD, but have two copies of each CD. (I prefer the latter)

2) Don't quote me on this, but as far as I know, the majority of CDs are pretty much the same. I've heard about a couple of brands which are not desirable, but I don't remember which ones.

3) The most important thing for me is that every time you have to use the jogwheel, you also have to use the pitch fader to correct the overall speed. It's also a good idea to check in your headphones if the tracks are indeed beatmatched by turning the cue knob to cue+master.

THanks for responding. THanks for your advice to.

As far as beat matching goes, I am using my headphones most times and doing the CUe+Master so i can hear what i am doing. But you say that using the jog Wheel i have to use the pitch bend to correct it? I am a bit confused cause usually my jog will allow me to nudge the track but automatically speed back up to the set tempo/pitch bend. I really am not good at beat matching yet as i only been doing this about 1 month so it is a bit frustrating to try and get 2 tracks matched, and i refuse to use BPM readouts first starting out, i dont want to get use to looking at BPM reader as a way to match tracks, rather do it the real DJ way.

I also have another question


Lableing CDs

Is there anything i should use as a standard for marking my CDs, for now I am putting the Genre of music, average BPM range as I do tap out a few songs on the CD to find a mean BPM. I try to put the Key of the songs, but usually since i burn 5-10 tracks a CD its a various Key.

I also would like to know what i should be marking them with, I know some Markers are heavier on CD and can, over time damage the CD so right now im using a Extra Fin Point Sanford Sharpie (Black). I also thought about labels, but labels I would believe would throw off the balance of the CD while in the player and also start to peel off, so i didnt invest in a label maker. I know there is Lightscribe, but i didnt do that for the simple fact that Lightscribe CDs dont come readily available like Verbatims do and they are more expansive. I looked into a full CD labeler but that seems to expansive to keep buying the "Special" paper to do it. I am not cheap, but i dont want to invest in things that will not work well with what im trying to do, and i dont want to risk making my CDs unstable especially if DJ live and something were to go wrong with the CD. Just trying to cover all areas as I am a very picky person when it comes to quality and Audio if there are right ways to do things, I'd rather know then be sorry when a CD Skips or becomes unstable in the player.

THanks!!
Olin Easley
20.07.2013		1) Individual tracks would cost you quite a lot. It's common to burn five tracks per CD or ten tracks per CD, but have two copies of each CD. (I prefer the latter)

2) Don't quote me on this, but as far as I know, the majority of CDs are pretty much the same. I've heard about a couple of brands which are not desirable, but I don't remember which ones.

3) The most important thing for me is that every time you have to use the jogwheel, you also have to use the pitch fader to correct the overall speed. It's also a good idea to check in your headphones if the tracks are indeed beatmatched by turning the cue knob to cue+master.

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