Traktor sync or normal beatmatch

Home :: General Discussion :: Traktor sync or normal beatmatchReply
Traktor sync or normal beatmatch
Posted on: 01.01.2013 by Caridad Fan
Hey guys,

Tried to search this topic since I guess it's a pretty common doubt but couldn't find anything.

I'm returning to djing and this time as a digital dj. My ideas are to mix rock, disco, funk, nu-disco... things around those. So, here I was believeing, Traktor sync or normal beatmatch?

What are the pros and cons of each?

As I see, Traktor sync:
- CON: Needs beatgrid for each music. That's homework and you can't use the tracks on other Traktor computer because it won't have the beatgrids (is this right?)
- CON: For some beatgrids is necessary a previous warp on Ableton or a lot of work on Traktor
- CON: Some people like to beatmatch
- CON: Too much unnatural? (what do you believe?)
- PRO: More time to see what's going on on the dance floor or maybe use effects or just choose the next songs (this may be a con also since you don't have much to do then ehehe)
- PRO: Better loops and cues (you don't risk to fail a milli second)
- PRO: Controllers without jogs and 100mm pitch faders (unless for some songs that are just impossible to beatmatch and sound natural but I guess that those would be fine with a pitch knob)

What do you believe?
Sheilah Kurzhal
05.01.2013
Originally Posted by djproben
Yeah key lock actually does some processing on the sound, and it's all mathematics applied to the waveform so depending on the sound of the source file it can be obvious. I have no idea why Traktor applies processing to the sound even when you're not changing the pitch but with keylock on for some reason it seems to, so if you're listening carefully it can sound annoying.
DJ Proben,

Thank you for confirming this ... at least for (obviously) for your setup and mine as well. I knew I wasn't crazy ... and since tweaking a couple of parameters that were suggested in this and the other thread it is .... ALL GOOD! I'm extremely excited to have found resolution on this ... and to know that "sync" was not the culprit.

Unfortunately, my cpu "speed" setting was already on "fast" ... leaving me no choice but to ditch key lock and improve my technique. This will make me better after a brief period of discomfort, as I alter some actions that have become "2nd nature" by now.

I'm hype, though! Thanks for the insight!
Sheilah Kurzhal
04.01.2013		Thanks for that reply, Kooper! I play a variety of mostly quantized stuff. I understand how it works. I also know that (when necessary) for "beat correction" to occur ... that action must be processed. In my experience ... I've found that the less I make the computer "help" on a variety of tasks ... that my audio comes out cleaner and more pure in the end.

The artifacts were SURELY present. Ignorantly, I did not attribute them to Keylock. Even at the source BPM (it shouldn't need to key lock, IMO) on certain songs ... I would hear those minor (sometimes significant) burps and glitches.

Thanks to several suggestions here ... I got it cleared up by disabling key lock. I'm very excited! It's all crystal clear. And I'm also glad that by learning to work without sync so much ... and learning a little more about how Traktor behaves ... I've grown a bit.

Thanks for the reply, Kooper!

Originally Posted by kooper1980
What genre are you sync-ing?! Dance music is generally always accurate in that if its labelled as 128 BPM then it is consistently 128 BPM all the way through the track. Beatgridding and syncing adds absolutely NOTHING to the track. It just lines up the beats. Keeping them "locked" in place takes absolutely no "artifacts" as they are all of a consistent BPM to start with. I personally just believe that you have convinced yourself that because you have an interest in producing music you (incorrectly) believe that you can hear differences that aren't actually there! The only time you will find these "artifacts" is when you rip a vinyl on (cheap) belt drive turntables that struggle to keep a constant BPM.
Kristofer Krauel
04.01.2013
Originally Posted by jshawpro
I believe sliding a pitch fader is a lot more gradual than an instant time warp to a reference point controlled by a computer. I feel like the sound HAS to be manipulated as it reaches that point because it doesn't mute briefly that I've noticed.
What genre are you sync-ing?! Dance music is generally always accurate in that if its labelled as 128 BPM then it is consistently 128 BPM all the way through the track. Beatgridding and syncing adds absolutely NOTHING to the track. It just lines up the beats. Keeping them "locked" in place takes absolutely no "artifacts" as they are all of a consistent BPM to start with. I personally just believe that you have convinced yourself that because you have an interest in producing music you (incorrectly) believe that you can hear differences that aren't actually there! The only time you will find these "artifacts" is when you rip a vinyl on (cheap) belt drive turntables that struggle to keep a constant BPM.
Sheilah Kurzhal
03.01.2013		The grid markers create references for the program to use to minutely shift the song forward or backward to keep up with transients of the master. ANYTIME the computer has to help you ... to some degree ... you pay a price.

Now ... I am aware that this could be my configuration ... There are several parameters that I've noticed will slightly change the way Traktor processes things. Admittedly, MY configuration (that I'm most comfortable with) MAY be a config that results in these artifacts that I describe possibly due to a combination of settings. But I don't believe so. I've tested on my very flat studio monitors and it's clear to me.

I was playing next to a guy one evening ... we were having a dueling dj kind of even event in the club ... He had a pioneer controller and I'm believeing "Virtual DJ"? He was very experienced ... Did not use sync ... And his bass was hitting SOOO clean. I'd hop on and be like DAMN! We both were using 320 kbps mp3 ONLY. I started killing sync when I could ... and even walked out on the floor ... and it sounded tighter to me.

GRANTED ... I'm HEAVILY into production ... and listen VERY closely to all music.

Try it out. I hope I'm wrong ... I'll sync right the hell back up in a heart beat!

Originally Posted by djproben
How does sync operate differently from changing the tempo via the pitch control?? Why don't you get whatever artifacts you are hearing when you change the speed of the song without using sync?
Cole Maroto
03.01.2013
Originally Posted by djproben
How does sync operate differently from changing the tempo via the pitch control?? Why don't you get whatever artifacts you are hearing when you change the speed of the song without using sync?
it's not any different...it's keylock that's the problem.
Sheilah Kurzhal
03.01.2013		Warping in Ableton does the same thing. I warp often ... but as a last resort ... due to the disgusting artifacts added to warped music ... even when using "complex pro".

But as a record producer ... I probably notice and care more than most.

Originally Posted by Joel Santos
That seems strange...
Caridad Fan
03.01.2013
Originally Posted by jshawpro
I only use sync on the track I'm transitioning to ... and only throughout the duration of the transition. I kill it as quickly as possible.

WHY?
I honestly feel like it degrades the sound quality .. even at the true bpm of the song. It rapidly gets more and more grainy the further you get away from the original tempo. I never had a complaint of quality ... But the difference is clear to me. With sync off ... Sub bass is much tighter ... and vocals will not emit that grainy (almost auto tune sounding) texture.
That seems strange...
Danae Dumler
03.01.2013
Originally Posted by Joel Santos
Yes I would only warp it a little bit on the beginning to loop. That would be a nice tip for those situations.
You shouldn't have to warp at all. Even in old rock songs with live players fully dosed out on acid, there's going to be 4-8 bars where the drumming is tight enough to grid an accurate loop. The trick is to just grid the loop and not pay attention to how far off the grid is in the rest of the song.

Ideally you want one loop at the intro and one at the end of the song. You can re-start the beatgrid any time by setting a new gridmarker so the trick is this: Set up your loop at the beginning of the song and get the grid perfect for that loop, and then (important), save the loop as a cue point. It's a good idea to then jot down the exact BPM in the comments for that loop. Then go to the end of the song, find another 4-8 bar loop that works, set a new gridmarker at the "1". In an ideal world, the BPM of both loops will be the same and you're done. But in many cases, you need to re-grid the second loop, which of course will throw off the grid from the first loop. However, your loop markers will stay where they are since you saved the first loop as a cue point -- you'll need to beatmatch the loop that is off-grid without using sync, but the loop will play correctly so you can do this. So if the BPM changes, you will have one loop that is on-grid and one that is off-grid; looking at your comment field for the off-grid loop you can see what BPM you need to match to, and with your on-grid loop you can just use sync.
Carlee Pickard
03.01.2013
Originally Posted by sendoushi
I know how to beatmatch. As I said before I started out with vinyl and later got into CDJs.
If you know how to beatmatch then go ahead and use sync! Whenever it doesn't feel right while you're mixing, just turn off the sync and manually beatmatch the track! Easy !
Danae Dumler
06.01.2013		Honestly for live DJing situations, sound quality is only a concern for me if it's really bad -- like rough staticky sounds from loosely connected wires or failing faders, the obvious shit. Little digital artifacts from processing annoy me if I'm in a quiet room listening in headphones or really nice speakers. But at a noisy club, even on funktion ones, I don't lose sleep over such artifacts. I doubt 95% of a club audience would be able to tell if you had key lock on or toggled it on and off. And as the DJ I've usually got a lot more on my mind to pay too close attention to whether there was a slight crackle around the occasional cymbal sound. It's all relative; if I'm making a mix at home and I want to record it I probably get more focused on such details. Of course it would bother me in an actual production situation but that's completely different.
Sheilah Kurzhal
05.01.2013
Originally Posted by djproben
Yeah key lock actually does some processing on the sound, and it's all mathematics applied to the waveform so depending on the sound of the source file it can be obvious. I have no idea why Traktor applies processing to the sound even when you're not changing the pitch but with keylock on for some reason it seems to, so if you're listening carefully it can sound annoying.
DJ Proben,

Thank you for confirming this ... at least for (obviously) for your setup and mine as well. I knew I wasn't crazy ... and since tweaking a couple of parameters that were suggested in this and the other thread it is .... ALL GOOD! I'm extremely excited to have found resolution on this ... and to know that "sync" was not the culprit.

Unfortunately, my cpu "speed" setting was already on "fast" ... leaving me no choice but to ditch key lock and improve my technique. This will make me better after a brief period of discomfort, as I alter some actions that have become "2nd nature" by now.

I'm hype, though! Thanks for the insight!
Danae Dumler
05.01.2013		Yeah key lock actually does some processing on the sound, and it's all mathematics applied to the waveform so depending on the sound of the source file it can be obvious. I have no idea why Traktor applies processing to the sound even when you're not changing the pitch but with keylock on for some reason it seems to, so if you're listening carefully it can sound annoying. But that depends on the kind of music and the sounds you're hearing at that moment; for music that already sounds heavily electronically processed it's not as obvious. It's probably best to only use it if you're radically shifting the pitch to mix two songs together in order to avoid the chipmunks effect or whatever.
Sheilah Kurzhal
04.01.2013		Thanks for that reply, Kooper! I play a variety of mostly quantized stuff. I understand how it works. I also know that (when necessary) for "beat correction" to occur ... that action must be processed. In my experience ... I've found that the less I make the computer "help" on a variety of tasks ... that my audio comes out cleaner and more pure in the end.

The artifacts were SURELY present. Ignorantly, I did not attribute them to Keylock. Even at the source BPM (it shouldn't need to key lock, IMO) on certain songs ... I would hear those minor (sometimes significant) burps and glitches.

Thanks to several suggestions here ... I got it cleared up by disabling key lock. I'm very excited! It's all crystal clear. And I'm also glad that by learning to work without sync so much ... and learning a little more about how Traktor behaves ... I've grown a bit.

Thanks for the reply, Kooper!

Originally Posted by kooper1980
What genre are you sync-ing?! Dance music is generally always accurate in that if its labelled as 128 BPM then it is consistently 128 BPM all the way through the track. Beatgridding and syncing adds absolutely NOTHING to the track. It just lines up the beats. Keeping them "locked" in place takes absolutely no "artifacts" as they are all of a consistent BPM to start with. I personally just believe that you have convinced yourself that because you have an interest in producing music you (incorrectly) believe that you can hear differences that aren't actually there! The only time you will find these "artifacts" is when you rip a vinyl on (cheap) belt drive turntables that struggle to keep a constant BPM.
Latoria Kavulich
04.01.2013		just turn keylock off.
Kristofer Krauel
04.01.2013
Originally Posted by jshawpro
I believe sliding a pitch fader is a lot more gradual than an instant time warp to a reference point controlled by a computer. I feel like the sound HAS to be manipulated as it reaches that point because it doesn't mute briefly that I've noticed.
What genre are you sync-ing?! Dance music is generally always accurate in that if its labelled as 128 BPM then it is consistently 128 BPM all the way through the track. Beatgridding and syncing adds absolutely NOTHING to the track. It just lines up the beats. Keeping them "locked" in place takes absolutely no "artifacts" as they are all of a consistent BPM to start with. I personally just believe that you have convinced yourself that because you have an interest in producing music you (incorrectly) believe that you can hear differences that aren't actually there! The only time you will find these "artifacts" is when you rip a vinyl on (cheap) belt drive turntables that struggle to keep a constant BPM.
Sheilah Kurzhal
03.01.2013		I believe sliding a pitch fader is a lot more gradual than an instant time warp to a reference point controlled by a computer. I feel like the sound HAS to be manipulated as it reaches that point because it doesn't mute briefly that I've noticed.
Ryan Schlich
03.01.2013		Manually beat grid.
Its just another step in preparation along with keying the track.

If I have a new track I havent prepped up I just press sync, but often the the grid is inaccurate and off-beat so I nudge it into place. Pretty standard.
This is Djing 101....

Im pretty new to traktor but theres so many advantages over Serato, I cant help but take full advantage of it. DONT BE LAZY.
Sheilah Kurzhal
03.01.2013		I really hope I'm wrong. I'm loading up Traktor to experiment ... I will definitely share my findings.
Sheilah Kurzhal
03.01.2013		The grid markers create references for the program to use to minutely shift the song forward or backward to keep up with transients of the master. ANYTIME the computer has to help you ... to some degree ... you pay a price.

Now ... I am aware that this could be my configuration ... There are several parameters that I've noticed will slightly change the way Traktor processes things. Admittedly, MY configuration (that I'm most comfortable with) MAY be a config that results in these artifacts that I describe possibly due to a combination of settings. But I don't believe so. I've tested on my very flat studio monitors and it's clear to me.

I was playing next to a guy one evening ... we were having a dueling dj kind of even event in the club ... He had a pioneer controller and I'm believeing "Virtual DJ"? He was very experienced ... Did not use sync ... And his bass was hitting SOOO clean. I'd hop on and be like DAMN! We both were using 320 kbps mp3 ONLY. I started killing sync when I could ... and even walked out on the floor ... and it sounded tighter to me.

GRANTED ... I'm HEAVILY into production ... and listen VERY closely to all music.

Try it out. I hope I'm wrong ... I'll sync right the hell back up in a heart beat!

Originally Posted by djproben
How does sync operate differently from changing the tempo via the pitch control?? Why don't you get whatever artifacts you are hearing when you change the speed of the song without using sync?
Cole Maroto
03.01.2013
Originally Posted by djproben
How does sync operate differently from changing the tempo via the pitch control?? Why don't you get whatever artifacts you are hearing when you change the speed of the song without using sync?
it's not any different...it's keylock that's the problem.
Danae Dumler
03.01.2013		How does sync operate differently from changing the tempo via the pitch control?? Why don't you get whatever artifacts you are hearing when you change the speed of the song without using sync?
Sheilah Kurzhal
03.01.2013		Warping in Ableton does the same thing. I warp often ... but as a last resort ... due to the disgusting artifacts added to warped music ... even when using "complex pro".

But as a record producer ... I probably notice and care more than most.

Originally Posted by Joel Santos
That seems strange...
Caridad Fan
03.01.2013
Originally Posted by jshawpro
I only use sync on the track I'm transitioning to ... and only throughout the duration of the transition. I kill it as quickly as possible.

WHY?
I honestly feel like it degrades the sound quality .. even at the true bpm of the song. It rapidly gets more and more grainy the further you get away from the original tempo. I never had a complaint of quality ... But the difference is clear to me. With sync off ... Sub bass is much tighter ... and vocals will not emit that grainy (almost auto tune sounding) texture.
That seems strange...
Sheilah Kurzhal
03.01.2013		I only use sync on the track I'm transitioning to ... and only throughout the duration of the transition. I kill it as quickly as possible.

WHY?
I honestly feel like it degrades the sound quality .. even at the true bpm of the song. It rapidly gets more and more grainy the further you get away from the original tempo. I never had a complaint of quality ... But the difference is clear to me. With sync off ... Sub bass is much tighter ... and vocals will not emit that grainy (almost auto tune sounding) texture.
Danae Dumler
03.01.2013
Originally Posted by Joel Santos
Yes I would only warp it a little bit on the beginning to loop. That would be a nice tip for those situations.
You shouldn't have to warp at all. Even in old rock songs with live players fully dosed out on acid, there's going to be 4-8 bars where the drumming is tight enough to grid an accurate loop. The trick is to just grid the loop and not pay attention to how far off the grid is in the rest of the song.

Ideally you want one loop at the intro and one at the end of the song. You can re-start the beatgrid any time by setting a new gridmarker so the trick is this: Set up your loop at the beginning of the song and get the grid perfect for that loop, and then (important), save the loop as a cue point. It's a good idea to then jot down the exact BPM in the comments for that loop. Then go to the end of the song, find another 4-8 bar loop that works, set a new gridmarker at the "1". In an ideal world, the BPM of both loops will be the same and you're done. But in many cases, you need to re-grid the second loop, which of course will throw off the grid from the first loop. However, your loop markers will stay where they are since you saved the first loop as a cue point -- you'll need to beatmatch the loop that is off-grid without using sync, but the loop will play correctly so you can do this. So if the BPM changes, you will have one loop that is on-grid and one that is off-grid; looking at your comment field for the off-grid loop you can see what BPM you need to match to, and with your on-grid loop you can just use sync.
Carlee Pickard
03.01.2013
Originally Posted by sendoushi
I know how to beatmatch. As I said before I started out with vinyl and later got into CDJs.
If you know how to beatmatch then go ahead and use sync! Whenever it doesn't feel right while you're mixing, just turn off the sync and manually beatmatch the track! Easy !
Caridad Fan
03.01.2013
Originally Posted by narrah
Start out with sync, Make an effort to learn how to manually beatmatch later, then go which everway you like.
I know how to beatmatch. As I said before I started out with vinyl and later got into CDJs.
Yevette Matatall
03.01.2013		Start out with sync, Make an effort to learn how to manually beatmatch later, then go which everway you like.
Caridad Fan
03.01.2013
Originally Posted by squidot
in traktor you can only move the grid around the beat. you can move the entire grid an equal amount (either left or right), or you can change the spacing between the grid lines by adjusting the bpms (narrowing or widening the spacing equally). so, if you have a small loop where all of the beats are perfectly on time but the first one, you won't be able to put that one beat in time. you can probably do the gridding fine in traktor, you just have to find the right part of the song that is tight and work there.

if the loop is too off time to do in traktor then you can pull it into ableton and warp guaranteeing it's perfect gridding. as said though, if you take something with live players and swing, warping it to be on perfect time can make it sound unnatural as it takes away it's groove and can make it sound boring and dull. it all depends on the song though and if you only do this with a small portion it probably won't be noticeable to most people.

at least if you find you don't like to sync in traktor, it can easily be left off.
Yes I would only warp it a little bit on the beginning to loop. That would be a nice tip for those situations.
Cole Maroto
03.01.2013
Originally Posted by sendoushi
Do you warp that loop on Traktor or Ableton? Maybe Traktor would be fine on doing that? The less we touch the .mp3 the better.
in traktor you can only move the grid around the beat. you can move the entire grid an equal amount (either left or right), or you can change the spacing between the grid lines by adjusting the bpms (narrowing or widening the spacing equally). so, if you have a small loop where all of the beats are perfectly on time but the first one, you won't be able to put that one beat in time. you can probably do the gridding fine in traktor, you just have to find the right part of the song that is tight and work there.

if the loop is too off time to do in traktor then you can pull it into ableton and warp guaranteeing it's perfect gridding. as said though, if you take something with live players and swing, warping it to be on perfect time can make it sound unnatural as it takes away it's groove and can make it sound boring and dull. it all depends on the song though and if you only do this with a small portion it probably won't be noticeable to most people.

at least if you find you don't like to sync in traktor, it can easily be left off.
Caridad Fan
03.01.2013
Originally Posted by squidot
DJXpoZur is correct in saying that the beats don't really get "glued" to anything. if you have keylock off, traktor sync basically works just as beatmatching would work on turntables or cdjs, only it adjusts the bpms automatically. the grid is the adjustable part and nothing physically happens to the song other than pitch adjustment...or tempo adjustment if you have key lock turned on. with key lock on, things will start to sound unnatural (as in glitchy) if you adjust the tempo over certain percentages so i don't use that feature at all. though the same can be said about tracks that are pitched up or down too much even when using vinyl.

or maybe you mean "unnatural" in that you will never hear transitions stray off beat if your grid is correct thus eliminating trainwrecks (if your phrasing isn't completely bad) and minor fluctuations that normally get corrected by the dj on the fly. i guess that's up to you to decide if it feels or sounds "unnatural." for me it doesn't.

djproben does bring up a good point with finding a nice area to loop by making a tighter grid within a small part, likely the intro or outro or anyplace where mostly the beat remains. throw on your loop and then you should be able to make some nice transitions without robbing the tracks of their swing and soul by fully warping them in ableton. you could also do the same thing in abelton if needed, but he's right. i've tried to warp entire songs with that type of flavor and it just sounds wrong to me (definitely unnatural), so i ended up getting only a portion warped thus keeping the song's life in tact.
Do you warp that loop on Traktor or Ableton? Maybe Traktor would be fine on doing that? The less we touch the .mp3 the better.

Originally Posted by Jester
If you don't want to utilize Sync, use Serato.
Kind of expensive still... Can we use third-party soundcards on serato with timecode? Anyway I believe I'll go with sync. I'll give it a whirl.
Latoria Kavulich
03.01.2013		If you don't want to utilize Sync, use Serato.
Cole Maroto
02.01.2013
Originally Posted by sendoushi
When I said "sounds unnatural" was regarding the "glue" of the beats. But someone already gave a nice tip about this on this topic.
DJXpoZur is correct in saying that the beats don't really get "glued" to anything. if you have keylock off, traktor sync basically works just as beatmatching would work on turntables or cdjs, only it adjusts the bpms automatically. the grid is the adjustable part and nothing physically happens to the song other than pitch adjustment...or tempo adjustment if you have key lock turned on. with key lock on, things will start to sound unnatural (as in glitchy) if you adjust the tempo over certain percentages so i don't use that feature at all. though the same can be said about tracks that are pitched up or down too much even when using vinyl.

or maybe you mean "unnatural" in that you will never hear transitions stray off beat if your grid is correct thus eliminating trainwrecks (if your phrasing isn't completely bad) and minor fluctuations that normally get corrected by the dj on the fly. i guess that's up to you to decide if it feels or sounds "unnatural." for me it doesn't.

djproben does bring up a good point with finding a nice area to loop by making a tighter grid within a small part, likely the intro or outro or anyplace where mostly the beat remains. throw on your loop and then you should be able to make some nice transitions without robbing the tracks of their swing and soul by fully warping them in ableton. you could also do the same thing in abelton if needed, but he's right. i've tried to warp entire songs with that type of flavor and it just sounds wrong to me (definitely unnatural), so i ended up getting only a portion warped thus keeping the song's life in tact.
Caridad Fan
02.01.2013
Originally Posted by DJXpoZur
IMO: Use Sync when you can, but know how to beatmatch for when you can not.

To your question as to whether SYNC sounds unnatural.. the answer is NO. The reason is because SYNC doesn't change the swing of a song like Warping does. Sync only makes a songs faster or slower to match the BPM/Grid of another song. (I guess I should say that withing a few BPM sync does not make it sound unnatural, if you go to far off the original BPM you will have issues).

X
When I said "sounds unnatural" was regarding the "glue" of the beats. But someone already gave a nice tip about this on this topic.
Vickey Fransway
02.01.2013		IMO: Use Sync when you can, but know how to beatmatch for when you can not.

To your question as to whether SYNC sounds unnatural.. the answer is NO. The reason is because SYNC doesn't change the swing of a song like Warping does. Sync only makes a songs faster or slower to match the BPM/Grid of another song. (I guess I should say that withing a few BPM sync does not make it sound unnatural, if you go to far off the original BPM you will have issues).

X
Caridad Fan
02.01.2013
Originally Posted by MaxOne
http://www.djranking s.com/2010/04/2...ongs-in-a-set/
As always that guy wows me!
Hipolito Scionti
03.01.2013		http://www.djranking s.com/2010/04/2...ongs-in-a-set/
Caridad Fan
03.01.2013
Originally Posted by djproben
Please don't do this, especially if you're playing rock, funk, etc. You'll suck the life right out of those tracks. If you want to use beatgrids for such tracks, just find a loop near the beginning and/or end of the song and grid the loop and use that to mix in and out. That way you keep the advantage of the grid without messing with the track. Or just beatmatch the old fashioned way. There's no reason you can't combine syncing some songs with beatmatching others by ear. You just have to be careful not to press "Sync" when the beatgrid is not correct.
There are things that don't really should be beatmatched of course. Rock is more about cut and play otherwise things won't add up correctly. Same goes with some funk. The idea wasn't to beatmatch those. I like the idea of an initial loop.

Originally Posted by djproben
Probably depends on the mix, but if you really want to fix this you can sync and then turn off sync, now you can move the jog wheel and get your tracks just perfectly out of phase for a different feel.
Once again... a good idea!

Originally Posted by Morior
The 2 cents worth are starting to add up. Here is mine.

I mainly play trance which is generally, as with all electronic music, very tightly quantized and so even using default beatgrids 90% of the time the beats are bang on. I also have the tracks Hot cued to the max.

I can beatmatch and occasionally just to prove I can still do it, I turn off sync and do a whole set using beatmatching. but here is the thing many purists who bang on about only being a DJ if you beatmatch are in reality only Phase matching, all software and most hardware these days can display the tempo of the track and even using CDJ's most DJ's are dialing up the tempo and just phase matching the track so that the queue when they start the track will be in time. When they toggle the jog wheel they are just adjusting the phase to make sure the beats arent out of sync.

My own take is that I use the tools available to try and craft new music out of existing tracks, so i use sync which manually just does the boring beatmatching for you. It leaves me free to concentrate on using effects, mashing different bits of tracks together and generally allows me to listen and mould the music without getting distracted by having to listen to a cued track in the headphones while I 'match' the beats which is just a waste of time if like me you are not playing full tracks one after the other but tryng to create new music out of the old.

There is one major caveat here though, this only works for me using my own setup. so being able to beatmatch is vital if you are asked to play on some CDJ's rather than just Traktor (Which I use) So while Beatmatching is not really a nessesity for certain types of music and if using Software such as Traktor it is a good skill to have and does make you listen closer to the music while learning the technique,

For non quentized music beatmatching can be the only way to go, as you will be constantly having to adjust the phase for even the tightest of non click-tracked music.
I have no problems with beatmatching. Started on vinyl then cdj so... I believe I have a pretty good ear for that.
Create a new music is something that kind of fascinates me. Always liked production (I left it a bit on the side but...). But the genres i'll mix aren't easy to make "new music" out of it. For me, messing with a rock song as a rock song is just sad and a little bit of a crime! Ehehe. It really depends.
Vaughn Malbon
03.01.2013		The 2 cents worth are starting to add up. Here is mine.

I mainly play trance which is generally, as with all electronic music, very tightly quantized and so even using default beatgrids 90% of the time the beats are bang on. I also have the tracks Hot cued to the max.

I can beatmatch and occasionally just to prove I can still do it, I turn off sync and do a whole set using beatmatching. but here is the thing many purists who bang on about only being a DJ if you beatmatch are in reality only Phase matching, all software and most hardware these days can display the tempo of the track and even using CDJ's most DJ's are dialing up the tempo and just phase matching the track so that the queue when they start the track will be in time. When they toggle the jog wheel they are just adjusting the phase to make sure the beats arent out of sync.

My own take is that I use the tools available to try and craft new music out of existing tracks, so i use sync which manually just does the boring beatmatching for you. It leaves me free to concentrate on using effects, mashing different bits of tracks together and generally allows me to listen and mould the music without getting distracted by having to listen to a cued track in the headphones while I 'match' the beats which is just a waste of time if like me you are not playing full tracks one after the other but tryng to create new music out of the old.

There is one major caveat here though, this only works for me using my own setup. so being able to beatmatch is vital if you are asked to play on some CDJ's rather than just Traktor (Which I use) So while Beatmatching is not really a nessesity for certain types of music and if using Software such as Traktor it is a good skill to have and does make you listen closer to the music while learning the technique,

For non quentized music beatmatching can be the only way to go, as you will be constantly having to adjust the phase for even the tightest of non click-tracked music.
Danae Dumler
02.01.2013
Originally Posted by sendoushi
One thing that kind of bothers me a lot (i'm kind of a perfeccionist)... do you find the sync to be unnatural? Like... the beats are so "glued" that may seem unnatural?
Probably depends on the mix, but if you really want to fix this you can sync and then turn off sync, now you can move the jog wheel and get your tracks just perfectly out of phase for a different feel.

<< Back to General DiscussionReply
  • Page:
  • 1
  • 2
  • >>
  • Total: 55

Copyright 2012-2023
DJRANKINGS.ORG n.g.o.
Chuo-ku, Osaka, Japan

Created by Ajaxel CMS

Terms & Privacy