What is Beat-matching?

It is an art of mixing two musical compositions together neatly by speeding up or slowing down one of the tunes to align their rhythms.

A good DJ knows a way to beat-match, and I am going to share with you 7 steps to getting started.

Step 1: You have to have a way to hear one track in the headphones while another track is playing on the primary sound system.

Step 2: Play a track through the sound system.

Step 3: Find another track in your headphones you wish to beat-match with the one playing. (This is done on a DJ mixer by turning on the Cue for the track you wish to hear.)

Step 4: Find the first beat of the track you are going to mix in, and hold it right there. If you’re using turntables you can just grab on to the top of the record to essentially pause the track where the beat begins.

Step 5: Listen to the beat playing through the primary speakers. Wait for it to get to the first beat of a cycle. (Music in 4 / 4 timing sometimes is all built around cycles of 4 and 8 counts. Ie. 4 beats in a bar, and 4 bars segments that lead to builds and changes in the music. ) When you feel the music hit on the first beat with a crash or whatever, that’s right when you want to play the beat you are mixing in.

Step 6: Straight after releasing your hold on the record, you must listen closely in your headphones with one ear to detect whether the beat you are mixing in is going slower or faster than the one already playing. If it’s going slower then adjust the pitch slider, and maybe even give it a little push to help it catch up to record A quicker. If it is going faster than record A then turn down the pitch slider on the turntable accordingly to make it a same speed. You may even wish to touch the side of the turntable plate to slow it down quicker.

Step 7: When you have the beats aligned perfectly (or close to anyway), move the cross fader on the DJ mixer to the center with the bass cut on the beat you are mixing in. Then when it feels like the right moment switch the basses either slowly or fast and the switch over to the following track on the first beat of first cycle.

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