Can't beatmatch with Speakers! Help :/

gedamial 6:47 PM - 24 May, 2017

Hello everyone guys.

I've been a bedroom DJ for 9 months and, during this time, I've learnt lots of things and among these... beatmatching.

It took me a month or two to be able to beatmatch two tracks in a few seconds.

So where's the problem?
The problem is that I've always beatmatched using just my Headphones!

I've always played the two tracks together inside of my headphones.

BUT I see a lot (and I mean A LOT) of DJs that use both Headphones and Speakers to beatmatch.

With one ear they listen to the cue track in the headphones, with the other they listen to the outside speakers.

"Well" i said "You know what? I wanna try that too!".

Then the problem began.

When I beatmatch in the headphones I can CLEARY ( i repeat: CLEARLY ) hear the beats being not aligned. I can CLEARY hear the trainwreck.

When using the headphones AND the speakers... I can't anymore.

I've tried and tried... it looks like they are ok but as soon as I move the fader up they are INCREDIBLY off.

I can't hear anything. I can only hear when they are EXTREMELY off... because that becomes obvious.
But I can't hear when they're off by a little little nuddge and so on.

This is not a problem at ALL because i can always beatmatch using just my headphones... but I wanted to learn beatmatching with speakers and I'm very frustrated...

i don't even know if, at the end, I can say i've learnt beatmatching at all....

Thanks in advance... cheers

Matt-C 9:02 PM - 24 May, 2017

HI gedamial.

The good news is that you can beatmatch using headphones - congratulations! That's a big obstacle to overcome and it opens up a lot of other DJ skills. But it's always annoying to feel like there's something in the way of progressing. Let's see if we can help you.

There may be a number of reasons why you aren't able to replicate this over speakers.

My first thought is that you have a delay with the speakers compared to your controller/headphones. What is the make and model of the speakers/stereo/amp/hifi system are you using? It may have some extra processing going on in this that introduces a delay, which will throw off your mixing.

Cheers
Matt

gedamial 3:40 PM - 25 May, 2017

Hi and thanks very much for the answer.

Quote:

HI gedamial.

The good news is that you can beatmatch using headphones - congratulations! That's a big obstacle to overcome and it opens up a lot of other DJ skills. But it's always annoying to feel like there's something in the way of progressing. Let's see if we can help you.

Yes, I can do it.

I'll tell you more. It's not that I'm able to beatmatch in the headphones.
I can easily beatmatch when the sound comes out from the SAME source.

Either only from headphones or only from speakers.
I just need the tracks to come out from the same source.

When I try to do one ear headphones and the other speakers... there comes the disaster.

Also... why the hell do DJs prefer to use one-hear-headphone to beatmatch?

It's way easier with just both tracks in the headphones!

Quote:

There may be a number of reasons why you aren't able to replicate this over speakers.

My first thought is that you have a delay with the speakers compared to your controller/headphones. What is the make and model of the speakers/stereo/amp/hifi system are you using? It may have some extra processing going on in this that introduces a delay, which will throw off your mixing.

My speakers are the Logitech Z313.

The speakers are in front of me, and the subwoofer is under the desk.

I adjusted the Serato settings to give me the lower ammount of latency (the buffer size).

What can I do?

Thanks.

Laz219 10:06 PM - 26 May, 2017

My first thought would be input lag as well, I wouldn't expect those logitechs to have much of an issue though- it's usually systems that apply a lot of processing.
Best way to check, play a single track- listen to it through as you are when mixing with your speakers- does it sound like it's out of time between headphones/speakers?
Even a tiny delay makes it pretty much unusable.

gedamial 11:00 AM - 27 May, 2017

Quote:

My first thought would be input lag as well, I wouldn't expect those logitechs to have much of an issue though- it's usually systems that apply a lot of processing.
Best way to check, play a single track- listen to it through as you are when mixing with your speakers- does it sound like it's out of time between headphones/speakers?
Even a tiny delay makes it pretty much unusable.

Yes as I said before: the tracks seem to be perfectly on time between headphones and speakers.

As soon as I move the fader up, there's a terrible trainwreck where the two tracks go off by almost a second...

The thing is... when comparing headphones with speakers there's no such delay!

gedamial 6:13 PM - 19 June, 2017

Any advice? :c

Matt-C 8:07 PM - 20 June, 2017

When you move the fader up, do the tracks go out of time on the headphones too? (You can turn down the master volume, or your speaker volume to test this.)

Cheers

gedamial 8:12 PM - 20 June, 2017

Quote:

When you move the fader up, do the tracks go out of time on the headphones too? (You can turn down the master volume, or your speaker volume to test this.)

Cheers

Hi. Yes, even on the headphones. They are really out of time.

DJ Tecniq 1:16 AM - 21 June, 2017

Quote:

Hi. Yes, even on the headphones. They are really out of time.

I find it hard to believe no one has asked what the specs of your machine are. So what are the specs of your machine? It could very well be the laptop working too hard as it may be under spec for SDJ. Cheers

gedamial 9:22 AM - 21 June, 2017

Quote:

Hi. Yes, even on the headphones. They are really out of time.

I find it hard to believe no one has asked what the specs of your machine are. So what are the specs of your machine? It could very well be the laptop working too hard as it may be under spec for SDJ. Cheers

I'm not using my laptop. I'm using my desktop PC which has a i5 4440.

The speakers are Logitech Z313

DJ Tecniq 4:48 PM - 21 June, 2017

Quote:

Hi. Yes, even on the headphones. They are really out of time.

I find it hard to believe no one has asked what the specs of your machine are. So what are the specs of your machine? It could very well be the laptop working too hard as it may be under spec for SDJ. Cheers

I'm not using my laptop. I'm using my desktop PC which has a i5 4440.

The speakers are Logitech Z313

Gotcha. I would check to make sure you speaker connections are all fine and connected well. Could even be a faulty cable due to the delay. Lastly try unplugging the speakers and reconnecting or update any audio drivers the computer may need. If that doesn't fix it check your audio sound card on the desktop and make sure the settings aren't on a delay or something. To get to the real root of the problem I would try different speakers if you get the same result then there's your answer👍🏼

gedamial 4:53 PM - 21 June, 2017

I thought the problem is that I'm connecting my DDJ-SB2's Master Out to the Line In port of my computer through a RCA adapter.

Then from the computer to the speakers.

I thought this causes the lag, and I would need to connect my console DIRECTLY into the speakers with normal RCA connection.

May it be the problem?

Quote:

To get to the real root of the problem I would try different speakers if you get the same result then there's your answer👍🏼

The answer should be: "practice"?

Matt-C 7:29 PM - 21 June, 2017

Hi gedamial

Try connecting directly to your speakers, anyting else would most likely introduce some sort of latency.

If that doesn't help it may be something to do with the hardware. You should then contact our support team by clicking the green Open Help Request button next to the reply box below this message.

Link them to this thread and explain your problem.

Hopefully it's just the lag of adding the computer into the audio flow.

Cheers
Matt

DJ Tecniq 6:11 AM - 22 June, 2017

Quote:

I'm not using my laptop. I'm using my desktop PC which has a i5 4440.

The speakers are Logitech Z313

Just curious how much ram does your machine have? It's an i5 so that's somewhat decent but an i7 would greatly improve performance. Try just using a regular rca to 3.5 mm stereo cable instead of using an adapter. Could be the adapter or the cable that's faulty.

DJ Tecniq 6:14 AM - 22 June, 2017

Something like this instead of an adapter may be better. Hosa make very high quality cables www.amazon.com

gedamial 11:06 AM - 22 June, 2017

Quote:

The speakers are Logitech Z313

Just curious how much ram does your machine have? It's an i5 so that's somewhat decent but an i7 would greatly improve performance. Try just using a regular rca to 3.5 mm stereo cable instead of using an adapter. Could be the adapter or the cable that's faulty.

My computer ha 16GB RAM.

Yes, I'm using a RCA to 3.5mm adapter which goes straight into the Line In port of the PC.

DJ Tecniq 1:56 PM - 22 June, 2017

Instead of using the adapter just use a rca to aux cable. The adapter may be what's causing your delay. -> www.amazon.com

DJ Tecniq 1:59 PM - 22 June, 2017

Here's an idea hook your speakers up to a diff machine with your controller. If you are still getting delay then try the diff headphone output on the controller.

Chuman 11:17 PM - 6 November, 2018

sounds like the same problem i am having, latency issue
i'm using scratch live on my desktop and mixing is impossible using the headphones in one ear and the listening to the speaker with the other. The lag is keeping me from dropping it on time. I've set the buffer in serato but it's still bad. The question I have is will buying a new soundcard fix it, or is it mostly a pc issue?
Processor Intel(R) Core i-5-6600K CPU at 3.5 GHz 3.5 GHz
Installed memory (RAM) 15.9 usable
64 Bit

can't seem to find any info on my onboard soundcard, it has 6 input connections but the green input and blue output are the only ones that work.

Next question is when I want to use my laptop I'll have to get an external soundcard, is there a particular one people use that is decent in price?

Matt-C 11:56 PM - 11 November, 2018

Hi Chuman

What's your computer model and make?
What's your speaker model and make?
Do you have an amp? Or are the speakers powered?

Cheers
Matt

Chuman 1:48 AM - 13 November, 2018

these are the specs of my PC, someone put it together

Processor Intel(R) Core i-5-6600K CPU at 3.5 GHz
Installed memory (RAM) 15.9 GB usable
64 Bit

i use a Yamaha Natural Sound Stereo Receiver RX-360
and just some old Pioneer Stereo Speakers

I just picked up a SL2 box and the latency seems much better.

I guess I just want to know what specs should a PC minimally have to run serato without a lag.

Thank you for your response
Chuman

Matt-C 7:56 PM - 13 November, 2018

Hi Chuman

There shouldn't be this kind of lag, so most likely there's some configuration issue going on.

It would be best for you to get in touch with our Support team so they can troubleshoot with you. Click the green 'Open Help Request' button to the lower right of this page and our team will get onto helping you out.

Cheers
Matt

Chuman 8:02 PM - 13 November, 2018

thanks

DJ JulioYEG 12:27 AM - 5 December, 2018

try using sync and see if this problem still occurs

DJ JulioYEG 12:28 AM - 5 December, 2018

use a sample and see how long it takes from the time of hearing it to you pressing it. youll know if theres a delay

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Can't beatmatch with Speakers! Help :/

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