practice practice practice..... just concentrate on the down beat....or try matching the kick drum.... thats how i started

make sure to set a cue point on a up or down beat whichever you prefer, or some even set it on the clap or snare. That way you can practice dropping the beat at the right time. That will start your mix at the best time, from there you need to practice and master nudging the track and adjusting the pitch slider.

you will eventually get it but need to keep it moving.

Its not cheating to know the bpm's of your tracks. It's usually printed on vinyl, so its info everyone's had even before digital. Using that, if you play the tracks at they're intended speeds, you know you will have to speed one up, or slow one down. Do that first. and then sync the beats. How much comes with practice.

Attpidda's advice is also very good. There's not just one way to do it. Try everyone's advice, and do what works best for you.

Have you set your beat grid that helped me a lot when i started out on controllers. but now with practice i have trained my ears to listen for down beats up beats. and I have my cues differently set where i need them.

I would start off with listening first once your comfortable then you can use visual, your hands should react naturally while your watching the screen to be able to pick mistakes up quickly

the truth is the best way to learn how to beat match is by ear...just practice and in no time you'll get it...best of luck

Put both songs in your headphones that will help, you will hear song you are before or behind the other song and also how fast it moves.

What for hardware for you have because unstable pitch or not enough precise is even difficult for people that are used to beatmatching

and that's exactly why this 5 seconds statement is crap.

sure, you might get a lucky hit every once in a while but for any half-way serious match 5 seconds is just way too short.
one way of getting away with that is using a method called "pitchrider" (check youtube) but the results of that are not too great. that's only an emergency rescue if you're really late for some reason.

Not so... With a bit of practice and good knowledge of your music, mixing two songs together within 5 seconds is entirely doable. I still use SSL and two turntables (no beat grid or Sync). Practice, practice, practice. Non of the techniques listed above come without extensive work. Use cue points if needed, the visual waveforms, and tap-tempo, but never forget your ears!

sure it's possible but not good. maybe for a short edm or hiphop switch over it's enough but you just can't have a serious match in 5 seconds. no matter how much practice.
smaller drifts you can only notice after running the new track for a bit which is more than 5 seconds already.
so no, for a serious transition that lasts for more than 8 or 10 seconds a 5 seconds preparation just can't work. your only option in that case is the pitchrider.

Hey Lenst

Way way way back when I first started mixing, I my experience was the same as yours. Exactly the same.

I had no one teaching me, so it was a long process. It's great that you want to learn this way. With all the wave forms, beat grids, pitch displays, bpm readouts, cue points, key lock etc it makes life a lot easier to "learn". But you can't beat the skill you are trying to get to, so stick at it! Even with all the gizmos, you will need this skill from time to time. Just this weekend I manually mixed to a DJ in another room when i started, even down to the same song in the same phrase, so when they opened my room it was exactly the same tempo and vibe. Works a charm to keep the first few punters who drift in, then I 'hand over' to myself lol.

My simple tip to make your life easier for now, would be to always slow down the song you are going to bring in, before you attempt to mix it. This way you are always chasing the other song to catch up to the correct BPM, always nudging it in the 'speed up' direction, and it takes away a little of the guess work on which speed direction you should be going. I tought someone to mix, and with all the advice I gave, this had the biggest improvement to his ability.

Also, if you know someone who can mix without a laptop, could you buy a split adapter for your headphones and have a listen in to how they go about it. Also something I did when I was teaching.

Learning in headphones is very different from just practicing out loud. I would definitely say learn to mix with one head phone on/off. Your concentration will eventually split so that 75% of your focus is in the cans (the left ear) whilst the other 25% is just monitoring the live song, aware of it, but not focusing on it (the right ear). Some mixers have the ability to do this in the actual headphones and is called split cue. Very useful, but its not on as many mixers as it really should be.

Practising in headphones at home should be easy enough, in a big room with boomy sound and bad (or no) monitors it becomes more of a challenge.

I hope this helps a little. Good luck on your mixing journey :-)

If you can beat match off your monitors with fader open I would try this. It's also good if you're getting a lot of reverb from the room or in your booth.

That is a really cool move...

In regards to the mixing in 5 seconds, everybody is different.
I've been DJing for 20 years and personally never had the need for it; one because my playlists/CDs are well organized and two, I like to take my time... honestly I dont know any veteran DJ who cues up in 5 seconds unless you play like Roger Sanchez...

" honestly I dont know any veteran DJ who cues up in 5 seconds unless you play like Roger Sanchez..."

Junior Vasquez.

I'm not saying it needs to be done... I'm saying it CAN be done.

Just like anything that a DJ can do, it takes practice. That was my point. If you ever watch a DJ routine like Jazzy Jeff, Vekked, Mike D, DJ Craze, Roger Sanchez, etc... You'll see the need for endless practice. Don't expect to perform musical miracles on the turntables without practice. I spend many hours practicing my "5 second mixes". :)

Practice, practice, practice... Absolutely!!! ;)

Practice, simple as that. Turn off your waveforms. Have booth monitor playing the song that's finishing, and have the song you're about to mix in in your headphones. You know the BPM of both songs, so it's simple math as to how much to adjust the percentage. Release on the start of the last song's outro, and use your ears to adjust/nudge the pitch to match for any drift.

As to it being impossible to do this in 5 seconds, that's BS. As long as you know the BPM of both songs, it's actually super simple. If you don't for some reason, it will take a little longer, but still, it comes down to being able to hear the speed of both songs, and adjust accordingly. I DJd strictly with turntables and vinyl from 1993-2000 or so (whenever the CDJ1000s came out), and did everything by ear. Once you train yourself to do it, beatmatching becomes second nature.

not sure what kinds of music you're spinning, but if it has vocals on it, try starting out with just instrumental versions. I got the same advice starting out and found it easier to get the hang of it when theres no vocals at first.

it can be done if a rough estimate is enough. but if you're lookng for transitions of at least 1 minute you're not getting anywhere with a 5 seconds preparation.


lol, that doesn't count.


so, Lenst, don't be disappointed if you can't get it done properly in 5 seconds because nobody can. and those who tell otherwise are just bragging. ask them to show you that with real records ;-)

Five seconds 😂 with practise you can easily be in the right ballpark in five seconds but noway could you do any sort of lengthy mix without pushing and pulling on the platter which is usually very audible

I am gonna be honest with you man. Technology was created to be used so why not use it. When you add music to your library. First thing is to analyse and set grid key etc. once done you scrub thru and find the first down beat of ur track and set a cue. Which is permanent till u delete it. Depending on music style U can even add a cue point at bar number 5 and 9 or increments of 4 or 8 bars which shud all be dow beats.
Hit SYNC and get both tracks to same bpm in a sec.
have quantize turned on. And once you hit any one of those cue points close enough on time, you will be beat matched.

To be a dj now which no machine can help you is when and how to bring in the new music.

Learn to count music and depending on genre again those said cue ponts can help.

For those who hate the sync button. I hope you hate cues and loops as well. And mp3s and everything digital.
Matter fact. Dont hate just embrase cause its hete to stay. I promise. I would say learn to beat match by ear for the knowledge. But its not necessary in these time. Unless u like changing gears in an automatic. Have fun and lets create a some new tricks with all this new tech.

I totally agree it’s there to be used and opens up a lot of possibilities! Somebody who is / was new to beat matching with his ear was a bit confused how people can do this accurately in just a few seconds. I personally don’t use it a lot (usually just on tracks I want to loop etc) because most of my music is ripped from vinyl and it takes a lot of time to accurately set grids

thanks. exactly my point