forgot one word

i don't think it's "fake", there are times i have to play some music that i am not that familiar with so to keep it in bpm order helps out a little

The way I catalog my vinyl is first by music type (rap, pop, house, etc.) The second way is by BPM.

I can tell you that in a few of my gigs where I have had "DJ's block", the BPM listing helped me out. Especially going from one style of music to another (i.e. hip hop to rock to old school R&B) Some may see it as lazy. I don't know about fake. But then again, those are probably the same people that said vinyl is dead. ;-)

i just bpm'ed all my records over the last year, to me it just saves time. i already knew how to mix so i didn't feel it was cheating or anything, just more convienent.

I don't know if I am not getting your point or not.
Not having your tracks bpm'd is like being a mechanic without notations of size on your wrenches.
Sure you could get the job done without it, but it makes it easier with it.
It took me days to bpm all my vinyl but it was worth it.

Good analogy. I don't think there's anything wrong with BPM'ing your tracks as a general reference. What I don't like is people that try to beatmatch and mix "by the numbers." Like for exmple if X track is 124.6 BPM and Y tracks is 127.2 BPM, then try to do all the math to figure out the exact pitch % difference and how much to move the slider...blahblah, etc. That I don't do or like. Sorry part is I've actually heard people try to do it this way.

thx for the input

@konix: as long as it works for them... but that ain´t the problem, i beatmatch my tracks by ear but sometimes i´m hustlin very hard to find a track that fits tempowise before the playing track is at its end so i think bpming my tracks would help my slow brain a lot :D

lame!!!!!

lame!!!!!

lame!!!!!

AKA. WAK SHIT!!!

Hey that's cool and what I was saying, as a general reference it's fine.

And the mixing by numbers thing I mentioned mostly pertains to noob and beginners. I don't know any experienced djs that do it this way. I read a lot of dj related forums and I find that is how a lot of noobs try to mix. Use the ears! But yeah I guess you're right, if it work for them, fine, just making things more complicated then they are.

@Dubl - what's lame, lame, lame, wak ish?

If you're learning the numbers can get you close but even if equipment reads the same you still have to get them matched up.

I BPM all my tags so I can get a feel for a track that I might want to play next. More than once I've scanned by bpm and found a track I had completely forgot about.

But 90% of the gigs I do beatmatching just isn't needed.... mobile gigs usually just don't require it... at least most of hte ones that I end up working.

When I first started messing with records it was late 80's and I was more interested in scratching ( I think I had seen Beat Street one too many times in elementary) started teaching myself mixing after a while and I would throw all the slower record at the back of the crate and faster ones at the front. then I started to organize by BPM around the mid 90's because at that point I was walking with six crates of 12" and two (3 row) boxes of 45's, and sometimes a box of dubs (was playing in a reggae sound crew, if anybody else has, you know how many records we walk with) so it was impossible to keep track of everything, because I switch records very fast and play many different genres in one night, so sometimes shit gets all out of order within minutes of hitting the set. Being organized isn't fake or "lame" as that guy said, it just helps you to play more efficently and without creating a huge mess in the Dj booth. With Serato just as long you aren't playing by BPM as some sort of mandatory playlist, what's the difference? It's only a reference guide not a button you press to make your mixes for you.

And it's certainly a good tool if you're the type to try and break new records every week and haven't listened played the track at a venue yet

I usually mix with the All folder and set the bpm order. This way I mix shit I would never think of before. When key lock comes out, its all over. You can jump 10 bpm smoothly. So many doors will be opened. Some that probably should stay closed.

Its only fake if you're wack!

if you mix tracks with matching them with you ears all you are doing is PLAYING tracks!!!!

NOT GOOD FOR THE CULTURE

To each his own. No need to be held back in the name of keeping it real.

???I hope the above has a typo somewhere. You are saying that a DJ shouldn't use his ears? A bit counterproductive don't ya think...

major typo....... i ment, if you mix tracks without matching them with your ears all you are doing is PLAYING tracks!!!!

That's how I use it I use the all folder by bpm!
then if I need a instumental I got it set up the same way!

I would think that's obvious or you would have trainwreck after trainwreck.

<raises hand>

Grammar nazi present and accounted for, sir! :)

I thought it was Nazi... not nazi... :P

any dj can have songs with bpm tags, but what makes a real dj is his ability to mix those songs correctly and have the right song choice, not being able to mix to songs cuz they have the same beat. Im sick of hearing all this wack music (tunes are different, or a dj drops a song over another song at the same level and doesnt adjust any highs mids or lows) learn your shit.....relying on your digital bpm to rock a crowd is lame@

good point lilturk911

How j00 1 mixed teh musics? :D

With my BPMs i can mix faster and better. I you remember all your BPMs you probably don't have too many records.

www.djstuart.com.ar

I don't think anyone remembers the exact BPM's of all their records. But, good dj's usually can listen to a song and know WHAT RANGE IT FALLS INTO.

I have never BPM'ed a record. You know, write the BPM on a the cover. But, I would separate music into crates that mixed or fell within the same range.

Im almost done BPMing all my tracks. I could care less what anyone thinks about it u know. I have over 5000 tracks. When I was lugging around my crates I didnt BPM a thing but I knew what I had. The whole point of Serato is to open new doors by combining two worlds, digital and vinyl. Now I can mix tracks I never had before and endless possibilites. So if I feel like its going to go well I do it. Whats cheating is when you call yourself a DJ and dont DJ. Blend your music, scratch and drop, use intros or voice drops, do whatever you do to do it. A DJ makes music fluent and the vibe of the atmosphere. Dont let the music stop. Just do you.

its not cheating, you have to organize your tracks one way or another, when we used to have vinyl you could easily look at a crate & already know what shit is in there, you can look at it & say okay I know so & so track is somewhere in the middle, i know so & so record is in a black sleeve, now because eveything is in digital form i get overwhelmed by all the songs that i have its like i dont know where what is anymore. Everyonce in a while i'll sort through all the tracks & say hmmm how come i havent played that in a while?

In the end do what you have to do to get your shit taken care of. I just came from a party where the guy didnt have any decks! No turntable decks no CJ decks, he had one of those portable cd players you use for jogging but other than that the dude was using PCDJ,...... the crowd was jumping, it makes me think as a mobile maybe i should rething what the fuck i bring to a gig.

The real question is, are you rocking the spot? Does anyone but other DJs care about anything else?

no

If your shoes don't match your underwear, then no.
:P

LOL

And that's basically the whole point right there. When you sorted your crates you decided what track sits where in your box. You can't do that with mp3's/WAV's unless you organize it somehow. You can't just throw a bunch of tracks into a folder without them sorting themselves. Imagine throwing a bunch of records into a 150 just the way you like it and when you got to the club the records had automatically reorganized back into alphebetical format? Now fuck the 150 imagine doing that time 15 000?


Get off your high horse with the "oh I would never BPM my stuff...I'm a real DJ" "BPMing isn't true to the culture.

You're playing off a laptop jackasses.

couldnt have said it better myself Shamann =P

Really? When I first started doing acappella overlays when I was younger, I did exactly that. I was taught that the new instrumental should be cued and playing within 8 counts or less. So if it wasn't a set I had rehearsed I'd use the calculation for the sake of speed/accuracy. I don't see anything wrong with that at all, as long as you already know how to mix with your ears.

Frankly,the only way I can even look at 3000+ songs is if it is in bpm. That way, I can concentrate on feeling, and not worried if what I am going to cue up is going to even mix. I know it will. If it sounds good, that's another story.And that's what seperates the little dogs from the big dogs. Woof! Woof!

I organize my shit by race.

Me too. My Indy 500 joints are in one crate, and my Daytona 500 joints are in another. I recently made one for the Silverstone 24hr jammie jam. I'm thinking about doing one for the US National 4x100 mens team...

There is nothing wrong with organizing by BPM....It's all about what you play withing that BPM range that's gonna rock the crowd. Keep in mind that just because you have a lot of songs with the same BPM, doesnt mean that any and everything should be blended or mixed together. But that doesn't mean that organizing or playing based on BPM is "cheating".

I use it to gradually build up the tempo of the night...

The only way this would be cheap is if we had auto-blending...that would hurt the culture majorly. No skills needed. This would eventually reduce the DJ to "anybody" status. Learn your art...Learn technique and crowd flow. And keep ur vinyl skills manual. Isn't that the reason MOST of us bought serato? Real time vinyl manipulation not...ummm...not auto mixing! BPM is just a way to sort...think about this way. Even before serato, DJ's were BPM tagging vinyl by counting the beats for 15 seconds and multiply by four. This has nothing to do with actual mixing or skills and allows for more creative mixing. I blend by ear even using Serato... but by looking at the BPM it tells me the blend is close and wont sound like the "chipmunks".

word word word !!!
auto-blending would suck really hard

I learned how to spin using my ears. Then I got the Boss BPM counter. Now I use Mixmiester.
All the Professional DJ's I know use BPMing to sort their music. It only makes sense if you're rocking a party and trying to keep a flow going.

I do think that there is a great benifit for any DJ who is just starting out to train his/her ear before relying on BPM.

At the end of the day despite the advances with technology there is no technology that will ever be able to read the crowd and know what to play.

;-)

In today's "Archaeology Digest: DJ Edition"...

Nostra-Friggin-Damus here! funny how far the game has come (regressed?) since this thread was posted....

Some cultures are rather fragile and disappear when the world changes around them (like the reel-to-reel tape scene), others incorporate change/advances and progress. Which do you think DJing is?

Ain't skurred...