I think it's personal preference. I use Keylock now but before it was available to SSL, I never went past 3 IF IT SOUNDED WRONG. Some songs you can speed up and be OK but the majority you can't. So, I would speed it up on the instrumental only then bring it back down and throw in the regular song. I don't have to do that anymore.

The same applies to -3-4%

But... why would anybody want to slow down or speed up a track that much without keylock? That's beyond me.

Yeah... I think it's stupid! It always ruins my night :P I need to learn no to listen that much :P But hey... the Djs always suck anyway :P... But i think it's strange... All songs are pitched a bit and not even beat matched... it's like they pitch them to get a faster groove on or something :S

That's weird. I usually don't think about that. As long as they're not wrecking, I think the pitch problem is the least of my problems. It's hard to find good quality club DJ's nowadays anyway.

I knew one club where you kinda had to do that b/c the pitch control was messed up... but I have seen DJ's around here do that too for no reason though

Some radio stations used to do that on the air, but at like 2%...it created just a lil bit of momentum...an "energy" if you will...

Personally, I don't go over +3 with out keylock...

I also think some DJs who do that probably don't know any better, or are too lazy to figure it out!

On the other hand, SSL still has some digital artifacts with keylock on...so maybe that's why they don't use it...

I ride my pitch at +3/+4 all the time, especially when playing in the club. I feel that it gives the set a little extra energy, even more so when the BPM's drop below 95. The sweet spot is usually somewhere between 98-102 BPM's, and another sweet spot is 117-120. I don't feel comfortable slowing a track down at all.

Oh, but I always rock the key lock

well its just like i know ALOT of DnB DJ'd who keep their pitch around +6 to make it faster

What's the point of having that much pitch range if you're not supposed to explore it? LOL this site comes up with new rules to suck the fun out of everything daily.

You can't do this, you can't do that...If the crowd's dancing you "only up to +3" Dj's can suck the left one, there's no rules in rock & roll.

;p

there's actually a very scientific reason for this.

stuff sounds slower than it really is when you play it loud.

thus, DJs (especially those who keep their monitors loud) will have the tendency to pitch it up to get the tempo up to what they're "feeling"

ever notice when you go back and listen to a live set, how freaking FAST it sounds if you're listening in a proper and closed environment? well its the same effect. loud = sounds slow. quiet = sounds fast.

oh, and as far as the science... it has somethign to do with wavelengths and decibels, a buddy of mine wrote a thesis on sound design for loud environment's at Indiana University and he had all kinds of wild white sheets about this stuff.

Shit sounds slower when you're high... not when it's louder. lol

okay cheech

amen, one of the smartest things Ive ever heard on this forum
+1

i play 'sexy back' at 131bpm and fit it in the middle of electro - and it works - so go figure how long the pitch ride is

If it's a hip hop track below 110 bpm or around there, then I tend to have the pitch set at about +3%. It's funny cuz I didn't realize so many other DJs do it, too. Now I'm gonna have to stop doing it so I can be unique.

=P

One reason I play my stuff faster is I have technics 1210 MK2... which have a dip at "0" in the pitch adjust that the slider sits in and the little green light comes on. It pisses me right off when all the records are more or less the same speed and you have to make minor adjustments around the "dip", you just can't get it perfect... so play them faster so you have no "dip" to worry about.

But that don't answer your question as I think the later 1210's had the dip removed.

I play most tracks at +2 thru +4 based the crowds energy. Generally, I play them at regular speeds early in the night prior to people getting drinks in their system.


I feel people hear tracks at +0 all day long on the radio and should get something extra/different at the club.

I used 'keylock' whenever it sounds like the Chipmunks.

dude its because 3 is the magic number

I don't use keylock because I'm used to vinyl, also I'm used to keylock making music sound tinny (because most of my experience with keylocking is on FL Studio, Cool Edit Pro, and Audacity, which don't have great algorithms for it). They might speed up tracks just to make them a little faster since it's in the club, but I don't know why they would do it on purpose if it would noticeably change the . Also my pitch isn't calibrated right, it's +3.3% at +4.5% on the tables, so +3 on the tables is actually not too bad.

XFADE, I am glad you said club DJs when you first posted. When I first learned beatmixing to play in the clubs, I was taught that style to increase the energy in the club. Just as Sixxx and other Fam posted before me the thing to keep in mind is the quality of the track. I agree with most everyone here because they have valid reasons for pitch increase. I am not a fan of music that sounds like Alvin and the Chipmonks. But if I want to play a track at 120bpm and my current set is at 92bpm, there may be a couple of 3% increases before I reach that speed. Again quaility of sound should be the focus and not the % or number of pitch increase.

i do it to stay away from zero because if the two songs are slightly close to each other tempowise it seems to take a lot more babysitting when one is in zero and the other is like "0.25"(maybe because of some turntable "0" dip or whatever) but if they are away from zero I can match them up quicker and get on with picking the next song, rocking the mic, etc.

I don't like to go up to "3" all the time but I do stay away from zero in case a song is farther away from the previous song in tempo and it's better to go up because I usually go from low to high tempo anyway (then the next song, already being faster, can be closer to zero).

i like to use pitch lock also, it's just smart sound IMO.

amen spendy, i got 1210 also

& I also like the speed boost

+2

Agreed.

The pitched up voice hypes it up more.

It really does work... it has something to do with the way people perceive sound.

I'd be interested in reading anything you could track down about this AdamJay :-)

who cares.. do you... djs worry too much about "why other djs do this and that...

Yeah, me too.

The only time I use pitch lock is to do acapella blends. I agree with Shamann about exploring the pitch range on tracks. Nobody is saying to enter the forrest and visit the chipmunks but come on, you're lmiting yourself if you wont go past +3-4 on the pitch slider.

lol @ visiting the chipmunks at the forest.

I'm used to most DJ's over here pitching the shit out of every track without keylock. This is going back to the days before keylock and CD players, I remember tracks in most maistream 'r&b' clubs being played closer to the +8 to get the tempo up and make the tracks more danceable I guess?. Never really understood why??

+8 without keylock? whoa. That's excessive (if there are lyrics)

+8 with no keylock would sound like shit

It's interesting to see everybodys opinion about this, someone wrote somthing about "worrying about what other DJs do".. That's not the case... I'm just interested in why many people do it :) I myself think it sounds like crap :/ I try to stay as close to 0 at all time =)

+1

It does...

AdamJay - very interesting that you mentioned that about louder seems slower tempo and lower volume seems faster tempo.

I've noticed when playing at the club (I play minimal techno) that it does happen and sometimes I tend to speed it up a bit more than when playing at home for example just to reach the right "feeling" or groove. Maybe it has to do with the acuostics of the club/room also, since there's more reverb and the dancefloor's speakers are not pointing at you it seems the beat takes longer to come and go, maybe creating a perceived slower speed too.

Interesting...

BTW I don't do this to create more energy necesarrily by incrasing bpm, it's just that it has happenned to me when hearing the club system (turning down the monitors) it's as if for example 125bpm was in slow motion, so I adjust a bit so it seems right.

Im all over the pitch considering that I spin uptempo hip hop with old school house music... and some of my really old house tracks are way slower then the more recent traxx, so being +8 or -3 with the key lock is not a problem.. So being versatile with your music as well as with your pitch is a necessity in the club.

Many radio stations play songs at different pitches over +0 because they have to fit everything into a tight schedule, and they don't even use key lock. As a result. when you play a song at +0 in the club, people don't feel it as much cos it sounds slow, but its just cos of the radio station bastards!

Amazing.... I was wonder why I live set I did sounded fast as hell. I thought I had screwed up the record settings on the recording program. Your buddy must be talented, cause IU's Music school is like the Harvard of music... I'd like to read his paper too. AdamJay is that dude!

They talked about this in an old Bass 305 track...

I looked it up:

www.bestbuy.com

(No Logout, No Homo)

Listen to the first track sample, and (of course they cut it off) it's the last thing he says about low frequencies.

I think he goes on to say that frequencies sound higher pitched when played at higher volumes...

I do it all the time. But I do it cause I get really bored if the music is slow. I need to add more energy to it. Personally, I don't like playing anything below 100bpm.

Probably cause you arent drunk at the school dances

I work At Clear Channel In Louisville and all the rythm stations pitch everything 3%. I have heard many reasons including.. it raises energy and when you change to another station it feels depressing or disturbing or something.

That, and more time for commercials = More $$.