Monday 20 December 2010

When To Use An Auto Beat Match Counter When DJing

By Will Smith


When it comes to using an auto beat matching counter while you are DJ'ing there really is no right or wrong answer. What beat matching is, is an art form that is inherent with being a DJ.

It's but natural for a starting-out DJ to want to use his turntable's auto beat counter as often as possible. There is nothing wrong with that especially when you are just starting out. Let me give you an example. If you have the Numark TTX1Direct Drive Turntable, you can use its auto beat counter. Just place the record on the platter, then the needle on the record, and the glowing LCD screen will show the beats per minute.

What the auto beat counter does is help you calculate the beats per minute of a song.

An automatic beat counter gives you a good advantage to mixing. You can find out the BPM of a song and mix it with other songs that have the same beats per minute.

Your goal is to get a sense of rhythm and timing and a beats per minute or (BPM) counter can do that. When you are using your BPM counter keep in mind that it may not always give you the correct BPM of a record in order to beat match. With time you will discover that this is what sometimes happen.

The more you know your record and the more comfortable you are with your DJ equipment the less you will find yourself relying on you BPM counter.

What the auto beat counter is for is primarily to give you an idea of a record's speed. Yes, you can match beats with it but you don't have to depend on it all the time. Don't allow the BPM counter to become a crutch for you. Let it aide you in developing your sense of rhythm and timing.

Beat matching is an art that once you have learned will allow you to mix music a lot faster and easier. You can do a repertoire of mixes and please your audience.

If records have an obscure beat patters, which some of them do, then that is the time when an auto beat counter can serve you best. They also work well with music that is upbeat and a little more difficult to get a sense of rhythm. In this case using your auto BPM often is suitable in my view.

As you have previously been cautioned, don't let an auto BPM counter be a sort of a life-saving device for you. The more you can rely on your senses the better off you are.




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