How to Beat Match

Posted on September 9th, 2009 by aileen

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Throwing a good party requires a good set of songs your guests can listen to and dance the night away. If you’re a budding dj or a music enthusiast, beat matching is a skill you might find interesting to learn. Here are some ways to beat match.

Goals of Beat Matching

Apart from giving the party crowd an excellent set of music they can dance to, The primary goal of beat matching is to make 2 songs follow the same beat so when you play both songs together, it’s like you’re only listening to one song.

Measuring and Counting Beats

To make it easier for you, cue up tracks that have the same or almost identical Beats Per Minute (BPM).

There are records that already indicate the BPM of the track. If this information is not indicated, you have to count the beats by yourself.
The most common BPM is 120. This means that there are 4 counts in one measure or 120 beats for 1 minute.
For beginners, you can try getting 2 copies of a track and match the beats.
In your search for songs, you’ll find tracks with almost the same BPM. Say, one song has a BPM of 115 and the other has a BPM of 120, though you can easily get away with plainly cross fading the tracks, there are instances that the beats may drift apart. To an ordinary party goer, this may not be noticeable, but somebody with a trained ear will easily notice that your beats aren’t synchronized correctly. This is why proper beat matching is important, especially if you want to overlap songs for a certain period of time.

Identifying the First Beat

The element you’d want to listen to is the bass drum. This will guide your count and measurement of the beats. Try beat matching house tracks as their measures are very easy to identify and count.

Listen for the bass drum of the song already playing. Start the other track on the first count of the measure. This is usually the first bass drum you’ll hear in a measure.
Get the feel of the drum by moving the vinyl back and forth. You’ll hear what the bass drum sounds like when you move the vinyl.
Cue the second song by placing the needle just before it hits the bass. Release your hold on the second track when your main song hits the first count of the measure, provided that the first beat is the bass drum.

Polishing your Mix

Listen to the mix you’ve made.
If you were able to correctly align the beats, your mix would be seamless.
If not, you’ll hear a delay on either the second track or your main track.
Cue your tracks again to correct this mistake.

Tips:

The basic things you have to remember when beatmatching are:

The BPM difference between two tracks shouldn’t be greater than 4 BPM. A difference greater than this value would make it harder for you to match beats.
When mixing tracks, adjust the lower BPM to match the higher BPM.
Never adjust the track with a higher BPM to match the track with the lower BPM.

Music gives life to a party. Make your party an unforgettable one and connect to your audience by throwing in some excellent party mixes. While you’re at it, keep in mind what Plato once said, Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul.