62254

Jun 29, 2009  For example, when you use the pitch fader on the master tempo deck to change the tempo, then Traktor adapts the tempo of all decks that have the Sync button on. Syncing the phase matches the beatgrid of the deck to the beatgrid of the master tempo. Normally the Sync button stays on when it is clicked.

Beatmixing has brought with it something that has been quietly boring dancefloors since the first 4/4 beats were electronically created – the tempo trap.

Stuck in a groove at 126 BPM or wherever, many DJs the world over default to hitting “sync” and mixing track into track into track, never altering that tempo, often never altering the genre, and so never adding that extra spark of excitement to their sets that well-timed changes of tempo can bring. If this is you, we forgive you! But it may be time you learned how to escape the tempo trap…

Why play at different tempos?

Tempo changes can be obvious and extreme, or so subtle that nobody on the dancefloor even notices them – but however you do them, there are some solid reasons why you should.

• A track’s energy level is not directly related to its BPM – Just because a track has a lower BPM, doesn’t mean it doesn’t have energy, or isn’t danceable-to. Overlook tracks at different BPMs and you may be overlooking the perfect track to play next
• Tracks sound better close to the tempo they were recorded at – If you’ve stuck on say 126 BPM, but you’re using tracks from 120 to 135 BPM, those at the extremities of this range won’t sound so hot at 126. You’d be better off playing them closer to the BPM they were intended to be played at. (You may think keylocking would save you here, but often it makes tracks sound unacceptably stuttery or dull. Even if you are using keylock, best to play a track as close to its original BPM as possible)
• Learning to alter BPMs makes you a better DJ – DJing is not just about beatmatching. In fact, it’s not really about that at all. Being able to move quickly around the tempo ranges adds a whole different range of mixing and programming skills to your arsenal
• Crowds like it – A well executed tempo change can give the dancefloor time to breathe and recover its energy, can add excitement, can smoothly introduce a new genre, can indicate a change in the entertainment, and can even just demonstrate that tonight isn’t going to be all about X type of music played at Y tempo – great for relieving boredom on a dancefloor that’s maybe up until that point been fed a restricted range of tunes for a bit too long

Changing tempo while beatmatching

All of these methods involve altering the tempo before you try and mix into the next tune.

• Use tunes with tempo changes built in – Some music has big changes in tempo as part of the song. It might have a slow start/end and a fast middle, or it may have a half-speed break, or it may be a salsa track that picks up for the middle instrumental. When you have these kinds of tunes in your box (especially if the crowd knows them and thus is familiar with the tempo change), they can be a great way to get someone else to change the tempo for you
• Change the tempo gradually throughout a song to match the next – If you are playing a song at 130 BPM and you wish to play the next one at 120 BPM, gradually (like 1 BPM every 30 seconds, in small steps) alter the tempo of the first song from 130 to 125, and match it to the second. This way they’ve “shared” the difference in tempo – 5 BPM each. This is better than just syncing the second song to 130 BPM, because it is then sped up quote considerably. It’s OK to continually alter the tempo of your sets this way to gradually match tunes across a small to medium-sized BPM range
• Use keylock to alter the tempo fast – Say you want to flip from a 115 BPM nu-disco record into a hip hop tune at 85 BPM. You could, at a big part towards the end of the nu-disco record (say the last chorus), slow the tempo from 115 to 85 BPM noticeably, say over 10 seconds, but keylock it, so the pitch remains the same. Then, as soon as the chorus is over, beatmatch in the hip-hop tune. The keylock will probably make the nu-disco record sound a bit ropey, but you’re immediately mixing something else in, and the crowd are listening to the tempo change, not the sound quality, so you’ll get away with it
• Use the double/half speed trick – This is an extreme mix, more suited to lounges, bars and the radio than a dancefloor, because unless done really well it is likely to clear the floor, due to the drastic nature of the technique. Basically, you take a tune at a high BPM (say 156 – drum and bass tune, for instance) and mix it into a tune exactly half the BPM (so 78 BPM – a hip hop, chillout etc. tune). Of course, you can do it the other way – from slow to fast – too. Some DJ software will even spot that you’re trying to do this and sync the tunes, although other software will alter the speed of one of the tunes to 100% that of the other, which is obviously no good (this is a good example of why it’s good to be able to beatmatch manually)
• Mix into a percussion loop, speed that loop down/up to the new required tempo, then mix into your next tune – With this technique, and advanced version of using keylock to alter the tempo fast, you have a distinctive keylooked percussion loop (bongos, tom toms for instance), you beatmatch it to the outgoing tune, then when you’re only playing the percussion loop at the end of tune one, you noticeably change the percussion loop to the new tempo, then mix the new tune in

Changing tempo without beatmatching

If you’re prepared to abandon the beatmatch, and bring in a bit of the kind of DJing habitually done by wedding, radio, rock etc. DJs, you can perform even more confident, crowd-pleasing tempo changes. While you could mix a whole night using the methods above, this method might be suitable for the occasions where you really want to make a point – in an EDM set, one or two times a set would be a good rule of thumb.

What you do is find something else other than the BPM to link the tunes, and just cut from one to the other, in one go: no beatmatching required, safe in the knowledge that your linking element will make the mix sound smooth. For instance, if you have two records with distorted guitar power chords in them, they may be so distinctive and similar sounding, that cutting quickly from one to the next – even though their BPMs might be a long way apart – will sound great.

Alternatively, the linking element could be a very high female vocal, or the tunes could use the same sampled riff or breakbeat, or they could have exactly the same words in them, or they could even be two versions of the same song – the point is, you’re looking for a link that isn’t simply the tempo.

Drop it at the start of the break
Another easy way to cut from one tempo to the other is to drop a new record at a break. Go from 140 BPM to 115 BPM by cutting the 115 BPM record in at the start of a three-minute break, and by the time the beat comes back in, the crowd will basically have forgotten the speed of the previous rhythm.

This is a good way of going from house to drum and bass, for instance, because when the faster drum and bass rhythm kicks in, it sounds slick and smooth, but still lifts the energy level in an unexpected way for the crowd.

It’s about programming, not mixing

The takeaway here is that DJs should always be thinking about the best record to play next, rather than worrying about how to mix it in, rather than falling into the trap of looking for something that’s easy to mix and making too many music choices that way.

By trying out all of these techniques and more which I’m sure you’ll work out for yourselves, you’re broadening your ability to do this as a DJ – and that is a very good thing.

Do you conspicuously change the tempo in your DJ sets? Do you think beatmatching at the same tempo all night is tedious, or fine? What else do you do to add a bit of variety to your DJ mixes? Let us know in the comments!

Traktor Pro Sync Stuck On Temporary

4956

Native Instruments has announced that Traktor Pro 3.3.0 is now available, the headline feature being comprehensive iTunes/Music integration.

Other improvements include integration with Pioneer DJ’s XDJ-1000Mk2 and XDJ-700 media player plus the new DJM-V10 mixer, and Midi mapping for the Traktor Kontrol S3 controller.

This launches today and users should check for updates in the usual way in order to get the latest version. More info on Traktor over on the Native Instruments website.

Learn how to DJ properly:Get our Complete DJ Course.

Full list of changes

Traktor Pro Sync Stuck On Tempo 2

Here’s the complete list, as provided by the Traktor team:

ADDED Pioneer XDJ-1000MK2 Integration
Plug and play integration of the XDJ-1000MK2 including full display support, RGB waveforms and all performance features.

ADDED Pioneer XDJ-700 Integration
Plug and play integration of the XDJ-700 including full display support and all performance features.

ADDED Pioneer DJM-V10 Integration
Plug and play integration of the DJM-V10 including automatic configuration of input and output channels.

Traktor Pro Sync Stuck On Tempo Tv

ADDED Comprehensive iTunes/Music integration
Faster and deeper iTunes/Music integration via API, with the option to revert to XML based integration for legacy use cases.

ADDED Custom Mapping (over-mapping) for S3
The factory mapping of KONTROL S3 can now be customised like the mappings of S2MK3 and S4MK3.

FIXED Headroom not applied to preview deck in external mixing mode
The headroom setting is now also applied to the preview deck in external mixing mode.

FIXED Keyboard focus is on Main UI with Preference Window open
When you open the Preference window and press Enter or ESC it now correctly closes the window.

FIXED Scratch controlled deck loses Sync when loading new track
Loading new tracks into a scratch controlled playing and synched deck will continue to play in perfect sync.

FIXED S4MK3 Tempo Fader neutral zone too wide
The neutral zone around the center-point of the S4MK3 Tempo Fader is now as narrow as it was before.

FIXED Decks lose sync by moving the tempo fader on S4MK3
Synched decks are now locked against tempo changes via hardware, such as the S4MK3.

FIXED Some M4A files can’t be played on Windows
All M4A files containing any kind of special characters in the file name can now be loaded and played on Windows.

FIXED Some iTunes playlists are not shown
All iTunes playlists are shown, including those which duplicate names of folders.

FIXED Crash when clicking on Music folder (Windows)
Traktor on Windows no longer crashes under certain circumstances when clicking on the Music folder.

FIXED TagLib related crash on Windows
With this fix we no longer observe TagLib related crashes on Windows and macOS.

FIXED Beat Phase output controller range incorrect
The Beat Phase output Controller Range now correctly shows [-0.5. .+0.5].

FIXED STEMS with inconsistent stem lengths not usable
STEM files will now analyse and play fine even with slightly different length of the individual stems.

FIXED Certain Tracks cannot be analysed
Files will no longer fail to analyse with the error: “Cannot execute BPM-detection due to missing transients! Please analyse first”.

FIXED Star Rating not imported from iTunes/Music on first import
The iTunes/Music star rating is now instantly imported into Traktor on first import/play of the file.

FIXED Focused and unfocused Deck A letter not aligned
The Deck A letter of the focused and unfocused deck are now perfectly aligned.