Hey guys,

I'm running into an issue. I've been DJing digitally for about 4-5 years and I'm just starting to move to CDJs. I can get beatmatching down for the most part, except when it comes to fine-tuning the BPM.

You see, when the two tracks start to get out of sync, I can't tell if the track I'm bringing in is going slower or faster, unless it's by extreme amounts. Needless to say, this ends up with me wasting time fiddling around with the BPM, and me not really getting anywhere. Even if I think they're finally in sync, by the time I bring in the next track, it's already of out sync again. This is really frustrating. I've been at this point for a while now.

Any tips?

Memorize the beat in your head. Have it matched. Dont listen to it for 8 counts in your ear. Then listen to it and see how much its off. If it sounds fine tune, proceed to do the process again. Except now dont listen for 16 counts. Listen to it then at the end of the 16 counts in your head, and see where its at. Proceed to fine tune again. Pretty soon you'll rip it hard.

this is the main reason i think djing with VDJ or anythin like that is stupid and pointless
the second you get on the real stuff it doesnt matter one bit.


well anyways. if your using CDJs....they have a BPM count in the bottem right corner of the screen just make sure they both have the same bpm

if not...well then yea like the other guy said youll have to count 16 beats.
or if you have a poineer mixer im pretty sure they all have BPM counters.

personally, I hate using the bpm counters. I put duct tape over them on my mixer, there is just no way of telling if they are reading correctly of if something in the song is throwing them off.

my trick is, turn your cue so that you can hear both tracks in both ears. take the song that you're about to fade into. and crank the pitch all the way up. if you hear the beats get farther apart, you know that you need to slow it down. if you hear them get closer, then you can play with it in that direction to get it as close as you can. once you figure out how which way you need to go, its pretty easy from there. just get it close then make very small adjustments to it till it is dead on. quite frankly, I rarely touch the platter on either CDJs or turntables at all.
I hope my tip helped out a little.

I forgot to mention, if your using cdjs, rather than crank the pitch up (cause if your not used to it, you can forget where you had it set at to begin with) just spin the platter forwards... same thing applies, if you hear it get closer, go that way, farther the other way...
you dont necessarily have to be able to hear which one is going faster just by ear. listen to see which direction makes them phase together.

I know there are some mixers that will tell you the bpm, like VDJ.

BPM counters suck on both analogue and digital. You can't beat match using either. You have to do it by ear whether or not you are using digital or analogue equipment.

If you've got phrasing and everything else down it shouldn't be that hard to adjust to. Try beatmatching the same track. After 4 years of spinning digitally your ear should be very well trained on what synced beats sound like. See how long it will stay matched for.

I can spin on digital as well as analogue. For the most part I use VDJ with the Xone 3D but have also used cdjs and a djm 800 mixer and did just fine.

Don't let other people tell you what you should be spinning with though. It's not where you play or who you play with, but how you play that matters. If they disagree you can tell them to stick their analogue equipment up their ass.

CDJs are a lot more sensitive than vinyl, but just close your eyes and use your ears and you'll find it's not much different if you have good CDJs. What exactly are you using?


Word. QFT.

Another suggestion, that helped me get used to fine tuning and adjusting the first time i touched Vinyl, and later on, CDJs. Mix the same track into itself.

Load a track on Deck 1, bump the pitch slider to something random *without looking*

Load the same track on Deck 2, Match it, again *Don't look at Deck 1's Pitch Slider*.

For CDJ's, If you find yourself looking at Deck 1's Slider alot, try loading the track into Audacity(or any edit program), and change the speed of the track by say...7%. Save As then put *that* on deck one.


It sounded stupid to me the first time, but surprisingly it led to me learning the various tricks I needed to put two records in Sync.

I ran CD tables for about 1 year but now i got scratch live and its alot better i like the feel of vinyl, u feel the pull back and u can us that as an effect. also beatmatching is alot easier because of the visual aid. I would recommend got scratch live but if money is not on ur side then i say do the 8 counts or even 4 counts to match and make notes in a notepad that will help alot. but over all i say get scratch it runs both vinyl and digital....