DJ Beat Matching Tutorial Using the Numark NV

0:00 This is a DJ beat mixing lesson

Alright guys, this is a DJ beat mixing lesson. The kit I'm using by the way is the stunning controller from Newmark, it's known as the Newmark NV. We're using Serato DJ. The track I'm using is from the Karmic Power Stable, Mr Lenny Fontana. The track here is entitled Entitled, sorry, Jerk in the Box, a track entitled Sugar. Okay, so what are we going to do? Alright, now a lot of people are always asking for more info on beatmatching and there's many ways of practicing. This is one of them. Now, first of all you'll notice I've covered over the screens. Now, the NV has two screens and you can pretty much shut your laptop up and all the information that you need is on the screens. Of course, if you do close your laptop while...

...the program is playing, Serato DJ's playing, you'll need to make sure that you set your laptop so it doesn't go to sleep. Very important. But for this practice we're going to cover the screens. Okay, so what I'm going to play... ...is I've now got the radio edit of Sugar on the left hand side and I have got Lost Rocket Remix on the right hand side. If you do want any info on this track, go and check it out. You can check out the link in the description. Also, one of the other links will take you to Karmic Power Records. Alright, so crossfade in the center. Just give you a quick demo first. Now that's all over the place. We can hear that. I'm going to start this one again. Okay, radio edit is finished. I'm just going to start it again, so bear with me. Okay, here we go.

2:50 First of all, the theory

Alright, first of all, the theory. What am I doing? What's going on? Now, I have made sure that the track I'm bringing in is on the count of one. Have a listen. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. And so on. What I'm also doing is... I don't know if you noticed but I'm moving the crossfade from the radio version which is on the left hand side to the Lost Rocket version which is on the right hand side. And I'm moving the crossfade over. Just for pretty much a second at a time. Now, this is where your ear comes in and this is how you will train your ear to work out if the tracks are in beat or for that matter off beat. What you're listening for is the difference in time in between the kicks being in time and not being in time.

4:23 Are the kicks going off even more or are they going off less?

Now, this sort of practice may take months. But what you'll find is over the months or for some people weeks, some people days, some people seconds, minutes. You'll be able to hear the difference in the gap in between the kicks. What I'm trying to explain here is if you imagine you hear the kick on the left hand side, you move over to the right and the kick is slightly off time. What you're listening for... Is how much the kick will be off the next time you move the crossfade over and the next time and the next time. Are the kicks going off even more or are they going off less? If they're going off more, the pitch is in the wrong position. If they're going off less, the pitch is still in the wrong position.

It just means that you may not have to move the pitch as much. If the kicks, though, on the other hand, aren't going off time but they're still out of time. But the time difference in between the two kicks stays the same. Then you have actually got it in time. You just have not got it in beat. That is very important. OK, so let's give it a demo again. I'm just going to move this track back there. So we've got Sugar Radio Edit back to pretty much the beginning. I'm going to move the pitch slightly down. Now I can hear this one is too slow. Listen. Bring it forward. Still too slow. Forward. But move it back. But when I move it back... I need to move it back slightly above where it was to begin with. Too far now.

Down. It's about practice and experimenting. Now at this point, if I wanted to, start moving the jog wheel anticlockwise. Pitch down a bit. Anticlockwise. OK, let's have a look. It's roughly about there. 126.2 126.2 And to prove a point, if I start moving this you can see that's changing as well. All I can promise is that I wasn't looking at the screen on the laptop. OK, this is the Lost Rocket remix which is absolutely stunning. So big shout out to Karmic Power Records. They are bringing out some absolute monster cuts at the moment. Fantastic. Practice and enjoy. Thank you.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.