Beatmatching

Beatmatching or pitch cue is a disc jockey technique of pitch shifting or timestretching an upcoming track to match its tempo to that of the currently playing track, and to adjust them such that the beats (and, usually, the bars) are synchronised — i.e., the kicks and snares in two house records hit at the same time when both records are played simultaneously. Beatmatching is a component of beatmixing which employs beatmatching combined with equalization, attention to phrasing and track selection in an attempt to make a single mix that flows together and has a good structure.

The technique was developed to keep the people from leaving the dancefloor at the end of the song. These days it is considered basic among disc jockeys (DJs) in electronic dance music genres, and it is standard practice in clubs to keep the constant beat through the night, even if DJs change in the middle.

Beatmatching is no longer considered a novelty, and new digital software has made the technique much easier to master.

The beatmatching technique consists of the following steps:

One of the key things to consider when beatmatching is the tempo of both songs, and the musical theory behind the songs. Attempting to beatmatch songs with completely different BPM's (Beats Per Minute), will usually result in one or both of the songs sounding too fast or too slow. For example, mixing a song with a BPM of 130, and a song with a BPM of 90, would most likely not sound great, as to be on the same beats per minute, one song will need to be sped up, and one slowed down. When beatmatching songs of similar BPM's it is important to consider the genre of each song. While most songs with the same BPM have similar beat structures, some genres will feature songs that won't mix well with others.

When beatmatching, a popular technique used by many disc jockeys around the world is to vary the equalization of both tracks. For example, when the kicks are occurring on the same beat, a more seamless transition can occur if the lower frequencies are taken out of one of the songs, and the lower frequencies of the other song is boosted. Doing so creates a smoother transition that the audience would generally react to better.

The pitch and tempo of a track are normally linked together: spin a disc 5% faster and both pitch and tempo will be 5% higher. However, some modern DJ software can change pitch and tempo independently using time-stretching and pitch-shifting, allowing harmonic mixing. There is also a feature in most modern DJ software to change the tempo but keeping the original pitch, this is often referred to as master tempo or key adjust.

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