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Forum: Music discussion

Topic: How the hell do you beatmatch old music? Is there any software that'll quantize (fix) the timing?

This topic is old and might contain outdated or incorrect information.

Anybody who's tried beatmatching 60s & 70s music knows how difficult it is. Almost no drummer in those days bothered using a metronome, and as a result the beat is all over the place. Beatmatching oldies is a skill that only the elite are capable of, and I am simply not one of those people.

Google has come up with nothing, so I turn to you guys. Sure, I could manually fix the timing of each song in FL Studio, but that could take months and I simply don't have the time (or patience) to do such a thing.

So how do my fellow DJs deal with old R&B & funk songs? There's gotta be an automated software solution available. Or maybe you guys could recommend some places where I could download quantized oldies? (For free of course, I really don't want to purchase my music collection all over again)

Thanks a ton.
 
Posted Fri 18 May 12 @ 11:22 pm
You keep one hand on the pitch slider. Keep one ear in the cans.....never give up on the blend. The sync button is only a guide, not a sure thing. Work the mix. That is how to mix old music.....
 
finding it to be a hand full myself but i like that advice about hands on the pitch also get in and get the other out if you listen to other djs they they dont stay in long holla back
 
Ableton Live.

If you need to correct the timing of tracks with unsteady tempos then import them into Ableton Live and warp them.

Warping is a step up from the grid markers that most DJ software uses, because it allows you to actually move the position of the audio (i.e. a drum hit) to the correct position instead of struggling to line up a grid (with fixed spacing) to the audio.

In other words the audio is flexible, and you can move it to be exactly on the beat.
 
 
Mixmeister (7.x, fusion or studio) also requantizes the music. You might simply import the tracks there, and save the output again. It's not what its meant for but yeah - will work :)
 
I haven't seen any software that will do what you want, but the sync button will get you close, I use my ear and the pitch bend to get it where I need it to be, I play a lot of that music for certain gigs I do. Even using an app like Audacity, someone correct me if I'm wrong, you can only do so much with the output because of how the master was initially created.

I've used audacity to import vinyl I had that I couldn't find in MP3 format, it took some playing around with it to get it right as far as quality goes. But you still have somewhat the same issue with beatmatching.

Practice, practice, practice.

I know this is a late post, hope it helps. Nothing better than your ear!
 
groovindj wrote :
Ableton Live.

If you need to correct the timing of tracks with unsteady tempos then import them into Ableton Live and warp them.

Warping is a step up from the grid markers that most DJ software uses, because it allows you to actually move the position of the audio (i.e. a drum hit) to the correct position instead of struggling to line up a grid (with fixed spacing) to the audio.

In other words the audio is flexible, and you can move it to be exactly on the beat.


+1 on the ableton warping.
 


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