Beatmixing

Beatmixing is a disk jockey technique of mixing two tracks so that the beats of one occur at the same time as the other.

History

Beatmixing was invented in the late 1960s by Francis Grasso, who tried to keep people from leaving the dance floor between the songs. Initially he was looking for records with the same tempo, counting the tempo with a metronome. When the tempos didn't match, he was adjusting the pitch control on the turntable to bring the beats in sync. "Rosie", a mixer built for him by Alex Rosner, let him listen to any channel in the headphones independently of what was playing on the speakers, allowing him to beatmatch the records by ear; this became the defining feature of DJ mixers.

These days beatmatching and beatmixing are considered basic techniques among DJs in electronic dance music genres, and it's standard practice in clubs to keep the constant beat through the night, even if DJs change in the middle.

Technique

The beatmixing technique consists of the following steps:

# While a record is playing, beatmatch a new record to it, using headphones for monitoring. Use gain (or "trim") control on the mixer to match the levels of the two records.
# Restart and slip-cue the new record at the right time. Pay attention to track structures; careful phrasing can make the mix seamless.
# Before fading in the new track, check that the beats of two tracks match by listening to both channels together in the headphones, as the sound from the speakers can reach you with a delay.
# Gradually, fade in parts of the new track while fading out the old track. While in the mix, ensure that the tracks are still synchronized, adjusting the records if needed.

Pitch and tempo

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. This technique is referred to as beatmatching.

Radio Imaging

Beatmix or beatmixing however should not be confused with another term used in radio imaging. Radio imaging refers to any produced audio material sung or voice over used to identify a radio station. A radio imaging company in Seattle, Washington called ReelWorld used the term "beatmix" to refer to a type of imaging material in which a jingle, a voice over liner and audio clips are produced to blend on a song intro. The concept is still the same with DJ beatmixing.

References

ee also

*Beatmatching
*Harmonic mixing
*DJ mix
*Segue