A Simple, Real World Example To Understand Beatmatching

Beatmatching can be somewhat of a difficult topic to discuss since it’s such a hands on experience. Explaining beatmatching using a post may leave you trying to decipher what I mean while you are scratching your head telling yourself “what the hell?”.

The simplest explanation I could give you is something you’ve probably have experienced a million times but haven’t put the two together.

Beatmatching is simply matching the beats from two songs so both of them are in sync which allows you to mix the tracks.

When breaking down the beat by counting bars and beats, you’ll often use the kick drum of the first bar and count off 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. This simple counting example can be applied to real world examples such as a blinking light while you’re sitting in traffic.

Have you ever sat in a turning lane with your blinker on and noticed that it was syncing with the car in front of you? This is a very simple, real world example of beatmatching.

You’ll notice that at certain points both of the lights will be blinking on at exactly the same time, much like the kick of the two tracks you are trying to beatmatch.

Eventually, the lights go out of sync because one is faster than another. Think of the lights going out of sync as being one track just slightly faster or slower than the other. See what I’m saying?

Now, if you could adjust the speed of your blinker to the same speed as the car in front you’d be able to match the lights (beats) of both cars (tracks).

With a turntable, you have the benefit of using a pitch slider to adjust the speed of the tracks.

If Track A is running at 140BPM and you are going to throw Track 2 (138BPM) into the mix, you know immediately that Track A will eventually get ahead of Track B.

To make sure you can beatmatch these two tracks you will need to adjust the slider on Track 2 so it matches the speed of Track A.

Once you have both of these tracks running at the same speed, you will need to further adjust and fine tune Track B by either nudging the platter to make it faster or touching it to slow it down slightly. It’s generally good practice to use the pitch slider, however, whenever you are adjusting the tracks to beatmatch because of the extra control.

Now that both of these tracks are in sync (think of the lights blinking at the exact same time) you can begin to mix the two tracks together.

Congrats, you’ve just completed a simple mix with two beatmatched tracks!

As you can see, you can look all around you in meatspace to find simple examples of beatmatching. Continue to train your ears and count wherever you go, practice, practice, practice.

I know this is a rather stupid example of beatmatching but I hope it helps you further understand.

Over and out.