Beat matching (also known as beat mixing) is the art of increasing or decreasing the BPM of one track to match another using pitch control or beat matching software. You can change the speed of any music track using a pitch control slider, found on many professional DJ beat matching CD decks, or using advanced audio editing software.
Beat Matching Software
The best beat matching software depends upon the environment in which you are going to use it. It is possible to match two songs together in a live environment using your PC or Mac. In fact, many DJs around the world are now ‘digital DJs’, it’s becoming quite a rare treat to go to a bar or nightclub and witness a regular DJ beat matching and scratching on record decks.
Live beat matching in OtsAV DJ
The software I use to keep the music perfectly beat matched all night long when I’m out gigging is OtsAV DJ. It’s the brain child of a team based on the Gold Coast in Australia and has every conceivable feature a live DJ would want plus a few more that a radio person would find very interesting. You have two decks, Deck A & Deck B, that can be used like conventional CD players with play, pause and pitch bend hot keys. You can add BPM information to all your tracks using the handy Ots Studio included in the software package. One of my favourite “radio” features of OtsAV is the in built, real time, dynamics processor. There’s even a “radio” setting so you can set up your own radio station! Once you’ve entered all the beat information into your tracks OtsAV will seamlessly mix your music together for you. You have the option to override at any point and mix live yourself – it’s like cruise control for DJs!
Finding the beats of a song in Sony Acid Pro
If you’re more interested in producing beat matched music mixes then I can highly recommend Sony ACID Pro . This funky little package from audio giant Sony contains multitrack recording, mixing, editing, effects and my favourite feature – Beatmapper.
Beatmapper does all the hard work for you. It scans your music track and gives you all the beat information you could need including the all important BPM. You can add 2, 3, 4 or more music tracks to your multitrack and then select an overall BPM for your tracks to stick to. If, for example, you select 120 BPM it will make adjustments to all your tracks so that they are all in sync with each other.
Beat Matching Tutorial
When you’re beat matching using audio editing software you can zoom right in to the waveform of a music track and match the beats precisely. A great way to get started is to use two music tracks (dance tracks are the best as the beats are easy to see on the waveform) of exactly the same BPM. In the example below (from Adobe Audition) the BPM of each track is 132 and they are perfectly matched together.
Two perfectly beat matched tracks
However, in the example below the beats are not matched and need to be adjusted for the mix to sound in sync.
These tracks are not beat matched
It can be harder, but not impossible, to work with other genres of music such as rock because the beats are not clearly defined in the waveform. In this case you need to use your ears and your eyes to mark the position of beats and get the correct BPM. If you’re using Sony ACID Pro’s Beatmapper it takes care of all this for you!
Beat Matching Tips
Try to use songs that are all a similar BPM and genre. It sounds much more natural than, say, mixing an R&B song with a high energy dance track.
Some tracks will never sound good together due to the musical key they are written in. The trick is to use your ears and judge the harmony of mixing two songs together. If it doesn’t sound right just try another track.
BPM Song List
There are some good lists of music tracks online with BPM info already provided for you. Although it’s always good to check these figures for yourself. One good source of BPM songs is DJ BPM Studio.
Discovering How To Beatmatch
In Part III of the book DJing for Dummies there is a comprehensive section dedicated to the art of beatmatching.
About the author
Mike Russell is a radio presenter, radio producer and the founder and director of Music Radio Creative. In addition to audio production Mike has a keen interest in internet marketing, social media and SEO. You can find Mike Russell on Google+.
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