How To BEATMATCH? Beginner To Expert Level!

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It's been a little while since I last uploaded a more technical DJ tutorial! Today I'll show you how to beatmatch! Beginner to Expert 🎛
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[@MusicByDJCJ]

Great video! As a legally blind DJ, I can’t see the waveforms. So, I am always beat matching by ear. This skill is extremely crucial when I’m playing on CDJs with unanalyzed files because Rekordbox, unfortunately, lacks screen reader support. So, I believe that every DJ should learn how to beat match by ear just in case if technology decides to not work properly at an event.

[@Mr.Thermistor7228]

that is very impressive

[@dylvasey]

@@Mr.Thermistor7228 There's nothing impressive about doing something the tried and tested way. Not that I am putting the DJ down.

[@kis4ketchup]

i’m always impressed when a person achieves a task while not taking the easiest route like learning to drive on a MT rather than AT or mixing without modern tech. Not to mention the op over came their visual disability to pursue a passion in dj-ing. Well done.

[@cameronhodgson854]

kis4ketchup it’s equally impressive that someone that’s blind can navigate, use, and comment on KZbin. Guys a champ

[@MusicByDJCJ]

Music is consumed by hearing and feeling the vibrations. Therefore, any piece of music technology that cannot be operated by another sense, besides vision, should not exist.

[@berosinha245]

Holy shit... i've been learnig to mix for almost two years now, never found a tutorial as simple as that going into the absolute essentials of "old school djing", it feels like what i'm supposed to do finally clicked! Thanks for no skipping the obvious. Precious

[@JimLigon]

Epic!. I have been mixing since the 1980s & I still love practicing beat matching without the sync. I usually only use sync when I am recording a set for my radio show. It's all fun for me. Nothing wrong with using sync, nothing wrong with mixing manually. I just have fun & I keep on learning new things. It's all gravy. Love ya. Luke! You are one of the good guys out here. Be safe & be kind!

[@Flightcoach]

Luke this a huge milestone for me, I was spinning vinyl at clubs in the 90s and early 00 but got out of it twenty years ago. I believe we did a gig in leiden together many many years ago at InCasa, so great to see where your career brought you. I made some different life choices i guess. My interest in djing suddenly got back, and now I see they even have bpm counters and sync buttons. Omg I feel old. I remember driving around with my case full of illegal cd's that was the innovation then. Got some catching up to do with the tech hehehehe

[@ltbb6994]

Do you remember those electric pens that used to hurt when pressed, well I stripped one down for a laugh and wired it to my controller sync buttons.. So one night during a party we were having I let a couple of friends take over for a bit, you should of seen their faces when there pressed the sync button what a laugh, best night ever.

[@aripjeetsidhu3819]

Damn those poor sync users

[@fergsNotHome]

That’s so evil, I love it

[@Volun]

I know that I'll probably never need it but I'm really curious to find out how all of this works. Just to know what DJs are doing and what they're actually capable of when I'm watching their live sets. This video was extremely helpful.

[@laurelweber204]

Unrelated to djing but he seems like such a nice, wholesome guy

[@nancyvalenti3656]

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TAKING THE TIME TO MAKE THIS VIDEO. THESE ARE GREAT TIPS I WILL DEFINITELY BE PRACTICING. 🎧😎🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

[@DJ_Cue]

Brilliant, short and sweet tutorial. It's all about loving music, practice and of course loving what you do too.

[@thebletproject7887]

Brilliant Video. I love that your pushing releases from your record label!

[@evbear]

This is great for wrapping my head around beatmatching by understanding it in different ways. Thank you!

[@henrygrey5772]

Love the vibes selector Luke.

[@Schoolforthesoul]

I love spinning on vinyl because beat matching by ear is so much fun.

[@gojdartamas34]

Exactly espacially on vinyl!✌🏼

[@Alpha-ro8sc]

Love you Luke.

[@g4dget]

Thanks for the great tutorial, Luke. Both the Manual and ‘Sync’ beat-matching methods have their place. For me, using Sync frees us up to be more creative in other areas when the rally car is cruising along nicely, but when you hit the rough terrain of, say, a tricky track that didn’t get analysed well by the software, then we can quickly switch back to manual to take control and get safely around those bends.

[@JeremyDahl]

Glad you are back to your tutorial videos. I wouldn't have started playing my gigs when I did, if it wasn't for your tutorials.

[@selenegajraj8663]

Laidback luke you are my inspiration you inspired me to become a dj i am a huge fan of you and i respect your dedication to your work..

[@Stacity]

I have always been a big fan Luke I do have your course but iv been busy with producing but cant wait to watch it .

[@blze2169]

Thank you so much for dropping so much of valuable information!! ❤️🙏🏻

[@MiguelPerez-iq6xw]

It took me a full year to be able to beat match by ear using just the fader in that last example you gave. Worth the patience, coolest feeling ever! I DJ just for myself, I like doing it but I dread playing in front of people lol

[@connorheitzinger4502]

The vinyl nudge sound effect you made was great 😂. I love your tutorials! Please keep making them, because they have helped me improve so much and I love learning from you.

[@matteoborile7439]

Real Djing amazing man!

[@woolichan]

Thank you for this Mr. Luke ❤️ we love you ❤️

[@albertorobinson7611]

Absolutely delightful thanks 👌💯

[@lwaricphethane2091]

You make it look so easy bro, this was really helpful, thank you!

[@soheibrahrah9174]

I'm a beginner and I can tell for sure tha's one of the best video on youtube to explain beatsmaching, the explanation a clear and what I like is that even for basic things that seems obvious you explain them

[@tonichristy562]

Thank's Luke, I like the way you teach us, that's awesome

[@mikaelnordin7112]

Been djing for almost 40 years and the pich mixing,yes i still got it. Hade to try it after de video😊. Havent done that for years.

[@MadRicmusic]

it's exactly like that. Very good lesson for all the beginners outhere

[@Charlie-zg4fl]

Thank you I loved this!

[@cindyschriekenberg134]

Thanks for sharing, super awesome lesson. Mixing way better, now i learned it the old school way!!

[@kis4ketchup]

Loved the matching with the lights as a preview! audibly, it was sooo hard to determine if the track i was mixing in was ahead or behind to determine push or drag.

[@itsmeanro]

THANKS A LOT LUKE FOR THIS HELPFUL VIDEO 🙏

[@djmandocha-theturntableshifu]

Love it man it helps alot

[@juliodefreitas157]

Awesome lesson and thank you for sharing your tips 👍 👍

[@user-jf3gy1ve2g]

Keep doing it learned a lot from you

[@zayas_life]

Nice tips bro! Very useful

[@hey_lilz]

This helped me so much !! Thanks !!🥳

[@whernandezu96ve]

This guy is 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 Thanks for the lesson

[@amychocolat8874]

Thank you so much for sharing ♥️♥️♥️

[@japrar]

Great stuff! I've used that exact looping technique to practice beatmatching; I'm a huge fan of learning how to do things yourself even if there's a button to automate it, because it never hurts to have a deeper understanding. But it turns out that beatmatching is also really fun, so I just don't really do sync DJing.

[@djgarojimenez]

Thanks For The Video Mr. L.L.

[@JoseGonzalez-nw6ml]

Thank you 🙏

[@lumiksmusic]

Nice video with great explanation ✌️

[@patrickmatthews10]

Man, would've loved to have seen something like this tutorial video when I was first learning how to beatmatch on a pair of Denon DN-S1000s 15 years ago (and no sync button then)! Thanks for sharing this!

[@kylechristiangaboy7309]

man, the tutorial that i'm looking for!

[@OgDj2024]

This was a great tutorial! 👍🏾

[@tuksdedeejaytshoeks674]

It's never to late to learn more skills day by day I truly enjoy the video

[@ThabeloChrisMakhele]

I have always wondered how the old guys did it using vinyl and thanks to you mr Luke I have an idea. I wil start practising this so much and I cannot wait to see myself fumble over my controller and the neighbours complain... This is one of the techniques that can make me unique.. Thank you so much. Stay safe!! I always get impressive results with LAidback Luke. From Lesotho!

[@Romgames9]

Greetings from México! 🇲🇽 You are the BEST ♥️🔥🔥🔥

[@josefkoutane8156]

Cool I'm gonna try this when I get home. Thank you sir!

[@devililre]

great vlog luke :)

[@djmobn]

This is wat I'm after thank U heaps kind sir legend

[@TonyThomas10000]

Master of the decks!

[@djkarlthomas]

Great tutorial as ever Luke. Looking forward to the day we can all play out properly again

[@lessieblackwell2030]

Excellent

[@AntonioCampbell]

Awesome tips

[@tattvatandav3155]

thanks for teaching beat matching

[@zolawilliams1]

Wow those Denon decks are SLICK! Nice to see something besides Pioneer. Love the logo in the centre of the jog wheels.

[@ricardocampbell559]

Love it

[@FunnyAsian00]

I imagine beat matching by ears vs auto sync is like driving a car with stick vs auto

[@bigrippp]

Great video

[@connorheitzinger4502]

I love the rough mixing, and adjusting the pitch on the fly. It sucks me into the mix as someone in the crowd. I love the comparison to a rally driver. It really is just about going for it, and figuring it out as you go.

[@shivamsharmaji]

Going to practice it this weekend. Got on to mixing during quarantine, trying not to lean on tech instead train my ears. Thanks for this tutorial, Luke!

[@moyahabomokgolo]

Training your ear is the best way to do, honestly. 👌🏽

[@annabelledelacruz7537]

Thank you

[@fernandocastro1468]

great video

[@seema7462]

I liked your demonstration it was very nice. I am doing dj course now i was struggling for beat match, thanks for teaching easiest technics

[@hanssacosta1990]

thank youuu laidback

[@805Dak]

Laidback Luke & Domastic- U Don't Is so fire

[@LEEOC]

A few seconds in, I love u dawg ❤️🙌 I will learn this all, I love learning hard stuff and fine tuning stuff 😎😍

[@chrisgeo1155]

Hi Luke. Thanks for all of your tutorials! I used to dj back in the days of vinyl and I recently picked up a Denon Prime 4. The sync button is OK but I run into a ton of problems with psy trance and drum and bass tracks, particularly when there are triplet beats. The BPM's are wrong 80% of the time and because of how the tracks are structured the grid is usually way off so the only choice I have is to use old school methods. I remember riding the fader back in the day and pushing/dragging the platter! Brings back memories! DJ's today have it EASY! lol. We had no data to work with other than our ears. While the sync button is great to have for say, Big Room Bangers and structured tracks like house, techno, etc, I think in order to be a great DJ, you have to be able to mix anything at any time with your ears! I just did an off the cuff set of Big Room (which easy easy) and then I got into psy trance and had to get really creative in mixing / beat matching because I was spinning random tracks I was grabbing from beatport and didn't know the BPM's or even the sound of the tracks until I loaded them into the Prime 4. Tracks that are 144bpm were marked as 108 and tracks marked as 155 were 142. It was an interesting challenge! I say: take it to the next level and learn to mix by ear. It's the only way to be limitless in your track selection and get all "pockets" of the crowd hyped up (a reference to one of your other videos lol). Cheers!

[@nik_glas]

For me, using the sync button is like losing control over the mix. I wanna be in control and also I wanna be the one who is responsible if the beat is a little off....

[@musicvideos510]

Good shout. Agreed!

[@EJAY-THE-DEEJAY]

before i bought the prime 4 i used cdj1000mk3 there was no sync button. now with prime 4 i still dont need sync.

[@Garrett_LCD]

Agreed, I love the accountability of doing it all yourself!

[@boothbuster]

EJAY that is why I still like CDJs... they feel a bit more old school and sync isn’t as in your face (seems like that to me anyway, vs controllers)

[@MennoHoman]

sync can be very useful if you have a 4 channel controller and have to switch between decks 1/3 and/or 2/4 or want to sync it with a sampler or other midi devices for example

[@nicolovv6108]

Don't want to start that endless sync discussion but nowadays for the sake of creativity and losing less time, when using more than two decks, I would definitely give SYNC a go even if I can easily master all the expert tehniques. To conclude, I consider that the most fair way of using sync 🙏

[@DJFusia]

AMazing tutorial !!!!

[@djedoedo7943]

It’s like , driving a manual car . You are driving the car ,changing gears , pushing clatch pedal, so this feeling is kind of tasty for you , plus you look like more professional and it’s good . Luke , really happy to see your video ! Fight 👹

[@DAVEDigitalandVinylExpert]

Great video. The other reason why we used to ride the pitch is because we had belt driven turntables and they used to skip if you breathed too heavily let alone put our hands on the platter lol

[@soccerking710]

Cats who do it the old school way are beast mode on the decks.

[@ln4ron1n47]

When the sync button doesnt work then you need to beat match by ear and also like you say its a rollercoaster ride... 😍😍.... Love it...

[@liftedaura99]

Or you can just adjust the bpms normally 😂 with the tempo slider and make sure you drop it in on the 1

[@joaonazz]

Nice!!!! Great video!

[@zinhlejiyane6979]

very helpful

[@patricialucero4329]

Thanks for the video Luke, I liked the part when you beat matched by ear. I’m going to try the tape thing.

[@afxtwin1337]

Pitchriding is absolutly necessary if you want to be confident to play vinyl in any club, because some still use technics 1210 mk2. The mk2 have a quartz lock which makes it super hard to nudge and drag. i remember visiting a friend after i just learned to beatmatch on my stantons 150´s and was loosing my mind on his technics hahaha.

[@Abuti.tk_]

Thanks luke🔥🔥🥺: Learnef A lot

[@Abuti.tk_]

Learned alot*

[@djmichellegarza]

I learned it without touching the platter, only using the pitch as he taught in this video. Great tutorial for everyone at any level.

[@melanger7938]

Soo good 🔥👏

[@jeffclydecainong2444]

Wow, what a sound tooooooo

[@HDiCurse]

Been waiting for something like this Luke, missed you uploading videos to teach us stuff. Keep it up

[@JayJaytheJetplane41]

Your VLOGS are the absolute best!! I have definitely grown as a DJ thanks to you!! 😎🙏

[@herogen.6438]

Simply stop looking at the music and start listening instead... Amazing content! Thank you🙏

[@aa6zi]

Ayos! Ang galing!

[@thisisben_]

what a technique ! its so dope & so excitin' thank you so much ......... God _Bless

[@LEEOC]

After watching ❤️❤️❤️❤️ so much love 🙌 I've been making DJ mixes for a while but with best sync, been needing that push to learn for real 🤝 my philosophy is if someone else can do it so can I, and i may not be the best, but I definitely won't be the worst 🧐😆

[@exho_oooo]

Cheers Luke. This is going to come in handy sometime!

[@lindsaym7659]

Beat matching by ear is fun it’s like a game !

[@nosephemera7960]

Wow man. As well as being a fantastic instructor... You really are "Laid Back"! I guess that's why you're you the GOAT. :-D

[@diamondshark11]

Both beatmatching by ear and sync have their place. Some songs weren't written or performed by a computer, or don't have any beat correction applied in post- Sync will never handle those properly, not without extensive preparation work with Ableton or other modifying software. Developing the brain skill to ride the tracks (especially when the drummer goes loopy or the composition beats change) is an incredibly valuable skill, and opens entirely new arenas of songs to play during sets. That being said, if you *are* using computerized tracks, freeing up extra time or brainpower to work FX, samples, or more creative mixouts can be a benefit of using Sync where possible. Use sync to free up your hands to the limits of your creative mixout ambitions.

[@Garrett_LCD]

Awesome tutorial once again! When I started off mixing 5 years ago, the sync button was handy for a beginner, but now I don't touch them at all because it's much more satisfying to beat match by ear. I'm curious Luke, what's your opinion of key lock? So that the slider only adjusts tempo and doesn't also bend the pitch. I find it useful when mixing tracks with prominent vocals so it feels more cohesive and people hear the vocal they're expecting, in the right key, even if it's played at a faster or slower BPM.

[@danielknapp697]

Great stuff, thanks refreshing these basics we all ought to master oh so perfectly, but unfortunately often renounce in favor of the notorious sync button...

[@AlfredLowvideoDJ]

learning & mastering the hard manual ways is to train our hearing & brain processing better after that auto sync is for creative mixing transition. All pros have to begin with manual ways just like Rally & F1 drivers to feel & control the equipment.

[@guido69x]

Easy way I found to explain how beat matching works to begginers,is with 2 cars on the high way,gotta put them side by side,so they must have the same speed,and one will need a push to get next to the other or vice versa. Master Tempo,Quantize,Key Lock,help a lot to mix in key and to change the tempo of a music with vocals without making the singer to sound like Mickey Mouse or Darth Vader if we increase or decrease the tempo. Sync can be handy,but it isnt always accurate,tracks that can have different tempos also have different compass,time signature or beat grid!If a guy doesnt know to beat match by ear,wont notice if the tracks have different beat grids. Love to see your videos and your technic under a microscope ;) Cheers from Portugal.