Forum: Mix lessons - Topic: Counting BMP

I been trying to do mixes for almost two years and I don't really know how to count the BPM of a song and I don't understand how that works.
Can someone please explain that to me, i would really appresiated

What do you mean count the BPM, all you need to do is play a song with the same BPM and with a little DJ"ing skills match the beats. If all else fails enable Auto bpm and use the beatmatch option !

DJ Homeboy

It's easy listen to a song and tap it with your foot or hand to the beat

Happy Mix'n!!!

some turntables or mixers have a beat button.

you tap the button each time you hear a beat, the equipment then calculates the bpm for you after about 30 secs.

Try out winbpm:

http://www.citylinq.com/firedan/lindyhype/winbpm04.exe

It works just by tapping the spacebar…do it for 15 seconds and your at maybe 97% accuracy, tap for around 45 seconds and you get a perfect tempo in BPM! (I've checked the results against a digital metronome, and it's right-on-ace at all speeds from 90 - 260.

The longer you do it ... the more accurate it is !

ENJOY !

Its not only counting beats my friend You also have to learn Measures so your mixes can flow and not sound like a stampede

Measures? please explain...

winbpm kicks thought it would take me hours but with this little tool it takes alot of trouble out of the hole thing
do yourself a faviour and get it!!!
good luck

Measures ...its kind of hard to explain.

Basically, a measure is composed of 16 beats. And if you listen, everything is grouped by 4. So if you count by the beat, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 ..... you always want to cue your music right on the first beat of that measure.

When I got into mixing .... I just listened and played around with music and evenutally picked up an ear for the technical things and voila .... you're mixing beats flawlessly before you know it. So just practice listening and mixing your songs .... also listen to other's mixes/live performances, there you will pick up the techniques used in DJing.

Hope this is of any help !!
-- Dave --

The best way to learn measures is to listen to a drum track or a break with just drums or base where the music changes tempo or there is a roll its the beginning of the new measure start counting and you will see its 16 beats but always try to count the low end of the beat otherwise you will end up counting 32 beats to a measure any other questions just ask always happy to help
PEACE

oh yeah of course 4/4 16 32 beats is the first thing I learnt about djing ages ago...I just didn't know the term "Measures" that's all.

cheers,

Mike

Another good little trick to count bpm accurately is to make a 130bpm track on software like ACID, and use this to benchmark your tracks against. Some stuff, like breakbeat, is not handled too well by Atomix (sorry guys, but true), so by playing your breakbeat track at it's normal speed, and adjusting the 130 bpm to match it perfectly, you can enter this figure in the bpm and it will mix very nicely without giving atomix a big headache.....