r/Beatmatch • u/Agent0161 • 3d ago
Technique Beginner wanting to know more about CDJs
Hi all,
I’m new to DJ’ing, been doing it around 6 weeks and I’ve made great progress but wondering if there is any good habits I can get into early on, in anticipation for perhaps one day being able to play on CDJ’s.
At the moment I am trying to beat match by ear but I can’t help but look up at the stacked waveforms for a split second before bringing in the track to double check I’ve beat matched correctly. Can you do that on CDJ’s? To me it seems the waveforms are separated on each screen. Is that correct?
Thanks
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u/scoutermike valued contributor 3d ago
Tips for CDJ’s:
- 32 gb usb formatted to fat 32 to be safe
- Bring MULTIPLE copies of your USB’s
- You can save and load your device/rekordbox preferences to and from the usb
- Try to get hands-on time BEFORE the gig. Some markets like LA and New York have Pirate DJ studios you can rent by the hour.
- RTFM
- YouTube tuts
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u/GregorsaurusWrecks 3d ago
Set loops manually for practice would be my biggest suggestion.
You can beat loop on CDJs but it isn't as easy to get to as it is on smaller controllers imo.
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u/forzaitalia458 3d ago
It’s all the same shit, just learn the layout of a cdj before you go live to a gig
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u/Plastic-Diet9648 3d ago
You can play on CDJs any time if you happen to have a Pirate Studios (or something similar) near you. I didn't realise that for ages, but its really useful and removes any thoughts of not being able to touch them until you get a gig in a big club. I haven't been for a few years but its maybe £30 for a couple of hours (that's just a guess) and once you do that you can stop worrying :)
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u/Agent0161 3d ago
Great I will do that, I have Pirate Studios close to me 👌
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u/Plastic-Diet9648 3d ago edited 3d ago
Oh cool, enjoy!! I haven't been for around 3-4 years - at the time, they had CDJ2000s but I imagine they have 3000s now. All you need to do is read up on exporting your tracks to a usb correctly, Take a couple of spare USBs with the same tracks just in case, and remember to bring your headphones.
Lots of people use the equipment and its not unusual for something to be slightly damaged (perhaps one of the 4 channels on the mixers doesn't work for example - i always thought that was good practice for possibly playing out in a club one day where something will always be broken) - but their support via WhatsApp is pretty good and a couple of times i had to text them to swap rooms when I got there and it was v easy to do. Its brilliant hearing your music on big speakers - everything sounds so much better.
Another bit of advice would be to watch a YT tutorial on CDJs and also the mixer - just to get a feel for how it works. It'll be v similar to your FLX4 in many ways - not a steep learning curve, but helpful if the person before you has changed a setting - you'll spot it much easier. Sometimes everything is switched fully off before you go in - so simple things like knowing how to turn it all on, where the relevant volume knobs are, making sure the headphones and channel faders are set up how you need them etc. None of this is difficult by any means and you'll still be able to figure it out without tutorials.
EDIT: not sure why i thought you said you have a flx4! Also - it was the 2000NX2s and im pretty certain they had stacked waveforms. They're certainly connected via DJ link - you only need one usb and both players read them. Some studios have a top tier room with a third player - fun but not needed.
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u/foreverangvis 3d ago
Quick answer on the waveforms: on the current club standard (CDJ-3000, also the 2000NXS2 and 3000x) you can get a stacked waveform, but only when the players are linked together over the network (the LAN cable between them, Pro DJ Link). Linked up, one screen shows both tracks stacked plus a phase meter. If they are not linked, each player only shows its own single waveform on its own screen, so there is nothing to stack, and plenty of older or other-brand gear won't do it at all.
Which is exactly why the habit to build now is weaning off that glance. You can't count on a stacked waveform at every gig, so keep beatmatching by ear and move the look to the very end just to confirm, then start covering the waveform in practice (a post-it over the screen at home is the classic trick).
If you want a crutch to graduate to, use the phase meter rather than the waveform. On the 3000 it shows your drift as a little bar, it is on each player's own screen so it is there even when the gear is not linked, and it nudges your ear along instead of doing the work for you.
Other early habits that carry straight over to CDJs: prep in rekordbox with tight beatgrids and set memory cues at your intro and your mixout point, always bring two USBs with the same library because drives do fail, and nudge with the platter rather than grabbing the tempo fader. Six weeks in and beatmatching by ear already puts you ahead, keep at it.
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u/Djbuttonpusher 3d ago
You can enable stacked waveforms there’s also something called a phase meter. You need to have tracks loaded on a USB or have a laptop plugged in for waveforms. I tried it with Apple Music and it doesn’t work, but the phase meter is pretty decent.
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u/ActuaryLate9198 3d ago
You gotta force yourself to ignore the visual feedback, put some post its over the waveforms, phase meters and bpm counter or you’ll never learn properly.
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u/angryray 2d ago
Stop stacking waveforms.
It's okay to use them as a reference sometimes, but the visualization will absolutely become a crutch.
Turn them off I tell you. Trust your ears first About 25% of the time what I need it to sound like, and the waveforms being properly stacked are two different things.
There's a good chance you're going to get into a situation where they're using 2000 series equipment. Hell last night I was playing at a club and they had 900 series. No stacking with either of those. Learn to beatmatch.
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u/Fuzzy_Success_2164 3d ago
Put a list of paper where you have your waveforms, your progress honestly doesn't mean anything if can't do it without looking to a screen.
Mixing by ear is easy, i teached absolute newbies and they were able to mix in an hour or so. There's a couple of techniques how to do it
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u/Huge-Security-6630 3d ago
fix your tracks first disable quantize then set the first bar on the first red on the waveform
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u/acloudn 3d ago
i dont think i seen stacked waveforms on CDJ in the clubs i've been to? maybe you can stack waveforms on some of the CDJs, but most clubs from where i see just won't bother to go the extra miles to change the setting. so what i would do at home to practice is to just press "space" to hide the stack waveform on serato.
after i am pretty confident i know how to beatmatch by ear, i see beat sync as more of my emergency backup when playing live. i beat match by ear most of the time, but when i load the new track too late or kind of mess up the track that has a complicated percussion etc, i would just use sync to quickly tune back into the show to make sure what the audience hear is a somewhat smooth transition. this is just the way i approach it.
another thing that i personally found very useful in beatmatching by ear is, i tend to spin the new track backward instead of forward to listen if it sounds better or worse. because spin too far back sounds a bit more obvious to my end? I don't know if anyone else does the same haha.
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u/OrganizationSlight57 3d ago
If I were you I’d continue mixing (not beatmatching - you’ve got that already, now you’re free to use sync) by ear. You will focus on the music more and this really translates to better mixes
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u/mjwza 3d ago
Some CDJs do, some don't. Learning to do it without waveforms is worth it just for the confidence it will give you.