Beatgriding tracks

Ok I have watched a ton of youtube videos on how to beatgrid. I get how to do it if the song is pretty consistent on the beat. My problem is songs like KNAS by steve angello. The first part is spot on no problem. The first 30 seconds and last 30 seconds are spot on but everything in the middle is all over the place. How can I beatgrid this song? I was using the tap button throughout the whole song is it supposed to be moving the grid? I also was hitting the grid marker button but it just filled up my entire screen with the markers. How can I get this spot on?

 

What mix of the knas tune is it? The one i have is 128 all through and traktor auto gridded it fine. Maybe hit the bin icon and start it again?

 

Its the orignal from beatport. What do you mean bin? Sorry if that is a stupid question.
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Also sometimes when I hit the small arrows left and right (The ones you use to move the whole beat grid not the bpm) it doesnt move. Why is that
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I figured out why it was not moving I had the load point set over the beat grid. When I save the load point over the beat grid it seems like it is off beat but if I save them in seprate slots (slot 7 and 8) and set a cue point in slot 1 it sounds fine. How do each of you save your beat grids? what about cues and load points?

 

Well the track auto gridded perfectly when I tried it. If you need to grid it yourself, click grid, hit the bin icon on the right and tap the beats in. Drop a beat marker on the first beat and you should be good to go. Cue points and grids are automatically saved I think. If not hit the padlock icon and it will lock it so you cant change it.

There might be better ways but that works for me

 

What is the bin you keep talking about?

 

When you use TAP it only listens to the first few beats you tap, you can keep going for the whole song but it isn't listening.

The way I beat grid is, with Quantize and Snap OFF, to go to the first BIG part of the song, ie, not the Intro, like the first chorus or verse. Press IN and then hotcue 1 to set it as hotcue 1, then change it to a Grid marker.
Repeatedly press hot cue 1 and move the position back and forward until you get a nice beat on the press.
Now extend the beat grid so the lines match with similar peaks on the right hand side (don't worry about the left hand side too much cause that is the intro and it might have no visible beat).
When that looks decent scrub further right and check out the track further down the line and fine tune the grid so it is on beat for the rest of the song.
You can Zoom in to the wave form and see exactly where the grid is at a beat at the beginning and end of the track, try and make this look the same, if you do this for, say, the first beat of a chorus at the beginning and end, it should be a very good grid.
This takes a little bit of time to get used to but I think it's the quickest and best method in the end.
If all of your tracks are grid'ed like this, you can mix between them seamlessly without need for any pitch/nudge control.
If you use Autogrid you will still need to Nudge tracks because even tough they might be sync'ed and have the same bpm the beat is not aligned to the grid in a uniform way.


If you think the grid is not right, test this:
Turn Quantize OFF and Snap ON.
Clear you HOT CUES, lay some hot cues pretty randomly through the track. Now hit those hot cues, you should be drumming. Every time you hit a hotcue it should be right on the beat and you should get a nice beat with no lag (sound gap between your press and the beat).
Now turn Quantize ON and do the same thing but do it on the 1 of a 4 beat count (assuming your track is 4/4 time which im 99.99% sure it is). You should be cutting between sections of the track seamlessly and in perfect time that sounds right (but might be a rubbish mix, depending on where your hotcues are).
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Look at the deck, bottom right there is a little trash can icon. That's how you delete cues.

 

Where do I find the quantize and snap? I saw it in the layout on the youtube videos but I couldnt find it on my screen. Also that makes alot of sense thank you.

 

Hi and apologies for hijacking this thread somewhat, but I could not find any answer to this question in the forum:
When you set the beatmarker, do you set it in the middle of the beat or at the beginning? Let's say that for simplicity purposes that a beat has a wave form the shape of a lemon, would you set the beat at the left of that lemon or in the middle, where it is the biggest?

Traktor's Auto Beatgrid sets it all over the place, beginning, middle and sometimes end. Logic tells me that if you set it in the middle, you will loose part of the sound when you set a cue point, therefore I have always been doing it at the beginning. Also, I guess you should be fine if you do it the same way for all tracks.

Cheers

 

Top-middle of the screen. The S and Q button.
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That is exactly my point in my post above, give it a read.

The way most people prefer is to set the grid at the beggining on the lemon, so what should happen is, with SNAP on, set a hotcue and then hit that hotcue and use a like a drum, you should get the beat the instant you hit it with no lag (empty space before the beat) and not too far into the lemon that you miss some of it.

Where you put your grid lines depends on you, for syncing and mixing tracks as long as you do it in a uniform way for all of your tracks they will mix well.
Yes, Traktor's auto beatgrid is all over the place that's why you still need to nudge the track when mixing with sync on.

 

When you say extend the beatgrid what do you mean by that? When you set a beatgrid doesnt it move the lines for the whole song? This is my problem I am having to set 3 or 4 beatgrids on a track so it is taking up 4 of my 8 slots. How can I lay a beatgrid with out taking up so many spaces?

 

Fatboy Slim - Ya Mama (Push the Tempo) is another song that just sucks to beatgrid. If you don't have the song I will email it to you and let me know what is going on. I really need some help

 

Sorry Bhizzle, got it now. yes there are some (few) tracks where the beat is not constant. But usually they are constant for a while, then change, keep constant at that rate and then change again.

What you need to do there is delete the auto grid (with that icon which looks like a trash can) and then manually set a marker, one for each of those periods which are constant. I read a good thread explaining that herehttp://www.native-instruments.com/forum/showthread.php?t=154507&highlight=beatgrid