How to prepare music for use in Traktor

If we are talking about modern electronic dance music then I say DO round the BPM since most of this kind of music have a xxx.00 BPM value.

Take your example, djHSL. Lets assume that the 130 BPM track was created in a modern sequencer application such as Cubase, Logic etc. Then the BPM will be a solid 130.00 BPM.
However Traktor will most likely do a beat detection that isn't 130.00 bpm. Instead it will be something like 129.93, 130.05 or like you wrote 130.2. This is simply because Traktors beat detection isn't accurate enough.
By using a beatgrid and rounding this value to 130.00 BPM (the real value) you make sure that the value is correct.

Your example is correct though djHSL IF the real BPM value is 130.2. However this isn't very likely if we are talking about modern electronic dancemusic since like I wrote before most of this kind of music has been produced with software/hardware.

There are (very few) exceptions though. I have one album where each track is xxx.1 BPM. I know this artist and after doing some research together we found out that it was due to a bug in his sequencer software.

Out of the music that I play I would guess that at least 95% has a xxx.00 BPM value yet Traktor fails almost every time in detecting a xxx.00 value. Instead it's a little above or below. Rounding this incorrect detected BPM value fixes the problem.

The remaining 5% is usually at xxx.99 or xxx.01 BPM. Mostly because old hardware sequencers that don't keep the time exactly.

On the other hand IF we're talking about music with live musicians then it's very likely that the BPM value isn't xxx.00 or even has a constant tempo making it impossible to use a beatgrid.

 

pixeltrance, we are probably getting the same result by different methods, depending on the type of music.

As long as every beat grid line corresponds to the beat in the wave form, then the grid is correct.

Your preferred music may be very close to integral values, but here are a few of my recent examples after analysis in ACID:

Not That Kinda Girl (JoJo) - 86.427
Tilt Ya Head Back (Nelly) - 115.696
U Understand (Juvenile) - 99.769
Wake Up With You (Israel) - 100.000

Even though these are only 3-4 minute tracks, rounding would introduce a significant beat error by the end of the track. Apart from screwing up any automated matching, another side effect would be the incorrect reporting of the measure.beat reporting in the track display.

In my experience, very few commercial/popular tracks conform to an integral bpm, which is why I recommend against rounding.

 

HSL

did you try to add the bpm value you get oout of Acid yet?? Im curious how that will work.

 

Finalee,

I'm in the middle of experimenting.

So far I've written a program that will scan a directory for WAV files, and automatically populate the beat marker, bpm, and fade-in markers. I'm still working on a reliable fade-out rule.

Populating the BPM is easy, but finding the first down-beat only works for me because all my tracks have been edited in ACID so that the whole track is playable. I don't think it would work for anything other than BPM for the general set of tracks.

 

djHSL, lets agee to disagree... :thumb:

Actually I think we do agree but since we play completely different music we have different results.
I never ever play any commercial/popular tracks and to tell you the truth I don't even have a clue who the artists are in the short list you wrote. hehe
I live happily in my little psy-trance bubble and am never exposed to popular music - I do not go to commercial clubs/parties, I have no TV (haven't had one for 7 years now) so MTV is out of the question, I do not own a radio so that's a no-no as well and to tell you the truth I can't even remember the last time I was in a record store.
Hmmm...come to think of it, maybe I should just shut up since I'm sooo out of touch with "normal" reality...

And the BPM's... Is it even possible to dance that slowly without falling asleep?

Seriously though, it doesn't matter which method you are using (rounding, no rounding, glueing a live badger to your head...) as long as it works for you and the music you spin.
Or as you wrote "As long as every beat grid line corresponds to the beat in the wave form, then the grid is correct."
Word.

 

If I may add..
I know that all the music Im mixing
(99.9%) of the time is xxx.00 also.
minimal techno.

So I will try to round of bpm!

But Sorry to go back a few....
When I correct the bpm +/- after a drift starts.
I align it....... should I or should I NOT
put a marker.
And repeat this process..
Correct and put a marker go forward correct and put a marker....

I read in the first post:
(roughly it said to correct the bpm +/- and just go forward without putting markers. right?

this is where im getting confused.
Cause as I mentioned earlier,
sometimes when I correct the front of a song and move along and correct the back end of the song..
then the front starts to get unaligned again..

any thoughts?

 

Yeah I got that too, which is why i dont place the beat marker manually i snap it to a Traktor-detected beat line. Seems to work so much better with rounded bpms too. If you look at what traktor detects on the stripe, you will notice a grid line on every beat, almost perfectly.

To see this you have to take off all beat markers. Once your stripe is clear of markers snap a cue marker to any beat and convert it into a beat marker. This forms the grid which you can use to snap things on and SYNC with.

Works for me anyway..Im very impressed with the results.

 

yeah..I almost always use the snap on to put my markers.
the only time I use the manual way is when the snaped place is a bit off and I manually hit it exact! which sometimes helps too.
I will try the round off feature tonight!

Do you put a cue after every time you go in and correct the bpm?

To add to the actual start topic of this thread,
I also love to pass my proper ID3 tagged mp3's through MP3gain,
And turn them all to 93db. and get much better results than with just
traktor's auto gain.

 

Ok, I think I need to clarify a couple of things.

First of all, I always have only one beatmarker per track and I also have snap to beat turned on when I place a cue point EXCEPT in the case I wrote above where a break has has a length that isn't an even value. Then I must turn off snap to beat to place a second beatmarker.

Second, if you correct the BPM to align the grid at the end of a track and it causes the front end to move then you either moved it way too far or in the wrong direction. Or (God forbid) you have a track with a non-constant BPM :wallbash:
If you just jump from the start of a track to the end and there is a drift in the track it's hard to see in which direction the grid has drifted. That's why I find it better to do a few smaller jumps throughout the track. That way you can immidiately see when a drift occurs and in which direction it is going.

 

pixle
I have tried you method last night and Ill drop a cue on second beat as beat marker, then go back to the first beat and drop a cue. I j=having a nard time somewtimes getting traktor to beatgrid or the beat marker jumps to a cue. I am doing all this with the cue lock on also and snap on

 

Sorry for any misunderstandings

I just want to clarify:

I always beatgrid with one beat marker and about 3-4 cue markers..
Always snap to grid unless needed for special occasions.

And my question remains unanswered:
Should you or should you NOT place a cue marker after every time you correct the bpm?

thanks for all your patience.

 

no

 

@ DJ Finalee
I'm sorry but I do not quite understand your problem. Can you please explain?

@ friction
I don't see any reason why you should place another cue point after you have corrected the BPM.

 

pixle
I think my problem probably is I need to get more familair with the cue point process

ok say I find the second beat I drop a cue on it as a beat marker. If I do this and only this there is no problem. NOW if I go back to the first down beat and make it cue 1 my beat grid marks shift to I want to say a half beat. Also it changes my cue start marker if I leave one at the very beginning of the track sometimes into a beat marker. So sometime when I do this my beatgrid shits away from the beat.

Snap is on
cue is lock

my process is as follow
everything is analyzed
edit bpm, round, lock
find second beat drop beat marker
drop cue on first beat

works 3 out of 5 times with out beat grid shifting over, when it shifts all I can say is HOLY TRAIN WRECK!!!!!!!

 

Hmmmm... sounds strange indeed. Do you convert the cue point on the first beat into a beatmarker as well? If you do then don't since you already have one on the second beat.
I do the same steps as you but in a different order:

1. Analyze
2. Find second beat, add cue point by locking it (snap is on) and then convert it into a beatmarker.
3. Open Edit Window - Round and Lock.
4. Add cue point to first beat.
5. Check the beat grid and correct BPM if necessary.

 

No i am doing exact same thing

MAN YOU ARE QUICK, its before 7 AM here


Thank you, Im sure I will work this out soon, It does make life so much easier when it done

 

Well, since I am in Germany right now I am a few hours ahead of you.
Also, right now I'm living in small village where there is NOTHING to do so what else to do than to surf the net?
Can't wait until I move to Berlin in a couple of months! I'm such a big city kid and after living in places like New York, Sao Paulo and Mexico City I really can't deal with small towns.
Especially today when my girlfriend is sick and is sleeping in the bed behind me. Will head out soon though with the son into the cold and go to the playgound. Great fun...
Anyway, good luck with your grids

 

Trouble beatgriding?

So, I've been getting fairly good at beatgriding my tracks and most of them turn out perfect, but there are those few that I just can't seem to get to work.

The files that won't work are good quality (320kbps), purchased on sites such as Beatport (so they aren't ripped from vinyl), and a few of them are clear 4/4 house beats. I can get it right on for the first part of the track, but then it drifts drastically; when I adjust the tempo to get the grid back in line, it then drifts on another part of the track. I've even gone so far as to set 4 beatmarkers at various CLEAR beats in the track, still no luck!

Anyone else experience this issue?

 

I do also get this sometime. It may be the song it self changes tempo or you calculated the wrong bpms, who knows. I know sometime when I get a promo song with bpm info and then analyze in traktor they are differant by say 140 to 149.

If I have been seeing a song going out of allingment and Im going to synce it with the next I quckly edit bpm to get it in line, synce and then manually adjust.

 

Jay - can you name some tracks that are difficult to beatgrid in case some of us have them and want to check?

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Re track preparation for Traktor, all my cue points are on the downbeat which makes it very fast and easy to get both tracks running bar-matched {downbeats happen at same time for both tracks). When you have a stopped new track and you jump forward or back a multiple of 4 beats from a cue point (which is always on a downbeat) and start the new track running when you hear the downbeat on the old track, you know that you are bar-matched.

Thanks to Dr. Brooks for mentioning something about downbeats about a year ago, it got me looking into that, obvious to experienced music people but not to us hacks.

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Something I've been doing recently besides beatgrids (which are excellent) is setting cue points at beginning and ending points of breakdowns, and the start of outro's. This is useful for seeing how the music is structured, Also these are useful positions where a transition can be started. Most tracks have a simple structure which we read about but it becomes very clear when you set those cue points.

I previously would generally set a loop running before an interesting point on the incoming track and mix into that. But now I can do what the vinyl DJs do - they start the new record live at a certain point. I wait for a cue point on the outgoing track at the start of a breakdown or the start of the outro, and I start the new track at that point, This can be done perfectly either with or without syncro-start. If you do it just right, the old track will end later just as the new track's intro ends, and it sounds great. This is called phrase matching and my impression is it's used mostly by trance DJs. Still not that easy to do, but I almost never did it before except by accident.