Today Point Blank DJ tutor Ben Bristow demonstrates the building blocks of beatmatching on Pioneer’s new DDJ-ERGO-V controller.
This post was originally published in DJ Magazine’s free online edition DJ Weekly issue 88
“This week I got the chance to have a play around with Pioneer’s Ergo, a great all in one controller for DJ’s who want something portable and easy to get to grips with. So in this tutorial, with those of you just learning to mix in mind, I have explained the key building blocks of beatmatching: beats, bars and phrases.
Most modern dance music genres are structured in a specific way to make them ‘DJ friendly’. They are usually in a 4/4 time signature, meaning that there are four main (quarter note or crotchet) beats in every bar. In house music each beat is usually marked by a kick drum.
As a general rule you should find that tracks are structured so that there are eight bars in every short section of music – commonly known as a phrase. There are therefore usually thirty two main beats in each phrase (4 x 8 = 32). New elements will generally enter and leave the track at these junctions, and melodies/bass lines and vocals etc will repeat in phrases. There is also usually a slight variation just before the new phrase, which leads into the next section.
When mixing, it is therefore important to not only make the two tracks the same tempo, but also align their phrases so that all of the changes in the tracks happen at the same points. This means that they can be played over one another and effectively sound like one piece of music. Watch me demonstrate this in the video”
Watch more free tutorials on Point Blank’s sample course page.
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Free Samples
Here’s another batch of high quality, royalty free samples, from our friends at Loopmasters. This week’s downloads are perfect for adding some spice to your collection of loops. There is over 100mb of material from the likes of Stereo MCs, Mason and the following packs: Rasmus Faber Live Organic House, ReZone Progressive Tech House, Mason Analogue Farmhouse, Underground Techno Vox, and BluMar Ten. Click here to grab the samples and enjoy! (download will expire 21.02.12)
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Tech Review
Product of the week
Name: DDJ-ERGO-V
Developer: Pioneer
Price: £429
This is an all in one, 2 channel controller which borrows some of the key features from its older Pioneer siblings and adds some interesting extras. Firstly it is fully USB powered, with a built in audio interface and light enough to easily transport around, hence their motto ‘Play Out Anywhere’. The bundled Virtual DJ LE software has custom settings which make it work seamlessly with the device straight out of the box and allows for 4-deck mixing and autosync. It is also compatible with most other DJ software on the market. The Pulse Control is designed to give you visual signals to help guide the mixing process either by showing how accurate your beat matching is or whether any FX are activated and to what strength. There are 2 dedicated filters knobs and independent sample and hot cue buttons and sample banks with loop sampling.
Overall this is a great entry-level DJ controller ready to plug and play with ease. Watch the video above where Ben demonstrates some of the key features.
9/10
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Editor’s Note: This is an old article and things have moved on considerably since the original publication date 🙂
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