Help with 33RPM...

[alextheswede]

Right i've been mixing for quite a while now and would consider myself at quite a high level BUT i still can't get my head around 33RPM tunes! I'm absolutley hopeless at mixing with them!

So basically i was just wondering if anyone had any pointers on what to do differently when beatmatching with 33RPM tunes, when speeding up and slowing down... do i use less force.. etc.

thanks in advance

[Akira]

no difference, just feel it dude

[pkay]

on 33rpm tunes any physical touches you do to the actual vinyl will be far more noticeable and overemphasized.

So if you're still doing platter twists or finger drags pitch changes will be more noticeable and the chances of you overcompensating will increase

IE if you use a finger drag you're often times going to over drag and the track will then be behind... etc etc

Honestly (and I'll get some assholes debating this, but they're probably shit djs) the best way to learn DJ effectively is to do most if not all of your adjustments via the pitch adjust. It's the hard way to learn to dj but once you learn and perfect it you'll be a much more technically accurate dj and regardless of the RPM you'll be able to beat match quickly, accurately, and mistake free.

If your track is behind pitch up until your track catches up and then pitch down into speed. If your track is ahead pitch down until matched and speed up into speed. Once you learn to do all your adjustments via the pitch adjust you can dj via any CD player, vinyl, midi controller at any RPM, whatever with minimal issues.

It's good you're identifying a difference... half the DJ's in our genre have no fucking clue and it's gringe worthy to hear them try and beatmatch and even more cringeworthy that they cant tell they suck

Give it some practice and then give it some more practice :p

[alextheswede]

on 33rpm tunes any physical touches you do to the actual vinyl will be far more noticeable and overemphasized.

So if you're still doing platter twists or finger drags pitch changes will be more noticeable and the chances of you overcompensating will increase

IE if you use a finger drag you're often times going to over drag and the track will then be behind... etc etc

Honestly (and I'll get some assholes debating this, but they're probably shit djs) the best way to learn DJ effectively is to do most if not all of your adjustments via the pitch adjust. It's the hard way to learn to dj but once you learn and perfect it you'll be a much more technically accurate dj and regardless of the RPM you'll be able to beat match quickly, accurately, and mistake free.

If your track is behind pitch up until your track catches up and then pitch down into speed. If your track is ahead pitch down until matched and speed up into speed. Once you learn to do all your adjustments via the pitch adjust you can dj via any CD player, vinyl, midi controller at any RPM, whatever with minimal issues.

It's good you're identifying a difference... half the DJ's in our genre have no fucking clue and it's gringe worthy to hear them try and beatmatch and even more cringeworthy that they cant tell they suck

Give it some practice and then give it some more practice :p

This is exactly the kind of response i was hoping for! i totally agree that the best way to mix is by just using the pitch fader, it's what i usually try to do but with 33RPM tunes my mind always just over complicates things and then i just give up haha. thanks alot for that man!

[dre]

big up pkay!

use of the pitch fader is a skill to be honed.
personally, i do too notice a difference in mixing 33 rpm tracks.
giving the platter a little titty twister is another way to subtly move the song with out it getting too out of hand.

[pkay]

This is exactly the kind of response i was hoping for! i totally agree that the best way to mix is by just using the pitch fader, it's what i usually try to do but with 33RPM tunes my mind always just over complicates things and then i just give up haha. thanks alot for that man!

Just keep in mind that with a 33rpm record your actions are far more exaggerated than at 45rpm

lol here goes my attempt at an example

Think of it like this. If your car is going 45 kmph and you put on the brakes for 2 seconds. Your car may slow down to 30kmph
If your car is going 33kmph and you brake with the same pressure as you did at 45 kmph for 2 seconds you can probably almost come to a complete stop.

Just realize that if you are going to use physical manipulation (finger drags, platter twists) you've got to drag a little lighter and twist a little softer. Can't treat it like 45rpm.

Some people ignore the fact at what is going on with your turntable. Your platter is physically spinning slower. If you think of it like that it may help you wrap your head around the 33/45rpm problem.

Hope that helps ya out man

[pkay]

big up pkay!

use of the pitch fader is a skill to be honed.
personally, i do too notice a difference in mixing 33 rpm tracks.
giving the platter a little titty twister is another way to subtly move the song with out it getting too out of hand.

Yeah man... I grew up in Dallas around a bunch of house DJ's who really beat it into me to ride that pitch fader. Coming up in drum and bass it was nauseating to hear how many dj's would finger drag and you'd hear that annoying sound of a synth pitch bending.

For the perfectionist dj it's the way to go.

[knivez]

i agree if u do ala the ptch adjuster the level of smoothness is almost silky smooth

[jam1]

Pitch chasing is your friend! Once you get good at it it's really satisfying! I very rarely touch the turntable whilst beat matching
You just need to be more precise on 33rpm records, as stated above...

[dj 2e]

use of the pitch fader is a skill to be honed. For the perfectionist dj it's the way to go.

^^^this^^^ once you can ride the pitch there is no real difference between 33 & 45 rpm. well... thats what i find anyway

[pkay]

I think it's crazy most of you guys agree with me... not even 3 months ago we had this discussion on DOA and half of the djs there argued with me... guess it speaks volumes to how shit DOA is lol

big up the perfectionist crew.... never settle for shit mixing!

[cixxxj]

RIDE THAT PITCH!!! Its the only way to go !! God bless the day I decided I wouldn't touch any platter / jog on cdjs anymore!!!

[pkay]

yeah man the beautiful thing too is if you can ride the pitch on tables, you can do it on cds, midi controllers, vci's, etc

it's one of the only universal pieces of all djing mediums

[machination]

[Caski]

good read

[noam]

Ive only really been mixing for a year, and seriously practicing for less than that, but a friend drummed it into me to pitch chase and tbh i think im at a fairly decent standard for my experience, i reckon a lot of that is to do with pitch chasing, learn it from the beginning and its not like re-learning a skill, its the skill you start with

in any case, ive never really had a problem with 33rpm tunes, its always seemed pretty intuitive that you adjust your touch for 33 and 45, everything people said above i would completely agree with, and i think the difficulty that you have is probably down to mentally over analysing the technique

might sound like im talking above my level since im a relative newcomer but my friends have been mixing and talking about mixing for years and years so im not completely clueless!

anyway good thread

[profound]

Hahaha
What are the odds, I just came from my room where I was close to going mental about that stupid fucking 33RPM
Nice to read i'm not the only one having some trouble with it! I still sometimes touch my platter/vinyl for some adjustments, and with a 12" going 33rpm your mix gets fucked up...
Riding your pitch indeed is the way to go!

Start practising profound!

[Jak The lad]

I've never noticed the difference between 33 & 45 personally.

[pkay]

@noam... learning right early on beats the hell out of relearning... i had to literally put one hand behind my back in order to not follow that instinct i had to touch the platter.

With 33 rpm it's sometimes easy to overthink things. When you're at 45RPM and the track is moving faster you can hear it moving much faster. At 33rpm it's drifting much slower so sometimes you're unsure which way it's going.

Side note, good practice for ding (especially early on) is to get your next track up and matched ASAP. This applies more so for 33's if they give you trouble. I used to have to have 2 or 3 goes at getting a 33rpm sorted.

Lots of dj's mix in a tune and fuck around with it for a second. When that happens a lot of times your initial cue of a record is the one you're mixing in. Fuck all that get that next track up and loaded, get it matched and if you need to you can always re-cue because you allotted yourself enough time.

You can earn your rockstar points by not sucking instead of doing overexaggerated nob twiddles and having a spotty mix:p

Eventually if you develop good habits the shit is almost automatic. You'll be able to hear a tune off by the slightest amount and be able to fix it perfectly instead of under/overcompensating with platter tricks.

[JimmaJamJamie]

God bless the day I decided I wouldn't touch any platter / jog on cdjs anymore!!!

This.

Only in the past couple of weeks i have noticed the difference it has made and now my mixes are locked in a lot longer and stay together and there is no pitch changing sound .