very handy program for Serato/tractor/digital DJs in general

FensterDJ

Mix meister BPM analyser

http://www.mixmeister.com/bpmanalyzer/bpmanalyzer.asp

free program that scans all you tracks and gives you an accurate BPM for each.

handy for standard mixing of you perferenced genre but really great for inter genre mix marathons, I've been mixing ska and reggae into jungle, back to hip hop, dropping in some rock and indie, and then some techno

There was a thread a while back saying this kind of thing is cheating, but feck that, it's great

Zascar

I use torq and as soon as you load a track it gives you the bpm automatically

seannash

not doubting its not handy but like zascar says i think most programmes give you the bpm.some even have sync buttons to match the tempos.
if you are manually beatmatching inside the programme then bpms dont really come in to it(okay i know ill get some backlash for that but you get what i mean) as long as you know a bit about the tracks your playing.
this might be handy for people burning off cds to use with cd decks but again i think most cd decks have bpm detection on them too(i know pioneer has)
if its helping you cool but for me it would just be another app taking up room on my hd

franklyshocked

FensterDJ wrote: »

Mix meister BPM analyser

http://www.mixmeister.com/bpmanalyzer/bpmanalyzer.asp

free program that scans all you tracks and gives you an accurate BPM for each.

handy for standard mixing of you perferenced genre but really great for inter genre mix marathons, I've been mixing ska and reggae into jungle, back to hip hop, dropping in some rock and indie, and then some techno

There was a thread a while back saying this kind of thing is cheating, but feck that, it's great

I don't get how people think that knowing the BPM of a track is cheating, its not like you mix with your bpm counter.
90% of house tracks are around 128bpm, and whatever style you're into you'll see a similar bpm to the tracks you like so knowing your BPM doesn't really make you a cheat, just well informed

FensterDJ

I don't think knowing a tune's BPM is cheating either, because that would imply that there are rules to DJing.

VinylJunkie

BPM's are handy to know if you are a beginner but as you become more experienced knowing BPM's is not essential. I actually used this program 4 years ago when i was starting out.

franklyshocked

FensterDJ wrote: »

I don't think knowing a tune's BPM is cheating either, because that would imply that there are rules to DJing.

True, and even with all the technology its not going to make you into a brilliant DJ. There are so many other variables to it.
Some of the new DJ softwares out there even mix for you and yet I don't see them producing the new DJ legends.

FensterDJ

VinylJunkie wrote: »

BPM's are handy to know if you are a beginner but as you become more experienced knowing BPM's is not essential. I actually used this program 4 years ago when i was starting out.

I see, so you're a vinyl Junkie but a digital DJ? I just recently got Serato from using vinyl for the last 12 or so years, so I don't need to know the BPMs to mix two tunes, but knowing them means I can introduce a lot more variety into my sets none, as I'm not struggling to see if a mix is going to work out or not

VinylJunkie

FensterDJ wrote: »

I see, so you're a vinyl Junkie but a digital DJ? I just recently got Serato from using vinyl for the last 12 or so years, so I don't need to know the BPMs to mix two tunes, but knowing them means I can introduce a lot more variety into my sets none, as I'm not struggling to see if a mix is going to work out or not

I ain't critising you, I'm saying knowing BPM's is handy but not essential. Yes I do LOVE vinyl but because im a student who lost his job I can't afford vinyl any longer so I have resorted to mp3's with a DVS system.

FensterDJ

sorry, didn't mean to come across as being pissed off with you, it is handy to know the BPM of tracks, thus the thread title, "handy program...."

I found it great to move from not knowing the BPM (well, having a general idea) to knowing exactly the BPM of all my tracks, dance music or not.

as an example, I can now mix, ambient or tracks with very few beats over other tracks for almost the entire lenght of the tune.

knowing this kind of info about tracks allows you to be far more eclectic in you musical choices, not sticking with "safer" tracks with easier to beatmatch intro and outro beats.

And that makes the program very handy, simple as that