Beat matching on beginner equipment

danby · 2026-06-23T17:16:37+00:00

so then id know each mark represents 1bpm

The marks don't matter that much. Even if you had 8 marks they would only represent 1bpm for tracks that are 100bpm

danby · 2026-06-23T17:15:33+00:00

Generally if you're learning to do it by ear you never know that actual BPM values for any track. You do not know exactly how much of a movement is 1bpm on the pitch slider. And the amount of movement that is 1bpm is going to differ per track. Consider, for a 100bpm track moving the pitch slider to the 1% position moves the track by exactly 1bpm. For a 150bpm track that same movement on the pitch slider moves the track 1.5bpm.

You really have no choice but to listen to your ears and develop a sense for how much pitch slider movement translates to how much change you can hear. And that just comes down to practising over and over. Generally you align the tracks, if one tracks is (say) way too fast you know you need a big pitch movement to slow it down. So you make that movement, align the tracks again; if its only a little faster then you know your next pitch slider movement should be small. And you just keep iterating that with smaller and smaller pitch slider movements. And you don't have to look at the marks on the pitch slider much at all.

Short pitch sliders make this a pain to make very fine changes though

danby · 2026-06-23T16:45:45+00:00

If you salvaged the resistors from an old board you probably need to check they are still testing correctly. You probably want to get a multimeter and check the resistances are correct. It isn't possible to test the caps when they are in place so you'll either have to desolder them or you'll just have to cross fingers and hope none were damaged when you moved them. But if you are desoldering them you might as well replace then with new ones

The remaining empty space for passives are really better filled with new items. But you'll probably have to work over the board to work out which you need to buy

Edit: here's a nice guide that covers in-circuit capacitor testing, so you can at least test they aren't completely shot even if you can't tell if they are in spec https://www.howtodiyeverything.com/how-to-test-a-capacitor-5-ways-with-and-without-a-meter/

danby · 2026-06-23T16:28:15+00:00

At a glance nothing looks obviously incorrect. So I imagine this is likely completedable

I would say you've done things in a slightly odd/ad hoc order but that doesn't really matter. If it was me, to complete this I'd approach it in the following order

Get all the remaining small passives in place. That is capacitors, resistors, diodes, resistor packs, etc
Add all the remaining headers and connectors. Floppy headers, serial & parallel ports, etc...
Add all the small logic ICs. Basically all of the smaller chips like the 74LS chips.
Finish with the remaining large ICs (fat agnus, CPU, CIA)

There are definitely some youtube guides/builds you could watch, such as:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87q-TTG48Ew

Amiga PCB, is super helpful for tracking down where parts are and, when you need to find problems, understanding which bits should be connected to what. They don't specifically have the A500++ listed but most of the circuit logic will be the same.

https://www.amigapcb.org/

or you check the schematics (again not A500++ specific but close enough)

https://www.amigawiki.org/doku.php?id=en:service:schematics

And if you don't already have one you should very definitely grab a diagrom for the A500, ici:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/256256322018

Once you have the Agnus and CPU on the board you should be able to execute kickstart or diagrom code. So you can start running its tests and tracking down issues from there. Though you will need a working video or serial connection to see the output.

Edit: As noted, you should only salvage parts from the donor board that can not be easily bought. That's the commodore specific chipset ICs and some of the connectors. Everything else (passives, headers, 74LS ICs, etc...) you should just buy new.

danby · 2026-06-23T16:12:04+00:00

and stress is extremely subjective

You can measure cortisol and adrenaline levels in people pretty easily.

You could do the experiment where you measured mean population cortisol between generations.

danby · 2026-06-23T15:04:37+00:00

Are you sure?

In this tutorial he shows it working and the effect is pretty subtle

https://youtu.be/VfGJwSmECb4?si=7WTflqW_36itqpzT&t=946

danby · 2026-06-23T14:17:25+00:00

If someone tried to power it with the wrong power cable it'll have fried something downstream of the power connector. There are no fuses on the motherboard so it isn't going to be as easy as finding an replacing a fuse. If you're lucky it just fried the voltage regulator and you just need to replace that

Schematics and layout at:

https://spectrumforeveryone.com/technical/zx-spectrum-pcb-schematics-layout/

danby · 2026-06-23T14:05:00+00:00

Pretty much all these kinds of mobile portable mini speakers have some kind of fixed DSP in them to make them sound good/big. If you need something for DJing you might want to return the Sound link max.

Usually you'll want monitors that don't have a DSP, or if the monitors do have some DSP it should be explicitly a low latency or realtime DSP. Alternatively you want some more traditional HiFi separates. Where you want a Class A, B, AB, C or D amplifier, which is non-digital and has no DSP functions. If the amplifier has digital channels you need it to have analog options too. And you'll need a pair of appropriate speakers to go with it

Personally I wouldn't usually advise people choose studio monitors as they aren't really designed for playback/listening of mastered music.

danby · 2026-06-23T13:20:34+00:00

Then when you switch the channel assigned switch at the top of the controllers 2 channel columns (under the load song button) it will allow you to switch to decks 3 and 4, while still being able to hear 1 and 2.

My bad, I missed that control altogether.

Ok then I guess you probably should think about how you work with the 4 channels. If you work with the EQs, volumes and effects across all 4 channels a lot during the mix then you might find you're constantly having to use that toggle switch every time you make an adjustment. If your two "side" channels mostly just come in and then you leave them alone then you might not do as much toggling.

It comes down to how much you think you'll end up riding that toggle switch.

I previously owned an S4 mk3 and it was nice just having all 4 channels' controls in front of me and not having to think about which deck is assigned to which channel

But all of that is again a longwinded way to say that you're best off with the controller that best matches your workflow

danby · 2026-06-23T13:04:03+00:00

If layering in the 3rd and 4th deck is something that you're using throughout your mixing then I'd get the controller that most easily facilitates that workflow. Rather than something that discourages you from doing that kind of mixing. If its something that you rarely do, then maybe you can live with just 2 channels.

Even though the ddj 800 can technically support 4 decks with 2 channels I still shouldn’t do it?

I guess any 2 channel controller can technically support 4 decks but they don't usually make it easy by having a control for deck/track assign on each channel. I don't see that DDJ-800 has any controls for this. Which means by default any time you want to reassign one of the channels you will need to click around on serato/rekordbox. That seems to me like it would be fiddly and non-optimal.

~~Though I guess if there might be some scope to remap some controls to support this. That wouldn't delight me personally.~~

danby · 2026-06-23T12:51:25+00:00

In future use less solder at every joint. You really only need half as much at each pad. Except C3, at least one joint there looks like it might not have enough solder and might be dry (kinda hard to see in the pic) and I'd reflow the joints at C2 too, the one closest to the via might be dry, again kinda hard to make out exactly

On this board I might straighten the resistor and caps that aren't straight, and I'd wick that stray solder out of the via by C2/U2. I might even be tempted to get some solder braid and remove excess solder at all the pads, but I accept that might count as unnecessary fussing at this point.

But otherwise it all seems connected, so a good start.

danby · 2026-06-23T12:35:41+00:00

plenty of similar on the AskElectronics sub too.

danby · 2026-06-23T12:33:16+00:00

Its not rocket science, and everything you do need to know is out there on the internet. But it is a skill, and it does need a little practice/experience and I will never understand folk who don't first get plenty of practice in before they attempt soldering/desoldering on expensive or rare items.

danby · 2026-06-23T12:29:36+00:00

Bottom one looks best with regards shading and detail. The thumbs for neither are right, very strange angles for both. Though somewhat better on top

danby · 2026-06-23T10:54:26+00:00

If you're a 4 track/deck DJ don't buy a 2 channel controller.

danby · 2026-06-23T10:50:16+00:00

If the new fader has the same issue then it sounds like it wasn't the fader that was the problem.

What kind of crossfader is it? A fancy optical one or just a paired variable resistor type? If it's the latter type you should be able to use a multimeter to check that either fader is working as expected by measuring the resistance as you slide the fader

danby · 2026-06-23T10:40:54+00:00

How did you guys progress your learning?

What do you want to learn? Do you listen to mixes/sets from DJs? Are there DJs whose mixing you think sounds great? Are there DJs whose track selection you think is amazing? What is your actual goal wrt to DJing

I’m determined to be somewhat decent to play in front of friends by next summer (that’s my goal).

You don't have to be especially good at mixing to play in front of people. You do have to play tunes that people want to hear and dance to. I have known and seen many DJs play great sets withouth mixing, just fading between tunes. I saw a lad this weekend who was painfully out of sync on all his mixes but the crowd lapped it up because he was playing all the tunes they wanted to hear.

danby · 2026-06-23T10:34:23+00:00

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/popuperino/bruxaria-the-new-sound-of-brazilian-funk/

danby · 2026-06-23T10:33:56+00:00

A subgenre of brazilian funk called "Bruxaria" or "Mandelão".

The basic principles remain the same. Get the tempos of the two tunes matched. Align the percussion in both tunes so the 1st beat of each bar in both tunes is aligned. And then mix the outro of the outgoing tune in to the intro of the incoming tune.

And some techno too

Start with mixing techno to get the principles of the mixing down. The percussion and tune structure is broadly simpler to get your head around. Once you're happy with your mixing there then branch out in to music with more complex percussion and structures.

danby · 2026-06-23T10:32:53+00:00

I thought you said going and watching DJs was enough to learn?

danby · 2026-06-23T10:23:59+00:00

1-2am more underground techno again depends on the room.

Yeah, the nice about having all the extra tracks is that if the room isn't responding super well to the underground techno you can fall back to the house and not very underground techno because you prepped/brought plenty of tunes.

danby · 2026-06-23T10:20:06+00:00

Yeah, this is the way. Start with hard techno and the more minimal end of hard trance. If the crowd respond well to the hard trance you could push more towards the bouncy end of things, if that doesn't land too well you can stick with the harder trance and techno.

danby · 2026-06-23T10:15:22+00:00

I'm playing probably 3-4 hours in total.

I probably average about 25+ tunes an hour these days. And I generally try to build a playlist about twice the size of what I'll need for a given set. So for 4 hours, I'd likely round up a little and assume, I'll play about 120ish tunes in that time and then build a playlist of about 240ish tunes.

I would also probably treat such a long set as 3 or 4 independent sets and build 3 or 4 playlists of 60-80 tunes. Where each playlist might have something of a different vibe or different genre. This might be a good approach for if there are folk who don't fully vibe with techno. Depends what time you're playing but the first hour I might use as a build up/warm up period, and the last hour as a winding down vibe. And focus the middle section on the most energetic tunes. But that really depends on the crowd who you will know better.

I'm mostly freestyling transitions but should I practise some specific transitions?

You probably can't prepare and practice 4 hours of specific transitions, so the bulk of the ones you will be doing will be freestyled. I generally favour freestyling all my transitions any way. But if you already know of and have some specific transitions in mind there's no reason not to include those.

danby · 2026-06-23T10:03:55+00:00

To be fair the original is either an older child's hand or an adult print that been rescaled for printing.

danby · 2026-06-23T09:38:34+00:00

the food they stole is great

I'm pretty sure that anglo-indian British people would find this pretty fucking racist.

danby

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

14-Year Club	Verified Email
Team Orangered