Looping / Syncing - Preparing Tracks

General Area Tips, Tricks, & Tutorials
1

I have just bought a Mixstream Pro as thought i would just get something fun to do a fiew new mixes. i have used Rekord Box and an XDJ RX in trhe past which was a great system.

i thought i would try engine DJ and where as it all seems well in most places the loopong function is a nightmare. I cannot get loops to sound seemless so you don’t even know it is looping.

On another note. syncing beats just doesn’t seem to work very well. I set up two tracks on the PC or Unit start Track 1 as Lead and whn i hit sync on track two with excact sam eBPM the beats are constanlty out.

What am i doing worng here??? No issues at all with the old Pioneer unit but as i play Hard Trance around 160bpm with just blend transitions surely this should be an easy function to have.

Any help appreciated.

2

Most likely your tracks do not have the correct BPM analyzed in Engine. Because of that loop lenght is not correct and makes looping not seamless and sync drifts between two tracks.

Just guessing based on limited data you provided.

3

As SFM said, check your analysing, make sure the right BPM range is set before analysing tracks.

i use loops all the time in Engine and never have an issue with it sounding smooth and seamless.

4

As the other guys said. It almost certainly points to beatgrids that aren’t right.

Once you’ve initially analysed the tracks in Engine DJ desktop you can reanalyse them to get a deeper algorithm with more accuracy.

How to do that is simple. Eject any song in the onscreen deck, go to your main collection and CTL-A then right-click. You’ll see reanalyse in this menu. This uses a deep analysis and does not just give you a grid based on BPM like the initial scan.

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5

Dear @Trancelot and all concerned,

as @MrWilks advised, to reanalyse is the first step and mostly first aid to get proper beatmatching and loops.

I had the problem as well, and sometimes the loops sound like a hickup.

To amend your tracks there is a tool in Engine DJ and in Engine OS as well:

Use the Grid Edit Controls in Engine DJ

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or directly at the gear item 35 (e.g. Prime 4)

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“35. Edit Grid: Press and hold this button to enable beat grid editing.”

With both tools you can drop anchor and amend the beatgrid manually and adjust your loops properly without any hickups. It takes a lot of experience and and a long time, and if you are patient, it works. Not perfect at the moment, but these tools take a lot of endeavours for programming.

Furthermore a feature request (with sub requests) is discussed here in the forum. Feel free to vote for it.

https://community.enginedj.com/t/flexible-beatgrid-ability-to-set-a-manual-downbeat/36984

Good luck for improving your loops and pls be so kind as to keep us posted about your success.

Brgds BeatMaster

6

Thanks for all your replies. Will be trying all these tips when i get back from my holidays in middle of month. Just takes a while to get used to a new OS and all its little nuances.

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