How do I mix music with Virtual Turntables? Since Virtual Turntables acts like two turntables, you can mix music in a similar way to ordinary DJs. Unlike an ordinary DJ can open as many songs (as your computer will play without crashing) and play them at once! However in most cases you'll want to play one song and then seamlessly crossfade into another, so the listener won't realise you've gone into a new song! BPM Songs have a beat. It is very easy to clap your hands to beat of a song. These beats are arranged into bars, so that the first beat of the bar is more prominent than the other beats of a bar. Try tapping the beats of a song, in most pop music there are four beats in bar. After a bit of practice, it shouldn't be too difficult to notice the downbeat (first beat of a bar). Once you can do this we can go on to measuring the speed of a song in BPM (beats per minute). Virtual Turntables makes this a lot easier. Once you've loaded up a song, start playing it and then click on the BPM button near the right hand corner of the "virtual turntable". Then click on "Calc BPM". Try to pick up the rhythm of the song and start pressing B each time you hear a beat. By working out the difference between the time which it takes for you to press B, VTT works out the BPM. This is usually a number between 60 to 180 BPM. Repeat this process several times until you get the BPM within a small amount. Beat Matching You've worked out the BPM for one song. Now do it for another! VTT will save this value, so you don't need to write it down. You've got two songs loaded. Now you have to make sure that they are at the same speed (the same BPM). VTT does this! Just press on BPM and then click on the other song you want to match the speed to. Then click "Match To". VTT will then vary the pitch to make that song the same speed. However, if there is a big difference between the BPM, the pitch will be seriously altered, making the vocals sound like they were sung by chipmonks! Chronotron This is where the WinAmp plug-in Chronotron comes in (available from http://www.gmixon.com). You can load up this plug-in for each song, by pressing on the "DSP Plugins..." menu item in the "Device" menu. It can vary the speed of the song without varying its pitch! Simply type in the BPM in the left hand text box and move the slider to a new BPM (which should be same as the BPM you make for the other song). The only annoying problem with this programme, is that you need to type in the BPM each time you play the song, Chronotron won't remember settings for each song.
You've done most of the difficult work! Now you can start playing one of your songs. When it gets near the end of the song, you want to begin playing the next song and crossfade into it. Move the slider to one side so that you can hear only one the "Channels", that the one you are playing. Then click on the play button on your next song. However do not release the mouse button until the first beat of a bar on the playing song. Your two songs should totally be in sync, because the beats are the same time. Crossfading Gradually move the slider on the mixer. If you want VTT can move the slider gradually if you pressing a number 1-9. Each number crossfades a different amount. Your new song should be heard coming through. If you've not started to play it at the same time, and the beats of the two songs are not time, you'll hear a really bad echo of drums. This sounds bad, and your listeners will easily notice this! The only way to "push off" the next song totally in time with the playing song is to practice! You can do this by cueing with headphone on VTT. This way you hear the playing song through one side of the headphone and the next song through the other. This way you can adjust the position of your next song to the live song, which everybody should be hearing. Most DJs headphone cue. If headphone cue with VTT, unless you have two soundcards, the programme will downmix your MP3s from stereo to mono. This is a small payoff for not getting that rubbish echoing of drum beats! But still there's no substitute to practising, until there's a VTT with a "Clever DJ" function! Maybe in the future I'll try to write a programme to control VTT, so it'll automatically start playing one song at predefined time. Even if you don't have VTT, you can mix songs with WinAmp, by loading two copies at the same time. However, it takes alot more work, because you have to manually do everything. If you do use WinAmp and want to work out the speed of a song (it's BPM) you can use a freeware programme called TapTempo from http://www.analogx.com. There are a bucket load of other DJ programmes, like BPM Studio and Virtual DJ, but I have not used any. They work under the same principle. If you have VTT, check out the help file, it's got additional information about simple mixes. Recording At the moment VTT doesn't have a record feature, but you can record the output with another programme like Cool Edit 2000. The file can be saved as a WAV and written to CD. An easier method is to plug in a minidisc recorder and press record! You can then listen to your mixes anywhere. These minidisc recording can also be used as a backup, if your computer crashes in a live performance.
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