Theory Behind WHY It's Important to Have Master Tempo Engaged in the Mix

0:00 Reduce it to the minus, you lower the BPM, short for beats per minute

Alright guys, in this video it's a bit of a demonstration really on how the master tempo is very important when compiling some form of a mix. First of all, the master tempo on any CDJ player or for that matter any controller will keep the key of the track at a constant even if you do change the speed of the track. The speed of the track, changing the speed of the track is of course about reducing the pitch For increasing the pitch, reducing the pitch to the minus position, increasing it to the plus. Reduce it to the minus, you lower the BPM, short for beats per minute. Increasing it, you increase the BPM, the beats per minute. So I'm going to give you a demonstration now of the master tempo while it's engaged. The track I'm using by the way is from the Karmic Power Stables, courtesy of Mr Lenny Fontana.

1:32 We're at plus or minus 10% by the way

Entitled Move Your Body, it's the dub mix. OK, so master tempo is now engaged. We'll make sure it's at zero, which is for this track 123 BPM. I'm now going to start to reduce the speed of the track. Master tempo engaged. OK, we can hear the track slowing down, but the sound is the same. Bring it to the centre point. Now I'm going to increase the speed. We're at plus or minus 10% by the way. Okay, back to the center. I'm now going to disengage master tempo, reduce the speed. You can hear a definite drop in the key of the track. Back to the center position. Now I'm going to increase the BPM, bring the pitch towards me. We can now hear a definite change in the key getting higher. Why is this important? Well, when mixing two tracks with the same key,

2:38 I hope that's been a help

If they are different BPM, it's highly likely that if the BPMs are quite a distance apart, even though they may be in the same key, while they are not at the same BPM, if you do not have master tempo engaged and then you increase one of the pitches or one of the speeds of the track or you decrease the other to match the other one, what might happen, If you're going to move the pitch quite some considerable distance from the center point, If I relate back to the Technics SL1200 turntables, you were okay if you were within about plus or minus 3% on the pitch. Anything above or below that and you would start to change the key of the track. I hope that's been a help. Any more info on Move Your Body KPR083 from Karmic Power Records, which is a track I'm playing in this tutorial, then check out the links in the description. Practice and enjoy. Thank you very much.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.