The "tempo" of a song refers to how fast or slow it is. Tempo affects the mood of a piece—a fast tempo makes music feel exciting or energetic, while a slow tempo feels more relaxed.
One way tempo can be measured is in "beats per minute," or BPM. Most dance music ranges between 110 and 140 BPM. A mellower song would have a lower BPM, while a high-energy sound would have a higher BPM. In most dance music, you can hear the thumping sound of the kick drum on each beat.
To do Beat Mixing, the speed—or BPM—of one or both songs needs to change so that they have the same BPM at the point where they overlap. In the illustration which follows, notice how the spikes (or beats) of the upper song line up with the spikes of the lower song. Because the beats of the two songs are coordinated, the transition between songs is hard to detect. When MixMeister changes the BPM of a song, however, it changes only the tempo; it doesn’t distort the sound of the voices or the instruments.
Keep in mind that for most of a song’s duration, it will retain its original BPM. But MixMeister prepares for the overlap of two songs by gradually slowing down or speeding up a song to meet at an intermediate BPM for the duration of the overlap. When you turn on Beat Mixing, MixMeister uses this technique to link songs together. (You can then fine-tune this automatic Beat Mixing however you like.)
For example, let’s say track A has a BPM of 130 and track B has a BPM of 140. The BPM at their overlap will be about 135. About 30 seconds before the overlap, track A will start to speed up gradually so it reaches 135 when it overlaps with track B. Once track A has stopped, track B will take about 30 seconds to speed up to its normal BPM of 140.
When you enable Beat Mixing, MixMeister defines an eight-measure Intro Range and an eight-measure Outro Range for each song. It then lines up the sprockets for the Outro Range of the outgoing track with the Intro Sprockets for the incoming track. During the time when the Outro and the Intro overlap, MixMeister lines up the beats of the two songs, adjusting the tempo of both songs so that it is between the tempos of each of the songs. The tempo change occurs gradually to make the transition smooth; it doesn't affect the original pitch of the music. The red tempo boxes at the bottom of the Timeline show the precise changes that MixMeister makes to the tempo over time.
Dance music works particularly well with Beat Mixing.
Select three songs in a row in the Playlist.
Right-click the Playlist, and choose Sort By BPM
(Ascending).
This groups the songs in ascending order of their beats per minute,
with the slowest track first and the fastest last.
From the Edit menu, point to Track and choose
Beat Mixing.
The Playlist and the Timeline now display the Beat Mixing icon for each of these songs.
Click either of the Play buttons
, and enjoy the results.
MixMeister creates an eight-measure Intro Range and Outro Range at the beginning and end of each track. In most dance music, a measure is four beats.
If you're not familiar with musical terminology, think of the parts of a song as a poem. Each beat is like a syllable. Each measure is made up of four beats (usually) and forms a word. A phrase is made up of multiple measures (typically 8) and forms a musical sentence. Most great beat mixes line up the phrase from one song with the phrase from another song. In the process it fades from one to the other. The result is a smooth "morphing" from one song to another.
MixMeister then takes these ranges (Intro and Outro) and stretches each song. It makes the measures in the Outro Range from the first song the same length as the measures in the Intro Range of the second song. It does this by changing the tempo of one or both songs. MixMeister also cross-fades the volume during the time both songs play. These default settings created by MixMeister give you the makings of a great mix.
See Also