Using The Beatgrid Tools /67 - MIXVIBES CROSS DJ User Manual

BPM Detection Range
Detecting the tempo of a track can sometimes be a bit tricky. croSS DJ performs
a peak analysis to detect the beats, and then uses the data about the peaks to
calculate the Bpm. as not all transients/peaks in a track need to be beats, you
can "help" croSS DJ by setting the Bpm Detection range on the Preferences/
General dialog.
Use the range that best fits to your music genre: Slow is the best setting for Hip
Hop, Standard is the best choice for House/techno, and you wish to set the range
to Fast if you mainly spin Drum 'n' Bass.
7.5 Using the Beatgrid Tools
as you could see in the previous section, croSS DJ performs a Bpm and beat ana-
lysis: both values are used to define the initial beatgrid of a track. The beatgrid is
initial, because croSS offers several tools that you can use, to change the beatgrid
if necessary.
Before we take a close look at the beatgrid tools of croSS DJ, we should start by
defining some important terms and have a look at the visual representation of the
beatgrid as it is shown on the HuD and on the waveform of the players.
NOTE In order to see the beatgrid, you need to activate the checkbox Show
Beat Grids on the Display tab of the Preferences dialog. activating this op-
tion makes the grid visible on the HuD and on the waveform. of course, if no
beatgrid has been analyzed, croSS DJ cannot show it. In this case use the
command Analyze Beatgrid/BPM only as explained in the previous section.
the beatgrid information on the player is shown as vertical lines. a vertical line
with the height of the complete waveform represents a downbeat (i.e. the first beat
of a 4 beat bar). The first downbeat gridline that you see on the waveform serves
as the reference point of the grid and is marked with yellow triangles at both end-
points. all vertical gridlines that are marked with white triangles at the endpoints
represent another downbeat. the gridlines of the beatgrid have the same spacing
as CROSS DJ assumes that the tempo of the track is fixed and that it does not
change over the duration of the track. the following rules apply to the beatgrid:
the greater the spacing of the individual gridlines, the lower the track tempo. the
smaller the spacing, the higher the track tempo is.
Importing and Mixing your Music
67