At DJ School Amsterdam, we don’t use ‘Sync’ during lessons. But there is no principle on that. We encourage using new technology and we always take the dancefloor perspective for judging a dj. If using ‘Sync’ makes you a better dj, use it!
BUT, ‘Sync’ as we know it in 2018 is far from perfect. Serato, Traktor nor Pioneer yet created perfect functioning technology to auto-mix two records. Thats why we still (have to) teach people the basics of beatmatching by listening.
Aside being able to avoid technical flaws of the gear, it is proven daily at our School that manually beatmatching increases your feeling for music (musicality). Also it brings you physically closer to what you are doing and stimulates a more intuitive workflow.
TIGHTER
We could go a step further and tell from the experiences in our Basic and Pro Course, that watching the visuals the Pioneer CDJ-2000Nexus offers for Syncing, increases errors. Timing and countdown for starting a mix is usually tighter and more ‘in Sync’ when one is NOT watching the Sync-bar in the screen.
Our goal is to train talented music lovers to be dj’s who are in total control of every aspect of their profession. Timing and beatmatching without using supportive tools usually speeds up that process.
Again, we encourage usage of any new gadgets. And with the current speed of development in dj-software we think it would be foolish not to take advantage of new posibilities.
But in our learning strategy, using ‘Sync’ does not fit as long as that specific function is at it’s current phase of imperfection. Plus, with the methods we use, becoming a flawless beat-matcher is easier to learn than most aspirant dj´s think.
Olivier Meijs, DJ School Amsterdam
