LET'S MAKE OUR OWN DISCO BPM BIBLE

[QUINNY]

So whadaya think? Any suggestions?
Maybe we could submit BPMs according to our screen name initial. That way I grab (the hardest) Q, Jazz has J, Marky M, Danceman D etc etc. DUH!!!!
Any good ideas?

[PeanutVendor]

I'm with Quinny. Maybe this site could provide a method for members to submit lists and combine them into a single pool of knowledge. there would need to be some kind of screening but it would be awesome if we could pull it off.

[QUINNY]

Of course a lot would be in Bernie's hands.
The three greatest difficulties so far as I can see would be (a) duplication (b) getting results into alphbetical order so that posters didn't duplicate and (c) disputes over which BPM is correct if someone disagrees.
I guess a new forum would be needed which was merely for the adding to and location of BPMs, which I guess would have to be in BPM order first, then alphabetical within each BPM range.
Probably we could start with the vault and go from there. It might help put this site 'on the map' especially if we can get it right.

[PeanutVendor]

or else take a shortcut: find Tom Lewis get his permission to upload disco bible to this site and boom instant permanent clickable searchable printable resource. Tom did all the work long ago - we could try to duplicate it but it would take years and still be incomplete and wrong.

[Bernie]

See my other post under "BPM" for more info on this.

[JussiK]

Fab idea. However, whenever I spin I try and scribble down the digital BPMs the deck gives. These tend to vary quite a lot during many tracks like I never remembered they would. Invisible Band's hit for one seems to start somewhere at 116 and to speed up along the way. In a situation like this one has to think fast - shall I replace the following cut with a faster track or shall I speed my planned record up and alter the intended sound - not a good idea generally. I tried to mix in the interesting instrumental found on the flip of the 7" but that was again something else...So what I'm saying the BPMs should be counted from both ends of the vinyl for accurate results. Lots of work!

[QUINNY]

Jussik: Quite a dilemma. I've personally never thought that speeding a track up (or slowing it down) was a problem. The ear can't really pick up on say +/- 3% if the track is stand alone, unless one has what's known as perfect pitch (and very, very few of us have that). Remember, some jocks (not me I hasten to add) played Herb Alpert's 'Rise' at a slowed down 45RPM instead of 33 1/3 RPM to get the BPM up to around 130 BPM. Would anyone have noticed anything unless it was heard at its proper speed? Good question, no?

[JussiK]

I think speeding up a track can be a problem if one does it without testing what the result sounds like. Say you're spinning something like The Invisible Man's Band and too late witness it accelerate past 120 very near the end just as you're about to perform a mix into something with 116 BPM - what do you do? Turn The Music Up that you've got lined up cannot really be speeded up to 123, that would sound horrible. I.M.B will fade in about 30 seconds. If you can think fast and produce a 120+ cut that would seque nicely out of All Night.. from your bag, fine. I paniced and grabbed an old house track by T-Coy last month, getting curious looks from my friends- the kids obviously did not bat an eyelid or miss a beat.

[QUINNY]

Jussik: An old trick I used to do is mix in the next record at a too fast pace, but then hit the slider back just at the mix point. Surprisingly, it used to work and not sound too ridiculous.
In the old days of chop mixing, BPM was far less important and people still danced. However when doing beat mixing, I used to mix with the goal of obtaining a brilliant chop mix, 'cos I always found a good chop mix to be more exciting somehow, especially if you could do a dramatic change up tempo.
P.S. I'd always be looking to up or down the tempo by at least 2 -3 BPM with most mixes, so I'd very rarely play any record at its correct tempo. The record with the right BPM or right feel for where I was at or going to, never seemed to exist.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: QUINNY on 2002-10-01 03:02 ]</font>