Dynamic beatgrids in Rekordbox being overwritten by Lexicon

Library Organization Advice Needed
1

Ok, so I use Lexicon for just about everything to organize my emerging library. The tagging is exceptional and I really enjoy fixing the grid and setting up a few hot cues in Lexicon. It’s a way more enjoyable experience when compared to Export mode in Rekordbox 7.

Recently, I decided to make my own DJ edit of a song. Nothing fancy, just a track I couldn’t find through a DJ pool that I wanted an intro and outro to. I used dj.Studio to make it. I would then go through my import procedure using Lexicon, which involves prepping the metadata, tags, beat grid and hot cues, I would then export my library to Rekordbox.

After opening Rekordbox post-Lexicon-export, I would try playing my newly created track. The beat grid was all off. I had to drop into export mode and manually set a dynamic beat grid. Super laborious process, but it worked. It was much easier to mix after that.

After I was done mixing, I would close Recordbox, return back to Lexicon, hoping that I could import my library from Rekordbox, including the recent changes to my track with the dynamic beat grid.

I would then go label and import more music. Nothing custom, just stuff I would get from a DJ pool. After identifying a bunch of new tracks, I would export my Lexicon to Rekordbox.

This time when I open Rekordbox, I would go back to my custom track with the dynamic beat grid, only to find my beatgrid has been overwritten. Of course it has. I unticked “Don’t touch my grids”. I would expect this, but now I’m stuck. I didn’t want Lexicon to overwrite the dynamic beat grid from that one song, but I want it handling all my other tracks.

So I guess my question is. How do I stop this cycle? I can’t set a dynamic beatgrid in Lexicon. The custom beatgridding in Lexicon doesn’t feel as robust as Rekordbox. Otherwise, I would just use that and be done with it.

Does anyone have any ideas? I’d love a way to prevent a particular song in Rekordbox from being overwritten by the grids I created in Lexicon. I tried locking the track in Rekordbox, but Lexicon ignores that setting and overwrites anyway.

Maybe I’m just using Lexicon wrong, but I can’t figure out how to make dynamic beat grids.

Thank you in advance for any help/advice!

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You can import your grids into Lexicon and nothing else, did you do that? So then Lexicon has everything again and syncing to RB should result in everything being up to date there.

What part of the Lexicon UI doesn’t work for the dynamic gridding for you? It doesn’t analyze for dynamic grids yet but it is possible to set them manually

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hey christiaan, thanks for the response.

You can import your grids into Lexicon and nothing else, did you do that?

After I made the dynamic beat grid in Rekordbox, I close the application, then switch over to Lexicon. I go to Sync/Export, select Rekordbox 6/7 Direct, then click on the Import tracks & playlists button. I choose a Full import. I grab every field, including the beat grid. I then click start importing.

After the import, I go to listen to my track with the dynamic beat grid and find that the dynamic beat grid is lost.

What part of the Lexicon UI doesn’t work for the dynamic gridding for you? It doesn’t analyze for dynamic grids yet but it is possible to set them manually

This is where I might be a newb, so I welcome the feedback on using Lexicon effectively. Below is the track in question. I basically sift through the entire track and hit this “Make an adjustment from the current position” button for every beat that is off the grid.

Rekordbox Dynamic Beatgrid Editing
Rekordbox Dynamic Beatgrid Editing2154×676 240 KB

I don’t see that see this functionality available in Lexicon.

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Ok, I think I may have just stumbled into something, but I could use some validation for what I have discovered and if I’m using it correctly.

Lexicon dynamic beat grid
Lexicon dynamic beat grid1476×440 116 KB

In Lexicon, I’m click the “+” button (circled in red) on each beat that is slightly off, with the intention that it’s fixing the grid. I’m guessing by the time I’m through the entire song, I’ll have somewhere around 100 markers as it keeps ticking up every time I place one at every beat that is ever-so-slightly off.

Should I be adjusting the BPM with the icons circled in yellow? What are those used for? The UX could really use some love here. I’m not clear on why it keeps resetting to a “1” every time I drop a new marker. Also, when I drop a new marker, because it’s so close to the original marker, I’m often unclear which one is which and how that related to the increasing or decreasing the BPM based on the “current” marker. Which is one is “current”?

How am I doing? Am I using Lexicon correctly?

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Yeah that is the annoying part about dynamic grids, the amount of markers… I’ve seen RB analyze for 1100 markers on one song because the bpm was off almost every beat.

That is how dynamic grids work, a new marker each time the BPM changes or the marker drifts.
The yellow buttons increase or decrease the BPM for the last marker, which will increase or decrease the time between beats (hold it for a while to see the effect).

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Thanks for the validation @Christiaan. It’s good to know i’m on the right track. If you’re open to the feedback, the documentation on dynamic beat grids in Lexicon is a bit lacking. A video tutorial around setting the grid, setting markers, and adjusting the BPM would be really helpful.

(Also, that was an unintended “track” pun) :wink:

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7

If the beat is just a little bit wobbly, have you considered warping the track? I routinely warp classic disco, soul and funk with Ableton Live. For that matter, I often make edits such as adding intro and outros, redrumming, rearrangements and EQ adjustments. But, just simply warping the song to a steady BPM will future proof it for use in all DJ software.

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@androphonic thanks for idea! At the risk of turning this thread into an Ableton add, if you have any reference material on how to get up to speed quickly with warping in Ableton I’d greatly appreciate it! Love Lexicon and this community. I use this tool daily and it’s delightful.

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Right, we’d get off topic real quickly. I’ll DM you with some tips on my “warping journey” with Ableton in a few days.

FYI, Neural Mix Pro and DJ Studio are other programs that can be used.

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I wanted to give an update for anyone that finds this thread. @androphonic sent me some great examples on using Ableton to warp beat grids and context around the change in OneLibrary. I ended up using the Ableton Trial and I’m not going to lie, I was pretty overwhelmed by it.

Since then, I just discovered how to make dynamic beat grids using using Lexicon. I ended up giving a hot key of “M” to the field of “add a marker at current time”. I then jump through the track in 4 beat increments hitting the “M” where I need to reset the grid.

image
image2040×542 183 KB

Here is an example of Lauryn Hill’s Doo Wop that I got from a popular DJ pool. The track had a 8-bar intro and outro, but the grid was just ever so slightly off, making beat matching just a little harder than I felt like it should be.

Using the hot key and jumping through the track in this way made short work of dynamically setting a beat grid in Lexicon. Way easier than using Rekordbox.

I know someday I’ll make my way back to Ableton. I have so many edits of songs that I want to make that I just can’t find in most record pools, but until then, setting dynamic beat grids using Lexicon for the tracks that I can find just got a whole lot easier.

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11

That’s a great tip!

BTW- Ableton usually has a big Black Friday sale, educational discounts and now offers “rent-to-own”. The most expensive version, Ableton Suite, will include stems in the forthcoming 12.3 release.

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