Anyone else here DJ? What do you spin? Anyone interested in DJing? If so, feel free to ask me anything... I've become a bit bored with poker lately, so that's pretty much all I've been doing the past few months.

I'm primarily a turntablist/scratch DJ, been doing it for 8 years. I'm mostly into hip-hop, but I've went through dubstep phases and recently been listening to a lot more funk. Last year I won the Canadian DMC title, getting geared up to defend that title this year in the next couple months, and hopefully make a run at the world title if all goes well. Might as well share some knowledge if I can.

damn! my scratch game isnt anywhere near DMC status but i dj on the regular in philly. good luck w/ the title man!

im always trying to figure out interesting and creative ways to transition from track to track, such as jumping a large amount of BPMs if need be (obviously if its a crowd dancing, i'll probably sustain tempo) but say from a track thats 110 to 80 - if its more of listening and vibing environment i might power off the one table to give it that "slooooooooowly" slow down and drop the next track on the 1 say or try to do a shifting tempo rubs/baby scratches from one tempo down to the other while fading out the 110 track.

basically - what other interesting and creative ways besides the ones mentioned work for you in your experience?

Hmm, yea that's always quite tough (transitioning between big tempo differences). I've spent a lot of time thinking about this when I'm helping people with Red Bull Thr3estyle sets. I think with DVS doing a power off while you're key locked is a pretty common/easy way to transition from faster to slower. Doing a straight power off with no key lock is fine for some stuff like hip-hop but might be weird on dance music. Another variation as opposed to a straight power off, is powering off then baby scratching the first beat so it goes slower each time you release it, this can work with both key lock and without, and is effectively the same as your normal power off but might sound better or worse with certain tracks. It'll be useful if the track's just about to end too, and you don't have enough time to let it power down for a couple bars.

Another thing that helps a lot especially if you're doing it on the fly, is to have certain tracks that are designated to transition from certain tempo ranges, that you have transitions worked out for or they have something built in you can use. One obvious example (depends on the genres you spin again), is there are a decent amount of dubstep/dnb tracks that start 70 BPM and ramp up to 180, or start 180 and slow down to 70, and even some that go from 70 to like a drumstep 85bpm. So it makes it easy to transition either going from 70 to 180 bpm like the tracks do, OR instead of going 70BPM to 90BPM, you drop the track that goes 70BPM up to 180BPM, then transition from 180 to 90BPM (obviously a lot easier to mix in a track that's exactly half the speed).

Another thing I see a lot of people do that sometimes works is just looping 1 beat of a track, then using the pitch to speed up the loop, if it's done right it can sound pretty natural depending on what you're looping (it can be a word, or 1 note of a melody, or a kick drum... a snare would probably sound kinda obnoxious).

Other more complicated things would be to do a simple trick mix/beat juggle to get them together... usually the tracks either need to be somewhat close in BPM (I go from ~76BPM to about 87BPM like this in my DMC routine this year), or something that makes sense (you might be able to take a 120BPM track and juggle it into an 80BPM because it's exactly 50% faster, so 2 notes of 120BPM is like a triplet at 80BPM). This obv depends on your skill with doubles though too, which I highly suggest working on if you're not that confident with them... opens sooo many doors.

Another way of transitioning that people nevvver do anymore that is so dope is just your basic beat-matched trick mixing. Drop the same tempo track on the other side and go back and forth with a beat from each side for a few bars (see J-Rocc's Trick Mixing vid on youtube... or nearly any J-Rocc Mix). That doesn't help for different tempos much really.

Also, the last thing that a lot of DMC/battle guys do that rarely happens in a club is just dropping a sound clip of some sort that might be relevant, like the "And now for my next number, I'd like to return to the classics" sample or something. Like there's gotta be heaps of these samples from movies, shows, intros/skits from albums, etc. And it can work well if you find the right one and use it correctly. It's super simple to pull off (drop the sample while fading the track or fading baby scratch for the echo effect), but the difficult part is tracking down good samples to do it with. I'm sure if you used stuff that was from pop culture that people get, or say stuff that's relevant, it would work well. It's pretty common in new music, dubstep especially, to have random samples like that too like the Will Ferrell sample in Niggaz in Paris.

So:

-power off
-power off baby scratch
-have tracks that switch tempos in them, or tracks that have good transition spots in your back pocket to use when you need them
-making a short loop and speeding up/slowing down manually
-simple doubles/juggling together tracks
-trick mixing ala J.Rocc
-dropping a vocal sample that's relevant or people recognize... not too long tho

I'll try to think of more... there's tons of ways but some can only be used on specific tracks/you have to practice it a ton, not really practical for mixing on the fly.

I'd love it if you would post a funk set on here. If you could sneak in Give It Up or Turn It A Loose by James Brown with the Original JBs, it would be even better.

i saw your link when u posted in "recommend" thread. you should train a lot more beat-juggling.
i used to scratch and juggle pretty long ago, back in 2000-2002 i guess. i had 2 or 3 battles and fcked up. sadly lost interest in (active) turntablism (guess having no feedback/no one to exchange with had a lot to do with it).

do you have a notation system for your scratch routines?

I practice beat juggling a lot, I haven't been doing it as long as I have been scratching though, so it's my weakness still but I'm improving far quicker than scratching lately. Yea I wish that I had more people to get feedback from too, I'm still building a pretty big network. Before DMC last year pretty much no one had seen my routines, lol.

I don't notate anything for scratch routines or juggles, I practice so much that it's pretty much impossible to forget, lol.

Haha, I won't have time for a while cuz I'm in the thick of battle season but I could try at some point. I've been listening to a lot more funk lately, although I'm not super knowledgable about it yet. Love the breaks in a lot of those tunes.

you have any vids of your sets?

How do you start to formulate a scratch routine? Is it just like a really long practice session that you do then you start to pick and choose things that go in order? or do you have like a vision / idea before you start?

winning routine from the Canadian finals last year:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHy8GHF3E4U

Live battle at KOTD:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8F4__ckFv4

There's other bits and pieces on youtube as well... have a bunch of new stuff but I can't reveal it yet :P

Both. I think my better ideas start out as a "vision" of sorts... like I come up with the idea pretty clearly before I put it together. I think coming up with an overall concept for a routine usually leads to a better routine just because it's based on something that was interesting even before you did it. I might hear some song or sample or something and be like "damn that'd be sick if I could use that for a routine!". Most of the time it doesn't actually work out when you try it, but when it does it's sweeter because it's like the idea is already so strong by itself that you'd barely have to work to make it good... but then if you flip it crazy it takes it over the top.

I guess I'd compare it to sampling for a hip-hop beat. Sometimes you just find a sample that's so crazy you know if you can make a beat from it it's going to be dope almost regardless. Then you take it a step further and flip it like someone wouldn't expect and that's what makes a truly great beat.

On the other hand, I've made a few routines where I just kinda hear an instrumental I really like, then take samples I like that I haven't used before, and try them out and see if they fit. I just keep finding more samples that fit and kinda make it piece by piece without having much of an idea how it'll turn out.

Technique-wise I usually pick stuff that I've been practicing for a long time that I want to highlight/showcase and try to work it in where it sounds good and build around those highlights. I try to always have a purpose for each part of my routine, and try to tailor my techniques to the sample... I don't want to scratch a guitar sample the same way I'd scratch the ahhh sample.

I don't really have a set formula for routine, I've made 5-6 scratch routines in the past year and they're all almost completely different from the way I came up with them and the way I made them. I'm still learning/trying things though, probably after I've made 5-6 more routines I'll have more set methods for putting stuff together.

lol djs must be so hard getting a mac and a beatmatching programe than standing like a douche trying to make it look like your actually doing something other pressing play on itunes.

here what deadmau5 said about djs and i think he has the most valid opinion

It puts me to ****ing sleep to be quite honest, I don’t really see the technical merit in playing two songs at the same speed together and it bores me to ****ing tears and hopefully with all due respect to the dj type that will ****ing go the way of the dinosaur id like them to dis-a-****ing-pear.

, its so middle man,they’re like ****ing lawyers. You need them, but they’re ****ing ****s. God bless them they’re my number one customer right so I’m not gonna go diss every ****ing DJ. But to say you become this massive up on a podium performer by playing other peoples productions at the same speed as someone else’s productions and fading between the two of them, I don’t get it

Firstly, did you see my vids? Not much of that could be done with just software, lol.

Secondly, I agree to some extent. The DJ scene is suuuper over-saturated right now. I think that opinion is quite valid about many people starting out right now. Most DJs nowadays care nothing about the actual artform/culture/anything other than becoming popular from it really. So yea, a lot of DJs, especially in certain scenes, amount to nothing more than glorified itunes playlists. Hip-hop has always had higher standard for the DJ so it still hasn't gotten quite as bad (still bad relative to what it used to be even 6 years ago or so), but hip-hop is becoming less and less popular as time goes on, so it's effect on DJ culture is getting weaker as well unfortunately.

Thirdly, and most importantly in this case, is that deadmau5 is not a good DJ, lol. It's pretty obvious from his opinion that he doesn't reeeally know what he's talking about. He's describing like the lowest common denominator of a "DJ"... it's sort of like a pianist going on a rant about how all guitar players are talentless hacks who just play covers of other people's awful pop songs. Obviously way more guitarists, or wannabe guitarists, just play covers and open mics and such than anything else, but it's a pretty big generalization to criticize playing guitar as a whole based on a bunch of people who express no amount of creativity or potential on the instruments, don't you agree? It's an issue with nearly any artform that gets popular that has a relatively quick learning curve.

Deadmau5 is a great producer and all, don't get me wrong, but he's just not a good DJ, and he's in a scene plagued the hardest by not good DJs these days. So his opinion isn't really that valid, he should stick to having opinions about what he's actually good at/knows about.

wow what an ignorant comment. Not a good dj? i have been his show and yes he is a good dj, sells out to hundreds of thousands of people, and you say hes not a 'good dj lol'

sorry you played at king of the dot event and now think you have license to diss deadmau5. K.o.t.d is just a place for terrible basement dwelling rappers to go get some fresh air #dfafd

yes i am aware of difference between producing and djing if that what your comeback would be

Im aware that im coming across as a deadmau5 fanboy but truth be told not really, but i appreciate the fact that if someone as repected in the edm scene says that djs are **** then il take his word for it

At his show deadmau5 plays his own music....which is awesome but doesn't make him a good dj. Yes most djs at clubs are monkeys that just press play like an itunes playlist but that's clearly not what vekked is doing in his vids.

sick routines in both vids....you need to work on your trash talking though that was kinda sad lol

How'd you get into the battling and stuff with your routines (i assume around toronto since you're from waterloo)?

Yes, he's not a good DJ. There's a difference between playing mixes of your own tunes you've produced and DJing. I'm not trying to diss him by saying "omg he's an awful DJ", he's just not really a DJ. He's a really good producer, that's what he specializes in and that's what he's known for. It's like me saying Dr. Dre isn't a good DJ (even tho he is or at least was), it's not a diss to him, it's just that's not what he's known for/tries to excel at.

I'm sure you know something about DJing and I'm not trying to be stuck up, but don't you think I might know what I'm talking about? I've done more than just battle on KOTD in an un-judged promo battle...

Haha, yea unfortunately what isn't seen in the trash talking segment is that Jooce is approximately 3 feet away from me, and he's my friend, so it was awkward as ****, lol.

As for getting into battling, I've always been a fan of DJ battles, especially the late 90s/early 2000s, and I've always been into hip-hop/scratching, so it was something I was interested in. Unfortunately DJ battling died hard in Canada and in 2009/2010 there wasn't even DMC. Which sucked in particular for me because that's about the time I was getting competent enough to actually have a shot at doing well. So other than a few really small battles ~2007 my battle career basically started last year, lol.

I heard DMC was back, but only had 3 months or so to prepare, so I got together bits of stuff I'd been working on over the past couple years and did what I could. I entered the local regional in Hamilton, was super nervous and had a bad needle skip (luckily at a point where there was a lot of applause so apparently no one even noticed, but it still feels like everyone saw lol), but ended up taking the battle. That gave me a lot more confidence and I tweaked my routine a bit, added some disses to Jooce who was my main competitor, and went to the Canadian finals. Ended up nailing my routine at the finals, felt pretty much flawless but I haven't seen any footage, so ended up taking the Canadian finals too. It was pretty much out of nowhere cuz likely if there was battling in 2009/2010 those years I would've had some close calls before 2011 (or maybe won one of those years, who knows), so it was like I came out of nowhere even though I'd still been practicing/putting in hours even when there wasn't battles, cuz it's just what I do.

The DJ battle scene is looking up a lot in Canada this year though, KOTD is getting involved in DJ battles, IDA is coming to Canada for the first time ever, DMC is killing it with the best sponsorship Canadian battles have ever seen (1st at the finals is going to get 3-4k of gear minimum).

bad jaws horn,

You are an idiot, shut up. You use the "he sells out his shows" as reasoning that Deadmau5 is a good DJ which is quite possibly the worst f*cking logic ever (and I'm a Deadmau5 fan). Hint: Justin Bieber and Nickelback selling out shows != they are great musicians.

Vekked,

Enjoyed the videos much more than I expected, good sh*t man.

yeah i dj mainly just a drum and bass dj would love to get into the scratching side of things aswell

do you ever do like scratching drills? or is it just, messing around until you find a sound you like and then practice replicating that?

i been doing drills like i would if i was practicing the piano, so like work on flares, then chirps, then make up random patterns to practice, but it never ends up feeling natural.

Haha, yea pretty much that. Thanks man, glad you liked em!

Yea it's very much drills like you would do practicing other instruments. Most of my practice is doing drills of sorts, like focussing on a certain pattern/technique I want to get down or I feel I have problems nailing consistently. At first I was doing this almost entirely... I think it's really important to get stabs/reverse stabs/chirps/transforms and such down really tight because those are basically the building blocks for everything else, and are by far the most versatile techniques. Like some guys can do nothing but chirps or transforms for minutes straight but have so many variations it doesn't get boring... I haven't really seen anyone who just does flares for that long without getting boring. Flares/crabs/tears are sort of like an extra spice you add imo, but they don't make up the majority of your scratching.

Over time I stumbled across different techniques/patterns that I liked that I didn't get from any video or anything, but kept working on them, I like to think they're my own but there's probably other people doing them somewhere that I just haven't seen yet. I think that's really important for developing style... you don't have to just do things you've seen/heard, combine known techniques that you like with stuff you think you've made up that you like... just do things that you like yourself and don't do stuff that you don't like as much.

A decent amount of my more recent techniques/patterns come from me just thinking of something and trying to do it... like "what if I could use my thumb to pull the record forward and back at certain parts of this pattern", and then I'll try it. Like I have no idea what it might sound like, or if it's even possible to do (sometimes things work in your head but not in reality, lol), but certain stuff I'm doing now just started as a random idea I had away from the tables and then I kept working on it until I refined it.

But yea, for starting out just practice your foundation cuts. Focus on being able to do the same thing over and over consistently without messing it up/going off beat, and then try doing the same rhythms but different pitches. It also helps to keep your hand on the record as much as possible instead of releasing it a lot... you'll develop better control if you can force yourself to push the record forward when you need instead of letting it go every time (although there are times for both).

Hope something there is helpful, haha.

ya this stuff is great!

I assume you're using serato?

What are you doing when you do beat juggling stuff? are you just using like tape markers on the vinyl as reference points and then practicing forever?

yea serato for all routines. Whenever possible I prefer vinyl, especially for scratching, because the sound is more true/accurate, but for routines it's not really possible/practical to use vinyl anymore, not to mention the convenience of not having to worry about skipping barely at all anymore and such. I usually put 3 stickers on the record, but 1 is fine for most stuff, and use the stickers as a reference based on where they are relative to the stylus. Just line up your first sticker to the needle or 12 o'clock depending which you prefer and hit the cue point.

It does take heaps of practice, and beat juggling is a lot tougher to start because of a severe lack of good tutorials... honestly I think the best way to learn is watch old Rob Swift/Mista Sinista juggles from 92-96 and try to copy them and then slowly move forward in time. Sinista's Theme from Swat routine from I think 1996 is a really good routine to start to get the basics of juggling. The patterns are really simple but it's composed really well too so you get an idea of how to make a juggle build and go somewhere as opposed to sounding like a bunch of patterns back to back with no real direction.

Even tho it's really tough to learn because of the lack of resources I think the learning curve is a lot easier than scratching. I honestly believe someone could be world class at beat juggling in 3 years if they wanted to, but even a super prodigy will need at least 5-6 years or something to be world class at scratching because the standards are becoming so high. People suck at juggling as a rule, lol.

ya basically all i can do now is have like a few bars on repeat by juggling then with doubles but usually anything shorter than like 2 bars i can't do or sustain. Then there's the problem of actually making it sounds like something cool not just a line on repeat. also if it's not like a specific track i've been working with that i know inside out I can't do anything at all. I assume that's all normal right i just need loads more practice for form some kind of routine?

Yea at the start it'll take you a while just to get looping down. You want to be able to loop half a bar easily before you'll be able to do too much other stuff.

In order to form a routine it goes roughly:

1) practice foundation, get techniques down

2) practice a bunch on a beat you like and be able to freestyle those techniques a bit (ideal beats to learn on are probably 85-95BPM with a straight beat... normal boom bap hip-hop is easy but there's a lot of other genres that have a straight hat that's easy to work with. If there's too much swing or the hits are too fast then it's gonna be too hard to manage when you're learning. Cypress Hill, Gangstarr, Kool G Rap, etc, all have good instrumentals to learn.

3) Start picking your favourite patterns using the beat you chose, based on how they sound.

4) Start organizing/composing those patterns. The basic way I'd compose a routine is intro where you mostly play the beat so people hear what you're working with. Then maybe do some patterns at the same speed as the original tempo to make it a bit more interesting. Then figure out a breakdown or build up you can do to transition to a slower or faster tempo depending where you're going with the routine. Then go into your ending which should be the most interesting part where you turn the beat into something completely different, either by tapping/slowing it down, or by putting it on 45, or some other rhythm.

You wanna have a beginning/middle/end basically, and it goes roughly from being the least manipulated at the start, to the most at the end. It doesn't always go like that, but that's the basic way to organize a juggle.

does the ITF still exist?
your favorite dmc and/or itf routine ?