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Digital Effects

Lesson 4 from: Scratch DJ Academy presents: Intermediate/Advanced DJ Strategy

DJ Hapa

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Lesson Info

4. Digital Effects

Lesson Info

Digital Effects

Let's talk a little bit of our effects. We talked to him, we teased effects on hardware yesterday we talked a little bit more about effects right now, so I have like this whole effect section um inside of surat ptolemy and should they make this bigger? There we go. Um, right here f x effects effects so it's kind of ah usually annoy abbreviation of effects if you see that on gear if I click on fx that pulls up case so come down here I have my different types of effects inside of the software. Now you've also goingto have effects inside of software like tractors. Well, a lot of other deejay saw for out there to also has effects. Um, I've got a three different independent effects that I can use that sort of, like, chained together, so I've got a simple on and off, and then I've got a parameter button, which basically ends up being really like a dry, wet now dry, meaning you're not putting any effect on wet meaning it's all the way on, and any variation on that spectrum is basically your d...

ry wet. In this case, I've got one knob that is really just going to control the entire effect, so it's already set up, so this is a lpf? Does anybody know what l p f stands for? Low caste filter cool so I can we talked about this yesterday about the issues in the filter, right? So this will put a low pass on so if I've got it on but it's always down the novice all the way off is not giving me any low pass now it's all the way what which is almost even like took all the everything else theo so I can use the knob to affect the dry wet of that effect of low passes. What would happen if I hit the button the on booth? So even if I've got it like this know your hospital that s o like with the filter there's a lot of times like a technique here where you do like a filter sweep right before like the drop right before like the high point of the song, right it's like maybe right before the hook maybe you do that and then you would take the effect off when the high point comes in when they're dropped comes in or where the hook comes into everything was going to keep some way wasted enough like that were you know, exactly I don't think this obviously comes down to like making sure that you know your records that you know the track and this again goes for really then knowing where the sections are of the song so why that mapping is so important um we're going to spend some time later today also mapping out a track that is not as ah structure that has a course in diverse amore electronic record that has sections that's a bit more progressive. Those can also be mapped and should be mapped there actually even mohr formulate than, you know, hip hop records or pop records and things like that that have vocal courses on and it's important that before I used to think that like it all used to be one piece I used to look at music as one piece. Now when I hear music, I see it in sections, and I think as a deejay, as a producer, as a remixer that's really important to be able to see music in thes chunks to then be able to rearrange and move things around, which is why what I'd said yesterday about that being like the most important section, the most important module of like going in and mapping, I still really stand by, so if you missed yesterday's session, make sure that you check that out because that I feel like it's such a valuable piece, and we've covered it all of ten minutes in here, but we spent a really good a chunk of time yesterday covering that more depth and by the way, all the stuff that I'm showing you with, like filters and loop role in the slip all of this is just like cherry on top this is extra seasoning if you don't have this down if you don't have the structure down there's it's kind of like, you know, a cake with no cake, just a bunch of icing on a plate like that really doesn't it's not going to fill you up that's not going to really work? No so, um be mindful of that is that these effects should be used on top of, like good structure and good structured mixes and then by placing an effect on top of it, you're going to only enhance that mix that much more, but the effect is not going to save the fact that you're mix is not structured properly, you know, so make sure that you focus more time on that and then you can start to add ins from these effects so that's low past let's go through sort of the rest of these here they will start with let's start with delay and you see now I've got to two delays on here, so essentially there both going to do the same thing turn the layout this way it's putting a delay on the actual track as it's running right? You'll notice this right here do you see this changing on the software uh you see myself yeah there you go. Um eso won be happy quarter beat eighth sixteenth right now that's all doing that to um I want to say to that temple right there see here yeah so this is really important this right here is this is going to be the tempo that it's going to come in at so if you want this to like read properly is needs to be tapped out properly so I know you've got to feel like you're back which by the way almost times but you know what it's reading that you see that number goes my execute you know was that say forty seven point eight right so that's where just certain forty seven point eight which is actually half of one count right half of the ninety five beats per minute that that we have right so that's that's how this is them registered as I've now tapped its in at the forty seven point way because it's at that tempo it's setting the delay at forty seven beats per minute so this one b is not actually a one beat um is not one beat at ninety five it's one beat at forty seven so it's actually two beats so listen to this one two right by the way to do all that if I if I have the effect on parts of me up okay, so this is also how you can like echo something out is by using and delay can use the delay to do that but let me make sure me change this year you see if I can take this in room can type it in tap let's step this right? I know you've got to feel like you're back has been against the wall most times but no stein's so that's set up now that my my bpm in there right which then if I hit a delay here on a one to close my eyes and get you know ok, so notice this that the effect is going to ring out when I hit stop the delay will keep going cool so anybody want to get up here and try to mess around with the delay a little bit and we who hasn't been up here yet hello come on up here you can change the length this is it right here on will be this this will be a mountain okay, I know you've got to feel like you're back has been against the wall most times you gotta turn it off you remain open those minds that get you know wait it won't found as like marin you make the same mistakes of four victims and the chaos the world yeah that one's the language so he got turns that way you go now what a wasted in the face of pain you discover that is to know what you want to do so you want to be out of it if it's too big it's like an eight beach delay it's too big you won't hear it immediately, you know sixteen, because it's delaying so quickly it sounds like it's ringing with about the biggest leave. Plus I got a c o sweet nice. All right, cool. Any questions about delay? Very good. We any questions in the chatter? We okay, we get a couple questions. Did you have big noodles? Wants to know. Can I use the effects on the mac through surat eau de gea without the controller? Yes. Ok. Yes, you can. So there is an f fx section still here, and if he pulls up, you have this. What I would recommend though if you don't have the controller is I would recommend going out and getting some form of ah of a small controller. Let me see if I have my, um I travel with a pair of dice er's um here they go. So I travel with a pair of dice er's that are like this small and can be placed pretty much anywhere and they work together. They plug straight into my computer through a usb cable innovation makes him, um and these are probably the there's so compact that it's easy to sort of travel with but you see they've got like buttons on them they could be many mapped they could be assigned teo do different things the default for them is going to be q points rolls and loops but I can you can also reprogrammed them to do different things as well so it could be a cool thing obviously there's no knob on it either so like finding maybe a controller that has like some knobs and some buttons might be a good substitute if you don't have ah controller and maybe you're a guy that uses cj's or turned tables where it's using cerrado deejay also get like a small control and then there's a ton of them out there that are also pre mapped to the new function inside of surrounded deejay so definitely shop around and and they're not they're not terribly expensive take a look at that you have any others can you demonstrate somebody asked about sticker sink in the news surrounding deed jay stickers think yeah familiar I'm not familiar with stickers saying ok um it's a two part question the second part is can you touch into using air touch on using key info and also setting up crates with itunes? Yeah definitely were those are great questions we're going to cover that crates were definitely covering later and what we can do going to talk about key they're also in terms of organization sweet I'm talking about key but great both great questions let's wait yeah and sweet I have to look up stickers think I'm not sure what that is and I'll have to try and try to find out um cool so there's a ton of other effects and I encourage you guys to play with them obviously if you look at his drop down there's a lpf which we decided was what was that lope last filter there's also the high pass filter of that um we've got combo filter another lfo filter flander phaser reverb distortion version echo there's a bunch of these effects that you should play with yet let's try it I believe it's probably like a full filter that we see but I don't know for sure so you wouldn't be high pacify goes now on this controller also have so that's a function inside of the software I've also got a filter on the actual controller so you can see some of this stuff is doubled up even though it was getting I turn on my filter for those who are familiar with the pioneer mixers there's this middle section on aa lot of the pioneer mixers the d j am nine hundred the dj am eight hundred seven hundred siri's also that has this middle section um and which can uses for is the sound color effects that are right here that's a filter or I can turn on the jet biggest plus I got a way now these can also be then used in combination so I could then use instead of using the filter here I could use the filter that I have here and then you something else here so I don't think the right way so you want to be right so I can kind of play with some different effects here both got echo here and pitch tio so you news the echo here and use the echo in there like there's a lot of duplicated functions and features you just have to figure out which one you want to use there's no right way or wrong way to use it you just have to figure out what's comfortable for you um obviously you also on this you can't do a filter at the same time as an echo on this but you could if you did an echo here in the filter here you know, where are things like that? Um cool uh pitch another way to get yours even know was getting on with those who say that actually sounds kind of interesting you also you want to be shot way straight u s forces to get doors even know is getting hard so you can see that like the possibilities become pretty endless in terms of like them finding your sound and finding what is it used yet you know the the I guess the more analog pitch slider changes the tempo as well does that yes yes so this we'll change the tempo the pitch though won't be changed unless you so this is a good time to talk about key lock we'll talk about t a little bit later too but key lock will then lock the key and then when you move the tempo it won't affect the temple we kind of did that a little bit yesterday so if I have you wantto key lock on the chemist racist you waste got you listen for ventilation kind of pain free kind of farm without would be this hard there's no change in this change in the temple that you can hear yeah let me make the pitches so actually I can make the temple range larger we talked about this briefly on the turntable and on the c t j yesterday but here on the control I can make the temp arrange larger so if you look by the way on some of your controllers if you have control is at home you may notice that your controller has a shift button that has like this this is kind of standard that has a shift with like blocks so basically anything that has this great block you need to hold shift to them be able to get to that function so like shift affect select that's appear shift temple range is right here so I'm going to use that temple range I'm gonna make the temp arrange bigger and the way you're seeing it on the go to my screen real quick you're seeing thank you you've seen that right there plus or minus sixteen fifty eight so that's changing the range of the tempo fader okay so I'm gonna put it at fifty just for dramatic effect here keep my mom only got it just sold him I leave my middle of may now this is obviously with the key lock on take the lock off which she lodges go back to my screen key lock is right here this is a little late note even though it's getting harder so that that using key lock their help answer that question cool anybody else any other questions good okay then this and peaches for master tempo where you can just keep that on both bull turntables going all time too for the cpj's you have to be able to lock the tempo yeah here's the thing on dh that's usually using like a sink functionality so if you're using sync like there's a master and then you're everything is sinking to the master so whatever you select is like the master tempo is then what that's going to be you're going to be stuck in that master tempo so everything will sink up to that master temple whatever it is that you end up selecting um and that's it that's a function when you're trying to sink dex together um cool any other ah questions um and you'll hear points out really quick if you go back to the overhead on my controller you'll see affects banks one and two um so you have to select the default is that deck one would have the effects unit one deck to would have the effects unit two but which you can actually do is you can actually assign both effects units to one deck or no effect units toe one deck or flip them one on here too on their um again more options so you got to make sure that you're, um you figure out the best way to use this the best way to utilize it for you to me my mind works better one is one two is two and I'm just kind of simple in that way and I don't really find a need in my sets currently toe have six effects working on one deck at at the same time but if you need to that's is therefore you, um any other things I want to show you? Oh yeah there's this really um there's this really interesting thing inside of this controller which eyes is pretty awesome which is the ah this oscillator that existence out here so it has built in sort of sound effects if you will that's just the noise it's just the sweeping noise from the built in oscillator here and I can change the grammar of it and also the volume here so you can see like if I were to go back, you want tio with back pain? I know you got exactly three strong straight home win, and they're still good thing that we're talking about about master. So right now, it's my controllers stop doors and close it stuck at one twenty three is somehow sanctions that tempo some and turn off saying we have to get back to ninety five. So that's, the only problem that I found with using so there's a couple of issues that I found with using sync one is that you just kind of lose some control that's the biggest thing is that you lose real control over what's happening, but sometimes the simple then sync up to something depending on what it was trying. Tio b et it heard somewhere along the way that I was at one twenty three wanted to lock into that master and now wouldn't let me out of that until I turned sink off. So no, my recommendation, my the way I sort of think about this is that like try not to use think if you don't need it, if you're just mixing kind of a couple of records together, you really don't need the sink functionality don't be like stuck on that if you're doing a show where you've got like five different things that you're trying to line up all at once and you're stacking things sink becomes pretty important for that and that usually is something that's more of like a pre rehearsed thing but if you're just going out and d j on friday night at the local bar no, my recommendation would be to try and stay away from that side of it. Um ah let me just show you this ah, what was that show this way you don't even know it was getting fucking control the oscillator I signed it for and here's my house later sign right here which took in either beyond three or four for the master even so I can like you do. So you teo straight now let me turn this off so I can use this sort of pretty cool like well, well calling over here so essentially if you don't have for example the turntable to like the four channel could I just play in effect through the fourth channel in the sound will still come out could you play an effect? Yes so you said they go to the next like this oscillator? Yeah, yes, this has actually nothing to do with the turntable I've just assigned it to four just so I have, I now have the ability to eat you it and I have another volume control on it, so it just gives me a little bit mohr stuff to mess with. So, you know, and I've got that, and then the we've got our famous airborne in there try not to overuse the air horn. Um, I can be really changed the samples or is that, like, hard this, you know, from my knowledge? Literally, this is a controller that came out. What was this now, like a couple weeks ago? So I'm not sure if you can actually changes. I think that this is built in my guess is it's built into the hardware and that it's it's there because that's not being controlled in software, I don't believe, um, I think it's just inside of the hardware, so I don't think you could change that part of it, but there is a sampler inside of surat o d j so you can set up a sampler and then put your own different effects in a sampler. And if you click on sampler, you can use this and use your samples that you want. The one thing that you don't have is you don't have. Well, you can have some control over the sampler on again you could mini map a sampler to them be ableto have more parameters to be able to control like let's say the volume of your samples and stuff like that um yeah no, I sweep for channel on this on this particular piece of year no, but that is on the what is that on the nine hundred nexus mixer there's ah there's a noise sweet white noise sweet white noise sample that you could you were doing white noise on their right oh yeah maybe yeah there goes yes are there is a noise and then filter everybody messing with volume yeah, I mean, I could have you e I would have liked to get even though it's getting hard you want? Yeah so you can like add indifference of again a lot of this is like you find find the best way to use some of these thiss takes practices should all of the stuff that is done behind closed doors first and not just like super experimentation europe they're like loop rolling like well songs they're playing and uh, you know, got slip mode on and doing all of this and you've never practiced this this is just something you're just oh, I noticed I can do this on the fly and you're just kind of doing all that you know, that's, you're walking a really, really fine line by doing that on, don't tell anybody that I told you to do differently, like like, yeah, deejay happens, said, I should be doing slip mode while I'm playing live, definitely lots of practice. Find what sounds good, find what works you may don't overuse things. Also, you don't want to, like, delay, echo out of every track and hit the air horn out of every track or into every track, doing a noise, a white noise sweep in and out of every hook, like, you know, be very, very use this stuff sparingly and it's, meant to be that seasoning on top, do not overseas in, uh, your mix, it won't taste very good.

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

This was a great class. I am an up and coming DJ. I have been teaching myself for the most part. This was the first actual class that I have taken and it was very good to know and hear that I have been teaching myself properly. It was good to hear that I am on the right path. I was also able to pick up some tips on what I can improve and change about how I proceed in my journey. Would like to have more classes like these. Thanks.

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This was a great class with a great teacher. I just started working for a DJ company and wanted to learn about the craft. It was a great class to learn the basics to really get started. I highly recommend to anyone that wants to learn about DJing.

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