Mods: I thought it would be good to keep this separate from the Tips & Tricks thread, but if you could link it in that'd be good.

About a year ago I tried to start setting a challenge every week for members of the DJ booth to try and have a go at...

The first was mixing entirely in the headphones without listening to more than one channel at once, the second was mixing using just one deck by setting a loop with any sampler you might have on your mixer (or externally) then quickly cueing up the next track then mixing from the loop into the track.

Unfortunately, as I'm a bit useless, that's as many as I did, but now I'm setting out to redeem myself with...

STU'S TECHNICAL COOKBOOK

The idea is, each week (although it might end up only being every other week, depending on how I get on) I'll give you a technical trick you can try out. Sometimes this will require certain equipment (the ingredients) and sometimes it will just require the most basic DJ setup. Some of the time it'll be tricks that a lot of people know about so it'll be aimed at newer DJs, other times it will be things that most people will find new.

I also plan to include an audio sample of each trick so you can see what it sounds like.


So, we kick off with the first recipe...

RECIPE 1: FADER START STABS

This trick is probably a fair bit more in-depth that most will be, but I wanted to start with something that most people would find something new in.

INGREDIENTS

For the basics:
1x FaderStart-compatible CD deck (e.g CDJ100/200/800/1000, DNS1000/3000/3500/5000 etc)
1x FaderStart-compatible mixer (e.g. DJM400/600/800/909/1000/3000, DNX100/300/500/900/1500 etc)

To take it a bit further, one or more of the following:
1x Additional FaderStart-compatible CD deck
1x Mixer capable of assigning multiple channels to each side of the crossfader (e.g. DJM800, DNX500/900/1500)
1x FX unit, either external or built into mixer (e.g. EFX500/1000, DJM600/800 DNX1500)


"How do I know if my CD deck / mixer is compatible with fader starts?"
A: Either check the manual or look on the back - if it is compatible, there will be a small socket labelled "fader", "control" or similar. You then need a 3.5mm jack cable to connect the CD deck to the mixer, which is supplied with most FaderStart-compatible CD decks.

Note - unfortunately A&H Xone mixers do not have fader start features


HOW THE TECHNOLOGY WORKS

For those of you who don't know what fader starts do or how they work, a fader start makes the CD player it controls start playing when the fader lever leaves its 0 position (i.e. the bottom for a channel fader; the opposite side from the channel you're controlling for a crossfader) and returns the CD player to its cue point when the fader lever is returned to this position.

It does this by sending out a short signal via a control cable, which the CD player can interpret as "start" or "stop and return to cue point" as appropriate.


THE IDEA

For a year or so I thought the only use anyone could possibly have fader starts would be to a mobile doing a simple fade and not mixing beat matching, allowing him to save a bit of effort when bringing a track in.

HOW WRONG WAS I?

Fader starts, particularly when used with a crossfader with a sharp contour, can allow you to trigger a sample at the cue point on the sampler just by cutting the fader, so in theory by cutting the fader in a rhythm, you'll essentially be "playing" that rhythm with that sample.

Some of you will notice that this isn't a lot different from tapping the cue button on your CDJ to rhythm, as that too would play the sound back in the rhythm you drum out on the cue button. So why use fader start instead?

Well a certain element of it is going to be preference - to some people, tapping the cue button is a similar action to drumming so is more intuitive, although by this same merit that intuitive action is normally to tap and release very quickly, meaning you get a very short stab of sound and a fair amount of silence in between taps. The natural action people tend to perform when cutting a crossfader leaves the crossfader "on" for longer, meaning you get a smoother sound with less of a gap between stabs.

Indeed if you have 2 copies of the same stab on separate CDJs assigned to opposite sides of the crossfader with fader starts turned on for both decks, by flicking the crossfader straight across from one side to the other in rhythms, you can eliminate the gap between stabs altogether.

The other benefits come when you take it a step further - fader starting can respond to crabbing a crossfader (for those not so knowledgeable about scratching, crabbing is where you use 3 fingers to cut a crossfader 3 times very quickly, giving you a very fast stutter) and, with certain mixers, allows you to perform the same action on more than one sound at once... so you could drum out a rhythm with 2 sounds simultaneously and they'll stay perfectly in time.

It's also a lot more "convenient" to then just start playing a track from fader start stabs than from tapping the cue button as you just perform the same action and leave the crossfader "on", where as with the cue button you then have to switch and hit the play button at the right time.


INSTRUCTIONS

Right, so how do we go about trying this out?

The Basics

1. Make sure your CD deck is connected to your mixer with both audio and control cables.
2. Set a cue point with your CD deck immediately before an appropriate stab sound you'd like to use and ensure your CD deck is cued at this point.
3. Assign the mixer channel controlling the CD deck to the crossfader.
4. Move the crossfader lever to the opposite side of the crossfader to the side you've assigned your channel to.
5. Enable FaderStart on your mixer for the side of the crossfader to which your CD deck is assign.
6. If you have crossfader contour control, set it to the sharpest setting.
7. Try making cutting movements with the crossfader, moving the crossfader from the side opposite the assigned channel to no further than the middle and back again. Try doing this in rhythms.

Here's a clip of me doing this with a scratch sound over a loop (I confess my cutting isn't the best in the world! But should give you an idea...):

Recipe 1 - Demo Clip 1


With 2 Copies (2x FaderStart-compatible CDJs required)

1. With a copy of the same CD in each CD deck, set cue points at the same point with each CD deck immediately before an appropriate stab, ensuring both CD decks are cued at this point.
2. Assign the mixer channels controlling each CD deck to either side of the crossfader.
3. Move the crossfader lever to one side of the crossfader.
4. Enable FaderStart on your mixer for BOTH sides of the crossfader.
5. Again if you have crossfader contour control, make sure it's set to the sharpest setting (although you may want to play around with this later).
6. Try flicking the crossfader lever straight from one side to the other and back again - it should be in the middle for as little time as possible. Each time the crossfader is moved from one side to the other, your stab will sound. Try doing this in rhythms.

Here's a clip of me doing this with a different scratch sound over a loop (again, the cutting isn't great!):

Recipe 1 - Demo Clip 2


With 2 Different Sounds (2x FaderStart-compatible CDJs required)

1. Set a different cue point on each CD deck such that each is immediately before an appropriate stab, but the stabs are different sounds, ensuring both CD decks are cued at these point.
2. Assign the mixer channels controlling each CD deck to either side of the crossfader.
3. Move the crossfader lever to the side of the crossfader opposite the channel with the sample you want to start with.
4. Enable FaderStart on your mixer for both sides of the crossfader.
5. Set your crossfader contour control to the sharpest setting (again, you may want to play around with this later).
6. Try flicking the crossfader lever straight from one side to the other and back again - as before, it should be in the middle for as little time as possible. Each time the crossfader is moved from one side to the other, each stab will sound alternately. Try doing this in rhythms.

Here's a clip of me doing this with a kick and a snare over a loop to make a breakbeat (yeah, I'm not too great at it but the idea's there):

Recipe 1 - Demo Clip 3

In this one, I did the double kicks (i.e. 2 consecutive kicks without a snare in between) by only cutting the crossfader half way towards the 'kick' side of the crossfader (so that the snare doesn't sound on the return) for the first kick and then doing a full cut right across for the second kick, so that i get a snare afterwards.


With FX (external/onboard fx required)

The next step is then to try throwing in some fx... I don't think I really need to give steps here, you can work out your own way to do it... To keep it simple, here's a clip of me just doing the basic cutting technique with some filtering (the usual "shit DJ" warning applies ):

Recipe 1 - Demo Clip 4


That's the end of this little(!) tutorial, hope you like the idea of the 'cookbook' haha, all comments/questions/suggestions about this feature are very welcome. Let me know how you get on!

___________________
Stu Cox |

Last edited by Stu Cox on Sep-26-2006 at 18:42