ive been practicing scratching a bit now
have a battle breaks joint loaded into the serato
its hard
i cant get my hands to act independently
are there any tips, or is it just like drumming or beatmatching where something just clicks?
i can cue & drop on the 1 like a mfer but the dmc battle scratch shit is what im talking about
what kind of scratch are you trying to practice?
if you’re just going for all out battle scratching right away, you should take a step back and practice the separate elements. Its like learning an instrument imo. Got get the building blocks down pat, then slowly start putting them together.
i need like a tutorial lol
most ive seen are like JUST FUCK AROUND TIL U GET IT
this guys a bit wonky, but he explains it well imo
nah see i know how it works…
its very difficult to move your hands independently from one another, im wondering if there are tipz
It’s really hard to get started yeah, the initial brainfuck will last for a while, just push through it. Scratch every day. Once you get above the “shit” level you will have a lot of fun. I spent so many hours beat juggling and scratching, never got good, but loved every second.
I’d fully recommend Qbert’s video tutorials - here’s a youtube playlist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASjJCgI3cCs&list=PLDE63BF3A3DC64D05 - can’t remember the name of the series but I found it really useful when I was learning.
My advice would be to just practice your left and right hand motions separately until you get the hang of them. Practice just moving the record in a rhythm (“baby scratch”), no crossfader usage. Then practice just using the crossfader rhythmically with a drone sound, without moving the record. Then combine them together.
Also don’t be practicing to a beat all the time…scratching at 90bpm is a lot harder than scratching at your own pace. Break down scratches in to their individual parts in ultra slow motion, then gradually speed it up. Crab scratching is about the only thing you can’t practice in slow motion. And try to figure out which way round you’re best at scratching (left hand on fader, or right hand on fader) and just focus on that til you reach the next level.
Nice advice!
Ill check that vid playlist
Pretty much this imo. Having a good battle mixer makes a huge difference though.
just want to put this in here, my friend showed me this years ago and I knew I had to learn the basics at least, inspirational for me. I’m still awful after years of doing it, but like @111 said, its just fun
and yeah its all just practice and experimentation really
p.s I only rate dj swamp in that moment, really was not a fan of ego-y self promotion vibes later on his career, but what a fuckin moment it was
I learned to scratch using these old stereo test records over a hip-hop instrumental.
also just want to say those q-bert videos (even tho they are fun to watch) are a lot like all those how to learn guitar(any instrument) videos from a virtuoso i.e this is how you fucking shred, cue video of them doing an insanely advanced technique without showing any effort. then you’re just sat there with your dumb pleb hands and can barely even time a cut or baby scratch. Seriously just practice the shit out of the basics, when you can time those on beat, then you can just start fucking around with other stuff. The more advanced stuff comes more naturally once you’ve got the building blocks down too because at that point you are comfortable with just fucking around.
practice, practice and then practice. there are no short cuts.
this guy would not be a good neighbour
http://www.mixingonbeat.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=4868
Comprehensive list of scratches.
And good turntables of course.
i actually just had a mini breakthrough
realizing that all the short cuts on the battle record are for like “baby scratches”
& then you can twiddle/crab with the long notes that come after
also its much easier i realize to put your hand completely over top of the xfader & just smack it w/ your index finger… didnt really realize the thumb-spring thing until then
What’s a good turntable to start on? I use knobs on my MIDI controller and plugins in my DAW. I’m a cheater.
1 w like at least 1.5 kg/cm of torque i suppose
pretty shit attempt
nice crab thing at 0:35 tho
just got a TT back tonight after breaking my old 1 a week & a half ago b/c i did this on it for 2 hours
big up dude, seems like you’re well on ya way.
Jokes track selection too, works super well