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Hoooowwww does he do that?


d00ban

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beat juggling was invented by Steve Dee and came to the public in 1990

 

1989: -

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x9b_GqmLyg

 

The bit from 55 seconds on is definitely beat juggling and not just "back to backing" or trick mixing/looping.

 

Agreed. The only thing I can say to that is:

 

1989 -

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac3V8_euZ7I

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flR93aaJfaQ

 

From what I've read Steve Dee actually first did juggling publicly in 87 in NY battles, but never caught on on a wide scale until he made the U.S. finals in 1990 and won the NMS in 1991. I can't say whether this is true or not to any degree, or whether it would've had any influence on Aladdin, but judging by how advanced Steve Dee was in those 1989 vids I wouldn't doubt it's true that 1990 wasn't the first time he did it out. That 45 pattern at the very start of the funky drummer vid is nutso.

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:wacko:

 

Vekked I don't get this bit:

 

Chasing is a beat juggling technique where instead of back spinning to the start of a section at the beginning of your pattern, you keep going throughout the beat, so instead of hitting the 1 beat every 4 or 8 bars, you go "1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 9, 9" etc. The pattern slowly progresses from the start of the beat to the end, as opposed to focussing on a certain section over and over.

 

Are those numbers referring to beats or bars?

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Also, I thought "doubling", "chasing the break" etc. were all what you've described as looping, i.e.: proper old school repetition of certain short breaks across 2 turntables using two of the same record?

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:wacko:

 

Vekked I don't get this bit:

 

Chasing is a beat juggling technique where instead of back spinning to the start of a section at the beginning of your pattern, you keep going throughout the beat, so instead of hitting the 1 beat every 4 or 8 bars, you go "1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 9, 9" etc. The pattern slowly progresses from the start of the beat to the end, as opposed to focussing on a certain section over and over.

 

Are those numbers referring to beats or bars?

 

Beats, but it could be bars or half bars or anything tbh, it would just change the speed/swing of your chase. The idea is that you're hitting 1 beat on "side 1", then that same beat on "side 2" then the next beat in the sequence on "side 1", and that same beat on "side 2", so side 2 is somewhat 'chasing' side 1 in that it's hitting the same beats as the other side but always 1 beat/bar/half bar behind.

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Also, I thought "doubling", "chasing the break" etc. were all what you've described as looping, i.e.: proper old school repetition of certain short breaks across 2 turntables using two of the same record?

 

I'm not sure what chasing the break refers to, but I'd guess it's not the same as just chasing. As for doubling I use the term kind of loosely and maybe some people use it to refer to looping, but technique-wise this is what I understand doubling as (1:31-1:35 here):

 

 

Since he's hitting each note twice.

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to add to the list of defintions vekked has posted, would everyone agree that 'breakdown juggles' are juggles that drastically alter the tempo of the original records?

 

 

And that Atrak video is still insane 10 years later. Probably my all time favourite dmc type routine.

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i think a few people have misunderstood what i tried to say - i never said i could do what he's doing, i said i know what he is doing, and obviously, even if i was a good juggler (which im not) i certainly wouldnt be up to that standard.

 

i think the main confusion here is how people read doob's initial question. i read it as how is a juggle like this done, not, how does j rocc get so good. either way, my answer of practice still stands either way.

 

j rocc is the best i've seen at this kind of thing no doubt.

 

EDIT: is that vid really new? (i cant watch it cos im at work, but i can see a screenshot) cos its got that new rane 62 in it. i really wanna see it now!

 

Yeah it's got a 62. It's basically the beat junkies on it not knowing wtf is going on half the time! lol

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@ vekked - that makes sense to call that doubling because you're doubling up each beat

 

You probably know this already, but another way to do doubling/tripling is to have 2 copies of the same tune. Play one, then on the other deck, cue up a snare from the track. Then you basically do forwards using the snare, but timing it so it doubles/triples with the snare on the other track. You can add more style to it by throwing some basic scratching in there. You can do it with kicks too. You can also use this to do looping, by starting with the snare that's the last one in the bar before the 1.

 

Here's a bit from my 79 mix where I do some basic tripling with snares and kicks: -

 

Tripling Snares & Kicks.mp3

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@ vekked - that makes sense to call that doubling because you're doubling up each beat

 

You probably know this already, but another way to do doubling/tripling is to have 2 copies of the same tune. Play one, then on the other deck, cue up a snare from the track. Then you basically do forwards using the snare, but timing it so it doubles/triples with the snare on the other track. You can add more style to it by throwing some basic scratching in there. You can do it with kicks too. You can also use this to do looping, by starting with the snare that's the last one in the bar before the 1.

 

Here's a bit from my 79 mix where I do some basic tripling with snares and kicks: -

 

Tripling Snares & Kicks.mp3

 

70% of my trick mixing is formed from variations on this

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  • 3 months later...

bumping for this (see 4:30 mark)

 

[media=]

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Simultaneously probably the best trick mixing I've ever seen/heard by anyone, but also the first time I've heard J.Rocc legit go off beat while doing it (obv he's doing crazy shit tho)... buuut he still makes it sound pretty good, I doubt a lot of people would even tell. He just does so many sick variations of it without missing a beat (except the 1). Beeeast.

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hmmm, just realized he's using some trickery in that one, I can't tell if he's looping a part of the track that I can't find or it's editted but if you go to 5:55 he plays it out and it's a loop of 3 kicks and a snare... I was trying to do it with the original track and was a bit mind boggled until I realized he's using a different version or loop or something

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Yeah that's the looped version from the 'training wheels' skip proof record. All the breaks are at 133bpm - which I'm pretty sure the Herman Kelly original of this isn't. The break he brings in with the cue buttons at the end is from the same record.

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I've just checked the training wheels version of 'dance to the drummers beat' and it does have that 3 kick/1snare pattern looped like in the video

 

good looking out Mike, I knew something was up when I started trying it, lol. The normal track is tough to make sound good with the way he's trick mixing there. I'ma grab my training wheels records and give it a shot with that. Thanks!

 

EDIT: Yea I just bpm'ed it at 114... I'm not positive cuz I haven't listened to it in a while but maybe he's using breaktionary which might have a slower version of the same beat. Both are made by Qbert and I know that breaktionary is slower than training wheels...

 

but also the first time I've heard J.Rocc legit go off beat

 

"hittin hard like a hurricane"

 

LOL good call

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