iexist Posted March 9, 2017 Share Posted March 9, 2017 I haven't posted a scratch video in awhile. I need to set up my cam(s) and go to town, but I guess I have the "red light" fear when I start recording. When recording, I always feel my cuts are repetitive, nothing is really "ground breaking." Sure it's fun.. but is it post worthy? What is post worthy when it comes to cutting? There's a lot of scratch videos popping up on my news feeds and, quite frankly, thats whats gives me the confidence to post as it seems like everyone else is mindlessly (not in a bad way) cutting and recording. Is that entertaining for fellow scratchers? When should you post a scratch video? To me, seeing other videos makes me want to post videos. Like a constant on-going Q&A.. Some videos make me cringe.. But they're having fun.. And at least they posted something right!? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GNOD Posted March 9, 2017 Share Posted March 9, 2017 I do regularly. It is usually a case of "oh that sounds cool, I'll put it up"... Only to think it sounds like a bag o shite when I watch it back a few days later! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porrtis Posted March 9, 2017 Share Posted March 9, 2017 i wouldnt worry too much. at the end its usually only a 2-3minute scratch-video only a handful people get to watch. i can understand if you'd worry about your DMC/IDA-participation routine/set but if it's only a short video about you cutting on a loop i really wouldnt worry too much. people record themselves for numerous and different reasons. but it has always been a big part of the community and it helps keeping things going, evolving and most importantly keeping it alive. i used to use my recorded cuts in order to improve since i usually got a better feeling for things like flow/repetitive patterns or simply a good understanding of where i 'm currently at in terms of skill. i also wouldnt mind people recording themselves who aren't cutting next-level or might be beginners. it's still cool and if they enjoy it, that's great. in fact, i would always encourage anyone to just join and record themselves as long as they have fun. back in 2008 we were cutting like crazy using paltalk and it was always a blast, there were people who were beginners up to guys like turntablist eko who made us look like fucking scrubs hahait was still a big party of like-minded people who spent some time together doing what they love 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Symatic Posted March 9, 2017 Share Posted March 9, 2017 the tinychat scratch rooms are pretty good for getting over camera fear.... you just get used to hanging with peeps via webcam which helps i reckon.but also posting vids just as a way of setting yourself benchmarks is always helpful cos you see yourself 6 months ago and sometimes think its awful and you have improved, or sometimes see things you forgot you used to do 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iexist Posted March 9, 2017 Author Share Posted March 9, 2017 im not hip to the tinychat rooms. sounds like a blast tho.. and sounds like complete chaos!!! (who goes next? how many bars? WTF?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Symatic Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 you just take turns for liek 5 mins.... you cant cut together over same beat... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 Definitely do SOMETHING! It's better than nothing - if you do nothing you won't ever progress past that stage of feeling like you're not good enough. If you do something you'll have a fire under you to do something better, and you'll also be confronted with the reality of you rather than the imagined version of you, which can go both ways. You tend to think you're better than you are if you never show and prove, and worse than you are if you record and never post. You were the first person to offer me a dollar for a track when I didn't think it was necessarily all that and it blew my mind - someone else might do that to you! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeClockwork Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 Filming yourself scratching and reviewing the results is a good way to improve your technique. Do this enough times and you'll eventually have something postworthy, plus you'll be improving along the way. Should help with the stage fright too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danswift Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 Definitely do SOMETHING! It's better than nothing This is sage advice.. On a similar tip, until last summer I'd not made any new tracks with a sampler for the best part of ten years and I can absolutely guarantee that if I hadn't become a member of this forum that would still be the case and i would probably just be sat on my own in a corner with an acoustic guitar for company. When I first joined the site one of the things that impressed me the most was the fact there were beat battles on here (which I really am a huge fan of )and I was happy to just sit back and be a spectator and enjoy what other people were doing . Then after a while I started to feel slightly jealous that I wasn't involving myself in the battles so Rock Well being the clairvoyant that he is decided to put up Bob James 'One' as the record for that particular months challenge . Two words - game changer... I borrowed some kit and for 3 days spent every moment possible making a track to enter the battle and I loved every minute of doing so...I was here with my son who was helping me to record everything and we had a blast to say the least. Then it came time to actually post the track and the doubts set in so I started to look for flaws (both real and imagined) in the music id created and a reason not to post at all. No ones going to like it , no one in their right mind would vote for this, it needs totally re-doing etcetera...to which Alecs cool headed response was if you dont actually submit it how will you ever know if what you've done is any good ? I was gonna bottle it and pull the plug and im slightly embarrassed to admit it but I was also shaking a bit inside when I finally uploaded it because I'd been out of the game for so long and I genuinely didnt know what the reaction would be. The thing is I'm really pleased I did that first battle because since then its made me push myself even harder to try and make my new tracks better and I'm loving it but I'm still having times where I'm questioning if what I'm doing is even valid or worthy. I think thats only a natural feeling anyway but as Chris so wisely put it- at least its doing something which is ultimately better than doing nothing at all. iexist -post your stuff up dude .. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Rock Well Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 Was about to quote that same bit of Chris's post Dan! Totally agree with what you are both saying, you could waste years waiting for the perfect moment and this or that skill to be good enough, but you can climb any ladder until you get on the bloody thing. I also second what Joe is saying about judging yourself from the perspecrtive eveybody else will - often when you're doing something yourself you have one perspective on it and it's not the same as watching it back... it's amazing the things that all sound the same you thought were different or even the simple stuff you might not get excited about when executing that really makes a performance much more watchable/listenable. I'd also recommend that anybody who scratches, to record themselves in just audio - some things really seem quite different when your eyes are watching the hand movements but all sound the same when reduced to just audio. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeClockwork Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 I also second what Joe is saying about judging yourself from the perspecrtive eveybody else will - often when you're doing something yourself you have one perspective on it and it's not the same as watching it back... it's amazing the things that all sound the same you thought were different or even the simple stuff you might not get excited about when executing that really makes a performance much more watchable/listenable. I'd also recommend that anybody who scratches, to record themselves in just audio - some things really seem quite different when your eyes are watching the hand movements but all sound the same when reduced to just audio. Yeah, it's weird. I recognise DJs like D-Styles or Manipulate instantly when I hear them cut. However, if you played me some audio of a scratch session where I was cutting, I wouldn't have a clue it was me! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Rock Well Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 I know exactly what you mean Joe! I swear so many DJs could improve no end and become more like the DJs we all rate as the complete package by making regular audio recordings of themselves and identifying which way to take their cuts. It's been a bit of a revelation lately for me recording Paul for a few different bits - he's actually pretty good at only learning new cuts that are a different sound to his existing repertoire and alternating pitch when repeating cuts, but still there are things that surprised us both when just listening to a stream of audio. Particularly more complex cuts that have the same rhythm pattern which makes them sound so similar despite their differences and that simple cuts to break up the fancy stuff is always better to listen to (D and Manipulate's flows basically). The other thing that I'd say really stands out when you are reduced to just audio is the importance of both varying samples you cut with as much as possible and choosing the right sample for the beat you are cutting over. Sometimes there's nothing more powerful than dropping just the right sample over a certain beat at the right time, with little more than a baby scratch or whatever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freshcuts Posted March 13, 2017 Share Posted March 13, 2017 I find Instagram's 1 minute video limit truly liberating. Now I record more and I think what can I do over this beat in a minute that it's decent enough to share? But also I am pushing my self this year to do more quantity over quality (same with my 1 mix per month challenge). I do this for me. More recordings means listening to myself more and improving from my mistakes. When I had a rusty period were I wasn't scratching enough I pushed my self to post 1 Instagram scratch video per day. It really helped and the community support made it matter for me. I would recommend it to anyone trying to scratch more Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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