MadAbbott

hey all, Just wondered if anyone had any tips they wanted to share for how they get the best out of the time they put into practising their scratches. I'm only really thinking about scratching but it would also be interesting to hear about any other techniques you practise a lot/drill daily too (drumming, juggling, even mixing). I get less and less time now to really devote to scratching, and ideally (as we all do) I'd like to get the most out of that as possible. Really keen to find what's worked well for people and what they'd recommend to avoid. I remember watching Vekked's workshop for Pyramind that was really good, https://www.pyramind.com/events/2016/5/18/elite-session-with-dj-vekked-5-time-dmc-world-champion I guess some of the obvious ones would be - keep drilling the basics (stabs, chirps, transforming) to keep the speed up.Starting slow and speeding up to increase speed.practise over a variety of tempos (I used to scratch over 90bpm hip hop only. Now there's so many alternatives, I found I lost my way over what should be my breadn'butter tempos!)try/experiment new thingstrain towards your ultimate goal - If you only play Hip Hop in clubs, there's not much point scratching over EDM at home,or if you have no intention of making a routine showing off what an allround tablist you are there's not much point practising weak hand cuts etc.Any tips appreciated!

nice, that's a great article!

Ahh that was the place, I couldn't remember the name, cheers!

Strange, seems there's actually nowhere selling it in Europe. Few places selling the old one, but nowhere has the newer one

also to add I would say having a presence on instagram for your music is really good too - short clips are seen by loads of people with the right tagging etc

yeah as rock well says I don't think a social media presence will necessarily equal gigs, but it won't hurt - I would agree mixcloud is probably the most reliable place (ie won't get randomly taken down for copyright infringement). whilst anything online won't guarantee gigs, it's always good to have something you can refer someone to, ie "this is my best mix you can check it out here " I've lost count of how many times when I've told someone I dj they've then said, oh what's your link/video page?" . You have to remember that (if) a promoter/club/bar owner gives any aspiring DJ 2 mins of their time, they're going to go to the page and if it doesn't work or they can't find your page/mix that's the opportunity gone. I'd imagine a site like digital dj tips has whole articles on stuff like this - how to captivate a promoter within the first few miutes of your mix etc etc Certainly the best advice I could suggest (and should've heeded myself) is to not say no to any gigs when starting out, it's all exposure and you just being in the right place or knowing the right people will mean you're the first one they call when _____ is ill and can't play that night...maybe do your own live streams as well to get your confidence up in the meantime and ask for constructive criticism (here is a great place for that too)

Ahh ok but if I was sure it worked I wouldn't mind paying that I guess, I've spent as much altogether on other "budget" pieces of rubbish that barely worked. In the end I recorded some things from vhs to a borrowed recordable DVD player and then DVD rip to laptop but decent recorders are about 3x that price I think..

If you use the share/embed link they should auto show up here I believe, if they don't Steve tends to fix them I think

Mike these are absolute gold, thanks for letting us know. Question, how have you got these from VHS online? Every method I've tried has been pretty useless, devices that just didn't work to no sound coming through etc...cheers!

I've put batteries from Hong Kong in my MacBooks and used chargers also from HK too, tbh the charger has lasted longer than apple ones!

I haven't tried it but looks pretty good!

i would just post them in a job lot on eBay, write things like "MPC" "samples" etc and say things like "stack of records for sampling" put a few ok ones at the front and people will inevitably bid for them! saying that my approach is to seemingly horde all my charity shop crap telling myself I'll sample that one day and drive my mrs mad!!

Cue new kickstarter campaign!

thanks Pete, if you have stuff like that in the archives and wouldn't mind contributing on my blog every now and then (no obligation) we'd be more than happy to have you contribute!

don't know if you're still looking for those mixes, someone just posted Gone with the Spin on my blog, I'll ask him tomorrow if he has the others you're after... http://choicestcuts.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/marcus-b-gone-with-spin.html I see you have it already Seith but for anyone else Superior Cynic is posted on TMU blog - http://themixtapeunites.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/marcus-b-superior-cynic.html

Yeah and buy another cartridge, all adds up I guess!

Portableskinz.etsy.com For anyone interested...Seem reasonable pricewise. Anyone tried them,is there a noticeable improvement in stability?

Nice! So many good resources online now for jugglers!

Nice one mate, I will give it a listen and share to my blog when I get time, hope you had a good holiday!

Bought mine in '97 I think so they've served me pretty well, I think they were about £300 each new and I'd probably get something like that now. One is in perfect nick and I still use it regularly, the other has been in its box for ages now as one channel doesn't seem to work consistently, I should really get it serviced but don't know anyone local. I reckon you could get between £3-400 each,

I'm happy to put a mix together if needed. My mates rates are still free but they're set for a post brexit price hike comparable to a Rob swift Skype lesson. And you don't want my scratching over it, so if anyone decent wants to do that then feel free! ;-)

That's annoying me just to read, way to treat already disgruntled customers!

very cool vid! I also like this one, handy exercise for scratchers too I imagine..

What I know about playing the piano I could write on one hand, but this looks rather good to me!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNAoNILtEnM

Haha, you've really given that some build up and it definitely didn't disappoint, that was so awkward it was hilarious, what a pile of shit. I couldn't decide if it was some kind of comedy spoof for the first couple of minutes the way they're all dressed and loving each others shit verses