I used to be a drummer (so juggling/looping is relatively easy) and I am still a new DJ. I own a Vestax Spin, but once I get the hang of things I’ll be looking to upgrade to an S4. I have the money already set aside, but I don’t want to invest the money because I do not want to be the guitarist who has a $15k instrument and not know how to play it.
So my question is, can anybody give me advice for scratching on Jogwheels?
I am a college student looking to DJ at parties so scratching is a must, but I am not looking to necessarily be a battle DJ. Can anybody give me any tips to learning how to scratch on a jogwheel? Most the videos on youtube focus on real turntables.
Or am I better off investing in real turntables (I am guessing the same amount of money could get me a start up set).
I would steer you away from the S4, scratching will be much better on the VCI-100 or VCI-300. It’ll cost a lot less too. Even better would be a controller designed for scratching, the NS7.
i don’t consider myself a scratch dj but think of it like you were scratchin on or near the vinyl’s label, so every movement is “smaller”. This means you won’t be moving your hand as much and every move needs to be even more precise.
other than that, most of the tip apply the same, except for taking the disc’s position as reference for cueing (only works if the deck is stopped or you have motorized platters. I wish you could activate the timecode display in tracktor with controllers and at least have this reference on the screen.
If you really want to get into it just get TTs and you will have enough room to move comfortably among other benefits of “the real deal”.
I’ve never seen the ns7 before but it looks awesome! the only problem is that I really like the new features of the s4/traktor 2 in terms of looping and sampling. I was actually more of an ableton dj until I couldn’t figure out a good way to manage a large library of tracks.
The s4 is a good controller to scratch with. Obviously your not going to win any DMC titles w/ it, but you can throw down some filthy scratches on it if your just trying to show off a little when ur at the club. I don’t know about the Spin, but I know the VCI 100 cant touch the S4 when it comes to scratching.
Start off by getting some samples that are good to scratch to. Q bert put out the super seal vinyl w/ a bunch of samples for example. You can find a digital copy. Then just start scratching w the fader open untill it sounds decent and you have good control. Once you got that handled try cutting the fader in out. Once you feel like you got that down and controlled then start looking at some tutorials of different style scratches cause by this time you’ll have decent coordination. Then switch hands and repeat the process haha. Thats at least how I started way back when…everyone has different ways of learning of course
Where’d you get that idea? Scratching blows on the VCI-100. It’s better on the 300 for sure if you don’t mind using itch; with Traktor scratching will still suck on the 300 (unless the trick works where you play Traktor control CD thru Itch?) In any case I think the S4 is a lot better for scratching than either VCI. It’s a different feel and you’d have to get used to it, of course; movements are tinier than using real vinyl. But look if you really want to scratch you should go vinyl, or get one of the rotating platter controllers like the NS7.
get your crab right before anything imo. i don’t think jog size matters as much now as you can see the position on the screen. only difference is your preference for feel