Hey everyone, im just starting to get into controllerism/djing and i have had a few negative comments on my “practising”. First thing i want to say is i already have a musical backround (drums, guitar, piano, saxamaphone) and i really enjoy both electronic music and the art of scratching/turntablism. I plan on getting a sx2 in a couple months but found a Kontrol f1 at a garage sale for $50 still in box! So i bought it and have been messing around with that. However a few of my friends have been saying how dumb i look practising my “crossfading”. I sometimes just use the up/down fader to practise “scratch style” crossfading until i get my main unit. How ridiculous is it to practise this? I mean it can’t hurt right? (or is it a total waste that will have no benefit in learning how to scratch) i also sometimes practice finger drumming on the pads when off :S am i slightly retarded?
[quote=“Jaysaucepan, post:1, topic:71592, username:Jaysaucepan”]
I sometimes just use the up/down fader to practise “scratch style” crossfading until i get my main unit. How ridiculous is it to practise this? I mean it can’t hurt right? (or is it a total waste that will have no benefit in learning how to scratch)
[/quote]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sa4kktZRoU&index=4&list=PLGzbySB1gPhlhUVp9OWRR6RfOy-VKFCVP
That tutorial looked decent to me. (I watched it at x2 speed, love that function for tutorials.) He seems to present some worthwhile uses for faders in a scratching practice regimen. (I know nothing about this subject btw.)
If your friends have some experience with DJing or scratching, it might be worth asking them for how they think you should be practicing.
If they don’t, then maybe what you are doing just sounds abrasive, like a novice piano player might. Or they might not be the right audience for you.
The F1 has no jogs, so learning to scratch is difficult at this time. But while waiting for your sx2, you can practice other parts of DJing with the F1. Like fader techniques or finger drumming, beatmatching, eq, filters and FX. Best tip (for me): Train crossfader and scratch techniques separately. And dig into the software, so you are familiar with it.
It is never a waste of time to practice whatever you like to do.
Like ImNoDJ wrote: “There are no rules. Do what you want.”
There are tons of youtube tutorials about scratching and how to learn it. You can watch these and learn alot even without having jogs yet.
(BTW You could map buttons to perform baby scratches. But this is kind of advanced and seems not to be the solution you are looking for.)
i DO have to say i disagree with these statements..
the POINT of practicing should be to LEARN a technique. think about something you want to learn , go find a tutorial for THAT and study THAT technique.
when you are “noodling” you do whatever you want… this is a different process and should not be confused with OR mixed with practice time.
The longer version of this Ira Glass interview is great, too, but the distilled version:
Gist being: You get into something creative because you have taste, and want to make something that satisfies your tastes, but you’ll initially fall short. Keep at it!
When I was learning scratching and fader control, I would catch myself crabbing on everything that made a click sound. Come to think of it I still do that. So what I did for a pretty long period of time was I took a crossfader out of an old mixer and I would carry it with me pretty much everywhere (I was dedicated). I actually created a spot in the center console of my car and fitted it with the fader. Every song/beat I would hear I would practice my scratches/fader clicks over it. Of course, now they have bluetooth cossfaders that take it to the next level but doing that helped me incredibly. I always recommend it to any new dj. I might have an old CF lying around if you need one.
When I was 7 years old I sat down to write a song because I thought it would be “cool” to write a song. This is how this post struck me that “practising DJing” would be something cool except my friends are making fun of me so I have come to a DJ forum with real DJs to justify what I’m doing so I can tell my friends hey this is what real DJs do. It is diminishing what a lot of us here have been doing for years and still doing. The misspelling of “practising” insinuates that DJing is something that doesn’t need to be practiced, that its easy and shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Its like the people who want to hire a DJ but want to pay you with “food and drink” or “its great exposure” the don’t take what we do seriously or put any value to it. This may not have been the intent of the post, but this is how it comes off.
If you are a musician then you already know about practicing and how to do it. Any musician on any instrument doesn’t just sit down and start playing a song. You learn, scales, rudiments, technique, that will shape your playing. You constantly have to keep doing those same things to get better at your instrument. Don’t worry how you look, just worry about what you’re doing to get better. I’m sure your friends think turning knobs and waving your hands in the air is “practising DJing”. Just practice.
You are not retarded bro, you just want to learn something new, even with out a real tools for that job. What you’re doing is thinking outside the box. I like that.
But how do you actually scratch with your F1? One fader sure can be mapped to the crossfader.
So what I did for a pretty long period of time was I took a crossfader out of an old mixer and I would carry it with me pretty much everywhere (I was dedicated). I actually created a spot in the center console of my car and fitted it with the fader. Every song/beat I would hear I would practice my scratches/fader clicks over it. Of course, now they have bluetooth cossfaders that take it to the next level but doing that helped me incredibly. I always recommend it to any new dj. I might have an old CF lying around if you need one. 
