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#AskShortE Episode 9

September 28, 2015

Hey hey! Welcome to episode 9 of #askShortE, where I answer your questions on scratching and life!

In this episode we talk:

  • Scratching and house music.
  • Delay effect settings in Scratch Live.
  • Left hand / non dominant hand scratching on the crossfader.
  • Tips for stiff crossfaders.
  • How to speed up scratches.
  • How long it takes to learn scratches.
  • How to choose scratch samples.

Show notes / things I mentioned to help you

Scratching over House Music

Here is a quick example – lots of chirps! Vocals are fun to scratch over house beats especially if you can get hold of the acapella versions of your beats.

A video posted by School Of Scratch (@schoolofscratch) on Jul 6, 2015 at 11:32am PDT

I recommend playing with the following techniques; here are previews from the School of Scratch online classroom to get you started:

Baby

Chirps

Transforms

Joe Cooley

Want more, full length instructional scratch tutorial videos?

Get full access to School of Scratch

Delay Effect Serato Scratch Live

A few of you have been asking about the delay settings I use. I use the echo effect that is built into my mixer and used the following instructions to set it up so that the echo BPM matches the BPM of the beat that I am playing automatically:

Using Echo EFX Efficiently

I use slightly different settings than shown in the linked article. Here are my exact settings:

Wet/dry (mix) setting of 20%, feedback around 22%.

serato settings

Dominant Hand

An article on choosing which hand to use on the record or fader:

  • Dominant hand on the record or crossfader?

Stiff Crossfaders – How to clean and lube.

First of all, VERY IMPORTANT!!! PLEASE CHECK WITH YOUR EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURER TO CHECK FOR SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO CLEAN AND LUBE YOUR SPECIFIC FADER!!! < Those words are in BOLD caps for a reason! Make sure you know what you are doing!

Rane – How to clean and lube magnetic faders

Innofader – How to lube

This is pretty much the standard lube for non contact faders and is what I use:

Caig DeoxIT Squeeze Tube Lube for non contact faders

image-1_large

 

Speed Booster

My Speed Booster helps you speed up your cuts. It features two audio tracks which start off at an 80 bpm tempo and increase by 1 bpm every 8 bars all the way up to 120 bpm.

You can use them to practice new scratches to, or for working on speeding up your existing scratches. Check it out here:

  • https://studioscratches.com/scratch-speed-booster/

If you are a School of Scratch member, the speed booster is included in the download sections for free so please don’t buy it!

Learning Scratches

Deliberate practice is my top method for learning new scratches efficiently. This article breaks it down:

https://studioscratches.com/the-scratch-djs-guide-to-deliberate-practice/

Choosing Scratch Samples

Here are some of my favs and check out Episode 7 for a deeper look.

  • Super Seal
  • Combinations From The Masters
  • Enter the Scratch Game 1
  • Enter the Scratch Game 2
  • Enter the Scratch Game 3
  • Scratch Library A-M
  • Scratch Library N-Z

Shout Outs

Thanks for the questions everyone, keep sending them in!

  • Daniele
  • Ed
  • Flexx
  • Philip wilson
  • DJ Willy
  • Jaclay

What questions do you want to ask me about scratching and DJing?

Ask me via the contact page OR by tagging your questions on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter with #askShortE. I’ll be looking!

Extra points and high fives all round if you record a question with you on camera and post it publicly. I’ll be prioritising answers to video questions so get creative!

Let’s have some FUN!

Happy Scratching! 😀

– Emma Short-E

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