Have you even used the Fx buttons or know what they do?
What’s your favourite effect that you would never do a set without?
It took me a while to get comfortable with them at first because when I started, all my attention went towards just getting two tracks aligning on the same trajectory and pulling that off in style. Then the focus went on to beatmatching. I did no lessons, so I was adamant to work it out for myself. For some that can take ages to master and others seem to get it in a very short time. There’s no science to this, it’s just a wiring thing in our brain. It’s not a race at the end of the day but when I did start nailing the beatmatch, fuckin look out, it was kinda like an orgasmic moment that I wanted to create over and over again.
Once the beatmixing is nailed then you free yourself up to start to get a little adventurous. If you’re like me, that’s when you start getting in bed with the Fx.
I am in bed atm with the low cut echooooooo and slip roll roll roll roll, in most of my sets.
The big mistake is to use too many Fx. Producers already make the music with their own version of effects, so sometimes adding or subtracting from their work can fuck with the whole track.
Once again, it comes down to practice. I have been doing sets at the moment just practising with using different Fx. I record them so I can listen back later on and hear how lame or awesome it sounded. Sometimes when you are using Fx, you don’t get a clear indication of what it sounds like in your headphones, so having monitor speakers or a PA system in your practice session is going to give you a much clearer indication of what these effects are sounding like.
I did a friend’s party once and I didn’t have a monitor speaker near the DJ booth, so I was relying on my headphones and the shitty speakers as feedback to what I was doing. At the time, I was using the flange button a bit. I couldn’t hear that it was working so I kept it on in places and just though maybe the button was broken. Ha, maybe the button was broken. Dickhead hehehe. When I listened back to the recording, the button well and truly worked and sounded so bad as I left it on too long thinking it wasn’t working. So, the moral of the story is making sure you can hear what you are doing when it comes to Fx.
Check out our Soundcloud page. I’ve put up the practice sessions on purpose even though some of them are roadkill so that the beginners here can have a listen at what works and what really doesn’t.
At the end of the day, there is no such thing as mistakes, it really comes down to what works and what doesn’t when it comes to DJing IMHO.
With passion for the music
Lainsta
SpiN SiStas 