Share your CDJ tricks?

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Nemesis44
ZZZZZzzzzzz.....

Registered: Aug 2003
Location: Brighton

Share your CDJ tricks?

I see on the forums that a lot of you have CDJs and to be honest there is no reason why even the most die hard of you vinyl lovers shouldn't as there are some pretty wicked things you can do with them.
Same goes for a EFX500. Now I accept that there are some better options on the market but for my own preferance I actually found that this is one of the most versatile effects units around without being too complicated. (I own a Kaoss pad but have never really discoverd it's true potential and never felt like I wanted to either, down to it's poor design I guess).

I felt like it was time that we started sharing some of our less trade mark effects and perahps improved our overall level of enjoyment with our gear.
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Okay folks, if you are experimenting with that transform effect here is something that a lot of turntablists have done to create a quite a wild effect. (You guys have probably worked it out already but figured I would share it with you anyways).

Get the sound on your CDJ and scratch with it. Loop your simple forward and back scratch.
Now press the master pitch button and set the pitch slider setting to 'wide' and whack it all the way to full speed.

Now make sure that you have the transformer option on your EFX 500 set to 1/4.

At this point you will notice that if you have the CDJ in vinyl mode (assuming you have MK2s) you will get some pretty cool clicks and noises from the scratch you are performing. Throw in a spin back for good measure.
One of the key points to setting up the sound is ensuring that you have as little time with silence in the loop as possible and let the transformer effect take care of that instead.

So this sounds pretty cool but how do we apply this to music I hear you ask?

Here is how I do it when performing live:

You will need One Pioneer CDJ-1000 Mk2, One Pioneer EFX-500 and two quality Direct drive turntables (Or One Turntable and another CDJ) Bottom line is that you need atleast 3 decks to do this.

Take two records that work well together and for this I want to use two that aren't necessarily trance as I feel scratching can sound a bit off with proper hands in the air stuff.
Take Fatboy Slims 'Star 69' and play this and beat match Nigel Gee's 'Hootin, Ariels paradise mix'.
Practice this mix so that you get the first phrase with kick of Hootin' coming in right after the last phrase with beats off star 69.
This involves getting to know star 69 quite well as there is no real give away as to when the track does a change.
The reason I chose this mix is that you have star 69 still saying 'What the f**k' in time with the music so you can still hear both tracks for a while but don't need to be spot on with the beat matching as you will see why in a sec.

Before you mix them together:
Match Hootin's beat with Star 69.
Tap the rythm of the transformer effect to Hootin' in your phones. Play with it and see if it stays in with the beat. At this point you may have to make a small adjustment to hootin' up or down just to make sure that you have the effect matched with the record.
If you have changed Hootin's pitch then discretely change Star 69's to match. This can be done quite easily as you shouldn't have to make a big change providing your Tap was good enough.

Now the time has come to mix the tracks.
Just as Star 69 drops down into it's final 32 with beats star the intro to Hootin and mix. You don't need to have the bass turned down on hootin as the beats from both records wont be playing at the same time. Also means one less thing to worry about.

Have the volume turned up on your CDJ channel and get ready with the effect.
On the first beat of Hootin' flick the On switch for the Trans effect and hit play on the CD deck and get wild with the Jog on the CDJ. Throw in a spin back or two for good measure.
When done right this will really increase the energy level of the incoming track.

you have a nice harmonic lift with those two tracks anyways so the scratching is a bonus.

I have performed this on dance floors and it works nicely.

Any input into this thread would be cool.

Merry Christmas folks
Nem

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Dec-25-2004 11:10 United Kingdom

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Briden
Supreme tranceaddict

Registered: Nov 2003
Location: Victoria

we wanna hear a sample!

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Dec-25-2004 22:44 Canada

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beats and beeps
Guest

Registered: Not Yet
Location:

I cant do many tricks seeing as I dont have an efx500 and won't be getting one until next christmas

Sometimes when I'm bored I grab a noise loop, and then use "out adjust" and adjust it all the way to make the shortest possible loop, so that it sounds like a motorcycle or something. Then I put it on master tempo, and wide tempo range and move it down to -100% then I just flick the pitch between 99 and 100 to stop/start it. Then I learned to use the cross fader, and start finding actual tones with the pitch fader. Also by toggling on/off both the wide range button, and the master tempo you can switch between 4 different tones.

Oh yeah, I have the 800s and I dont find them limiting in the least. They lack hot cues, which will stop you from doing that "remixing" live stuff, but they have beat cutters/auto beat loops which the 1000 does not, and these can be used for things other than making cheesy buildups. It also has a "quick return" function which is great for tricks. I also prefer the reverse button it has greatly over the reverse switch featured on the 1000 when it comes to doing tricks.

The 1000mk11 is still the most expensive for a reason though, but I'm just reminding people that they dont need the 1000 to do some nice stuff.

Also alternative cd players such as the dns5000 are just boxes waiting to be opened. I honestly can't even begin to think what someone like james zabiela could do with a pair or 3 of dns5000s and a dnx1500. Alpha Track + dnx Matrix + Dnx effects + external effects processer = omg!

Dec-25-2004 23:20

Inertia
yes.

Registered: Jul 2002
Location: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

quote:
Originally posted by beats and beeps
I cant do many tricks seeing as I dont have an efx500 and won't be getting one until next christmas

Sometimes when I'm bored I grab a noise loop, and then use "out adjust" and adjust it all the way to make the shortest possible loop, so that it sounds like a motorcycle or something. Then I put it on master tempo, and wide tempo range and move it down to -100% then I just flick the pitch between 99 and 100 to stop/start it. Then I learned to use the cross fader, and start finding actual tones with the pitch fader. Also by toggling on/off both the wide range button, and the master tempo you can switch between 4 different tones.

Oh yeah, I have the 800s and I dont find them limiting in the least. They lack hot cues, which will stop you from doing that "remixing" live stuff, but they have beat cutters/auto beat loops which the 1000 does not, and these can be used for things other than making cheesy buildups. It also has a "quick return" function which is great for tricks. I also prefer the reverse button it has greatly over the reverse switch featured on the 1000 when it comes to doing tricks.

The 1000mk11 is still the most expensive for a reason though, but I'm just reminding people that they dont need the 1000 to do some nice stuff.

Also alternative cd players such as the dns5000 are just boxes waiting to be opened. I honestly can't even begin to think what someone like james zabiela could do with a pair or 3 of dns5000s and a dnx1500. Alpha Track + dnx Matrix + Dnx effects + external effects processer = omg!

you sure the 1000 doesnt have the beat cutter/auto beat loop? i could've sworn reading it did, and that those same buttons doubled as the hot cues...

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Dec-26-2004 06:30 Dominican Republic

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beats and beeps
Guest

Registered: Not Yet
Location:

quote:
Originally posted by Inertia
you sure the 1000 doesnt have the beat cutter/auto beat loop? i could've sworn reading it did, and that those same buttons doubled as the hot cues...

It could. If so I wasn't aware.

Whenever I've used them it certainly wasnt clear that the hot cue buttons had a second function, and I didnt see a way to make them function as beat cutters/auto loopers.

This very well could be true, however isnt there only 3 hot cues? (ABC) You would usually want beat cutting, and auto looping to have four buttons...

Dec-26-2004 06:40

Inertia
yes.

Registered: Jul 2002
Location: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

quote:
Originally posted by beats and beeps
It could. If so I wasn't aware.

Whenever I've used them it certainly wasnt clear that the hot cue buttons had a second function, and I didnt see a way to make them function as beat cutters/auto loopers.

This very well could be true, however isnt there only 3 hot cues? (ABC) You would usually want beat cutting, and auto looping to have four buttons...

hmm, you seem to be correct sir.

___________________
check out my guest mix for OndaSonora Podcast (aug.2009)

Dec-26-2004 08:56 Dominican Republic

spike_boy69
Supreme tranceaddict

Registered: May 2002
Location: Leeds

ive got the cdj 800, can you explain to me what exactly the beat cutter is and how it works????

on another message board, somebody posted about a trick they do on a mix cd i have, i thought it was done on an efx500, but it appears not.

Dec-27-2004 16:12 United Kingdom

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spike_boy69
Supreme tranceaddict

Registered: May 2002
Location: Leeds

here is what he actually said...

quote:
On Hard Dance Anthems 9bar track: for the first breakdown I take 2 copies of the same record and mix it 4 beats behind so the hoover loops in the background.
When it goes into Gaz's time stretch i loop it on the CDJ whilst adjusting the jogwheel, before reversing it and then unlooping.
And the last breakdown which is where the echoing takes place i'm delaying the bassline noise and cutting the channel off so it chops out the following beat and replaces it with bass

i presume cutting the channell off means beat cutting????

i would give a sample but i have no web space.

Dec-27-2004 16:16 United Kingdom

wiregen
tranceaddict

Registered: Aug 2003
Location: USA

Well

CDJ tricks I have seen..

Cyborg scratching - put a look on a traditional "ahhh" scratch sound pres loop out--with that using move the platter slowly in and slowly out--which will result it almost build-up style of fashion---then start crabbing and cutting. it sounds like a robot scratch.

The reverse flick - if you flip the reverse swtich fast enough where it gives off a pretty cool distorted effect...(to vocals)

Others are pretty much already discussed here...like creating the eye of the tiger theme using cue buttons and the +25% pitch

Some combinations of the EFX is using the 4/1 loop with max echo and creating a 4 beat sample...if you perfect it then you can use usally the end of the tracks to hold u out longer (or even creating build ups using 1/2 and 1/4 timings) --that and adding like the eye of the tiger theme to the loop is fun.. HEHEHE

Its all on pratice and precision.

RoonieG is the godfather of these battle tricks...

www.roonietunes.com

___________________
Current Setup
2X Technics 1210MKII w/M447Gs
Pioneer DJM-800
Rane Serato Scratch
Ableton Live!
M-Audio Audiophile
Past Equipment: EFX-500, CDJ-1000s MKI, Ecler Nuo-5, Denon X1500, DJM-500, DJM-3000, FinalScratch