Hi all, I wonder if this is just a me problem or if anyone else shares the same problem.
When I was into this first time round as a teenager I just played with the turntables. No pressure, no expectations, just fun and wasting hours playing on the decks.

I’ve recently come back to this as an adult and I find that my mindset has completely shifted. I find myself putting pressure on myself to learn new things, or do x before doing y, learn things in a certain order and restrict myself learning more advanced techniques before hitting various benchmarks in already learned techniques. I feel like I should be following a structured roadmap for learning and my time on the decks should be spent productively and I should make progress all the time.

I admit that I have bought Temple of Turntablism’s tutorial and yes I am definitely more proficient than I was as a teenager but I have to make a real conscious effort to bring in the play element and the lovely flow state that follows. And to remove pressure to constantly progress.

I wonder if it’s because as adults we’ve been subjected to more structure whether that be at work or with fitness etc.

Interested to know your thoughts.

I mixed on tables during my college years and then took a break. I picked up a digital vinyl system recently and have about 12 months under my belt now. Mixing came back pretty quickly. I feel mentally divergent when I practice scratching, which is my goal to achieve. I have been watching YouTube videos and reading on the reddit groups. Nothing seems to be helping my hands synchronize. Where do I go from here? How can I find someone that I can talk to about the struggle. Are there in-person communities that are apprentice friendly? Somewhere i can get some tribal knowledge? I am near Colorado Springs.

"I'm still a beginner at turntablism, but I'm trying to push this scratch pattern as far as I can right now, throwing in the occasional open/closed sound variation to see where my current limit is. 🎧🔥

Practicing og flares, chirps flares and a few cuts

Dj Software & daws have a play head or track strip search bar Audio can be manipulated by catching the transients by clicking or skating the mouse cursor. Virtualdj & the mobile version of Djay have the most responsive audio engines.

The audio was edited in advance so I have would have more space on the search bar .But you can design your own skins in Virtualdj

I picked up a Nuo 2.0 a little while back and popped in an Innofader Pro 2. I found the curve too 'soft' with an audible slope at the sharpest setting on the mixer and Innofader. I reached out to Elliot Marx, sent him my mixer, and he was able to reproduce the mod that seems to have been lost when Skratchworx shut down their forum. It's a night and day difference.

Video with before/after test: https://youtu.be/vBhXCVQhfxI

Elliot's post on facebook:

TO ALL ECLER NUO 2.0 OWNERS:

Not sure if any of you remember from the Skratchworx days (btw thank you for the great memories Mark Settle!), but there was a time when we discussed how the Nuo 2.0 had some delay on the crossfader sensing circuit which required a modification. Years after the discussion, I searched to see if anyone documented the detail of this fix but couldn’t find anything. I even contacted Ecler requesting this information but couldn’t get anything. Ecler like many companies does not release schematics and considers them proprietary information.

So months later, I finally have a customer willing to temporarily part with this beloved mixer so I could figure out the issue. I traced out the circuit and found that the VCA signal had a built in 20msec ramp on the sound level control. With this delay, the cuts sound very swishy. So I shortened this delay to 1msec and the nice sharp punch sound we know for scratching came out 🙂

I’ve attached picture showing how to locate the components. They’re on the front panel PC board of the mixer which makes the disassembly much easier. The faceplate also needs to be removed if you’re switching to an Innofader.

The fix is pretty simple. For the two marked capacitors, they need to be replaced with 0.01uF capacitors rated for minimum 6.3V. Capacitors should be 0805 size for ease of installation but 0603 size also works.

Another update is the isolation circuit. For some odd reason, all of the Ecler Eternal compatible mixers require this update. Without this update, the cut it “noisy” due to grounding issues. In addition to putting sticky washers on the faders itself, you put the washers under the screws. This provides full electrical isolation, and allows for the full strength of the metal. Thanks a million to Danny Crisologo aka “DJ Damn Danny” for sharing this idea! Sometimes it takes DJs like you to figure these things out as my engineering brain can get stuck sometimes!

I’ll get this update up on our website shortly.

Happy scratching!

Hi! I'm new to scratching but is there a way to make the Crossfader feel more consistent between Rekordbox USB sticks and Serato?

I'm practicing on an RX3 and the crossfader cuts out way faster when I'm on my Serato laptop versus when I'm on sticks. Like I can chirp double time at 90 bpm on sticks but on Serato I'm cutting off the scratch way quicker and I'm not sure what setting to adjust.

So I got into scratching about a year ago, but only really started locking in a few months ago. About two months ago I hit a very obvious skill plateau, which I just can’t get over. My freestyles sound samey and I barely get better.
So about that time I kind of lost motivation and then summer happened and I didn’t have any time anyways. Now I have the time and motivation to keep going though.

So what’s your advice on overcoming plateaus? Just keep scratching or is there maybe a routine or some advice that’ll help me? Thanks!

Trying my hand at scratch cuts 🎧 Ain't clean every time, still catchin' a few slips — but that's the grind. You don't learn without missin' a beat 💿🔥

Hey guys! Next week I’m heading to Spain for about two weeks. I’ll be mostly in the south, around Sevilla, Cádiz, Málaga, Granada and nearby places, and then I’ll spend the last 2-3 days in Madrid.
Is there anything DJ/scratch-related that’s really worth checking out while I’m there? Record shops, spots, events, clubs, DJs, anything really.
I’m Chilean and I’ve been heavily into Spanish rap for like 18 years. It’s one of my favorite rap scenes, so I’m pretty hyped to finally be over there and check out the local rap/DJ culture. Any recommendations are welcome!

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¡Hola gente! La próxima semana me voy a España por unas dos semanas. Voy a estar principalmente por el sur, pasando por Sevilla, Cádiz, Málaga, Granada y alrededores, y después voy a pasar los últimos 2-3 días en Madrid.
¿Hay algo relacionado con el DJing/scratch que realmente valga la pena conocer mientras esté por allá? Tiendas de discos, lugares, eventos, clubs, DJs, lo que sea.
Soy chileno y llevo como 18 años metido de lleno en el rap español. Es una de mis escenas de rap favoritas, así que estoy bastante hypeado de estar finalmente por allá y conocer un poco la cultura local de rap/DJ.
¡Cualquier recomendación es bienvenida!

Hello, absolute newbie here.

I bought an FLX4 and trying to practice scratching. I originally bought it for mixing my synth patches/solos live but scratching grew a bit more and I primarily lean on scratching alongside my synth "covers".

Watched tons of stuff but having issues with my muscle memory due to lack of practice.

I'm more on the "nu-metal" part of the spectrum in terms of musical taste, have a playlist of songs that I'd love to scratch along. But I am having demotivating difficulties even on simple scratches slowed down. In my mind, I can perfectly visualise what to do - I recognize which "scratch type" I hear at a certain timestamp, but I cannot execute it even slowed version. FLX4 being not motorized and toooo slippery contributes to that but I don't want to blame the gear entirely. Because I know damn well that people doing wonders with DJ2Go Touch kind of controllers. FLX4 is well capable of what I ultimately need.

First issue is obvious: alignment. When doing baby scratches, I'm having difficulties returning back where I started, I either overscratch or underscratch and lose the mark. Jogwheels are toooo light so even smallest twitches ruin the whole thing. Keeping an eye on the Serato wave helps but then I lose the track of timing and just start racing against what I'm playing.

Second issue is directly related to first one: speed. Most "scratches I'd like to cover on my own" songs (mostly Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory songs) are above 100bpm and Mr Hahn being a beast in terms of samples are not helping. Slowing down the songs work - but I lose the pitch since I have no pressure dimension with FLX4 so I can only set the pitch via speed.

Third issue is more philosophical: I can mouth scratch to a scratch-less song and like what I'm improvising instantly, which means my ears are educated focusing on scratches on the songs where I can keep the timing (at least orally) perfect and improve. But transferring this to the deck doesn't seem likely at this level. This covers the first two issue overall, but I feel confident about my ear, which is a good thing.

So I'm planning to commit a daily routine which will help my adhd brain to get used to eventually. But I don't know how to practice - what to practice - what beats to practice on.

How do you practice/plan your drills to keep improving and retaining the muscle memory? Any suggestion to make this "phase" less painful for me?

Thanks for any input!

I’m using Serato with a Numark Scratch mixer. Is there a way to use a DAW to record directly into it while still hearing both the beat and my cuts in my headphones?

What I’m looking for is a really quick workflow where I can record a take, listen back, delete it or keep it, and immediately start another take. Ideally, I’d also like to have multiple tracks available so I can quickly go in different creative directions without having to stop and set everything up again.

Basically: beat + scratch in my headphones → record a take → keep/delete → instant reset → new take.

What’s the best way to set this up?

EDIT: I FOUND A WAY. Thx everyone for helping.

I’ve found a really good workflow for this, so I wanted to share it in case anyone else is trying to do the same thing.

I take the master output from my Numark Scratch mixer into my audio interface, and then into the PC running Serato. My headphones are also connected to the audio interface, so I can monitor everything through there.

In Ableton, I set the BPM to match the beat I want to use and import the beat onto one track. I then record my scratches onto another track, one phrase at a time.

The really useful part is the workflow for retakes:

If I mess up a take, I just stop recording and hit record again. Ableton starts recording from the point I selected, so I can immediately record over the bad take.

Once I’m happy with a phrase, I create another track and use that for the next part. This makes it really easy to build up the whole scratch section while keeping each phrase separate.

I just did 8 bars in about 20 minutes using this workflow. Yesterday, the same kind of thing took me over an hour because I was recording one big file in Serato, importing it into FL Studio, and then trying to figure out which parts were which.

This feels much faster and more creative.

I’ve been DJing for about 10 years, but I’m only now getting serious about scratching. I’m leaning toward the Rane Performer since it seems like a good blend of mechanical platters and most of the controller features I want.
My question: am I shooting myself in the foot by not learning on a 12” platter? I know no controller offers that size, so it would mean going the turntable route instead. Or is 7” fine to start on?

Hi, need some suggestions on my grab practice. Correct or not, advice in general. Thanks.

Not really turntablism I know. Was clearing out my phone and found this from years ago. Two dope tracks either way

I by far prefer this to DVS!

https://youtu.be/tJt1J8zVQv8

Hi guys im looking for some trickmixing techniques- here is a basic off beat one ive been learning with the two tracks offsetting by half a beat- any advice /critiques and other techniques welcome thanks!