DJ Shiftee

Transcription

(Music) Hello, DJ Shiftee here at Dubspot, and I'm here to take you through my Traktor Kontrol Z2 routine for Native Instruments. Now this is going to be a difficult tutorial, we're really going to have to get in there up close and personal. So I brought a friend along, someone who is going to help us out. It's my great pleasure to introduce you to my good friend, Lil' Shiftee. Hey Big Shiftee! What are you doing? Oh you know, just exercising, trying to stay fit with my little self. What's up? Everything's up- I'm little! Whoa! Whoa I hope Lil' Shiftee's gonna be ok there. But let's get into it- it's what he would have wanted. So, we have the Traktor Kontrol Z2 mixer here, it's a mixer and it's a controller. We sort of have normal mixer features, so we have volume faders for each side, we have a crossfader, we have eq's, gain, filter hi pass, filter low pass. But what's great about this mixer is you have all types of midi control in addition to your standard mixer features. So I can control my cue points over here, so these two buttons select which deck I'm going to control, so for Deck A right now, I control cue point 1, 2, 3, 4. And then if I hit the button again, I control 5, 6, 7, 8. So I'll know that I'm on 5 through 8 if this is flashing. And go back over here- 1, 2, 3, 4. Same thing on the other side, I control Deck B here, 1, 2, 3, 4- 5, 6, 7, 8. I also can control Deck C and Deck D. So if I click here where it says C, same thing on the other side if I click here where it says D, then I will be controlling whatever I have in C and D. So currently I have Remix Decks, so I have samples here that I'm controlling, I'm only controlling the top row of the samples in my Remix Decks, and when the button is like this, not flashing, these pads will play and stop the samples. I prefer to use it though in Trigger Mode where when it's flashing, I can get a nice fast trigger. Same thing on the other side. My volume for these two decks is controlled here for Deck C, and here for Deck D. So now that we understand a bit about the mixer, let's look at what I actually have in my different decks as far as this routine goes. So in Decks A and Decks B, controlled by the turntables, I have the same exact song, I have the Salva and RL Grime remix of Mercy. So over here- (Plays music) And then in Deck C, and Deck D, I have samples which I've actually grabbed from this song. So I have a kick, a snare, another snare and another kick, all from this Salva/RL Grime tune, and then on Deck D I have different musical notes. And I actually grabbed one note, and then in Traktor, I copied this sample and then changed it's pitch. I copied it 4 times and I put it- normal sample, plus 3 semitones, plus 7 semitones, and then up a full octave plus 12 semitones. To do this, if I open up the advanced tab, every time I click on a sample, you'll see that I have this pitch option here. So what I did is I grabbed the same sample 4 different times, and then I moved it up by semitones- plus 3, plus 7, plus 12. So it's the same sample repeated, just at different pitches. I'm also using Maschine to control Traktor. On my Maschine with my mapping that I've made, I have different pages for different situations. So A is my normal DJ mix kind of mode, I have a cue point mode, and some other modes here, I'm going to give away the mapping, you can figure out what some of these do. For the routine, I have these two main pages. This first page, it lets me control the cue points from Deck A, and the samples from Deck C, right next to each other. So the blue buttons here, those are my first 4 cue points. And I've actually set very, very small loops for my first 3 cue points to get that kind of buzzing effect. Now next to it, I have Deck C, Deck D, I have the kick, the snare, the snare, and the other kick. The reason I did this is so I can trigger both the cue points and the samples simultaneously. So I go- (Plays sounds) And still scratch. I'm going to let Lil' Shiftee take you deeper into the action. But first, Lil' Shiftee, what's your mode of transportation? I jump on a hamster and yee ha! Yeee haaaa! Yaaaa! Easy there Lil' Shiftee, easy. (Music) Cue 1. Sample. (Music) So the next part of the routine incorporates the effects panels of the Traktor Kontrol Z2. The effects panels are located here, we have effects panel 1, and effects panel 2. They're mainly designed to work with Traktor's new macro effects, but you can use them to control any effect in Traktor. We have our dry/wet knob, which controls the extent to which the effect is changing the sound- the mix of the sound, and the effects knob will change the intensity of that particular effect. So for this effect I'm using- you get kind of a gradual changing of the sound. Meanwhile I'm controlling the different notes via my cue points using the blue pads here, and also triggering the drum samples via the pink pads. So I'm doing a melody, but because I mapped it so that the samples and the cue points are right next to each other, I can do both decks with one hand. (Plays Music) Meanwhile, I'll be using the effects knob. (Plays Music) Big Shiftee's gigantic hand is turning a knob on the Z2. It's controlling- a Macro effect. The effect of Event Horizon, controls several Traktor effects behind the hood with a single knob, getting a robust change of the sound, just like this. (Music) Lil' Shiftee I was wondering where do you find your clothing? I break into dolls houses, and I rob.... dolls. Are you dating anyone Lil' Shiftee? I kind of have a thing with Malibu Barbie, but you know like she lives in Florida, I live in New York, but you know we try to stay in touch, we'll do a little Skype, or a little Facebook or a little AIM. I'm feeling pretty good about the future, just the time isn't right right now, it'll happen. Spicy. The next part of the routine makes use of scratching with post fader effects. This is actually the first time in Traktor that you can use post fader effects, which means when you engage effect, and you bring the fader down before- the fader coming down would also bring the volume of the effect down. But now I bring the fader down and we can still hear the tail of the effect. So on effects panel 2 right now I have a delay engaged in post fader mode, so I can scratch, get echoes and delays on my scratch, and then not cut out the sound entirely. (Plays Music) Let's go to our little buddy, Lil' Shiftee, for a closer look. (Music) Big Shiftee has engaged the post fader effect, when he turns that fader off he will still hear the delay. (Music) And where do you live these days Lil' Shiftee? Small times are tough right now Big Shiftee, New York City, the economy.... So I'm currently living in a sour cream and onions Pringles can in Bushwick. I understand. Times are tough. Big and small. Next part of the routine, I start to use flux mode in conjunction with some beat juggling. Now, what Flux Mode means, is when I trigger a cue point, when I hit the pad it will play that cue point but then when I release the song will continue playing as if it had never been interrupted. So I have a cue point to a snare here- or another one. If Flux Mode was not engaged, as soon as I trigger that cue point it actually jumps and plays from that new spot. If Flux Mode is on- it just sort of punches in. Same kind of thing with loops. If we set a loop- when we release the loop the song will continue playing as if never touched. So what I do in this particular part of the routine, is I set- first I do some beat juggling sort of filling in- filling in different sounds with some cue points, and then I hold the loop, and what's- it's sort of a nice trick- is that when you're holding this loop in Flux Mode, if you trigger a new cue point, it will maintain that loop, it'll just move it to this new location. And you can still scratch it. So, in one part of the routine I have the samples on one side, I'm making use of it. Ect. (Music) These two orange buttons can only mean one thing- Flux Mode on both decks. Let's get it. (Music) Flux Mode! (Music) Next part of the routine, I use the record and the samples at the same time to get sort of an interesting double up/triple up kind of effect. So, I have a kick here, on the record, and I have the same kick on the Z2, on the sample, so I can get double ups, I can put the sounds between each other. Also, what gives it sort of the unique texture is you also get that reverse sound in the scratch. So for that part, I place a bunch of different sounds around this kick, and sometimes I'll throw in a snare. That's the first chunk, next chunk, same kind of idea, I start to bring it, bring in the Maschine, and I'm working- just all with the same kick. I'm controlling this kick here, this kick here, bringing in a back scratch, doing it with two hands, just to make it look more cool, I guess. So I hit this, I release it, bring it back, release it, bring it back. (Plays Music) Now you may have noticed at this point that I'm wearing the exact same shirt that I wear in the video. There are two reasons. One- you need to wear this shirt to do this routine. Two- I only own one shirt. For the finale, I do pure pad drumming. I do pad drumming on the Z2, and I'm really controlling the same exact samples also here on the Maschine. One reason I'm doing this is just to look cool, and get some exercise, another reason that I'm doing this is on this mapping I have different playback modes. So the right most column, for each, gives me a shorter playback, where when I trigger this, it plays the whole sample, here, it only plays for as long as I hold it- verses- so I can change the duration of the notes that way. But, it's all doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo- and wearing this shirt. Lil' Shiftee's wearing a different shirt, but when he grows up, this will be his. (Plays Music) Waaaaahhh!! Lil' Shiftee, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Welcome to Dubspot. We believe in providing you with hands-on experience right away. Whether you're completely new to music and want to turn the sounds in your head into a musical reality, or you're an experienced artist looking to refine your skills and add new tools to your arsenal, we're ready to meet you at your level. For students of all ages, all levels and all styles of music, Dubspot is here to help you achieve your goals. With course offerings both online wherever you are, and at our school in the heart of New York City, we are ready to guide you through the next phase of your musical transformation. Whether you want to produce music, DJ or do both, you've come to the right place. Come explore Dubspot for yourself. Become a part of our community and make music.