Dj Tutorial, Video 2, The Loop Function
This is a short film showing you how to use the loop function on a CDJ-800mk2 turn table. It shows you what it does and how to use it.
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Step 1:
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Meet Chanston:
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All right folks, Chanston here. This is video number 2 in a selection I’m doing on the loop function of a CDJ turntable. In this case, we’re looking at this guy here which is the CDJ800 Mark 2. Now, for the newbies out there, if you don’t know what the loop function is, or loop is for that matter, check out video 1, it will give you a general sort idea.
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Step 2:
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Looping and sampling:
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In this video we’re actually going to be sampling a tiny bit of the music. To get a loop where the likes of these guys are concerned you’re going to need to sample part of the music. In a sense, if you think about it, the word sample basically means you’re taking a tiny amount and you’re testing it. In music, the terminology, or the word sample means you’re going to take a section of that music and you’re almost going to have halve that, put it to one side, and use that accordingly to how you want to use it. In this case, with the loop function, we’re going to take that sample and we’re going to loop it.
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Step 3:
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How to loop:
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There are right ways and wrong ways of using a loop. There are right ways and wrong ways, in essence, of actually using a sample in a loop. I’ll show you first of all the wrong way. But actually before we do that, we need to count, very important. I’ll show you what I mean. We’ll play the music. So we’ll count, say, 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4. The reason I’ve done that is because what we actually need to do, we need to actually get a segment of that piece of music or any piece of music. It has to be in time, in beat, but it’s got to be a nice decent segment. It has to have a start and a finish that is relevant to the music we’re sampling.
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Step 4:
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Incorrect sampling:
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I’ll give you a demonstration of what I mean by that. I’m going to show you a correct sample and an incorrect sample. I’ll show you the incorrect, or the wrong sample first. So, we’ll play the music again. I’m going to press one button that will start to record the sample and then I’ll press another one that will finish the sample. What I basically did, I just pressed that button anywhere in the music and I pressed it again anywhere in the music without listening to the beat, without listening to that time. What actually happened, I did have a loop, I had a perfect loop, but it wasn’t a perfect loop in beat. Because again, what happened when I pressed one button it started to record that certain amount of music and when I pressed the next button it stopped recording and then all it did, it started at the beginning of that particular sample and as soon as it finished it started again, finish, start, finish.
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Step 5:
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Sounds like a jump:
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The sound you heard was exactly the same sort of sound that you would hear if you had let’s say a scratch on a vinyl turntable and it used to be called a jump, where the needle is actually jumping. The needle is on a groove and it’s moving smoothly in that groove. If there’s a scratch, or maybe there’s something wrong, maybe there’s a little bit of dirt in that groove, what happens is that actually style, the diamond hits that groove, or say hits that tiny bit of dirt and jumps and maybe it will jump into the next groove or the one before. Again, bearing in mind it’s a continual groove anyway. When it jumps, you get a weird sound as though there’s something wrong with the record, which there is because it’s inaccurate. Exactly the same way this is concerned what’s happening is timing is totally out and that is the main word there, timing.
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Step 6:
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Sampling music.
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I’ll show you again, but this time I’m going to count and I’m actually going to sample the music while I’m counting and I’m going to sample it in time with me counting. So, here we go. Get rid of that one first. 1, 2, 3, 4; 1, 2, 3, 4; 1,2, 3, 4’ 1, 2, 3, 4. There is a very, very big difference there. The first one we sampled, if I was simply to utilize that sample, try to mix that into the music, I wouldn’t be able to because it’s not in beat. Whereas this one here, I would be able to mix that into the music because it’s in beat. Because I’ve made note of timing, I’ve been counting and I’ve started my sample at a certain point in the music and I’ve finished it in timing at a certain point in the music. I’ve counted. What I actually did, on this particular CDJ you have a button here and above that button you have real time cue in. Now on beat I press that and I was counting one, two, three four. As soon as I came to the second one, then I pressed out. Basically then I had a loop. So we’ll play it as follows.
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Step 7:
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Four loop buttons:
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On this particular CDJ, if you can just see here we have four buttons. On one of them we have eight, four, two and one. At the moment, in video two, all I’ll explain to you about those buttons is when you hit number eight you will get the sample that you sampled and you will hear that sample loop in its entirety. When, if we start this again, we press number four what happens is it will actually halve the sample and it will loop half the sample. Then when you press number two it will quarter the sample. And when you press number one it will turn it into an eighth, so you’ll actually get an eighth of that sample. You kind of have to mess around here.
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Step 8:
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Thanks for watching:
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This is video number two, there is a lot more to this than meets the eye. Very quickly as well, I’m dyslexic, so I find it really, really difficult to read text. I am a hands-on person and I find by messing around and spending a lot of time actually hands-on as opposed to reading text I seem to learn a lot better. There’s a lot more people out there like me, I’m sure there is. A lot of people have said my videos, I go on and on and on but I like to try to explain things precisely and concisely as possible. With regard to the loop function, I may do ten videos on this, I don’t know. The thing is if I do three or four and you will basically learn what the loop is all about, then that is fantastic. But if I need to do ten for a lot of people out there for them to finally realize the full potential of the loop function on CDJs like this then so be it. Thank you for watching and practice, enjoy, cheers.