spinning drum blog

I love my mixer. I’ve declared it on more than enough occasions. Not a day goes by I don’t thank the lord for having had the wisdom to go buy it, and not a day goes by that I don’t eye it between my decks with anticipatory pleasure, which is satiated once I hit the power switch and work the faders. So last month when the crossfader started to bleed, there was a definite rift in the relationship.

When your mixer has issues it’s a sad day. I know, of course, nothing lasts forever, and I knew that this day would come. After all for a scratch dj replacing faders is like replacing needles and records. It’s a sign you’ve been working, and just one more reaffirmation of how god damn expensive the pursuit of djaying is.

So anyway, while I wait for my replacement fader, things haven’t quite been the same between me and my Allen and Heath. Sadly, I recall the words of a dj friend, who after I told him about the state of my A&H xone02 shrugged and said, “I have learned not to trust faders anymore?

It is a trust issue – knowing you can knock the fader all the way over, knowing it’s going to cut the sound out, knowing it’s going to be as sharp as your skills, knowing that the sound will be there and not there when you need and don’t need it. I mean what kind of world is it when you can’t trust a crossfader?

I’ve got a bleed on the right side of the cross fader. This means I can still transform on the left side with my left hand and work the vinyl with my right. But no beat juggling and no working the crossfader with my right hand.

Forced to dance around a serious mixer blow, my left-hand transforming and right-hand scratching has rapidly improved, as has my aptitude with the main faders. Finding the plus side in mechanical failure, my technique is bearing the fruit of the switch up of my dominate hand, and this all brings me to a particular dj faq. Should one learn to scratch with the left hand or right? Which hand transforms; which one scratches?

It’s a mind over matter answer. You should learn to scratch and transform with BOTH hands. They should be interchangeable on your mixer and records.

What about the classic cross handed scratch pose you see djs adopt? Straight up I think this is whack. Even though somehow some djs have managed to turn their lack of practice with their alternate hand into a “dope” dj move, this is severly limiting. Qbert, MixMaster Mike, Rob Swift, Craze etc. they all can scratch with either hand. I have noticed for complex scratch solos a favoritism for the left hand on the fader (the reverse of what many right handers think is easier) and right hand on the record. Nonetheless, they can adequately use both hands.

I am right handed and the result is that my right hand has more finesse with whatever it touches. For scratching this means more mobility on the vinyl with my right-hand when I’m transforming with my left, but quicker fader action when transforming with my right, manipulating the record with my less dexterous left. Thus some scratches are easier on different sides depending on what I need to do. However, with a decent level of ability with both hands I have options. For most scratches the difference to the average listener I’d like to think is small, mostly noticeable to my own body, who feels where the work is. What the pay off is though, besides just skill development, is that I also get to enjoy the discoveries of sound and sensation that each hand offers on the vinyl or fader. They do move and feel a little differently, and invariably they serve my scratch skills differently. My lazier left-hand, for instance, offers a more languid scratch, and my right a sharper one. The difference results in a larger pool of unique sounds.

All said and done though, the bottom-line is regardless of which table I’m scratching on, I don’t have to turn into a pretzel to make a decent sound. And yes, to answer another dj faq, it does take more work to master ambidextrous scratching, but if your interested in learning to scratch in the first place you should be no stranger to practice nor shy of a little studio sweat.

Studio reborn in a 100 year old house with an ocean view, and 12 foot high ceilings. My actual working space has shrunk just a bit, but the lay-out works and has encouraged tighter organization along with a record purge. While I have had very little time thus far to sink in the fresh space and ground my creative energies in my favorite beats, I feel a sense of relief for having a home once again, as well as an accompanying renewal in my self and my pursuits. This is the saving grace for all us renters who really are just long term transients. We get to rebuild our home and sometimes our lives each time we take in a new place.

This has been the first time I have sat down to write, and I tapped into the flow by responding to an online discussion group I am part of on tribe.net. Responding to the question of contact improv and performance, and how much a perfomer can distant her or himself from the audience to experience true improvisation and the art found in the moment. I decided to post my response here as well, as it is one of my favorite topics – creative process/peformance- and thought it adequately related my own particular outlook.

march 2nd
new post
Re: Performance and Contact
Today, 10:18 PM
I think it depends on the performer involved, likewise each individual audience member. I can draw on my experience as a turntablist/dj who plays for audiences. I have been described as a formalist. I am heavily interested in the process, less so the performance. I am interested in developing my relationship with my medium, which is a turntable (for a dancer their body), and I am not as heavily invested in how others perceive it. In fact if anything I believe that it is the witnessing of the artist’s relationship with her or his medium that the audience is actually paying for. Each of us is unique on how we execute whatever we do, and it is that uniqueness and commitment to its development that attracts viewers. While of course as a turntablist/dj, I am interested in communicating my art form i.e. making people dance or mood setting, I am also interested in developing my skill level under the pressure of performance as well as in the relaxed atmosphere of the studio. Still what I do as a turntablist, playing a new instrument that is still quite fringe, I know can only be appreciated by those who have experience with it and can understand what they are hearing or seeing.

Though all artists I believe are sensitive to their environment, and can not help but be altered by a the presence of a room full of people, whether you’re making them dance or dancing for them, I also know as a performer that you can be completely, whether intentionally or not, engulfed in your activity. I once had a friend in pure exhibitionist mode walk by me with a glow stick stuck through his cock piercing; and I, so engrossed in the mixing process, didn’t even notice. In general, as long as I look up and see feet dancing I continue on. So yes, I recognize the needs of the audience, but also I prioritize my own, for better or worse. Having said all tha,t I will also say all of it depends on the show and demands of the promoter (who is paying me afterall), thus there are times when I am more attentive and times when I am less so. My aim is to fulfill what is being asked of my presence. To this the variables are endless.

To counter my own approach I have a fellow turntablist who I perform with who has a completely different take. He is completely there for the audience and it is their response that fuels his continued involvement in the art form. Both of us are technically skilled, both love what we do, and both of enjoy positive responses whether we have sought it or not, but our experience of “performance” is completely different, and likely are future careers will take different paths, though probably we still will come to together to jam and do public shows.

Likewise, when we attend shows as audience members. I am looking for skill and artist-medium relation; and he, while appreciating those, is far more taken with showmanship. In fact he currently is doing research for a university on a dj’s relationship with the audience and vice versa.

So I hope this can translate in issue of the validity of performance and contact, which in a nutshell depends on the individual performer and each audience member.