Here's 2 Videos To Help Improve Your Digital DJ Skills

There's never been a better time to be a digital DJ. Whatever tools you use - software or hardware or likely a combination of the two, it's a world that is constantly evolving and expanding. It's not just limited to spinning discs in clubs either. DAWs like Ableton Live are particularly well suited to live performance, especially when combined with hardware controllers. Here at the AskAudio Academy we have a bunch of great video courses from professional DJs that will help you get your skills up to scratch. Here are just a couple. 

DJing With Live: Advanced

With your Ableton Live DJing basics under your belt, it’s time to dive in a whole lot deeper. And that’s why DJ Kiva created this live-action, advance techniques course. You learn all kinds of reverb, delay, warping, filtering, phasing and beat-repeating tips and tricks.

Kiva also shows you some very cool MIDI mapping techniques and how to bring in external MIDI instruments and audio into your Ableton Live DJ setup. See how to work with auxiliary decks, create custom channel strips and use submaster channel techniques. This course is filled with so many advanced tips you’ll want to watch it over and over again!

In this short video, Kiva breaks down how to use effects sends and returns to add depth, movement and more complex routing to your Live DJ setups and performances. 

Turntablism 101: Skratching Essentials

This turntablism course, created by DJ, performance artist and educator Sara Simms, is designed to get you started in the world of skratching. Sara and featured artist deejay stutter take you step-by-step through the equipment, setup and foundational skratching techniques that every turntablist has to know!

First, you learn all about the basics of setting up your turntables and equipment. From there, Sara and deejay stutter show and explain various basic and intermediate skratching techniques including:

• Baby Skratch
• Forwards (Cutting)
• Tears
• Transformer
• Chirps
• Fades
• One Click Flares

In this short video, Sara Simms shows you hands-on examples of how to use Fades to dynamically change the volume of your skratches in realtime for a more interesting live performance.