1. The Art of Digital DJing
Mixing Music,Video, and Technology
UCLA Extension Winter ’10
Alan Cannistraro
Gautam Banerjee
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2. When & Where
• Lectures: 1/09, 1/23, 2/06, 2/20, 3/06, 3/20, 3/27
• 10am - 1pm
• 1010 Westwood B06 - be on time as we have to end promptly at 1pm
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3. Communication
• Course blog: http://TheSmoothDJ.com - please read the blog for
class summaries and extras; ask questions here so everyone can see
them and participate
• Al: accannis@gmail.com G: gbanerjee@ucla.edu
• No such thing as a stupid question
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4. Required Equipment
• Mac or Windows
• Ableton Live 8.0 (7.0 ok)
• A hardware controller of your choice
• Control surface (MIDI)
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• USB Piano Keyboard (MIDI)
• USB Game controller
• Other? Be creative. We can help you get this working
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5. Weekly Assignments
• Weekly assignments
• Each assignment builds on previous week.
• Donʼt fall behind!!
• This is a performance class! You will be asked to perform your
assignments. You will be graded on your participation and performance
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• The more you practice, the better
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6. Final Exam
• Final Exam will be a live performance at a club
• Location TBD.
• Last year, we held it at Air Conditioned Lounge, Santa Monica
• All assignments will build towards your Final Project
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• Start thinking about what kind of music/style you want to perform.
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7. Introduction to DJing
• History
• DJing Basics
• Tools & Technology
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• DJing with Ableton Live
“The DJ” by Justin Bua
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8. History
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9. Roots of DJing
• 1935 - The “Disc Jockey” is born; why?
• 1947 - Paris, France, Jimmy Saville uses two
turntables to DJ
• 1950ʻs - the “selector” of Jamaica was a DJ who
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freestyle rhymed or shouted over music. This
Jamaican tradition influenced hip-hop culture
(rap) and DJs as performers (1970s NYC);
• 1974 - Technics SL-1200s & direct drive
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10. Technics SL-1200
• Direct drive turntable
• Strong motor
• Quick start
• Lots of torque
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• Steady as a rock
• Design mostly unchanged
since its birth in 1974 2009 Vinyl sales up
35% over 2008
Great for scratching
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11. Scratching
• Late 70ʼs - Hip-Hop gives us break-beat DJing,
sampling, looping, and scratching; DJʼs become
performers
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpIKX1sxFoQ
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12. Scratching
• The turntable becomes an
instrument with unique sound
• Pioneers - Grand Wizard
Theodore, Grandmaster Flash,
Kool Herc
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• Different DJs created different
scratches
• forward, backward, baby, tear,
scribble, chirp, flare,
transformer, etc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBRC1nWuWKU
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13. Disco & House
• NY Club DJs gain • Continuous Mixes, late
notoriety, mixing their nights, huge parties
records with others
• Studio 54, Twilo,
• Chip E., Frankie etc.
Knuckles, Junior
Vasquez, Danny
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Tenaglia, etc.
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14. DJ Explosion
• Electronic music tools become cheap
• Breaks into several subgenres:
• House, D&B, Trance, etc.
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• Rave scene explodes in mid-90ʼs
• Bedroom DJʼs abound in the 2000s due to dropping
costs and ability to DJ with MP3s
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15. Mash-Ups
• “Mash-Up” is a (relatively) new term for an old art form
• Much higher notoriety in the late 2000s due to access (eg
YouTube, file sharing etc - no more record label
gatekeepers) and low cost in software tools to make them
• DJ Danger Mouse was doing cross-genre mashups in 1998
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with two turntables; his Grey Album (2004) and its
controversy injected the term and concept “mashup” into the
mainstream for good; Eclectic Method: audio-visual
mashups since 2002
Mash-ups as we know
it used to be called
• More on mashups in a later class (Feb 6th) “blends” or “mixes” in
the hip-hop
community and have
been around for
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEIPCOwY4DE decades
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16. Computer-based DJing
• DJing starts moving to • DJs play with song
computers segments (loops)
instead of linear songs
• Production tools & DJ
tools start to integrate
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• Tech-heavy San
Francisco starts
experimenting with
throwback sounds
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17. VJing
• Synchronization of Video becomes possible
• Video (already popular at shows) starts being
controlled by DJ
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• Early stages
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEIPCOwY4DE
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18. DJing Basics
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19. Deconstructing Music
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20. Beats & Tempo
• What is a beat? Textbook: a steady succession of
units of rhythm; In practice: what you clap your
hands to or step to in dance
• Tempo = the pace of the song expressed as Beats
Per Minute (BPM);
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• What does BPM mean to a DJ? -> faster songs are
generally higher energy; BPM affects mood and
energy and informs how you mix; e.g. hip-hop is
80-100 bpm, trance is 140 bpm, etc
• We generally mix songs of similar tempo
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21. Bars & Phrases
• A bar, also known as a measure, is a segment of
time which contains a certain number of beats -
usually we have 4 beats per bar, aka 4/4 timing
• Groups of bars = a phrase; Phrases tend to be 8 or
16 bars long
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• Why do phrases matter? Helps you predict/
remember when something is going to change in the
music; eg vocals coming in, a chorus ending,
bassline start etc
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22. Bars, Bars, & Phrases Example
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23. Key & Pitch
• Pitch is the frequency, or essence of a note (eg
middle C is 261.63Hz)
• Key is the center harmonic of tonically related scales
and chords - eg Key of C, A-minor; When mixing,
you want to avoid “key clashing”, especially when
blending (or when making mashups)
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• Analog: pitch control on the turntable is used to
change BPM - BUT serious limitation (notes and key
are changed)
• Digital: we can change tempo/BPM and preserve
pitch and key (ideal), or change key and preserve
BPM
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24. Key & Pitch Example
K-Os, “Highway 7”
original tempo and key
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25. Key & Pitch Example
K-Os, “Highway 7”
pitch change +10% (analog way of
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increasing bpm)
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26. Key & Pitch Example
K-Os, “Highway 7”
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digital world: tempo +10%, pitch and key is
preserved; this is known as key or pitch
correction
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27. Key & Pitch Example 2
MJ “Billie Jean”
original
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28. Key & Pitch Example 2
MJ “Billie Jean”
original
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29. Key & Pitch Example 2
MJ “Billie Jean”
can you guess the
change?
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30. Key & Pitch Example 2
MJ “Billie Jean”
how about this
one?
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31. Song Components
• Drums & Breakbeats
• Bassline
• Melody
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32. Equalization & Filters
• Helps to isolate song
components
• Can help create mood
& builds
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33. Tools & Technology
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34. Analog gear
• 2 Turntables & a Mixer • Headphone monitors one or
both tracks
• Principle: A song on each deck;
Mixer to mix between • Volumes, Crossfader, EQ/Filter
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35. Digital gear
• 2 CDs & a (digital?) Mixer • Adds sampling, looping,
jump points, digital effects
• Same principle as Analog (phasing, etc)
gear
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36. Traktor - DJing on Computers
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• Computer emulates CD decks
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37. Serato Scratch Live
• Allows your analog
equipment to talk to your
computer so turntables &
CD players can control
mp3s;
• Fine control of turntables
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• Benefit of digital processing
(jump points, looping ,etc)
• Go back and forth between
MP3 and vinyl/CD at will
• Familiar equipment
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38. Ableton Live
• Professional DAW and • Can map your own hardware
sequencing software from as your custom DJ interface
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Germany; since 2001
• Integrates production workflow
• Designed for live performances
as much as composition and
production
• Recordable/Editable
Timeline
• Loop based performance
• Flexible tracks
• As a DJ tool, features
crossfading, monitoring and
seamless beatmatching
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39. DJing with Ableton Live
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40. Layout
• Browser
• Session View vs.
Arrangement View
• Loops vs. Time
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• Detail (Clips & Tracks)
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41. session view
browser
Screenshot of Live in
Session view
clip view
sample editor
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42. Browser
• Clips (Files, Loops, Sets)
• Preview Clips to
Headphones
• 3 favorite locations for
quick access
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• Effects (w/Presets)
• Instruments
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43. 42

44. Session
you can label
• Tracks and Scenes tracks anything
you want (helps
when DJing)
• Clips on a track are
each entry on a track
mutually exclusive is called a clip; can
be anything from one
note to an entire song
• Mixer controls for
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playing tracks
concurrently
each column is called a
track
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45. 44

46. Arrangement
• Tracks & Time
• Arrange clips sequentially
in time
• Used for production more
than performance
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47. 46

48. Detail
clip view
• Clip vs Track
• Track shows effects
• Clip shows fileʼs audio
waveform
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Track view (effects)
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49. Navigating “Clips”
• A “clip” is a song or sample youʼve
placed in a track slot. When you hi-light
a clip, you are in clip view & see itʼs
sound wave and settings
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“sample editor” - where
you move markers
clip settings around and can see the
sound waves
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50. Navigating “Clips”
• What are we looking at here? These numbers are a Timeline expressed in bar
and note counting (as opposed to minutes and
seconds); The format is (depending how close
you zoom in) 1.1.1.1 =
Bars.quarternotes.eightnotes.16thnotes etc
If you mouse over the top
gray bar, your cursor turns
into a magnifying glass - this
means you can zoom in/out
and scroll left/right
Yellow squares are
warp markers
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If you mouse over the grey
bar under the timeline OR the Visual
bottom half of the wave, your representation of
cursor turns into a speaker, sound (waves)
meaning when you click, the
sample will playback from
where your cursor is
more on soundwaves here: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/Hbase/sound/timbre.html
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51. Warping
• “Time-Warping”, usually just called “warping” • So, there are two kinds of markers you will
is Ableton-speak meaning the software see - 1. Warp Markers & 2. Transient
knows where the beats are in a song. This markers
allows ableton to synchronize any song or
transient markers are small triangles
sample to the master tempo (which is a big
Warp markers are yellow
reason why people love the software)
• When you import a song, Ableton analyzes it
to mark all the transients (like a drum hit or
start of a note) with transient markers,
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calculates BPM, and tries to line up the
timeline with the song waveform
A sample or song is
considered “warped” if the
beats line up with the
timescale for the entire song/
sample. Think of the timeline
as a conductor conducting an
orchestra - itʼs how musicians
know when to play their notes.
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52. Warping
• Ableton does a good job of finding the • For stubborn songs, you will “pin” down
transients, but not a great job with warp transients by double-clicking and making
markers them warp markers (ie anchored in time)
to force them to a point on the timeline
• Warp markers pin down waves to points
in the timeline
• When you import a song, you have to you can make any transient marker into a warp
usually fix the warping so itʼs right marker by double-clicking
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• Electronic music (made with drum
machines/loops) are easy to warp
because the beats are rigid in time
• Acoustic or analog music is harder to
warp because humanʼs arenʼt perfect at
keeping time
• In Live 8, we move the waveform to line
up with the timescale
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53. Warping - step by step
• 98% of your music can be warped in < 10 • Step 5: If the end of the song is in time,
seconds youʼre done. If not, where you hear the
song off time, zoom in and align where
• Step 1: Zoom in & Find beat 1. It should be needed by grabbing transient markers and
near the beginning of the song, but it can putting them where they need to be in time
be any beat 1 in the song. When youʼve
found that beat, Right-click the transient • Step 6: Playback again and check middle
marker for it and select “Set 1.1.1 here” & end of song. It should also “look” lined
up visually too. If the end of the song is
• Step 2: Right-click the 1.1.1 marker and lined up, youʼre done.
select “Warp from here straight”
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• Any electronic music or songs with
• Step 3: Visual check - the first few bars programmed drums like hip-hop, these
should look “aligned” to the timeline. If not, steps are all you need.
double-check your 1.1.1 and move the
transients to line up for the first few bars • For acoustic songs, the timing will not be
perfect, and you will have to tweak the
• Step 4: Turn on your metronome and warp markers by hand sometimes (and
playback song. Listen for the beats to line make your own warp markers). We will
up with metronome. Start at beginning of cover this later
song, then check middle and end.
• For now, just practice. youʼll get it in no
time. Good tutorial: http://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP9NqBvgptM
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54. Assignment
• Decide on a style for your
performance
• Find songs you would like to
use
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• Import them into Ableton Live
• Play around with warping
them; come next week with
questions
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