Hey, it's Nick here from the Serato Products team. Here's a breakdown of my performance using Serato DJ with the Pioneer DJM-900SRT mixer and the Pioneer DDJ-SP1 sub controller.
TL:DR I use cool stuff like cues, loops, slicer, sync and instant doubles, together with software and hardware FX in this video showing Serato DJ with some new Pioneer gear.
I start the routine off playing back a track on the left deck, and then quickly "instant double" the same track across to the right deck by double tapping the load buttons on the Pioneer DDJ-SP1.
This is a really useful feature that I use all the time. It let's me do quick little juggles and back to back actions without having to wind back the record.
For the first 50 seconds or so, I use this instant double feature several times, in conjunction with the cue points on the right deck. I use the first cue point to jump to the start of the song, scratch in the "1,2"3, and" count at the beginning of the beat, let it drop, instant double, do a half beat scratch on the right so the records are now "chasing" and then repeat.
After doing that little instant double / chase pattern a few times, I move into a cue point juggle from about 0:50 seconds in, jumping between the kick, snare, and "yeah" sample that's in the track. I just noticed I use my middle finger to trigger cues. Offensive. ლ(ಠ益ಠლ
At the end of this cue point juggle I end on the "yeah" cue point, quickly turning on the Izotope "time freeze" effect to give it that digital stretched sound.
After that, I quickly scroll the library and load a new track to the left deck.
Once I've loaded my track, I press Sync to match the tempo of the left deck to the right deck. Sync allowed me to get the tracks in time faster than normal which means I could mix into the next song quicker and do other fun stuff instead.
Once the tracks are playing together, I jump over to the Sampler controls on the DDJ-SP1 and trigger a couple of "what" samples loaded into the SP-6 in Serato DJ. The samples are routed coming out the channel 4 on the mixer, which is assigned to Serato DJ’s left FX bank. I have an Izotope Tape Echo loaded to give the samples an “echo out” sound.
At about 1:30, I start to mix out of the first track using a combo of software FX in Serato plus hardware FX in the Pioneer mixer. I use the pitch looper effect in Serato DJ, combined with a color FX filter and beat FX echo on the mixer.
Next I use instant doubles again to load the same new song onto the right deck. Double tapping load is just a nice way to know the same song is going to be loaded, even if you don’t need to be in the same exact part of the song.
At 1:50, I do this little trick where I trigger a cue point, and set a short loop slightly after. When I re-trigger the cue point, the song plays and then start looping when it hits the loop area. In the demo I have the cue on the kick and a short loop on the snare. When it hits the snare I can scratch it without the track progressing. I do this a few times, and then transition to the next part of the demo by adding a few more "what” samples to transition into the slicer performance.
At 1:56 I start using slicer on the right deck, using the right set of pads on the SP-1. Slicer is great, but it can sometimes be hard to use when the quantization is set to a really small value. I've used it here at a 1 beat value which means I can hit and hold slices fairly randomly which makes the track jump around, but still keeps it in time. (Use the parameter buttons to change the quantize settings when using Slicer on the DDJ-SP1.)
At the same damn time, I'm also hitting the samples I have loaded up in the SP-6 using the pads on the left. These are still using the Tape Echo for that echo effect. I’ve used the tape echo in “single FX mode” which gives me more control of the sound.
Finishing up the routine, I instant double back across to the left deck, and then jump to a new section on the right deck, a vocal part taken from the same track so I can perform a few scratches.
Finally, I use a combo of software FX and mixer FX to fade out. Like the transition earlier in the routine, I'm using the pitch looper in Serato DJ together with the color FX filter and beat FX echo on the mixer.
I should of smiled more at the end... ヽ༼ ಠ益ಠ ༽ﾉ
The tracks I used in this video are:
Nick Maclaren - Y SO SRS? which you can get here:
https://soundcloud.com/41beats/y-so-srs-free-download
and
French Fries: Yo Vogue (VIP) which you can get here:
http://www.beatport.com/track/yo-vogue-vip-original-mix/4222127