User:NanoCarp/DJ Hero Real

This page is to be an instruction manual on how to play the mixes found in the DJ Hero games on real DJ equipment. (Research/experimentation still required for exact details for individual songs) Some experience preforming music, and a basic knowledge of music terminology is recommended.

Suggested Equipment
The following equipment is suggested to have before attempting to preform these. There are other ways, but I have found them much more difficult than they could be with actual equipment.
 * Digital Turntables (2)
 * Turntable Controlling Software
 * Cue Board
 * Sampler Board
 * Effects Control
 * Crossfader

Basic Conversion
DJ Hero uses the following on-screen prompts, and these prompts can be translated into actions with a real DJ setup. However as there are many more actions than available buttons on the turntable controller, each button represents many different actions, depending on the stream.

The Red Stream
As the DJ Hero 2 tutorial says, this is the audio sample stream. This is the simplest stream to translate to real actions, but can be very hard to pull off. Simply, each button push within the game can be translated to one button push for a sampler on real equipment. The problem comes in where the game uses MANY different samples in each mix, and you must use a different sampler button for each one. A held tap is generally a looped effect, mostly with a very short loop time. If not, than it indicates a long sample that is to be played until the tap is done.

Green and Blue Streams
Here we get complicated. VERY complicated. Let's break this down into the different icons that come up, and what they can mean.

Taps
Taps can mean one of two things. The first being a cue point activation. Cue points are preset locations in the track that can be warped to instantly with the push of a button. Cue points must be set up before playing a mix, and can be used for multiple different purposes. Due to the use of Cue points, I suggest the use of a digital turntable setup, instead hard discs that must be swapped between songs. Also, not all taps have a meaning. Some of them are added simply to increase the game difficulty, and are actually already in the correct sequence, and do not need additional cues to execute. The other, and this mostly applies to held taps, is an effect or loop. The most common effect is a rapid "Beat Grid" effect. Beat Grid basically will move around the different sections of the track, to mess with the beat of the song. For example, you could move beat one of measure 3 (after activation) to beat 2 of measure 1 after activation. More on the effects later though.

Single Direction Scratches
Simple enough, use the proper turntable to give a quick spin in the correct direction. The trick is to figure out how far to move the disc. This is not indicated in DJ Hero's script, and must be discovered by your own experimentation. Keep in mind as well which direction the disc is "spinning" naturally.

"Held" Scratches
These are just like the Single Direction Scratches, plus the addition of how quickly to move the disc. Some cases require extremely slow movement of the disc to get the proper sound to be produced. These can be tricky to move the disc both the exact distance and at the correct speed, and require much practice to execute.

Multi-Directional Scratching
Basically a combination of the above two scratching styles, mixed together in one scratch sequence. This means not releasing the disc between movements. Sometimes, however, a cue point is nestled into the onscreen scratch, that is not required to be pushed. If the sequence begins with a tap icon, a cue is required, and do not stop disc movement until the time of the first scratching icon.

Effect Knob
Simple, select an effect from the available choices, and apply it in various degrees. Popular effects indicated by the knob are:
 * Beat Grid
 * Filter knob
 * Echo/Double

Cross-Fading
Simply use the crossfader as indicated by the stream. Note that some improvisation may be necessary to exactly match the crossfading of the game's mix. As well, the game only has 3 crossfader positions, as opposed to the full range of an actual crossfader. As well, the discs that are crossfaded out, may or may not still be playing, so be sure to check both possibilities.

Preparation
Obviously, preparation is key to a successful scratch DJ performance. You need to go through both tracks being mixed, and set both cue points and take samples. Occasionally, the samples will need to be edited using professional software to take out background noise, so that only vocals are heard, or other corrections are made.