To Touch or Not To Touch?

D

Do0Bs

Fo Shizzle Dizzle
Joined
Jan 4, 2009
Ive heard ppl on here saying that you shouldnt touch the vinyl/platter when mixing (when the track is live) to speed it up or slow it down but should pitch ride instead.

I tend to flick the record to go quicker or touch the platter to slow it down and then adjust pitch accordingly.

Is this majorly worng or just individual preference?
 
When I first started DJing I followed the "Do Not Touch" rule. I had a friend over one time and he saw me riding the pitch and he asked me what I was doing. When I explained he said "Whenever I need to slow it down or speed it up, I just touch the record." I thought since I had never tried it, that I would experiment. I played around with for a couple months. Realized that somethimes you can get away with touching the platter and not make any noticable audible change in the tune playing. And other times you get a pretty noticable sound. So I have read the same thing on here many times about sticking with riding the pitch and it all makes sense. So now the only time I touch the platter is when I am cueing in the head phones and when I get it beat matched I will ride the pitch from there.
 
Depends what you like.

Maybe tho if your turntable is shit it might ruin it to touch the platter
 
DJ Spliff said:
Realized that somethimes you can get away with touching the platter and not make any noticable audible change in the tune playing. And other times you get a pretty noticable sound. So I have read the same thing on here many times about sticking with riding the pitch and it all makes sense. So now the only time I touch the platter is when I am cueing in the head phones and when I get it beat matched I will ride the pitch from there.
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surly once its beatmatched you don't need to ride the pitch.

if your gonna touch the platter then you need to do it at the right time like spliff said, i use the 'cut the record your about to touch out with the up fader' technique but its copyrighted and if i catch anyone usin it i'll take you to court. :teeth:
 
rob_del_terror said:
surly once its beatmatched you don't need to ride the pitch.

if your gonna touch the platter then you need to do it at the right time like spliff said, i use the 'cut the record your about to touch out with the up fader' technique but its copyrighted and if i catch anyone usin it i'll take you to court. :teeth:
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Pitch shifting is a real tool in my opinion.. The comment surely if its beat matched you dont need to ride it anymore. I dont neccesarily agree with.

I wanna give an example of what I often do. I can ride the track in on more often than not less than 16 bars. Im still finding the perfect pitch as I bring the tune in and possible as it's fully fledged mixing, but the changes are so minimal I can keep it in and ride it untill it's solid, you wont hear me riding it because the changes are so suttle, but if i was to take my eye of the ball for 1 or 2 seconds then disaster.

This in my eyes would be sound awful with touching the platter, it just doesnt give you the suttle control required to make adjustments that wont be audable. Im pretty much talking +/- 0.2%
 
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DJ COSHH said:
Pitch shifting is a real tool in my opinion.. The comment surely if its beat matched you dont need to ride it anymore. I dont neccesarily agree with.

I wanna give an example of what I often do. I can ride the track in on more often than not less than 16 bars. Im still finding the perfect pitch as I bring the tune in and possible as it's fully fledged mixing, but the changes are so minimal I can keep it in and ride it untill it's solid, you wont hear me riding it because the changes are so suttle, but if i was to take my eye of the ball for 1 or 2 seconds then disaster.

This is my eyes would be sound awful with touching the platter, it just doesnt give you the suttle control required to make adjustments that wont be audable. Im pretty much talking +/- 0.2%
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So I guess you have to be pretty sharpish with knowing when a track is starting to come out of sync.

This is my problem I can never really tell when a track is starting slip until it is noticably out and which one is doing what (i.e. going to slow or fast)

But I guess it just comes with loads practice.
 
RevTech said:
Maybe tho if your turntable is shit it might ruin it to touch the platter
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This too. If your turntable hasnt got much torque and you're a bit to aggressive with it you might slow the platter down too much because it'll take a while to get back up to speed.
 
Whatever suites really I guess... I do my thing because it works for me. You learn new stuff all the time.

New thing I been doing is making adjustments on both pitch sliders, this makes for even more suttle of an adjusment, as the adjustment you would of made to one would be halfed across the two.. Then you lock the final adjustments in on the track in your cans.
 
Do0Bs said:
So I guess you have to be pretty sharpish with knowing when a track is starting to come out of sync.

This is my problem I can never really tell when a track is starting slip until it is noticably out and which one is doing what (i.e. going to slow or fast)

But I guess it just comes with loads practice.
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^^^This.
 
rob_del_terror said:
surly once its beatmatched you don't need to ride the pitch.
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This, if the pitch still needs adjusting then the tunes not beatmatched.

Same as everyone has said though, not really a right or wrong way to do it, as long as your mixes are in time and sound good it doesnt matter how you get there (y)
 
Disagree. Once you've got something beatmatched it's going to slip out of time for whatever reason. Records might weight differently, or the center spindle might not be snug against the vinyl etc.
 
DJ Spliff said:
Disagree. Once you've got something beatmatched it's going to slip out of time for whatever reason. Records might weight differently, or the center spindle might not be snug against the vinyl etc.
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Yea I see what you mean, but unless the weight of the record changes while its actualy on the turntable that shouldnt matter.

All i'm saying that if 2 tunes are drifting out of time, chances are theyre not completely beatmatched, they cant be, otherwise they'd stay in time with each other.
 
fuck what people say. i have the delicate touch of indochinian virgin, so i use my hands as much as i use the pitch. but be very gentle and remember the pitch is the only thing that will ultimately get your mix in time
 
I do both depending on how I feel at the time and depending on how bad it is slipping. If it starts to slip out of time loads I will touch platter then pitch ride to get it right.

I'm not exactly pro on the decks yet though so I gotta lot of practise but i'm happy with the way it works out at the moment using both techniques.
 
on studio sets i tend not to go near the platter, as people are solely focused on that mix through their headphones/speakers and just waiting for you to put a foot wrong.

but live, fuck it. mcs blabbering on over the set and everyones out to have a party not analyze your mixing. what does it matter as long as you keep the party bubblin? 9/10 people won't even realize if you're wanging it on or slowing it down a bit.
 
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