The Complete Guide to DJ Basics with a Traktor Controller

In this video course, world-renowned DJ Shortee teaches you all the essential basics that you need to know when you are first learning how to DJ using a Traktor DJ controller. The Traktor Kontrol S4 is featured; however this course is structured so that you can easily learn using any Traktor controller. Shortee shows you how to handle the jog wheels, various ways to cue up your songs, three different ways to listen using your headphones, how to identify the beat, and how to tune your ears to be able to isolate the drum sounds within your music. She explains basic music theory; note values; how to count beats, bars, and phrases in 4/4 time; and how to identify the “one.” You will discover various ways of counting the beats per minute (bpm) of your music and why it's so important to know the tempos of all your songs. She teaches you the two most important scratches for DJing manually with the platters, how to combine them with each other as well as with the crossfader, and various ways to drop your songs in on the “one.” To finish things off strong, you will learn how to perform a basic transition between two songs with the same bpm, using the crossfader to blend them together.

Videos

• Introduction (01:52) - DJ Shortee introduces the course in which she teaches all the essential basics that you need to know when you are first learning how to DJ using a Traktor DJ controller.

• Handling the Jog Wheels (06:14) - DJ Shortee shows you how to adjust the jog wheel settings, where to place your hand on the jog wheel to forward and rewind the audio, and how to speed up and slow down the audio using the outer rim.
Songs:
Shortee & Step 1 'Wax that Booty' (Bikini Wax Album - 5 Star Records)--115 bpm

• Cue Points & Hot Cues (06:15) - DJ Shortee shows you all the different types of cue points in Traktor Pro 2 and also how to set and save hot cues.
Songs:
Mr. Brackets 'Overflow' (Arkade Records)--128 BPM

• Cueing (04:43) - DJ Shortee explains the definition of cueing and demonstrates various ways to cue up your song with the jog wheels and also using the play, cue, and cue point buttons.
Songs:
Shortee & Step 1 'Wax that Booty' (Bikini Wax Album - 5 Star Records)--115 bpm

• Headphone Cueing (11:43) - DJ Shortee teaches you how to cue up your music in your headphones and how to listen to the music in your headphones using three different techniques: cueing headphones to monitor, cueing all in the headphones, and split cueing in your headphones.
Songs:
Fransis Derelle 'Rocca' (Heavy Artillery Recordings)--128 BPM
Pawax 'Shaolin' (Arkade Records)--128 BPM

• Identifying the Beat (06:36) - DJ Shortee shows you how to identify the primary beat that you will use to count music, identify the main drum kit, break down the drums, and tune your ears so that you are able to isolate the specific sounds in your mind that are helpful for beatmatching.
Songs:
Pawax 'Shaolin' (Arkade Records)--128 BPM
Shortee & Step 1 'Wax that Booty' (Bikini Wax Album - 5 Star Records)--115 bpm

• Counting Beats & Bars (06:09) - DJ Shortee explains basic music theory, including what a note is, how all the note values relate to each other, what a beat looks like in traditional music notation, what a bar is, what a time signature is, and how to count beats and bars in 4/4 time.
Songs:
Pawax 'Shaolin' (Arkade Records)--128 BPM
Shortee & Step 1 'Wax that Booty' (Bikini Wax Album - 5 Star Records)--115 bpm

• Counting Phrases & Identifying the "One" (17:12) - DJ Shortee explains basic song structure, what a phrase actually is, how to count groups of phrases, what to listen for, and how to easily identify the "one" in each phrase.
Songs:
Pawax 'Shaolin' (Arkade Records)--128 BPM
Shortee & Step 1 'Wax that Booty' (Bikini Wax Album - 5 Star Records)--115 bpm

• Counting Beats Per Minute (bpm) (11:08) - DJ Shortee explains what beats per minute actually is and why it's important. She teaches you the various ways to count the bpm of your music in order to identify the tempo and keep track of that information. She also discusses the "safe" ranges for beatmatching.
Songs:
Pawax 'Shaolin' (Arkade Records)--128 BPM

• Beat Counter & Beatgrids (12:08) - DJ Shortee shows you how to set up the Beat Counter and how to set and adjust basic Beatgrids in the Traktor Pro 2 software.
Songs:
Pawax 'Shaolin' (Arkade Records)--128 BPM

• Adjusting Beatgrid with Controller (02:21) - DJ Shortee shows you how to use the Traktor Kontrol S4 to set and adjust your Beatgrids for your audio files in the Traktor Pro 2 software.
Songs:
Mustache Riot, Melissa Pixel, Mobb Creep 'It’s Not Too Late' Safra Remix (Heavy Artillery Recordings)--85.5 BPM (or) 171 BPM

• Dropping Options & Baby Scratch (06:18) - DJ Shortee explains various ways of dropping in your tracks using the play, cue, and cue point buttons, and teaches you how to perform the baby scratch using the jog wheel (platter) to drop in your tracks manually.
Songs:
Shortee & Step 1 'Wax that Booty' (Bikini Wax Album - 5 Star Records)--115 bpm

• Release Scratch (03:45) - DJ Shortee teaches you how to perform the release scratch and explains why doing it correctly is so important to your mixing skills.
Songs:
Shortee & Step 1 'Wax that Booty' (Bikini Wax Album - 5 Star Records)--115 bpm

• Baby/Release Combo (02:48) - DJ Shortee teaches you how to combine the baby scratch and the release scratch so that you are able to manually drop your tracks in as accurately as possible.
Songs:
Shortee & Step 1 'Wax that Booty' (Bikini Wax Album - 5 Star Records)--115 bpm

• Dropping on the "One": Part 1 (03:49) - DJ Shortee teaches you a longer baby/release/rewind combo exercise that will eventually be used to drop your song in on the "one" of a second song playing on the other deck.
Songs:
Shortee & Step 1 'Wax that Booty' (Bikini Wax Album - 5 Star Records)--115 bpm

• Dropping on the "One": Part 2 (04:41) - DJ Shortee teaches you how to drop your song in on the "one" of a second song playing on the other deck using the longer baby/release/rewind combo practice exercise.
Songs:
Shortee & Step 1 'Wax that Booty' (Bikini Wax Album - 5 Star Records)--115 bpm

• Crossfader Settings (06:02) - DJ Shortee covers the crossfader settings in the Traktor Pro 2 software and how you can use them to adjust the crossfader's curve for use with the hardware crossfader on the Traktor Kontrol S4.
Songs:
Beatstatic 'I Want That Beat' (Heavy Artillery Recordings)--128 BPM

• Cutting (03:11) - DJ Shortee teaches you how to "cut" in a song by using the release scratch together with the crossfader.
Songs:
Shortee & Step 1 'Wax that Booty' (Bikini Wax Album - 5 Star Records)--115 bpm

• Dropping on the "One" with the Crossfader (05:35) - DJ Shortee shows how to perform the longer baby/release/rewind combo with the crossfader by using the cutting technique to drop your song in on the "one" of a second song playing on the other deck. This technique will be used for more technical transitions that will be taught in the next course, DJ Mixing Beginner, so practice it now to get ahead of the game!
Songs:
Shortee & Step 1 'Wax that Booty' (Bikini Wax Album - 5 Star Records)--115 bpm

• Basic Transition: Part 1 (05:38) - DJ Shortee teaches you how to perform a simple transition between two of the same songs with the same bpm using the crossfader to blend them together. She also elaborates on why it's so important for the phrasing on both songs to match up with each other during your transitions.
Songs:
Shortee & Step 1 'Wax that Booty' (Bikini Wax Album - 5 Star Records)--115 bpm

• Basic Transition: Part 2 (05:36) - DJ Shortee teaches you how to perform a simple transition between two totally different songs with the same bpm using the crossfader to blend them together. She demonstrates how to seamlessly transition from the end of a song into the beginning of another.
Songs:
Pawax 'Shaolin' (Arkade Records)--128 BPM
Fransis Derelle 'Rocca' (Heavy Artillery Recordings)--128 BPM