Task Switching

Growing up I’ve always had adults discourage me from multitasking. They’d say, “If you want to accomplish a task efficiently do one thing at a time Robert,” but DJing has completely altered the way I look at the brain’s ability to balance its attention on multiple things at once.

Here is a 140 second excerpt of my last College GameDay set where I transition between 5 different songs of varying speeds in distinct ways. I encourage my Brolic Army DJ School students to learn it over the Christmas holidays because achieving comfort when tasking during a DJ set brings a level of energy and excitement that generic mixing can’t!

Transition 1

“Are You Gonna Be My Girl” into “Finesse” remix features a quick baby scratch into a 4 E AND UH (16th note) drop. The intro I use from “Finesse” is an acapella. This means the vocals you hear are absent from a drum beat I can use as a guide to match the speeds between both songs. Also, being limited to tracking what measure I’m dropping to on “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” by following handclaps that appear on the AND of every 1/4 note requires extra focus! Not to mention there are very loud guitars I have to purposely ignore to better stay in sync with the song’s tempo.

Transition 1

Here I echo out using my Rane One’s effects toggle switch on a ONE (1/4 note) then hold the right joggle wheel with my left hand while my right quickly moves to the laptop and switches from “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” (Jet) to “Genius of Love” (Tom Tom Club). In a split second, my eyes verify “Genius of Love” is engaged and I launch it on a FOUR (1/4 note). This exchange takes place in just 3 beats!!!

Transition 3

As “Genius of Love” is mixing with the “Finesse” (Bruno Mars) acapella, you’ll notice my head turn towards the laptop. You might presume my attention moves over to the laptop screen inorder to beat match by looking at the Serato waveforms but that’s not what’s happening. Carefully watch! Once I successfully merge the speed of “Genius of Love,” my right hand moves to my laptop’s keyboard to highlight the next song. Both songs are blending together for the entirety of 4 bars before I must switch again!

Transition 4

After fading out “Finesse” there are 4 bars for me to do some Rane One reconfiguration. Meaning, I have to turn the loop I previously set for the incoming Jay Z (“I Just Wanna Love You”) acapella then bounce my controller back to Hot Cue mode so I can trigger “It’s about to go down” on the ONE (1/4 note) of every bar as I perform my scratch routine). All the while remembering to adjust the pitch dial on the left jog wheel so that Jay Z’s vocals sit in the pocket properly!

Transition 5

The following 8 bars are the most physically demanding section of the set because I’m required to trigger the sample and scratch it with precision. Ironically, this portion of the routine is also the least stressful because I’m not having to think so much. That’s how automatic scratching on cue feels to me. It’s like breathing, I don’t think about it.

Transition 6

This is the final and most difficult song changeover. At the top of the 7th bar of my “It’s about to go down” scratch routine, I stop the right jog wheel with my left hand and I have 1 bar (4 beats) to switch out of “Genius of Love” to “Up”. Without hesitation I move the jog wheel’s pitch dial faster, drop “Up” on the one, swap over to the left jog wheel and proceed to incrementally slow down Jay Z’s voice to maintain pocket! When this transition happens, did you notice I had to engage the loop feature on “Up” so that Cardi B’s vocals didn’t start prematurely? After 8 bars, I disengaged the loop on “Up” and we hear Cardi start spittin’ as I echo out Jay Z’s vocals.

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2 Comments on Task Switching

Barrymore December 12, 2022 at 7:35 pm

I like how you “massage” “it’s about to go down” through the transition. I can hear/see your platter moves. Stop-nudge-slow- whatever was needed. It was also interesting to note there that the words dropped on the clock face. it’s @ 9, about @ 12, go @ 3 and down @6. Did you run the loop as recorded or modify it for time?
- DJ Rob Swift December 13, 2022 at 8:35 pm
  
  The only modification that took place was me incrementally slowing down the pitch of the left jog wheel as I manually kept “it’s about to do down” in sync with the music playing on the opposite side.