- DJs are always looking for ways
to make their mixes a
little bit more seamless.
Today, I'm going to
show you how the sampler
in Virtual DJ 2018 can do just that.
And no, I'm not talking about firing
off an air horn in the middle of your set.
I'm talking about the instrument bank
that comes as a default
within Virtual DJ 2018.
Using this feature can
breathe some new life
into tracks that may sound a little dated,
or make your blends a
little bit more seamless.
Today I'm going to walk
you through where we
can find the Instrument
Sampler, show you some
of the basic functions,
and then I'm going to
do a side-by-side comparison mix.
One with using the sampler
and one without using it
and you can decide what works best for you
and your style of mixing.
To get started, let's open
up the Instrument Sampler.
I can use these search arrows
right up here at the top
to cycle through my sampler menus
until I find the one labelled Instruments.
Now Virtual DJ has provided
a few default samples
that are broken down into
three color-coded columns.
The red column is our basic drum sample.
(drum music)
The blue column is our
high-hats and cymbals.
(percussion music)
And the yellow is our synth loops.
(synthetic music)
Now what's pretty cool is Virtual DJ gives
you complete control over how
these samples are activated.
So whether you're using
a mouse, like I am today
for demonstration purposes,
or if you have a sampler pad
on your controller, we have the ability
to change the trigger output.
So to do this, I can come
up to this little dot
here and open up the sampler menu options,
and go to Trigger Mode, and then I'm going
to get a separate dropdown.
To go over these real
quick, On/Off simply means
by left-clicking, it's going to activate.
(rhythmic music)
Left-click will deactivate the sample.
The next one is Hold.
So as long as I have the button pressed,
the sample's going to cycle through.
As soon as I release the button,
it's going to turn off the sample.
The next one is Stutter,
so if I left-click
to activate the sample, it's
going to keep cycling through.
And every time I hit
left-click, it's going
to send it back to the beginning,
giving you that stutter effect.
And it's very responsive.
Now to deactivate this, I
actually have to right-click.
Now any right-click with a mouse,
at least with my MCX8000 controller,
the Shift key is acting like
the right-click on the mouse.
So to deactivate that with my
sample pad on the controller,
I would have to hit Shift
and then tap the same pad
that activated it.
And the last one we have is On Mute.
So as long as I have it
pressed, you'll hear a sound.
As soon as I let go,
it's going to mute it.
So I press it, you hear
it, I let go, it mutes it.
And again, to deactivate
it, you have to right-click.
As you can see, you have many options
to choose how you want to
activate these samples.
In my previous video, I did
mention that the sampler
in Virtual DJ is capable of
playing an unlimited number
of samples at the same time.
However, there is a catch
with the Instrument Sampler.
You can only have one instrument activated
in a specific colour group.
Meaning, you can play one
red, one blue, and one yellow.
As soon as you trigger a second
sample in that same group,
it's going to turn off the
one that was currently playing
and seamlessly transition to
the new one that you clicked.
Now I can't layer
multiple drums, but I can
add a high hat and I
can add a synth melody.
(electronic music)
But as a DJ, if you're looking
to layer different drums
and different cymbal
patterns, you can't do that,
you can only have one playing per column.
Now in my opinion, the Instrument Sampler
is a very underutilised feature.
Now I belong to numerous
record pools that have
re-drums, and DJ-friendly edits,
but sometimes I find
these to be obnoxious.
And they overpower the song,
or completely change the
integrity of the track.
So what's cool about
the Instrument Sampler
is that it allows the DJ
to use an original song,
and breathe some extra energy and life
into the track, if it falls a little flat.
Especially if you're
trying to mix something
more contemporary that has been
remastered or is a re-drum.
So here's an example of this.
("Lady" by The Commodores)
So on deck A, I have "Lady"
by the Commodores pulled up.
It is the original track,
there is no hype edit.
There is no re-drum.
There is no Fatman Scoop here.
It is just the song as it
was recorded originally.
♪ Lady ♪
♪ You bring me ♪
Then on deck B, I do have a re-drum
of "Uptown Funk" by Bruno Mars.
♪ Don't believe me, just watch ♪
♪ Don't believe me, just watch ♪
♪ Don't believe me, just watch ♪
♪ Don't believe me, just watch ♪
♪ Hey, hey, hey, oh ♪
And as you can hear,
the "Uptown Funk" track
does have more energy
and pep to it than "Lady"
by the Commodores.
So this is where the
Instrument Sampler can come
into play and kind of
fill in that energy gap
with the original track.
And this is what it would sound like.
So the first mix is using
these two songs right here,
but I will not be using the
Virtual DJ Instrument Sampler.
♪ Don't believe me, just watch ♪
♪ Don't believe me, just watch ♪
♪ Don't believe me, just watch ♪
♪ Don't believe me, just watch ♪
♪ Hey, hey, hey, oh ♪
("Lady" by the Commodores)
♪ Lady ♪
♪ You bring me up when I'm down ♪
Now the second mix, I will be
using the Instrument Sampler
and you're going to hear
that I'm putting a backbeat
over the Bruno Mars track
and letting that carry
over as I fade that out, and I bring
in "Lady" by the Commodores.
Now there is no right or wrong here.
Both mixes are pretty decent.
But you may like the way
one sounds over the other.
I personally enjoy using
the Instrument Sampler
to tighten up my mixes when
I have a really strong beat
in one track, and not as
strong of a driving beat
in the other and it kind
of helps level it out.
So take a listen and see what you like.
♪ Don't believe me, just watch ♪
♪ Don't believe me, just watch ♪
♪ Don't believe me, just watch ♪
♪ Don't believe me, just watch ♪
♪ Hey, hey, hey, oh ♪
("Lady" by the Commodores)
♪ Lady ♪
♪ You bring me up when I'm down ♪
♪ Maybe ♪
♪ You're going to turn ♪
I've even used the Instrument Sampler
to save my dancefloor
and I think a lot of DJs
can relate to this.
So let's just say you have
a high-energy set going,
and then you drag up a track
that has a vocal break.
You know, those songs
where they have a section
and the beat drops out,
and people are kind of
awkwardly swaying and
confused and bopping around,
and eagerly waiting for
that beat drop to come back.
And an example of this is
"One More Time" by Daft Punk.
Now this has a great dance feel to it,
but in this centre section here,
there is a long extended vocal break,
and it can lose some of that
energy on the dance floor.
♪ One more time, we're
going to celebrate ♪
♪ Oh yeah, don't stop the dancin' ♪
♪ One more time, mm-mm ♪
This is where the instruments
sampler can come into play.
♪ Oh, this feelin' ♪
♪ Celebration ♪
It can add some of that tempo and rhythm
back until the official beat drop happens.
♪ Don't wait too late, mm ♪
♪ No, we don't stop ♪
Now what's cool about this feature is
that it's very intelligent.
And as long as you have
your beat anchors in sync,
it's going to be quantized and always
in tempo with the track.
So let's take a look at this.
So right over here, I have a song that is
122 beats per minute.
I'm going to slow and speed up this song
and you will see that the sampler
will adjust automatically to the BPM.
♪ Hey, beautiful, beautiful,
beautiful, beautiful angel ♪
♪ Love your imperfections every angle ♪
♪ Tomorrow comes and
goes before you know ♪
♪ So I just had to let you know ♪
♪ The way that Gucci
look on you, amazing ♪
♪ But nothing can compare to when ♪
So once again, as long as you
have your beat grids in place,
this is a great way to maintain the energy
in some of your tracks.
One of the last things
that I want to go over
is the ability to apply your deck effects
to the Instrument Sampler itself.
Now this is really cool
because it gives you
complete control to
customise how these sound,
which may make them blend even better.
So to do this, we come up
to the sampler options.
I first have to come to Audio Output.
You'll see right here,
I have it set to Master.
This is typically how I use it.
I don't really use this feature that much,
but I still wanted to go over
it for demonstration purposes.
I'm going to activate this on deck two.
Now I have to come back into the Settings,
go back to Audio Output,
and then make sure that Apply
Deck Effects is activated.
So now, when I play a sampler--
(percussion music)
I can make it interact
with all of my options.
This is the LPF,
HPF, obviously our lows,
our mids, and our highs.
And even cooler is
these effects over here.
So once again, you have even more options
to get these perfected
to the sound you want.
Thank you so much for
checking out this video
on the Instrument Sampler in Virtual DJ.
Hopefully you found some
of these tips helpful
and viable to make your
mixes a little bit tighter,
and to breathe some new
life into older songs
that might not be able to keep up
with your re-drums or contemporary edits.
And like I said, I've used this many times
to save my dancefloor to make sure that
that energy stays up high.
So as always, thank you so much.
If you like the video, please
be sure to like and share.
And until next time, happy mixing.
