Digital DJing vs Analog DJing 

My biggest regret was that I never bought turntables when I was in college. All I dreamed about was being a DJ, then Mom got ill, bills, etc... Basically Life happened. Now 14 years later I've invested in some beginner equipment, my mom is r.i.p and this has become a great creative outlet for me. Great video. I love the craft.

Rob has the patience of a SAINT.

"Prove to me you get the math, and I'll allow to use the calculator" - 🤯

Rob is a real DJ and not a snob.

The old analog days were all about the fun of going record shopping, trainspotting rare tunes and trying to out-mix & Out-scratch people =]

imagine that one girl coughing so much in 2020... she would have been yeeted out

You are a brilliant teacher. not only do you explain what you teach clearly and without superior noise, you excite your students while doing so. i love the way you allow them space to share their individual points of view, and more importantly, share their interpretation of what they have learnt. As an old skool dj, its refreshing to see there is someone who can teach the art of djing without talking down to their students by forcing down their throats what they perceive as the correct way to dj.

Respect ! What a lesson of life. "You can choose to take the easy pass, the things don't comes hard but you're not really learn much about yourself" Thanks Rob Swift for the lesson.

‘Spellcheck’....absolutely brilliant analogy to modern DJing

Oh, my man... I’m so glad I accidentally came across this video! As a 20 year veteran turntablist, I love what you are doing! Damn this felt good to watch!

It's amazing to see the students tripn out on the GROOVES in the records😂👃😂

At the age of 58, DJing since I was 15 in the mid 70s using Bozak mixers and seeing wild and wicked mixing transitions in a multitude of music genres, I got to give Rob, thank you for teaching today's youth how it all got started, it only makes the future generations even better than we were, and isn't that the overall objective? - truly a wonderful and creative craft that is made even better by a man that has the patience to teach it. Notice how it all comes full circle? God bless always. Turntables are in fact imperfect, its the Dj that strives to perfect the imperfect equipment and making it look easy in the process.

Rob Swift is a stand up guy! This is how you give back.... by passing the baton to the next generation!🤘🏼

Fantastic video and conversation. I love that Rob is teaching these young people from the ground up focused on history, rudimentary skills and instincts. It’s like playing drums you don’t learn on the kit drum, you learn by running patterns on a drum pad (90%) of the time. Ever person with $2000 (controller, Serato music hard drive and speakers) calls themselves a “DJ” and a “Professional DJ” after doing it for a year. Bravo Rob and the Scratch Academy.

Dope tutorial, eloquently executed, plus an intuitive & intriguing group to boot ! Kudos for this vid Mr. Swift .

Awesome to see all these ladies taking interest in the art

I'm so glad i grew up in the 90's where you had to teach yourself this vinyl shit. Everything that came after was based on original vinyl mixing.

Rob you're an amazing DJ, and you're also a great great teacher. You give these kids patience, individual attention, and so much love for the craft.

Bro, thank you so much for these videos. I’ve been DJing for mad years and through watch your videos I’ve learned so much stuff that I actually missed through my own personal journey. Between you and TLM, the information you guys have provide has heightened my craft to another level. Thank you 🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿

Scratching actual records is THE ART. You ask children to do the math in their heads to build up intuitiveness for mathematics. You build those connections in the brain. When you ask people to use analog it is building up those patterns in the brain. It makes you a better artist. You grow through hardship. If everything is easy for everyone, how is it art? The puzzle of manipulating the turntable or the hardware to produce an effect is the ART.

Feels like when your friend is teaching you something cool. Great teachers I feel like become real friends. You are in the right place DJ.

Nice vids as always Rob. Im a DMC vet, cutting since 84 and I love seeing young peeps into learning the art. As for Phase, i can't wait for mine and looking forward to playing with it, but I learned the hard way so for me it's just another tool to master and definitely opens up great possibilities when doing a showcase. When I give DJ lessons I'm with Rob: basics first, tech later. But were all after the same goal, to entertain, so work hard and enjoy ya selves. PEACE!

wow man, thanks for putting this out there!

MUCH RESPECT ROB..! YOU'RE ONE OF MY TOP 5 DJS & NUMBER 1 IN PRESENTATION.. THANK YOU FOR SHARING YOUR KNOWLEDGE...

Love how you break it down to the youth. My pride tricked me into stopping my growth in the craft back in 2002. The denon cd mixers was taking over, and they undercut us on gig price! No more crates it was just plug and play for those cats. I didn’t understand it at the time, but when the cd mixers came the bar sells soared,because people weren’t on the dance floor but they enjoyed the night at that capacity. Serato and a fellow dj’s intervention made me rethink because it gave me extra tools I wanted that could propel me outside of battle Dj to a do what you want dj. We harp some times on technology, but in truth just as serato changed the game, so did the 1200’s. Now I have the pioneer cdj1000. It’s a bad boy! I know the vinyl game so I know what I’m doing with it. I like how you are showing the youth life before tech, but at the same time most of them couldn’t make a phone call with a rotary phone. I would love to hit up one of your classes, you can never stop learning, but as I watch your tutorials I never hear you speak on the most important thing. You must know your music! Sorry so long just enjoying your work brother.

If school was like this... "back in my day".... I would loved to be at the young guy place: a superstar teacher, two turntables, six girls.... :) Thank you Rob Swift!

As soon as he said stickers, it took me back 30 years. Then you said back in my day, SNAP. Its official i am old, but when you have a DJ ear, you never lose it, i still mix and hear the beat, without a laptop.

Keep spreading the knowledge, Rob. Appreciate everything you've done for the culture.

never realized how much work people put into djing

Great video. I have arrived here to learn more about how fun is to play with vinyls, but I've stayed because of the meaningfull conversation.

Of all the DJing videos on youtube this one really stood out to me. Thank for educating my generation on the roots of DJing. I believe having that foundation is what takes you even further

Bless you brother. Gotta admire and respect anyone who is serious about their craft.

May 2020, I keep flinching every time the girl coughs lol

thank u for sharing the videos. its so good 🎵🎵🎵

What an amazing teacher. And I just randomly ended up here.

This is one of the Best Dj teaching video I've seen. I got goose bumps watching this. I come from old skool djing, and have actually met Rob in Orlando. I use to watched your old dvds, VHS and learning how scratch and beat juggle from the X-Ecutioners. Rob you are still the man!

Thank you Rob swift! Everything you said was on point. I started djing back in the mid 90's with gemini turntables then to 1200s then to using cdjs and serato and controller setup. Without having those foundations of mixing vinyl, counting beats and bars, etc... I would not be able have an understanding of the craft and just using my ears when mixing on the laptop. Much respect Swift, you are a legend! BtW, when I lived in the west coast I remember being so excited to hit up record stores on the east coast for white labels, promos, brand new 12" to play out when I came home. Miss those days. Peace!

Big up & respect. I like to spin reggae on vinyl & do a bi-monthly dance on the Big Island. You are a badass Rob, I hope they listen.

I didn’t use stickers… I had different color sharpies and ink pens 😂😵‍💫😂 This is classic

Ohhh man that was straight up poetry! I agree with Rob on all points. Thank you Rob for passing on the true art to the newer generations

I LOVE THIS WITH ALL MY HEART

This seem so weird in the beginning..but when he pulled out that Ultimate Break Beat Vol. 9 I was tuned in. Good stuff DJ!! Anybody. While dont know. Ultimate Break Beats Vol 1 - 25. Must have

14:12 😅 OMG that was awesome 😄 BTW and like always, thanks for sharing man. It's much appreciated 👍🏽🙏🏽

I'm an old Chicago DJ & watching this brings back memories of teaching my brother to mix...

Rob sounds like my uncle who still sending letters instead of writing emails.. 😂😂 but as always respect man. This is so inspiring🙏🏻🙏🏻

That paper & pencil vs calculator analogy was spot on! I remember back in school when we solved a math problem we had to "show our work." It's one thing to accomplish a task but the question is how did you get there? Did you trip over backwards into it or did you grind and put in endless hours of frustration? In my opinion there's nothing like accomplishing a goal after enduring the trials and tribulations to get there. I appreciate these videos my brother and all these teaching moments. I truly hope to one day be a part of this class and learn this wonderful art called DJing.

These guys are in the Presence Of Greatness 💪🏾

I love the idea of the Phase, but also love your analogy. You are no doubt the best teacher of DJing in the game. In my opinion.

Man how lucky are they to be hanging out with rob swift

You are appreciated big bro....you just don't know it....what you've accomplished is remarkable 💪 QGTM 💯

crazy dj game, music game, life advice!!! salute and more success to ya

Sensei Rob han! much respect.

Love this Rob. I’m 46 now. I only dj’d through about 1998. So I’ve never used Serato. I’m literally stuck dj intellectually “back in my day.” And I want to get back into it someday when I can afford it. So it’s so great to watch you teach them about stickers on the records and where you line up your marks (I’m an aimed at the needle guy lol). This is the craft. In fact I’m watching these vids and the Instagram vids and learning lots. And there was no internet tutorials back so you just did shit wrong until it sounded less wrong.

I dig your point about Phase & Jazzy Jeff. When i first noticed you seem to have an issue with phase, in my head I’m thinking damn Rob, really?? LoL. But once you spoke, damn you made all the sense in the world man. I am so glad i watched this video. I never looked at it that way. Peace Dj pos2

i m so glad that there are classes like this!!

god bless you Rob. i think i can listen u 24/7

Thanks for the knowledge! I viewed an interview with Grandmaster Flash;he mentioned he used to use crayons to mark his vinyl. Apparently vinyl purists cringe in horror when they hear this.

I used to learn on virtual dj, on laptop only, no fancy controller, just laptop With sync and analized track, i learned beat bar and phrase in music and how to make a smooth transition Did i satisfy with only mixing intro and outro? Off course not! I closed the screen oh my laptop with cellotape, i learned how do that only with headphone, and I failed! Then I realised that I need a controller (I'm not crazy rich asian so i bought 200 bucks controller) I tried running, beatmaching for months Did I satisfied? Of course not, then I bought XDJ-R1 and tried to play hip hop and classic disco without rekordbox, I failed at first months, I almost quit this hobby But I learned and learned how to do it in old school way using XDJ-R1 (not the best option, but in my budget) Long story short after 6 years, bleeding with old school technics whilst learning new stuff like softwares, driver, midi, HID do I satisfied? Right now I have 2 controllers, 1 XDJ, and nexus2 set, I have may own DJ school also as a mentor, do I look satisfied? Maybe after I can afford to buy and mastering technics sl 1200s and winning DMC, maybe I will satisfy, maybe... but I'm not sure. The point is, it doesnt really matter where u start from learning something (old school/new school), AS LONG AS YOU KEEP LEARNING , you will be winning Greeting from Indonesia!

We had this discussion a few months ago and I totally agree.

So many amazing lessons in this video for these guys. You’re an awesome teacher. I’m not even a DJ, I’m a drummer, and the drums are still largely an analog instrument, there are still parallels where recording is concerned. All of this can translate across different musical instruments. Great stuff.

I feel like i’m in Starbucks with a latte .

I started djing in the early 80’s and never had the patience to teach someone

EXCELLENT DJ MASTER-CLASS

What an excellent communicator. Great DJ as well. I have learned so much. Robs cadence and tone takes the stress out of the learning process.

4:11 Great analogy Rob. I'm stealing that one from ya!

Always enjoy your videos! I can appreciate the thoughts with explanations because as a totally blind person DJing for 30 years, it's interesting to learn how sighted individuals would go about creating techniques like the stickers which wouldn't help me. I had no one to help me along. I had to figure out methods like organizing records alphabetically, by genre, writing a note to myself on a word document, or leaving my self a voice-mail when I thought of something good to mix, or scratch and so forth. That way I can try my ideas when I got home without forgetting them at the end of the day because I was out and about. Luckily, I was born and raised here in Brooklyn, and had many of record stores between BK, BX, Queens and Manhattan, where I always found someone to be supportive and holding records for me, putting me on to things I didn't hear on the radio, and even inviting me to clubs when they had a gig. Also, being totally blind, the tactile aspect will always keep me away from the digital avenue. It doesn't seem to be as much fun for me when I tried it at a friend's home. So, I'll deal with the heavy crates, more money for vinyl than mp3s, digging through the collection in search of something that I can't remember what it's called, the needle possibly skipping, trying to maintain records clean, and so forth because I love the art! I loved the chase of a the records, or finding a hidden gem that the radio stations or clubs are missing out on. I even went out to New Jersey one time to a record store. That was a mission! Thanks again for the videos! Hopefully, we'll meet one day!

I am not a DJ. This came up on my RU-vid home page and now I am hooked. I am going to be 56 and think learning how to DJ might be a good balance to my stressful professional life.

This is a beautiful thing..Passing the culture and history of the art to those who have a thirst for the knowledge!

Yeah he's got patience for sure!😆 I like that he's using butter rugs instead of the thicker slipmats!! Big ups to Q bert!!

love the pencil/paper and calculator analogy

I found your channel in a RU-vid vortex of searching old school rap/hip-hop/club music from the 80's - 90's.(born in '72). I don't DJ but grew up in that era and have a great appreciation for the art and enjoy listening to cuttin' and scratchin'. Jam Master Jay, DJ Magic Mike, Cut Creator, and the list can go on and on. It's OK to be a "back in the day" guy, especially the way you teach your students. The tech talk vs "back in my day" hopefully really hit home with your students; what a great story on the journey to go out and find your music. Today's easy road of clicking a button to download your music vs going out to record stores to visually search to find that one record is more than just about the music. It's also the people you've met along that journey. Even more so now, you may just find that vinyl you've been looking for at yard sales, auctions, swap shops, etc. and in the process create "back in my day" stories to pass on to the next generation to come. Kinda hard to do with a story that starts with "so this one time I was clicking these buttons and....". Hopefully your students take the time to really get behind what your teaching and become more then just button pushers!

The connection you have with your record collection is unmatched.

Rob, thanks for the discussion about the Phase. I wanted to post up and ask you what your thoughts were about it, and then you went and answered my question with this video. Personally, my path is to earn some stripes before allowing myself the indulgence of something like the Phase system. Similarly, my relationship with the guitar is that I don't own a $3000 Les Paul, because when you strap one of those on, it suggests expectations that I can't fulfill. Jazzy Jeff can do whatever he wants, and that's because nobody can argue that he's not the mack. Good stuff.

Nice video. Lots of great information. I'm old Skool from the beginning and there is nothing better than mixing with 2-3 and even 4 1200's with real vinyl. That new garbage is basically just a video game and people calling themselves a DJ without any cred. I'm watching this in 2020 during the covid19 epidemic and that girl coughing is driving me up the wall. Suck on a halls or stay at home. Lol!

Exactly, you are not learning about needles and buttons, you are learning about yourself !!!!!!

I def agree with Rob on Phase thing / Jazzy example.....hats off..

Dope discussion

Dope, this shit is catching views. LOVE IT

Nice one. Inspiring and clear!

Thank you Very Much DJ for your knowledge. I djed for over 20 years, but never got into the battle and scratch artform. I've always admired the skill and creativity involved. Much Respect !!!

"these came, from, like, Europe." :D

it still takes talent to be Analog or Digital Dj.

I love what you said about Phase Rob, thank you...

This guy is going to teach me a lot!

As im a 48 old German Techno DJ who still is (also) using Vinyl for my mixes, I am very impressed how true an honest you handle old and new technic. Its just all about the flow in music! Thank you for this! I am very with you that theres less feeling to click on an mp3. Even it´s techno in most cases I take the record out of that very heavy case and rember where I bought it, or on which event I played it the first time. Old feelings ;o) and mostly good mood :o)). In most cases I just now the picture of the cover, the story the mood, but not the title (öhöm) I do have also hundrets of mp3, but its kind of steril. And in my old day (and I am also Visual-Haptic struktured) I realy have a problem rembering all those titels.

Shout out to Swift for the knowledge he drops.. My thoughts on Phase are i really wanted to see Jeff try one of his routines on them, or Rob Swift doing his Nobody Beats the Biz routine so i can get a feel for if they are truely 1 to 1. So many people on my DJ group on FB are so hyped for them like they are a game changer, i just dont get why they want to turn their TTs into a controller. The big selling point seems to be no more buying needles, but the cost of these things are the same as 10+ new needles and i personally dont break needles that much anymore so that $350 now would take me 3-4 years to actually start saving money. And whats to say the phase units will last that long before batteries dont hold charge, signals start dropping out and they need replacing... Not hating just skeptikal

I appreciate your videos so much! Exceptional teacher- thanks for sharing your wisdom! Mad respect ✊

Amazing 👌 everybody is listening

I started on tech 1200's with a basic mixer, a friend of mine was doing flood damage insurance cleanups and gave me 5 crates of records and I can tell you the stuff that I came up with working with that had such a different feel than when I bought serato and started mixing songs I downloaded. It was just such a different feel. Then I got the NS7 because of how the platters react and whatnot and honestly I recommend through my experience switching it up and getting a feel for what it's like to have to practise without "helpers". Cheat codes make games boring and make for shitty players.

Rob, this vid is VERY powerful, you and your students spoke VOLUMES on many points. EXCELLENT comparison on the pencil to the calculator scenario. Your students are very observant, and intelligent as well. I've been standing by, and been telling people everything that you've been talking about, since the whole digital DJing began. In my opinion, vinyl makes the DJ really dig, and experiment with the vinyl through trial and error, to ultimately become the DJ that they strive to be, at the end of the day. Also in my opinion, the realm of digitized DJing, it has leaned more towards the money aspect, rather than the skill set. So exactly like one of your students mentioned, digitized DJing is like the instant spell check where, nobody can make mistakes. KUDOS to your students in this video. So like everything else in this world, people gravitate to champions to make various pitches to sell products. And because they are champions, they can't do no wrong, and that includes Jeff. So when he said that, he loves technology, it may work for him which is okay but, it might not necessarily work or benefit others. But also in my opinion ANY DJ can add their experiences, or opinions no matter who they are, to show products as well. And they would probably have a more of a realistic outlook, not just to have those that's held on the pedestal, project products to generate sales. So in that being mentioned, keep dropping those valuable vids, so that I can share to others, so that through your vids, they can get a better understanding of the overall art and craft of DJing, not just the scratching aspect. Mad respect to you, and again, keep up the good work fam.

man this here is too much gold.- while i'm not a battle dj,, i now use cdjs' but, same came into the game in the 80's -with nothing but cheap mixers 2 tables & vinyl so my approach different,, younger cats i work with notice it, that knowledge is Priceless to me -- so thank u icon,, & thanks for passing it on,, -- Gerry-Full Force,,

It’s so awesome to see this take place

Rob is from the x-cutioners group right? I have to google you to confirm lol. Linkin park and x-cutioners rocked my world always.

Looking at Instagram we now see alot of female DJs who don't seem to get the music or what being a DJ is. For them it seems to be a new version of being a model. Its all about how they look not skills. Their performance is dancing behind decks and jumping about waving their arms while their pics have them in bikinis. Music events like festivals have few people dancing actually enjoying the music in the moment, instead its kids recording everything so they can upload to social media. Music used to be about music not generating social media content.

Great video Rob! You dropped so many jewels here on so many levels brother. 💯

Well spoken word by the teacher.

When you're in a club, and you hear that hook and you know what's about to drop, and you don't expect it, it doesn't matter whether it's a turntable or a DDJ, the guy who did it is still a genius.

What I've learned today: I'm not a real DJ. I'm okay with it.

It's good to see so many girls interested in wanting to learn.

You're a wonderful teacher. I DJ with a controller. I've always admired and wanted to learn how to use turn tables but just haven't had the opportunity yet. This video gave me a whole new perspective on DJing. Very well done!