"The Crab"- Very popular skratch but don't do it too much or you'll be branded a crabhappy-crabaholic. You need a fader with a sharp cut in point to do this. You could try doing it if your fader has a beatmix-curve but you'll have to turn the level and gains up on that channel so that it's audible (and if you go past a few mm it will be super loud which is likely to give you a headache). Plus it won't sound as clean but hey try it if you want.
First of all (away from your decks and mixer) get your fader hand and snap all four fingers against your thumb from your pinky upwards. i.e. pinky-----then ring-----then middle-----then index. So you snap all your fingers in that sequence. Now the idea is that you do this but with fader inbetween your thumb and fingers. So you are tapping the fader four times in that sequence with your thumb on the other side. The idea is though that you use this motion to click the fader on and off 4 times (i.e. you straddle the cut in/off point and perform the motion) . It looks more like you are stroking the fader when you do it. The way i do it is hold your thumb loosely on the edge of the fader giving the fader knob a little bit of pressure towards the edge of the crossfader panel. Then snap your fingers in sequence against the other side of the fader knob with enough force to push your thumb and fader back across the cut in point. Then between your next finger snap there should be enough force from your thumb to push the fader to the off position again.
It's all about getting the balance between your fingers pushing one side and your thumb pushing the other. The smoother your fader the easier because you can kind of bounce it off your thumb if it's really slippery. You shouldn't have to snap your fingers too hard though, a nice gentle stroke should be enough. Also i find (and quite a few others) that it's easier to do without using your pinky and just the other 3 although you obviously lose a click. Start off slowly with your index and middle finger and once you can do that cleanly incorporate your middle finger, and then your pinky if you want to. Get it clean and slow first then concentrate on speed later if you want to (sloppy fast crabs sound pretty awful) |
