Beat juggling is the act of manipulating two or more identical samples (e.g. drum beats, or vocal phrases), in order to create a unique composition, using multiple turntables and one or more mixers. This can involve pauses, scratching, backspins and delays. It could be seen as fingertip sampling, and the turntable and mixer combination could be seen as an instrument from which sounds are made, from the sounds of other instruments (samples).

History

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Beat Juggling has its roots in cutting, in which a small section of a beat is looped using two copies of the same record. This was first done by Kool DJ Herc, and later refined by DJs such as Grandmaster Flash in the early 80s.

DJ Steve Dee from Harlem, NYC, is the inventor of what we now call Beat Juggling. Referring to it simply as "The Funk", he took cutting to a whole new level - effectively making his own beats from reconstructed parts of other songs. The technique was refined by the DJ group The X-Men, whom DJ Steve Dee founded, they later were to become The X-Ecutioners.

DJing

Beat juggling