The Intro Restart: Buy 8 More Bars Under an Acapella

You've got a song playing on deck A and you want to do a creative mix. So many options, but you decide you wanna throw some stank on it. It's time to scratch out of your mix.

"BUT HOW SWAY?"

In this era of DJing, a lot of songs come as acapella-out edits, which means you can drop a beat under the chorus til the cows come home. You know how to scratch. You saw some sucker named @deejaypryme do this sequence and thought, "if he can do it, I can do it."

And here we are. Let's get it.

The whole trick in one sentence

Halfway through the acapella, bring the beat back to its cue point and drop it again. The intro starts over, the vocal keeps going, and when the vocal finishes you've got 4 clean bars of beat left to scratch over before the next song comes in.

Three moves: drop, restart, scratch out.

Why it works: the bar math

This is the part people miss, so here it is slow.

• The acapella chorus is 8 bars long.
• The next song's intro is 8 bars long.
• Drop the intro on the 1 under the acapella and they both run out at the same time. The vocal ends, the next song slams in right behind it, and you get zero room to scratch.

Now add the restart:

• Bars 1 to 4: Vocal (first half) over intro bars 1 to 4
• Bars 5 to 8: Vocal (second half) over intro bars 1 to 4 again, because you restarted it
• Bars 9 to 12: Vocal is done. Intro bars 5 to 8 play with nothing on top. This is where you scratch.
• Bar 13: Echo out deck A. The next song drops in on its own.

The rule: how far into the intro you restart is how many clean bars you get back. Restart at bar 4, get 4 bars. Restart at bar 6, get 6. Four is the sweet spot: long enough to say something with your scratches, short enough to keep the energy up.

What you need

• Deck A (the song playing): an acapella-out edit, where the beat drops away and leaves just the vocal. Bonus if it has a short, punchy line you can scratch.
• Deck B (the next song): an 8-bar intro edit, 8 bars of beat before the song really starts. Bonus if it has a spoken countdown ("4, 3, 2, 1") you can scratch in with.
• Cue point on deck B: exactly on the 1, where the beat starts. This is the spot you restart from.
• Cue point on deck A: on the line you'll scratch, or find it by hand.

Before you start:

• Both decks at the same tempo
• Deck B parked on its countdown
• An echo effect ready on deck A's channel

Get the tracks: In the reel, deck A is an acapella-out edit of T-Pain "Up Down (Do This All Day)" and deck B is an 8-bar intro edit of Sean Kingston "Beat It" with a spoken countdown. Both come from DJ record pools. Grab them from yours, or use any acapella-out and intro edit you already have.

Step by step

Each clip loops one move from the reel. Watch the bar counter at the top of the clip.

1. 1

   Scratch in on the countdown

   Play deck A and let the vocal go acapella. On deck B, scratch the first word of the countdown (the "4"). It teases the beat before it lands.

2. 2

   Drop it on the 1

   Let the countdown run, 4, 3, 2, 1. Let go on the "1" and the beat lands right under the acapella.

3. 3

   Ride the first 4 bars

   Count them. The beat plays under the first half of the vocal.

4. 4

   Spin it back to the cue

   On bar 4, stop deck B and get it back to the cue point on the 1. A spin back is the move in the reel. A stop, brake, or loop roll works too.

5. 5

   Drop it again on the 1

   Baby scratch on the cue if you want some flavor, then drop it on the next 1. The intro starts over from the top.

6. 6

   Let the acapella finish

   The second half of the vocal plays over the first 4 bars of the restarted intro. Hands off, count to bar 8.

7. 7

   Scratch for 4 bars

   The vocal is done and the intro has 4 bars left with nothing on top. Grab a line from the acapella on deck A and go. In the reel it's "do it all day."

8. 8

   Land your last scratch

   Bars 11 and 12. Finish your phrase on time. The intro won't wait for you.

9. 9

   Echo out and let it ride

   On bar 13, throw an echo on deck A and pull it out. The next song drops in on its own. You're out of the mix. Go dance.

Tempo in the reel is about 103 BPM, so one bar is about 2.3 seconds and every 4 bars is about 9 seconds.

Make it your own

The T-Pain routine is one example. This works anywhere you have an acapella and an intro edit.

• Swap the scratch-in. No countdown on your intro? Scratch in on the first kick or snare.
• Swap the restart. Instead of a spin back, try a quick stop, a brake, or a loop roll back to the cue. Anything that gets you back to the 1 on time.
• Swap the scratch-out. Any short, punchy line from the acapella works. One word is enough.
• Swap the exit. Echo out is the cleanest. A filter sweep or a quick fader cut work too.

Common mistakes

• The beat drops a beat late after the countdown. Let go on the "1," not after it. Trust the countdown.
• The next song drops right as the vocal ends, no room to scratch. You skipped the restart. Restart on the last bar of the first 4.
• The restart lands off the beat. Set the cue point exactly on the 1, then drop it on the 1 of the next bar.
• Getting back to the 1 takes too long. Keep it tight. Stop, back to the cue, drop, all inside that last bar.
• Ran out of room for the scratches. Keep it to 4 bars and echo out on time. The intro won't wait for you.

New to scratching?

Start with the first 7 scratch sounds and the 10-minute baby scratch routine. Grab the free scratch pack to practice with.

Terms used here

• Acapella-out edit: a version of a song that drops the beat at the end and leaves just the vocals, so you can lay a new beat under them.
• 8-bar intro edit: a version of a song with 8 bars of beat before the vocals start, made for mixing in.
• Cue point: a saved spot on a track you can jump back to with one button.
• Bar: one count of 4 beats. At about 103 BPM, one bar is about 2.3 seconds.
• The 1: the first beat of a bar. Drops and mixes land here.
• Spin back (backspin): spinning the record backward fast to stop it, then restarting it.
• Echo out: adding an echo and pulling the track out, so it fades away on repeats instead of cutting off.