DJing nowadays

[philly]

(gotta get this rant out of my system and hear your opinions on this) sorry

When i started dj'ing it was just vinyl on 2 turntables and a mixer. Scratching and beatjuggling were some good times but i was also breaking my back; carrying vinyl and heavy ass equipment around, blowing tons of money on it all... eventually i noticed that generally ppl dont really give a shit as long as it sounds good and they can dance to it. (goodbye turntablism)

Now you got laptop dj's, people spinning on ipods and i pads , shits getting out of control.
At the same time why should i bother beatmatching when i can just hit a button and focus on the mix?
I decided to sell my tables and just use a analog Mixer and midi to mix up to 4 tracks . Unless your gonna be doing scratches etc... manually cueing and beatmatching is becoming obscure, if its not already.
I can do more mixing on a little 60 dollar piece of plastic than a nice set of tables... its kind of depressing

In all of this, the art of doing it has been largely replaced by technology...
Like a girl, its just less interesting when its too easy.

EDIT: Thanks for all the input. In the end i went through major withdrawal after a week of selling my tt500's and got a sick deal on some technics

[colder]

Like a girl, its just less interesting when its too easy.

but sex is still sex regardless of whether the girl gave it up immediately, whether you had to work at it on the long, or whether you paid for it. i think you can make a dj method analogy out of that, maybe.

[lucky strike]

lol @ 'shits getting out of control. '

[borrowed]

I'm predicting a lot of this will happen in this thread.

[Pada]

meh I love vinyl.


some people don't.

[philly]

Like a girl, its just less interesting when its too easy.

but sex is still sex regardless of whether the girl gave it up immediately, whether you had to work at it on the long, or whether you paid for it. i think you can make a dj method analogy out of that, maybe.

Yes yes, very true but it leaves a strange burning sensation afterwards...

[colder]

if nothing else, please take this advice from the thread: always use protection

[Mr. Mittens]

my two cents- from the perspective of someone in the crowd that also DJ's or has been watching and dancing to DJ's for years, mixing on decks is much more interesting than letting the computer do all the work. This applies to performers that are using s sophisticated program like Ableton and a midi controller to essentially replicate what you can do on decks. If people are using software as a live production tool and pushing the boundaries of their performance significantly further than what they could do with decks, I'm down. I just get bored pretty quickly when "DJ's" are just using Ableton to do what I can do with wax...

plus none a them fakers can play any tunes from Swamp81, Disfigured Dubz, newer Deep Medi, DMZ, etc...

but the digital cat is fully out of the bag, like it or not. Big up to Loefah, Skream, Mala, and others making an effort to keep at least a couple tunes exclusive to wax.

[dj_donga]

I'm aware of all the potential of mixing mp3s (not least upfrontness / exclusives etc)
but i prefer buying, owning and mixing vinyl
it's a hard habit to break
thats all

[Pete MacLeod]

I had a go at ableton but just couldnt get into it.

serato with decks is just far too enjoyable

[dirt]

Serato = best of both??

[Pete MacLeod]

Serato = best of both??

convenience of digital with feel of turntables

[philly]

Serato = best of both??

Yeah i use to use that but do you really need the external control since it just syncs it for you? i was using torq anyways and i rarely had to correct it.

[Mr. Mittens]

yeah man I definitely use serato because I can play tunes that I don't necessarily want to pay 5 pounds for, as well as tunes that just haven't been pressed... but it's still all about the pitch control on technics. that's what dj'ing is, to me.

[Phyalow]

Serato = best of both??

Yeah i use to use that but do you really need the external control since it just syncs it for you? i was using torq anyways and i rarely had to correct it.

Common misconception, serato has no auto sync, sure you can line up the beat patterns (waveforms) manually, but thats akin to visual beat matching.
Traktor etc on the other hand...

[dro524]

I saw some guy mixing on a laptop at a show once at it just looked so boring. He spent most of his time looking into his screen moving his finger around the touchpad and very little time interacting with the audience. It's much more rewarding, for me, to see a DJ reach around for his vinyl, cue and beatmatch everything up, then drop it.

[philly]

I saw some guy mixing on a laptop at a show once at it just looked so boring. He spent most of his time looking into his screen moving his finger around the touchpad and very little time interacting with the audience. It's much more rewarding, for me, to see a DJ reach around for his vinyl, cue and beatmatch everything up, then drop it.

Yeah man def. There is only so much you can do mixing though on 2 decks thogugh. so i think its cool to see people trying to push it farther too using digi software etc....

[kizza2435]

If I see that someone is spinning vinyl, my level of respect instantly goes up. From there, its serato with vinyl control, CDJs (serato control or not), then onto pure midi control...

HOWEVER...this is pure beatmatching skill. Some people use abelton to its fullest potential (ie Goth Trad) and what he does in his sets is absolutely mind expanding. If people are using abelton for its capabilities then seriosly, more power to them. You are up there with the best djs in the world, but for people who are literally just beatmatching in abelton/traktor to minimise effort on your part and just bringing faders up and down...you'd better be fucking amazing with your tune selection to get any love from me...

[rinseballs21]

If I see that someone is spinning vinyl, my level of respect instantly goes up. From there, its serato with vinyl control, CDJs (serato control or not), then onto pure midi control...

HOWEVER...this is pure beatmatching skill. Some people use abelton to its fullest potential (ie Goth Trad) and what he does in his sets is absolutely mind expanding. If people are using abelton for its capabilities then seriosly, more power to them. You are up there with the best djs in the world, but for people who are literally just beatmatching in abelton/traktor to minimise effort on your part and just bringing faders up and down...you'd better be fucking amazing with your tune selection to get any love from me...

true dat

[dj 2e]

but it's still all about the pitch control on technics. that's what dj'ing is, to me.

couldnt agree more.... i can use cdjs but i dont like to, the pitch etc feels like a fisher price toy