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I love house music and electronic music however I guess my biggest insecurity is that I have never dj'd nor do I live where there is any sort of a scene...

I know any time I read about my favourite producers the story is always "I djd as a teen then got into producing"
Are there any good producers you can think of that make rhythmically good Danceable music that were not djs first ?

Skrillex comes to mind. I know there's more, but I don't pay attention to dj's nor do I go to clubs so I can't comment much on the subject.

Lots I would imagine. My sense of things is that it has only been in the new century that this as been really common.

Yeah I've heard plenty of stories of guys who made killer tracks and because of that were booked for shows but couldn't really mix. Goldie comes to mind although when you get booked for plenty of shows you get pretty good at it pretty quick

Nit Grit is definetly one of those

outbound wrote:Yeah I've heard plenty of stories of guys who made killer tracks and because of that were booked for shows but couldn't really mix. Goldie comes to mind although when you get booked for plenty of shows you get pretty good at it pretty quick

Yes. Great example.

I feel like I read somewhere, can't for the life of me remember where, that really when dance/rave first started getting big that it was almost unheard of for people to do both.

I even remember reading an RA Machine Love article recently (article might have been old) about someone contemporary who said they hadn't planned on performing, didn't want to, but felt like you have to be willing to do both if you want to make it. I wanna say Ulrich Schnauss.

I mean...look at the cats on DSF...on many of you started DJing first? Chime in. I know I have heard a lot of people say on here that they don't DJ at all.

Can't count myself there as I DJd some years before making music...unless you count this dreadful spoken word/DnB project I did the words/vocals for when I was working on my undergraduate degree lol.

Think I'd been producing for about a year before I thought about DJ'ing

Madeon & Porter Robinson come to mind... they were picked up because of their tracks and then thrust into DJ'ing.

guido had to teach himself to dj after he started getting mad bookings (i think probably after release of anidea)

burial?? tbh he probably knew how to dj
i think joker was in the same boat as guido

Lots of people had no idea how to DJ and were strictly producers first (deadmau5, zomboy, porter, madeon, etc.). I chatted with HUCCI outside a show once and he said he didn't like DJing at all, he was a producer first and DJing was just a necessary evil in today's dance music scene. I'm sure there are others out there who share that feeling.

Yep, a lot of heads came out of other musical backgrounds than Djing (indie, metal, whatever) or even no prior background. It's OK to produce without DJing.

It's like, the producer distills the spirits and makes the booze; the DJ is the bartender that mixes that booze and serves it up however the situation requires it to be served. What do they have in common? The love of booze- er, I mean music.

just look at the really bad dj producer/ headliners djs playing the biggest shows

i think djing is important for producers. helps them work out what makes songs attractive to other djs, who will be the ones promoting your music and your biggest customers. also helps you work out what works on the dancefloor and what doesnt. and also gets you creative. what sounds good mixed together? what sort of stuff is there a market for?

_ronzlo_ wrote:It's like, the producer distills the spirits and makes the booze; the DJ is the bartender that mixes that booze and serves it up however the situation requires it to be served. What do they have in common? The love of booze- er, I mean music.

well put

DJoe wrote:i think djing is important for producers. helps them work out what makes songs attractive to other djs, who will be the ones promoting your music and your biggest customers. also helps you work out what works on the dancefloor and what doesnt. and also gets you creative. what sounds good mixed together? what sort of stuff is there a market for?

you could realistically achieve the same thing by putting your music in the hands of another dj and going to a rave to hear it played out, i.e how dubstep got cracking in the first place, was only Hatcha mainly playing most of the stuff out in the early days, all the producers just went to hear their tunes on a big rig and see if people liked it

true. not many ppl have access to a hatcha like figure though lol especially if theyre small town usa ppl like most the ppl who post in production

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OP said great producers