death to all that Tractor/Pro-Scratch malarkey.

[jusali]

fuck watching the dj.
you watch you mates when you're dancing
djs aren't rockstars

No one said to watch the DJ?
However one does subconciously take cues and references from those who are entertaining you. If the DJ is bent over a laptop looking bored and as if they are checking emails then one isn't gonna be inclined to dance as much surely?.
No DJ's aren't rockstars but they are entertainers.
If you want seamless mixing and amazing technical ability cut it to a CD and stick it on the jukebox there really is no need for a DJ? However most people like a focus for their entertainment and like it or not, that is the DJ. It isn't just an aural experience because we like to dance and pose and chatter laugh etc etc. This atmosphere isn't just created by music........

if norman cook was to do that all that fist-pumping and record-cover-holding up in a pub or a club, you'd think he was a prick. hopefully, you'd think he was a prick anyway.

Probably wouldn't bother with a Pub or a club though would he?

 

[kyser_soze]

However one does subconciously take cues and references from those who are entertaining you. If the DJ is bent over a laptop looking bored and as if they are checking emails then one isn't gonna be inclined to dance as much surely?.

If they're playing shit music people won't be inclined to dance. When I was a clubber, way back in them 1990s, DJ booths were dark, relatively discreet and the only people you saw hanging around them were trainspotters writing down the names of tunes, and it didn't matter dick what they were doing behind the decks, providing the tunes were good.

because we like to dance and pose and chatter laugh etc

And this is improved by a show-boating tune selector how?

 

[themonkeyman]

I agree somewhat with the original poster, and I have been struggling on finding a happy medium of both laptop and cds. Richie Hawtin did a very impressive video interview before last year's I Love Techno, in which he said that its all about the production of the night itself if DJs move over to djing from laptops. As the BPM is all catered for then you really can't just rely on that and do nothing else with the show. That's when his Contakt tours developed, with up to 6 of the minus label crew playing in sync across 6 laptops. If you haven't seen that show, then I highly recommend it, think they are at Brixton Academy later this year.

As for me, I have played out on ableton once or twice, and it is good, but I just don't get into it as much as I do when I am playing off CD. I can do a lot more with CDs, mix a lot more genres together and I find with ableton I really have to concentrate and heavliy plan my set. I have never been big on doing this, apart from knowing the first and last tunes.

If I start moving to a live performance, then yes, Ableton will be the DAW of choice and I will probably spalsh out and get an APC40 Ableton controller from Akai. But we shall see.

I think to totally denounce the medium as cheating is pretty wrong though.

 

[tarannau]

And Norman Cook's a cunt

Never a truer word spoken. Of all the gig uprisings, my favourite's still the time Beats International were bottled off the stage at the Kiss FM Launch gig. Cheesebags.

 

[editor]

fuck watching the dj.
you watch you mates when you're dancing

Oh, I dunno. DJs having a laugh and really getting into their music can make a huge difference at some nights. If they're obviously having fun (not in a wanky "look at me!" way, natch) then people often feel more inclined to get up and join in and get the party started.

I thought Cook was an utter tosspot until I saw him DJing a small tent at Glastonbury and was knocked out by his sheer enthusiasm. By waving the records around it seemed to me that he was bigging up the tunes, not himself.

 

[jusali]

If they're playing shit music people won't be inclined to dance. When I was a clubber, way back in them 1990s, DJ booths were dark, relatively discreet and the only people you saw hanging around them were trainspotters writing down the names of tunes, and it didn't matter dick what they were doing behind the decks, providing the tunes were good.

Things have moved on now though, in this celebrity obsessed culture people go to "see" DJ's. Classic exmples being Tiesto, Van-Dyk and now Deadmau5. You didn't see people taking photo's of DJ's constantly with their mobile phones in those days either. I understand what you're saying, hell, I thought Top Buzz was a DJ not a group and easygroove was a blonde guy back in the 90's but things have and will continue to move on. Show boating is positively revered in this day and age with more kids wanting to be celebs without even understanding talent. But hey, I'm going of in tangents....
Maybe we need DJ's for the old folk and DJ's for da yoot

 

[Moronik]

Originally Posted by Orang Utan

fuck watching the dj.
you watch you mates when you're dancing
DJs arent rock stars

Quote:
Originally Posted by Moronik
Making something easy to do does not make talent rise to the top at all. It just means that talent gets swamped by mediocrity.

Sorry, but I have to say this again. Elitist fucking bollocks! It's the line trotted out whenever technology exposes previously arcane arts to the masses. The old guardians throw up their arms in shock at the plebs stumbling around their pristine tower of knowledge, knocking stuff over and not giving a shit.

I'm not against using new technology at all - i want to be able to do laptop sets in the future... so i can do this:





however the majority of ableton users do not do this..... which is my point.

The easy availability of ableton has vasly increased the number of professional DJs, and I have gone out to check lots of hot new things and quite often been really dissappointed... which makes me think that people's standards of what is good has also dropped... because they're not used to seeing anything good.... because there is so much shit out there!

or i could be talking complete pretentious bullshit! I can't tell.

Thing is - I would much prefer to hear good music than not - if it comes on a laptop than so be it. If i'm raving i want to feel like the DJ is putting everything into it - be it with vinyl or using ableton.
My point is that when a vinyl DJ that doesnt connect with a crowd at least you can see them working. When a laptop user doesn't they just look lazy.

 

[Cloud]

And i think because the level of commitment is lower (buy your kit, download some tunes and voila! ready to rock!) the standard has dropped right down.

Making something easy to do does not make talent rise to the top at all. It just means that talent gets swamped by mediocrity.

You have to be joking about the standards dropping by using traktor? Have you heard anyone who can use it properly? You're not just playing other people tunes, you're making unique stuff on the fly.



I dunno I just think it's dumb to take a waveform off your Akai sampler, arrange it with lots of other waveforms and record it on your digital desk only to turn it into a piece of plastic and put it on a stupidly outdated record player.

I mean why not bin the drum machine and get a piano if you want to go really retro

 

[teuchter]

There are plenty of rubbish DJs playing on vinyl now.

There will be rubbish DJs playing on other technology in the future.

The medium isn't the determining factor in how good someone is.

 

[Cloud]

There are plenty of rubbish DJs playing on vinyl now.

There will be rubbish DJs playing on other technology in the future.

The medium isn't the determining factor in how good someone is.

Its the tunes tbh.

I listened to the most boshed up mixing ever the other night, apparently he was having problems with monitoring and his stuff was playing up, probably lag issues. It was simply amazing, don't think I have ever heard a better playlist in my life and the bodgedness kinda added to it.

Honestly picking the 4 hours he played in that order was a remarkable feat. I was just thinking "fuck me surely he cant pull something better out of the bag after this one" and it just rose into this huge creshendo got better and better.

 

[zeedoodles]

Some of my favourite mixes are when it's fucked up somewhere just makes it feel more real to me.
I find all these seamless perfectly beatmatched mixes a little flat and seeing someone with a laptop mixing dance music just looks wrong. You don't want a geek who looks like he's playing with a modem commanding the dancefloor you want a fucking monster dude taming the wheels of steel stretching their arms about teasing you by showing you their new whitelabel licking the vinyl kicking spin backs and stuff. The "spirit" seems to get lost in the laptop translation.
Fair enuff with the Vinyl emulators I reckon it's the same thing really but the photo above no offence, but wrong!

Exactly

 

[Kanda]

There are plenty of rubbish DJs playing on vinyl now.

There will be rubbish DJs playing on other technology in the future.

The medium isn't the determining factor in how good someone is.

^^This

I've been playing vinyl for 15+ years. I'm a gadget geek though and embrace new tech, how that makes me a shit DJ I have no clue...

 

[Orang Utan]

^^This

I've been playing vinyl for 15+ years. I'm a gadget geek though and embrace new tech, how that makes me a shit DJ I have no clue...

it's the records you play

 

[Kanda]

it's the records you play

Yes. It is.

 

[editor]

I mean why not bin the drum machine and get a piano if you want to go really retro

Are you sure about that?

 

[Private Storm]

Trust me: only the spoddiest boys are impressed with anyone "interacting with CDJs and mixers" - and as a soundman, I should know.

With the greatest respect....this is bollocks.

Saw Atomic Hooligan (one of 'em anyway) at Glasto swinging the CDJ around and playing it like an instrument, really good performance. The tech guys backstage were not impressed

 

[Moronik]

With the greatest respect....this is bollocks.

Saw Atomic Hooligan (one of 'em anyway) at Glasto swinging the CDJ around and playing it like an instrument, really good performance. The tech guys backstage were not impressed

I bet they were secretly!

 

[kyser_soze]

With the greatest respect....this is bollocks.

Saw Atomic Hooligan (one of 'em anyway) at Glasto swinging the CDJ around and playing it like an instrument, really good performance. The tech guys backstage were not impressed

They'll probably be using these soon then:

www.pacemaker.net

 

[Moronik]

Or this:http://www.trashbat.co.ck/t12/index.html


"Its well weapon!"

 

[ViolentPanda]

Still interaction with CDJ's/Mixer etc.. and holding your specs up cos you're sweating your tits off!

Ah, thought you were facepalming yourself after a particularly egregious dj-ing mistake!

 

[ViolentPanda]

fuck watching the dj.
you watch you mates when you're dancing
djs aren't rockstars

(Waits for behemoth to turn up and rant about how DJs aren't even musicians *mutter grumble* stealing work from honest instrumentalists *fume*)

 

[ViolentPanda]

Sorry, but I have to say this again. Elitist fucking bollocks! It's the line trotted out whenever technology exposes previously arcane arts to the masses. The old guardians throw up their arms in shock at the plebs stumbling around their pristine tower of knowledge, knocking stuff over and not giving a shit.

Tis true. over a hundred years ago zither players whined about the autoharp reducing their musical "art" to something anyone with the money to afford an autoharp could emulate.

 

[Cosmo Kramer]

What's important is the end product and the effect it has on your dancefloor.

Interaction, reading the crowd etc.

Traktor pro is an amazing piece of kit, IF the DJ uses the free time he now has to go deeper in to the mix and get involved in the other features then it opens up so many more possibilities.

Personally , I use Serato with my 1210's so I'm still mixing with vinyl and doing my own mixing and beatmatching, but don't have to carry a heavy box of records.


Shunning new technology is a bit daft really IMO . It has to be utilised properly though.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Drawing a line in the sand with technology is a bit silly IMO. What's the difference between someone insisting only vinyl is proper DJing and some old git going on about how dance music isn't real music because they don't play proper instrument?

 

[obanite]

I dunno, I don't shun tech but I do agree that someone really into their set on vinyl is great to see. Was at Fabric the other month and my favourite set was Fierce's, the only vinyl set of the night in room 3 - however yeah, it wasn't so much that he was on vinyl, but that he was TOTALLY FUCKING INTO it.

Another of my favourite DJ "performances" lately was Lisa Lashes at Global - she was on CDJs..but did the "which tune shall I play", holding them up to everyone, rocking the EQ, etc...

Maybe for me anyway it's movement and expression, interacting with people, that's important, and that the bigger the platters/more physical the medium, the more the actual music can be incoporated into that performance...? If that makes any sense.

E2a: it's the "physicalness" of the instruments. Same with a band - proper nice looking big fuck off guitars are impressive.

 

[Tooter]

This has to be a troll....either that or some thick stick in the mud.

As if you wouldn't book someone cause they were a digital dj......

So what do you say about this OP?

 

[Danalogue]

What I reckon is... is the label "DJ" has expired. Thats the comen denominator in this thred.

 

[Moronik]

you want a fucking monster dude taming the wheels of steel stretching their arms about teasing you by showing you their new whitelabel licking the vinyl kicking spin backs and stuff.

Sadly I have actually started to lick my vinyl now when i play out