DJs - what format/setup do you use?

[asbestos]

...and as some bright spark on this board said once, watching a laptop-dj-set is about as visually interesting and dynamic as watching somebody check thier emails...

I remember years ago seeing Johnny Violent (ultraviolence) playing live with a full PC setup (no laptops in them days). He did at one point wack his monitor with his fist, causing him to shrink back in pain... that was rather entertaining.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Gergl reckons it's the imperfect beat matching you get from vinyl that gives hand-mixed music more 'soul' (for want of a better word). Having to constantly tweak one record or the other to keep them playing on top of each other introduces little accidental shuffles and off-beats which keep the ear interested.

My dream setup is being delivered today - the CD players I've ordered also take USB drives, so I've got the convinence of having lots of tunes with me without lugging a crate of 12"s about, plus the feel/groove of having to mix "properly" without a computer getting it 100% spot on all the time

But, if I need to do a corporate cheese party I can use them as MIDI controllers for Virtual DJ on my laptop

All tunes will be WAVs, so perfect sound quality

 

[skyscraper101]

Vinyl, CDs, Torq Xponent on Macbook. They all have different merits:

- I like the look, feel, smell and sound of vinyl over all.
- I like the convenience of CDs.
- I like the fun and games and tweaking effects with music on the Xponent.

 

[skyscraper101]

My dream setup is being delivered today - the CD players I've ordered also take USB drives, so I've got the convinence of having lots of tunes with me without lugging a crate of 12"s about, plus the feel/groove of having to mix "properly" without a computer getting it 100% spot on all the time

But, if I need to do a corporate cheese party I can use them as MIDI controllers for Virtual DJ on my laptop

All tunes will be WAVs, so perfect sound quality

So which CD players are they??

 

[asbestos]

My dream setup is being delivered today - the CD players I've ordered also take USB drives, so I've got the convinence of having lots of tunes with me without lugging a crate of 12"s about, plus the feel/groove of having to mix "properly" without a computer getting it 100% spot on all the time

But, if I need to do a corporate cheese party I can use them as MIDI controllers for Virtual DJ on my laptop

All tunes will be WAVs, so perfect sound quality

What CD players are those?

 

[asbestos]

snap :O)

 

[editor]

Yeah, although maybe even slighter, if you see what I mean. not measureable as a 1/16th or 1/32nd note, but just a bit of waver either side of the 'right' beat. Like a real drummer.

When I used to program drum machines, I used to spend ages making the beat less than precise. Getting a drum roll to sound 'real' on a primitive drum machine used to take me ruddy ages, but adding a live percussion/hi-hat/cymbal overdub helped the beat sound convincingly human.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

So which CD players are they??

Denon DN-S1200

Denon are waaaay ahead of Pioneer now in terms of what they offer to DJs (check out the new DN-S3700), the only reason you seen Pioneer kit everywhere is becuase they got there first years back with the original CDJs.

 

[editor]

One of my grand plans is for a fully "live" techno/D&B band - drums from a Roland V-drum kit, bass from a MIDI equipped bass guitar, lead lines from a MIDI guitar and a conventional synth for pads. You;d need musicians who were tight as fuck (especially the drummer) but it would look awesome

I done a fair bit of work on electronic kits, but you really can't beat the feel and sound of a real kit.

 

[Boycey]

Gergl reckons it's the imperfect beat matching you get from vinyl that gives hand-mixed music more 'soul' (for want of a better word). Having to constantly tweak one record or the other to keep them playing on top of each other introduces little accidental shuffles and off-beats which keep the ear interested.

the sloppy fucker would say that

listen to a dj like chris liberator or any of the bigger name london party djs. the really good ones will have a fucking tight style- you won't hear any corrections to the beat matching at all and you won't ever hear the beats not match perfectly (you probably won't even see them fucking with the platter or pitch fader because they won't have to)- the difference with traktor's auto bpm function is that it's perfect to a computer.

 

[Crispy]

ed: Not for techno you can't. Try making a real kit go doof like an 808

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

I done a fair bit of work on electronic kits, but you really can't beat the feel and sound of a real kit.

For rock 'n' roll I agree, but my plan is for live techno

The only think that's stopped my taking my plan forward is that all the kit involved would cost a fucking fortune

 

[editor]

ed: Not for techno you can't. Try making a real kit go doof like an 808

Err, yes you can. You use a real kit and use triggers for sequences and samples. Even the bloke in the Ting Tings does that.

 

[Boycey]

One of my grand plans is for a fully "live" techno/D&B band - drums from a Roland V-drum kit, bass from a MIDI equipped bass guitar, lead lines from a MIDI guitar and a conventional synth for pads. You;d need musicians who were tight as fuck (especially the drummer) but it would look awesome

heard of ?

 

[Dj TAB]

the sloppy fucker would say that

listen to a dj like chris liberator or any of the bigger name london party djs. the really good ones will have a fucking tight style- you won't hear any corrections to the beat matching at all and you won't ever hear the beats not match perfectly (you probably won't even see them fucking with the platter or pitch fader because they won't have to)- the difference with traktor's auto bpm function is that it's perfect to a computer.

Chris Liberator perhaps is not the best example to use given that acid techno does not lend itself to a looser style of mixing... In fact I've seen the Liberators and the Immersion Soundsystem over ten times, and once they got wankered I'm afraid there was sloppy dj'ing.

 

[killer b]

vinyl for preference, although i'm no snob so i'm happy to play cds or mp3s if its to a more mixed crowd...

 

[pk]

When I used to program drum machines, I used to spend ages making the beat less than precise. Getting a drum roll to sound 'real' on a primitive drum machine used to take me ruddy ages, but adding a live percussion/hi-hat/cymbal overdub helped the beat sound convincingly human.

There was a handy human feel parameter on Cubase (back in the Atari days of yore) that would do all that for you, with my then trusty array of drum machines.

Nowadays Reason has a great way of doing this, setting up the ReGroove tool is nice.

 

[editor]

There was a handy human feel parameter on Cubase (back in the Atari days of yore) that would do all that for you, with my then trusty array of drum machines.

Yes, I remember experimenting with similar things in the studio, but it wasn't as good as a real drummer doing the programming (but that took much longer, so was only worth the bother if you were recording masters).

The technology has improved massively over the years, but it's still very hard to perfectly replicate all the nuances of a talented drummer, particularly with acoustic/jazz music ( different if you're banging out techno, electronica or whatever).

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

Chris Liberator perhaps is not the best example to use given that acid techno does not lend itself to a looser style of mixing... In fact I've seen the Liberators and the Immersion Soundsystem over ten times, and once they got wankered I'm afraid there was sloppy dj'ing.

can't say that i agree with you there, acid techno is pretty easy to be loose with, more bpms means less gaps between the beats or something.

plus, it doesn't really become you to start slagging people who've been doing it since way back when and to be quite frank, are stellar compared to where you are matey. not being nasty or owt, but you want to watch your words imo.

 

[Boycey]

acid techno does not lend itself to a looser style of mixing...

nothing does

 

[editor]

Chris Liberator perhaps is not the best example to use given that acid techno does not lend itself to a looser style of mixing... In fact I've seen the Liberators and the Immersion Soundsystem over ten times, and once they got wankered I'm afraid there was sloppy dj'ing.

I used to be in a band with Chris - he might be coming down to my birthday bash in April

He's a well respected DJ who has worked his arse off.

 

[pinkychukkles]

Vinyl VINYL VINYL buuuuut increasingly hot new music that I want is being released digitally-only. I've bought a few mp3s but now you can buy wavs to download and I don't really want to compromise on sound quality, anyway was thinking about eventually investing in a cdj but since music on a cd is digital anyway, since I borrowed Serato from a friend of a friend, I reckon I'll be going down the route of a DVS (Digital Vinyl System) as I've been seriously impressed with responsiveness of files on your computer to manipulating the time coded vinyl so I'm increasingly thinking that a mixture of the two is the future. I'll always buy vinyl wherever possible but I've basically reached that point whereby I've faced the choice that to not use digital files means there's fantastic hot new music that I'll never be able to use... serato (or traktor as I haven't decided which is best DVS yet) will give me that option and also the be as much like using vinyl as possible.

 

[pk]

Yes, I remember experimenting with similar things in the studio, but it wasn't as good as a real drummer doing the programming (but that took much longer, so was only worth the bother if you were recording masters).

The technology has improved massively over the years, but it's still very hard to perfectly replicate all the nuances of a talented drummer, particularly with acoustic/jazz music ( different if you're banging out techno, electronica or whatever).

Yep, I'd agree. Depends on the style though... the attraction of drum and bass is ripping real live breaks and forcing them into 1/16 or 1/32.

 

[Boycey]

i saw him play in his new band last saturday- dog shite

they were ace

 

[skyscraper101]

Denon DN-S1200

Denon are waaaay ahead of Pioneer now in terms of what they offer to DJs (check out the new DN-S3700), the only reason you seen Pioneer kit everywhere is becuase they got there first years back with the original CDJs.

I like Denon.

I always loved using the DND-4500 which, in my opinion was only marginally less good than its Pioneer counterparts. If only they would invent a dual-deck player which you could attach a hard drive too (or even better insert a SATA drive in) which let's you control both decks on the one interface then I'd get one tomorrow.

I'm quite liking the idea of these SD card decks and might go check them out at Sapphires soon:

An all in one unit that stores your music on 2 SD cards (upto 4 gigs each)

http://www.decks.co.uk/products/american_audio/sdj1

 

[editor]

Yep, I'd agree. Depends on the style though... the attraction of drum and bass is ripping real live breaks and forcing them into 1/16 or 1/32.

I wouldn't fancy trying to play along to a hardcore drum and bass track on an acoustic kit!

That's what I like about modern technology - you can invent drum tracks that are more or less impossible to play but still sound great.

For sheer visual appeal, a largin'-it drummer onstage still gets the crowd going more than a button-pusher.

 

[editor]

I like Denon.

I always loved using the DND-4500 which, in my opinion was only marginally less good than its Pioneer counterparts. If only they would invent a dual-deck player which you could attach a hard drive too (or even better insert a SATA drive in) which let's you control both decks on the one interface then I'd get one tomorrow.

I quite like the look of this 80GB fella:





http://www.numark.com/hdmix

 

[pk]

I wouldn't fancy trying to play along to a hardcore drum and bass track on an acoustic kit!

That's what I like about modern technology - you can invent drum tracks that are more or less impossible to play but still sound great.

For sheer visual appeal, a largin'-it drummer onstage still gets the crowd going more than a button-pusher.

I'd agree. But I guess it's the difference between a live show with a real band and a big old warehouse rig where the only thing that matters is the air being pushed around by the woofers.

 

[editor]

I'd agree. But I guess it's the difference between a live show with a real band and a big old warehouse rig where the only thing that matters is the air being pushed around by the woofers.

If you're not careful you end up with the worst of both worlds and have some dodgy munters banging congos and bongos along to the tracks.

Eeek!

 

[asbestos]

can't say that i agree with you there, acid techno is pretty easy to be loose with, more bpms means less gaps between the beats or something.

plus, it doesn't really become you to start slagging people who've been doing it since way back when and to be quite frank, are stellar compared to where you are matey. not being nasty or owt, but you want to watch your words imo.

I agree with DJ Tab here, if we're talking London Acid Techno (which I always considered to be terrible stuff, but there you go), then that style of music certainly did not have the loose feel you can get from say house music.

And as for your second comment, longevity means fuck all, take that fella from the drum club, nice bloke, knows he's tunes, but always failed to 'get' me. same with the liberators, I used to be obsessed with techno years ago, but I never liked what they were doing.