Sync: cheating or not cheating in demos

[rdej47]

I just was putting together a demo mix tonight and needless to say screwed up a few times. I accidentally would switch songs in the playing deck or accidentally nudge the X-Fader or the track would be out of sync and i'd sometimes take a bit long to get it back into sync. So I was thinking it'd be nice to just use sync for demo purposes because then it's going to be one less thing to worry about. I can beatmatch without it but in this case I just want to put something together flawlessly and quickly. Obviously live is a different scenario but in the case of a demo you want to put your best foot forward and be basically error free. So what do you guys think.

[Jester]

Don't sweat it dude. Sync away! you are replacing a task which is 20% of the job but takes 80% of your time, with fun stuff like gridding ;p

[DJSEDDON]

Just go for it. More important issues are the choice of tunes, how you drop them, getting the levels right etc... The powers that be that listen to your demo just want to enjoy the mix, and the same goes for the guys on the dance floor.

[lsmith]

i would phrase the question the other way around:
what are you trying to proof by not using sync when playing live? if not using sync doesnt serve a real purpose .. then i would say you are just being stupid at the expense of the audience. i mean why would you want to do "beatmatching mistakes" when playing live if you could easily avoid it?

if you prefer manually beatmatching when playing live to give it a less "robotic feel" then its all good, but why wouldn't you want the same on the demo?

[Lantau]

you are replacing a task which is 20% of the job but takes 80% of your time

Hear hear, since I moved to Traktor my EQ'ing has gotten better and I focus far more on the waveforms to ensure I get my cuts/drops right

I had this discussion recently with a pal that mixes deep house, in that he felt it was too 'robotic' and sort of cheating... My answers was if you play out then the crowd will want the tightest mix possible, and syncing is a way to help that happen, they won't care how you did it

(If I wanted to beatmatch now I'd probably do it with vinyl or Serato tbh)

[charo]

my personal opinion is to have the demo try to represent where you are at the time, i.e. if you're a less then perfect dj then you're demo tape should reflect that.

You give out a "flawless" demo mix and but you can't reproduce it in a live setting it looks worse then sending a "real" demo mix, maybe not getting the job, improving & becoming a better dj and sending out a better demo as your skill set improves.

so IMO if you are using sync in the live setting then using sync in the demo isn't cheating. if you aren't using sync live then to use it in the demo IS cheating....yourself

to me this is different then whether or not using sync is cheating....that's a pretty well beaten horse