Hi,
I've been a bedroom controller DJ for about 6-7 years but only took it seriously about a year ago. I began to feel the limitations of controller DJing so I decided to upgrade to a XDJ-RX2 in September. I've been loving it since I upgraded and feel that I've really moved up a level. My next ambition was to move away from the sync button. I know the old school heads will be rolling their eyes at that but let me give you a bit of context.
90% of what I play is live-drummed disco and boogie, more original recordings than modern edits. I know that there is an awful lot more to DJing that long, seamless blends and that's not what I'm about as a DJ. But I do love to be creative, working the EQs, utilising loops, mixing percussion breaks etc. Trying to work like this, without sync, with varying BPMs is not getting much easier. I knew it would be hard, but 3 months of daily practice and the progress is negligible. Sometimes I've got a 4 bar percussion intro to work with and the BPM is varying not by a decimal of a beat but by 2-3 beats, so trying to work the jog wheel, a couple EQ pots and a fader is something I think only an octopus could handle... Sometimes you can use a steadier 4 beat loop but often that starts to reduce the soul of the tune, disco is all about phrases, not bars.
When I mix house and digitally produced music without sync I can beat-match without any more issues than you would expect from someone who is 3 months in to learning the art. Progress is noticeable though, which is the key difference.
I know that when I start to play out that 99% of people won't give a damn that sync is on but I'm the type of person who likes to work at a goal, analyse the problem and work out ways of solving it. In that regard, I've noticed DJs that I've seen live, playing the same genres, are slightly less creative than they are on studio mixes. The blends are nowhere near abrupt, but they're certainly not as long or smooth, or interesting even, as their studio mixes. But a part of me thinks that dismissing them as sync-users in the studio but not live is defeatist, and that they're just really, really good at what they do under all circumstances and they never use sync.
So I'm keen to hear people's opinions on whether I'm over-analysing this and that using sync is fine if the tune selection and vibe-creation are there in abundance (that's something that I'm definitely progressing at!).
Thanks
J
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