Who learned to mix on controllers?

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Originally Posted by rgtb

i think you're blowing this issue totally out of proportion. sure, a new DJ can break the flow of the night, even empty the floor and make people leave. but i've never identified the fact that the next DJ didn't perfectly beatmatch his first track as the cause of it.

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15 years of gigging and 20 years of clubbing says otherwise.

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Originally Posted by rgtb

but people do b2b sets with their friends. if you're a digital DJ, chances are your friends are too. i've seen many pingpong sets (and played a few myself) and it's been pretty rare to see the two DJs using different technologies. typically, both spin vinyl, both spin cdjs, or both use laptops synced via midi clock. my 2c.

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As a gigging dj I can honestly say I have never seen synced midi clocks in a club or house party situation. Why would you go through all of that when you could literally mix a record in under 20 seconds?

:D

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Originally Posted by Jack Bastard

Why would you go through all of that when you could literally mix a record in under 20 seconds?

:D

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Because they can't? 😄

Is beatmatching still relevant? Yes.

Will beatmatching always be relevant? Yes.

One prediction though;

Vinyl will always be vinyl but controllers and CDJ's will merge into a single technology- look at the current Pioneer offerings 350's, 900's 2000's can all beat lock and contain visual beatmatch guides, as well as connecting to rekordbox software on your laptop + the DDJ-T1 Controller is out with Traktor built in.

It's not a difficult logic jump to combine the lot together; think Kontrol 'S6' with two CD slots built in and inputs to turn it into a 'S8' with 1210's or STR8's.

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Originally Posted by rgtb

i'm totally cool with you disagreeing. but you might wanna explain why i'm wrong.

so far, this thread has demonstrated that it is pretty hard to find examples of well-known DJs which haven't dabbled around TTs or CDJs at some early point in their career. (i'm still curious to hear if there are more DJs which stuck to laptops & controllers throughout.) and it's not clear to me why that is...

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Sorry for not explaining my point.

Every big DJ I've seen live has been using CDJ 2000's, 900's or 1210's (usually the cdjs). I've rarely seen big name DJ's using Controllers, with the exception of Zedd, and Porter Robinson.

When getting gigs, most clubs will expect you to use their equipment that's installed. And as of yet I have not seen any clubs that have any controller's installed for their DJ's.

I learned on a controller, and quickly moved on the CDJs. Pionners have been the club standard for years due to quality products, and good marketing. I bet you their not going anywhere!

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Originally Posted by lucasmanning

Pionners have been the club standard for years due to good marketing. I bet you their not going anywhere!

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Fixed it for you.

Beatmatching will always be needed, no doubt about it.

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Originally Posted by Hoodless

Beatmatching will always be needed, no doubt about it.

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I don't think anybody disagrees with that. It's just how the beatmatching is done, computer or human.

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Originally Posted by photojojo

I don't think anybody disagrees with that. It's just how the beatmatching is done, computer or human.

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Im still talking about beatmatching as in getting two mediums and matching it yourself.

for a second take out every aspect of DJing apart from beatmatching, because its all the same sync or ears.

in 10 years to come you turn up at a gig and there is an S4 set up, anyone who can beatmatch can use it, not as well as a controllerist, but its pretty simple, play pause nudge the jog wheel.

Then the next 'new age' DJ turns up with his perfect controllerism routine for the next hour, and his laptop falls off stage. he has to use the CDJs now, could he? basic beatmatching and slamming wont get him anywhere.

You are doing something which involves music, your ears. not your fingers and eyes

Just to say im not a sync hater, its handy, its fun, its opened up a whole world of mashup routines etc etc, just think you should learn your art though.

I think in 10 years it will be all computer. Sure there will be guys that still do it by ear, just like there's people that still develop film in a dark room. The overwhelming majority of booths though will be sync driven. I also think it will be with whatever the CDJ evolves into, be it laptop based or on board displays with your music on a portable device. Just listen to all the Pioneer DJ's on youtube talking about how much they love showing up with a USB stick and headphones.

all of those videos represent the 2% though, the ones who have made it as a full time career, What about the older generation, could even say you at a push chris, most older DJs have ripped their vinyl to CD and are happy at that, done it over several years and several computers, now theyve got to re-rip it all back onto a single computer and put it on a USB stick because next weeks gig has the new Pioneer 5000's that are USB/HID only.

That reason alone is why i think Pioneer will never drop the CD drives in their players

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Originally Posted by rgtb

software can do amazing things that are either impossible or at least extremely difficult for an old-school dj who beatmatches manually by ear. remember ean's tutorial where he demonstrated how to warp mix-in and mix-out sections of tracks with unstable tempo in live? that way, you can properly mix tracks with live drummers and so on, something that is extremely difficult for someone who beatmatches by ear.

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And I've seen it done. The DJs I know who can do it don't complain about live drummers at all, they complain about 70s and 80s editing techniques, since they're way less predictable.

And it's still surmountable.

I certainly don't think that using sync makes you a bad dj or anything like that. But I'm starting to wonder what other than laziness causes such a vehement response from the pro-sync crowd.

It's not like beat matching is hard, and I have yet to hear or do anything that a better DJ couldn't have done with manual beat matching and possibly a different kind of prep work.

And I, for one, really think that pitch faders would make my life easier. I'm so sick of griding and warping tracks...if I had an income from djing and a place to buy locally, I'd seriously consider going back to vinyl just so I never have to do that again.