DJ played a pre-recorded set at a "DJ Comp" I was at last night...
My town doesn't have a HUGE musical scene, so it's hard to find good, local shows. Especially as a highschool student.
But in the last year, being a college town, me and my close buddies have "discovered" this EDM/Dance culture that's growing on campus and around the college. At first we thought they might not want us teenie-boppers around, but to our surprise they have been really nice, and I've even spoken with some of the DJ's who play at these shows they have on campus, great guys (huge variety; dubstep, electro, drum & bass, trance, etc.).
So basically this has become the go-to thing to do every month or so with my friends, we almost blend in now that were older, college culture>highschool, the college campus is pretty safe late at night, students & security could not be nicer.
just some background info, needed to get out my appreciation for all that. But anyways!
So last night they put on a show called "Supersonic Bass Wars". 3 hour show. 4 DJ's played. Each having pretty different styles, I knew all of them from previous show. Basically, when you get in, they gave you a ticket to vote for who you think had the best set. Nothing too competitive, I guess whoever won gets to play at some festival they do every spring or something along those lines.
It was the third set by "Storm & Trooper", great set, had someone vdjing and it was great. about half way through, I hear a guy next to me talking to his friend pointing out how neither of the two performers had touched the CDJ's the entire time and this had to be a prerecorded set. I watched for the rest of the set and it was true, they weren't doing anything. But the crowd wouldn't notice something like that, the majority intoxicated or wouldn't know the difference. But between the VDJing and just the overall flow of their set, they won.
One of the two, Jeremy, I've known for a while, I KNOW he can DJ and mix very well, and he's a great guy. puts on plenty of shows. So I was really confused why he would do this.
This morning I got on Facebook, and on the page for all electronic dance events based around the college, sure enough there was a HUUUGGGGEEE argument about what had happened the night before.
The three other DJ's were LIVID that they had won using a prerecorded set, "faking" the entire thing, that this was supposed to be a DJ comp/contest. And they were essentially "cheating". Huge shitstorm. Not to mention all these guys are good friends.
In their defense they said
"Thanks for the feedback though. This will spark some debate among you guys. Fact is, our whole act is a combined synchronization of visuals an sound to create and experience. Ryan doesn't have an apc to control the visuals on the fly yet so this was the only way we could get exactly how we envisioned it. To anyone doubting if I can mix, that is just ridiculous. I spent days crafting the perfect set and Ryan spent even more time creating the visuals to go along with it. Trevor I have nothing but respect for you and everyone else. In the end it comes down to crafting an original experience for the crowd to enjoy and we are proud of what our hard work has turned into."
Donny, the DJ I voted for, and really didn't participate in much of the bickering said:
"I'm not angry about what happened. Everyone knew what was going on however, and I must say I am extremely disappointed; not because I lost, but because of what exactly I was losing too. I worked my ass off up there."
I don't know how to feel about this, they're right that they put on the best performance that got the crowd going the most, but on the other hand they weren't DJing.
What do you guys think? It's really bothering me that this is becoming so common not only in big name DJ's, but even these local shows. they're bickering about the integrity of playing a prerecorded set, but how I see it is, it was a DJ comp, and that's that. If it were just a show they put on, they could do a prerecorded whatever, but at a dj comp, isn't that actually, cheating?
