If you use sync to have more creative time

[haze324]

Would it be wrong to say knowing the key of a song is as important as knowing bpm?

When I play open format I never look a the key. When I play a house/edm set I always look at the key. I think it depends on what you are playing.

Any more sets recorded out there?
Gapout do you have any sets recorded. I always looked at the midi-fighter as a gimmick niche tool that would get old to the crowd if used through out an entire night, but you just called it icing on the cake!

[IznremiX]

oh and Izn...those are wicked mashups dude...much respect for what you can do on that gear...

Ever think of recording them? I would def use the wub wub one when i do a dubstep set

thanks man, I appreciate it

I wana get a few more routines under my belt (I have about 4 projects planned for the summer), and I'll probably put them up for download together once they are all complete

[mostapha]

Check my mixcloud (in sig). Some of them were with sync, others weren't…it should be easy to figure out. But, none of them with sync were because it was more creative or something. I used sync for a while because you had to in order to use Ableton Live and after that because X1s and TP seemed interesting…but mostly because I felt like being lazy. I only switched back to vinyl when I got so sick of setting beat grids that I realized I honestly preferred pitch faders. I guess you could say I got too lazy for sync……and Traktor seems to hate me: I never had it automatically set a beat grid correctly…not once.

I'm like the OP seems to be…I think it's just an excuse that some people use because they don't have the balls to admit that they're being lazy. Unfortunately, it leaves them with a lot of time to sit around and listen to music…which would be good in and of itself except not having those balls means probably not having the balls to admit that you're basically just working a glorified stereo system and they compensate with bad phrasing, thoughtless mashups, and loads of effects that only detract from the quality of the music. Obviously they're exceptions, but they're rare…at least on the internet.

*puts on flame-retardant suit*

Also, don't think for a minute that I don't think DJs are creative or that they're not musicians in some sense. That's obviously not the case. I just don't think that worshiping DJs is good for the music, and I think a lot of that happens because people already assume DJs do more than they do………no need to exaggerate it at the cost of musicality.

I tend to use sync and find myself with 3 tracks going quite often, 4 sometimes too. Basically syncing allows me to have the time to get all of it going and lets me push easily out of the box of traditional A -> B mixing. It also allows me more time for playing with the eq's / getting it all balanced nicely, using effects (usually of the more subtle variety), layering different parts of the tracks (sometime I'll have a few decks of one track) and thinking of tracks I might play next or later in the mix.

The 3-4 tracks thing is really hard to pull off. I've heard it done well, but not by anyone who couldn't also do it on vinyl (Hawtin, Cox, Mills, etc.). And IMHO it just doesn't work for anything but minimal or minimalistic techno…well, it can, but at least one of the tracks has to be really minimalistic…filters don't work like that no matter how hard you try.

Layering different parts of a track is a lot of fun…as is layering different remixes of the same track (check the Breaks 2007 set on my mixcloud for the first time I did it). But I still haven't heard someone do it well who couldn't do the same on 3 turntables or CDJs.

I'm not calling you out specifically…just saying that I don't buy the idea that sync makes these things possible. If no one else, Carl Cox and Jeff Mills have been doing it since before CDJs…and it was already easier to mix on CDJs than vinyl (having done both, I don't think that claim is debatable…so obviously someone will flame me for it). Sync just makes it easier. Again, I don't think that's a bad thing…I just wish more people would accept it for what it is.

[Emery]

Gapout do you have any sets recorded. I always looked at the midi-fighter as a gimmick niche tool that would get old to the crowd if used through out an entire night, but you just called it icing on the cake!

For the price, the MF doesn't do much. My MF had a lot more use before my S4. It has responsive buttons and a super durable design, but besides that it is a bit gimmicky.. he does however have a MF pro

@Gapout - A video would be awesome if you have one

[Gapout]

Gapout do you have any sets recorded. I always looked at the midi-fighter as a gimmick niche tool that would get old to the crowd if used through out an entire night, but you just called it icing on the cake!

I have the Midi Fighter Beatmasher...and i wont lie when i got it i was going nuts on the thing...and yes it sounded very annoying...and really abrasive...and i would never play like that out in public lol.

But now that i have had it for a while it definately adds a different dimension to my sets...I have also made some changes to mine than the stock mapping.

The knob is now set to Key instead of filter, and its in 4 banks mode with instant grat on the 4 x 4 grid and the faders still work like the original beatmasher.

With that said...do i use it alot...nope.

I do a lot of layering with my style of DJing...i hardly ever have just 1 track playing its usually 1 and a sample/loop or 2 complete songs. and ill apply effects to only 1 of the songs...i will chop up vocals for stutters and glitches while the drum of the 2nd song will still be playing...and just little bits here and there to change things up.

One thing that i love to do, is lets say song 1 is during the buildup...while song 2 is on the outro...i will use the beatmasher row to creating a drum buildup 1/2 note 1/4 note 1/8th note and then hit the echo delay right as the Big drop hits...I find this can often create a ton of energy out of a build that doesnt have that much energy

Same thing with the delay with Reverb then the filter sweep.

If done right u can add a lot of aptmosphere with it...you can also annoy the fuck out of the crowd if done wrong lol

[Gapout]

oh forgot to add with the key knob...I will grab like a 4 beat vocal loop and create my own builds while i bring in the next song by slowly adjusting the key up every 4 beats while the 2nd songs buildup is being brought in creating my own little builds out of a simple 4 beat loop.

I dont have anything to record video on, and i dont really do routines...more just straight mixing...I will try to do something later on this week with my iphone cam

[kooper1980]

I'm not calling you out specifically…just saying that I don't buy the idea that sync makes these things possible. If no one else, Carl Cox and Jeff Mills have been doing it since before CDJs…and it was already easier to mix on CDJs than vinyl (having done both, I don't think that claim is debatable…so obviously someone will flame me for it). Sync just makes it easier. Again, I don't think that's a bad thing…I just wish more people would accept it for what it is.

Agree 100%. i use sync because it allows me to also get drunk and chat to friends!

[Gr0wTesK]

I really liked B33SON's set from a few years back

[SirReal]

Truth

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[Nosferatu]

^ hahahaha!!!