Some stupid questions about DJing

[Sn0wday]

The hate for skrillex being a bad DJ is kinda ridiculous, he's a producer, of course he is going to spend more time producing music than learning to DJ it. And the only real mode of playing electronic music from a producer's standpoint is to mix it so.......

[Major Major]

They're not forbidden, but last time I checked Dub meant at the very least mostly instrumental. Skrillex doesn't fall into that category.

There's something to be said for dubstep vocals. What about Mala MCing for Emalkay and Cotti? I think what makes Skrillex non-dubstep and more of his own unidentifiable genre is that the true, OG, subbass sound isn't there. It's more "mid-range vroom, synth synth synth, repeat" than what, say, Coki or even newer guys like Thelem give us. Skrillex is still kinda fun to listen to, don't get me wrong, but he's not exactly dubstep. Brostep? Maybe, and I'm cool with that. But dubstep? Not quite.

[DStridium]

There's something to be said for dubstep vocals. What about Mala MCing for Emalkay and Cotti? I think what makes Skrillex non-dubstep and more of his own unidentifiable genre is that the true, OG, subbass sound isn't there. It's more "mid-range vroom, synth synth synth, repeat" than what, say, Coki or even newer guys like Thelem give us. Skrillex is still kinda fun to listen to, don't get me wrong, but he's not exactly dubstep. Brostep? Maybe, and I'm cool with that. But dubstep? Not quite.

Well said sir

[ajrindy]

this has to have been a troll post.

[DStridium]

Idk it seems unlikely M4NGO's first post would have been a troll. I could be wrong though.

[keeb]

For once, Mostapha has actually saved me some typing

As for the DJing vs. Producing first question:

+1 on DJing first - that's how I started. Production is VERY easy to get frustrated with to the point that you're ready to give up and go do something else; DJing will help you build up enough of a love for the music to get past that. Also, by DJing you'll keep up with what's current as far as music goes, and you'll have a far better ear for creating your own tracks. Plus, by DJing you create your own publicity for the tracks you do create, and you can take advantage of having tracks that nobody else in the world has. There's also more immediate gratification by DJing first; even if you're not great you can still spin at a house party and have some fun with it while making drunk people happy. Which brings me to a story...

When I first started DJing, I wanted to spend a ton of time learning and practicing. The problem was that as a student, a lot of my free time was already devoted to partying with friends (at the time my housemates and I were throwing 1-2 parties a weekend and going to parties whenever we weren't throwing one). So, I figured that instead of sitting up in my room playing around with my VCI-100, I may as well take it downstairs and play some music for people. Sure, it wasn't great at first; hell, it wasn't even good. Still, it made things a bit more interesting than listening to the same iPod playlist again for the 100th time. Even when I'd do something that I knew was technically crap, my drunk mates loved it. That's part of what kept me going to learn more - I saw that I could bring joy to others while doing something that I enjoyed quite a bit myself.

With production you just don't get that same kind of reinforcement. Now, I'll say that I haven't gotten hugely into production, so you should take my words with a grain of salt. That being said, until you're making tracks that are actually good (which will take most people several months) you're not going to get much, if any, positive reinforcement. There's also a hell of a lot more to learn with production; you could legitimately major or minor in production at college with all there is to learn. That said, I'd imagine that the thrill of playing your song for a crowd probably trumps the thrill of playing your set for a crowd, and in theory there's more money to be made in production long-term.

Personally I wish I'd gotten into production earlier, but I'm glad that I've put the amount of work into my DJing that I have and I wouldn't have put production first if I could do it over again. Then again, you might enjoy production more; that said, production is a lot of work and is not something you should get into unless you're fully committed.

[DJDoubleYou]

i smell xone

[Jack Bastard]

They're not forbidden, but last time I checked Dub meant at the very least mostly instrumental.

Not really, I think you may be a bit confused.

(1) A dub is generally a version of a vocal dance track with reduced vocals, bigger bassline, sometimes dubby echo bits. The name comes from the fact that a lot of the production techniques used on these mixes came from -

(2) Dub (reggae sub-genre), which also lends part of it's name to -

(3) Dubstep. There are no hard and fast rules for whether there are vocals or not in dubstep, it's just another overarching genre in the same way that there are no hard and fast rules for vocals in house or techno or drum and bass. It's a name whose descriptive elements shouldn't really be taken too literally.

[DjFunzo]

Thank you sir, at least there is someone on this planet who actually replays to questions

[Majo]

Not all, some have a team of friends, engineers, or do collabs, ppl use a lot looppacks like vengeance ones

btw i will like to see a deadmau5 live set with his analog modular synths