Computerless gig - what a breath of fresh air!!!

[deevey]

Had a gig the other night, everything checked n' double checked, backup CD's, Ipod Djay app (just to be sure!) ..

Everything was fired up and rocking for about 2 hours with Ableton / APC40 .. all good, stuff gelling together nicely 3 playing decks, 5 sample channels with loops and FX etc... sounded great, but I was getting bored pushing buttons

AND THEN - DUM DUM DUMMMMMMM, I had a religious experience (well kinda)

I decided to try out those lil CDJ400's and Pio mixer that the nice sound people had left for me . Its been a while since I really beatmatched manually or playing without those visual cues, transpose toys, FX units and some sort of screen sitting in front of me, so I jammed in a few MP3 CD's I'd burned earlier, enough music for 3 nights, and decided to have a bit of fun, make sure the ears weren't shot, that I could remember what to do n all that jazz :P

Well screw me pink n' purple, twas' such a breath of fresh air to get away from looking at a computer screen and just "play" on the fly, blind, no waverforms, no visual feedback (apart from the timer) with a sturdy lil deck, bugger all fx and a DJM400.

Boom tsk Boom Tsk ... after a 7 hour set.. I had a lil backache due to a low table setup but finished off the night, and damn it went off well with seriously good comments all round.

Quite honestly I dont know if I'll bother opening the laptop at all the next time :eek: It was more fun, more spontaneous, more interaction with the crowd, and IMHO I played a much more orgainic "less clinical" more "relaxed" set that i'd be tempted to in Ableton or Traktor. I might try the CDJ's with traktor in HID mode next time if I have the chance to setup half hour or so in advance, but in saying that half the fun was in knowing - but not knowing what I was going to do or attempt next...(also a pretty nifty excuse to dodge requests :P)

Just thought I'd share

[haze324]

I hear ya 100% my man. I have 400's and I truly enjoy playing CD's...it causes me to have more interaction and pay attention to the music. In HID the 400's dont work all that great with TSP, one of the reasons I switched to SSL. Felt much more natural, like i was playing CD's with the advantages of laptop and software. A little bit of both worlds.

[deevey]

Whats the drawbacks in HID - responsiveness ? .. really don't need the fX or anything, just to be nice to be able to pull any track I wanted from my library and loop would be nice, transposing as well is maybe the only other thing I missed.

[haze324]

The buttons respond ok....they jogs don't work well at all.