A concept I've been noticing lately is the EXTENT to which different styles of music lend themselves to different styles of mixing, and even to different hardware set ups. I've always spun freeform between 6-7 different EDM genres and because of this, I guess I've previously just ignorantly thought that 4-deck live-remixing with a controller was the ultimate set up for everyone. Over the last couple of years, the one-genre DJs I play with (which is most of them) have shown me that each genre sort of has a mixing style it points you in.
Techno (tech house, tribal, minimalist etc. etc.) DJs seem to be all about long mixes on two turntables, because there's rarely a key to worry about matching, and it's a very straightforward style that doesn't involve much interaction with the music... I dunno what you'd do if you weren't beatmatching and EQing.
Trance DJs seem to prefer very simple transition-DJing on CDJs, because, as it's been explained to me, the trance scene is more about track selection and whats in your collection than your mixing. They apparently do this because of the long context of the music, and because of their roots in radio show DJing. So trance DJs seem to make transitions at key moments of the tracks, and not need any more than 4 decks, or any effects.
Straight Drum n Bass DJs seem to be into a two turntable set up for some of the same reasons Techno DJs are into it.... Long mix, load next track, beatmatch, long mix etc. etc.
Hardstyle/Hardcore/Gabber DJs are all about crossfade bouncing and filter knobs, and never more than 2 decks.
Dubstep and Electro DJs are almost always on a mixtrack or some other cheap controller that they usually keep permanently synced and don't do much of anything with between transitions. I think this is more because of the age/experience of DJs who spin these genres predominantly.... Dubstep and Electro don't seem to have found their place yet.
What do you guys think, are these localized, or have you noticed similar trends in music genres? I've almost never seen anyone mix more than two decks... And I really don't know why that is... Is that a thing that's only useful if you're going through a lot of genres quickly?
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