Computerless gig - what a breath of fresh air!!!
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 
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 )
Just thought I’d share 