Curious how you handle elitist vinyl djs.

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

Curious how you handle elitist vinyl djs.

I’ve never really had any issue with vinyl djs acting all high & mighty around me while I am throwing down a set. Only recently have I encountered this. Granted he was drunk out of his mind, but he is somebody I consider a friend, so therefore it holds a little more weight than it would otherwise.

To give a bit of background, I use NI Traktor. Instead of controlling it with a typical interface I see people using that also use a laptop, I use an Akai MPD24 controller. There’s a few reasons for this…

  1. The mpd24 was a steal at $160.

  2. I’m not bound to the rules of conventional interfaces. I can program it anyway I please. Nor am I bound by using some program the interface came with that might be obsolete over the course of a few years.

  3. I’ve yet to find an interface that allows me to control all 4 decks in Traktor. It was easier to just buy a midi knob box and set it up however I want. It has 6 faders, 8 knobs, and 16 pads that have 4 banks. Basically means i can assign 64 diff functions to the 16 pads
    I use the 16 pads for bank A to control the decks main functions to get things in sync and creating loop points. Bank B is all fx and is wicked fun. I can’t imagine anybody having the type of flexibility I have with fx using any of the standard digital dj control interfaces I have seen so far. Not knocking them of course. Just explaining why I prefer using this instead.

Whenever I bring it into a place, people assume I am doing live pa. Last time I played at a party, a buddy of mine who spins came up and started shoulder surfing me. Once he saw that I didn’t need to spend all my time keeping a few tracks in sync, he went on the same long winded diatribe he heard when he played some party in MA and brought cd decks. Granted he was hammered out of his mind, and probably went on longer than he meant to. Still kinda irked me to see somebody act all high and mighty when the only concept they understood was that I didn’t have to spend much time at all getting shit in sync.

My point is, if anybody is THAT obsessed over the “purity” of someone’s method of expression, they should focus on producing their own shit. Don’t get me wrong. There is a HUGE satisfaction in getting two pieces of vinyl in sync with eachother. I don’t think any digital means can replicate that feeling as it stands now. I find it even more satisfying however, to layer my own beats and basslines over tracks I know and love. Being able to create something and drop it onto a crowd without having to get it pressed to vinyl, not digging thru a record crate in a dark room, having thousands of songs on a tiny hard drive instead of lugging a crate of wax, being able to get music faster than ordering records online (assuming the track is even on wax). The list goes on. I’ll drop a track I love the night I grab it online while the same 12" is still on it’s way to somebody else in a plane flying over the friggin Atlantic.

The analogy I gave this guy for giving me a hard time is this: What if the guy who produced a track that was part of his set came up to him after and said HE should get credit for the entire set on the basis of the fact that the dj didn’t know how to produce music? Yes, that argument would be bullshit and pointless, but so is his, and for the exact same reason.

There’s also much to be said for the evolution of technology. I have enough at my fingertips now to completely nail people with a nauseating wall of sound if I chose to do so. I’ll still hold back and play a track out if everybody is feeling it. Knowing when to hold back is just as crucial as knowing when to push forward. If somebody turned the knob to 11 with 4 decks for an hour, your intrigue would turn into fatigue real fast. Doesn’t matter if you’re spinning vinyl or mixing digitally, instinct and taste prevail over everything.

I’ll admit. I have had a couple tracks synced up in Traktor, realized my daughter shit her diaper, changed it and went back to the same tracks still locked in. Do I feel guilty? Maybe the next party I spin at, i’ll head off to a corner to read the newspaper while some rinsed Justice track keeps looping the same 4 bars until everybody on the dancefloor goes into a coma.

So what experience do you have with guys like this? How do you handle it? Did you get into a fistfight outside the club? haha. Let’s hear it!

2

Just let them be, and keep dropping your sets for the public. Forget the elitist DJs.

The crowd is all that matters!

3

different strokes for different folks. i know some people who are really big vinyl snobs, i wish i could be. its too expensive these days and the music i usually play isnt often on vinyl. so i tell people, logistically i have to be either digital or CD.

4

A friend of mine is pretty big into vinyl djing. when he came over and scoffed at my little setup (vci, bcr2000, akai lpd8). I just looked at him, and pressed 2 cue points that were more than 1 bar apart. and I was like… yeah. suck it haha.

Cool use of the MPD, you should talk to tekky, as he uses the bcr rotary to control traktor (i’m still trying to figure mine out).

5

Yeah, the coolest part ofcourse is, starting off with vinyl, than continue on a controller and completely blasting 'em away technically. :smiley:

(Actions speak louder than words, as that trashtalk only leads to a bad vibe that can be felt by the crowd. )

6

yeah, to be honest I cant really blast vinyl dj’s away. but I can cue juggle moderately well, which, is just impossible on vinyl, without custom plates. so gg.

7

You are able to perform tighter mixes with controllers & MP3s tbh. SO that’s phase one. After that, you are able to sample and start/kick in jams better at your own desire. :smiley:

8

this thread topic comes up on this forum like every two weeks.

if you’re not getting slagged by vinyl djs for being a laptop dj, you’re gonna get slagged by cover bands for not playing an instrument, you’re gonna get slagged by drunken whores for not being their personal jukebox, you’re gonna get slagged by other laptop djs for not playing the style of music they like…

basically, grow a pair of jewels and learn how to not let the opinions of wankers psyche you out.

i do what i do because i love it. if people want to critique me because of how I do it, that’s their perogative - but it really doesn’t make a difference to me. haters are a pretty sad type of people and more likely than not they are just sorting out their own self-esteem and fragile ego issues by shit talking other people.

9

I wait till they are on stage, and walk to the parking lot and crap through the sunroof of their car. Then carve the word “SERATO” on their hood, leaving a shattered timecode vinyl by the drivers side door. They usually get the message.

I recommend ignoring them first though.

10

Lol

11

tbh i wud definatly not class myself as an elitest dj however i would have a strong viewpoint on this. I taught myslef on vinyl and then moved to cdj’s years and years later when it became the ‘big thing’ tho still kept my turntables and all my records cus i realli didnt enjoy djing as much on cdj’s and only relali got them to get familiar with them for playing out in the club. now im spinnign on traktor pro with timecoded vinyls and alot of midi controllers so i have basically been through all the stages.

there is only certain times i get annoyed
a.) people who learnt to dj on cdj’s and dont have a clue how to beatmatch on vinyl without a bpm counter
b.) i am not so annoyed with midi dj’s who cannot beatmatch and use sync UNLESS (a very big unless) they use the time to do somethign creative and are not just being simply lazy and doing simple boring mixing track to track.

i myself would class myself more of a midi dj these days though than a turntablist

12

I maintain that the people that matter most (the crowd you’re rockin, and the promoters who pay you) don’t care about how you play the music, as long as they’re having a good time.

Granted, some like the idea of watching a guy spinning vinyls, but it’s much more interesting for them to see someone twisting knobs and bashing buttons - as they can link what’s happening to the music very readily with what button’s being pressed - which is visually very important and also allows them to make an association with the music they’re dancing to - and thus appreciate the mix a lot more than they would appreciate that same worn out music which most vinyl DJs (who aren’t turntablists) play, in a very uninteresting intro/outro fashion.

So, I’ve recently been telling young guys who are aspiring DJs with a copy of VDJ and a hercules controller, not to spend they’re limited funds on a pair of vinyl turntables and a DVS, but to focus their efforts into a better controller, Traktor, and lots of music - as I can certainly see vinyl dying a death in the club DJ industry in the next decade. I mean come on - the CDJ only came out 9 years ago, and look how that’s changed the way we all see DJing.. :stuck_out_tongue:

Never forget, other DJs don’t matter - and if they’re being snobby about gear and the way you do things - then that’s only ever a manifestation of their insecurity at their lack of talent - and the fact that you are probably better than them. Chill out, and focus on that crowd :slight_smile:

13

This. It seems controller users have more ego issues than vinyl/CD guys as is apparent by people like the thread starter; they are the ones all hurt about some other DJ talkin down to them and making posts on forums expecting to get their own ego stroked and reassured that what they are doing deserves respect. If you notice right from the start of the OPs post he is in defense mode justifying his decision to use a controller and why he’s not using physical decks.
It tends to be a theme with many ‘controllerists’ and I believe that title itself along with 'controllerism is terminology invented for the purpose of making MIDI DJs feel and sound important and i find the word pretentious. A lot of MIDI DJs need to grow a pair and stop whining, you know people will have their own opinions and they are going to look down on you for not DJing the way they do, just let it go and stop thinking you need to prove yoruself.

I think the fact that so many people on controllers are sensitive about how traditional DJs view them stems from the hard truth that there are a lot of people out there that would be hopeless without it if they were put in front of CDJs or TTs because these days so many people skip that step they feel they need to justify the fact that they rely on technology to do this aspect of DJing for them which many people see as a fundamental necessity.

14

to me, the issue isn’t simply about elitist vinyl djs. it’s closed minded people in general…

i got trapped in an extremely annoying conversation with a guy at a party recently. he’s not a dj on any level, clearly didn’t understand some of the fundamentals of mixing traditionally (read: vinyl/cd), so of course there was loads he was clueless about when it came to digital methods and techniques. but he still went on and on about vinyl is the ONLY way to be a real dj blah blah blah…

in my opinion, closing your mind off to potential and possibilities of any kind puts you at a deficit creatively. and doing so, when you don’t even understand many of the factors of the debate is just dumb. the guy i was talking to was just dumb…as are a lot of elitist mentalities…

but to the question of the original post, my advice is only have debates with people you respect, do your thing and shrug off the rest.

/$0.02

15

I think that I was in defensive mode. Not towards ANYBODY who spins vinyl. Towards the guy who berated me because he felt a need to try to give me a history lesson DURING MY SET. The reason I posted this is because I know EVERYBODY here uses digital means to dj. I was just curious if anybody else here had ever been dumped on like I had and how they treated the situation. It’s just not something I am used to. I don’t feel like I need to compensate by posting on here and hearing other people’s experiences. I am merely curious because it’s my first experience with somebody attempting to invalidate someone else’s method due to their own ignorance. I’m not saying it’s ignorance in every situation, but I believe it was in this one.

In justifying my decision to use what I use instead of decks, you’ll notice the first thing I said was that I do it because it’s cheaper. Not because I have to prove myself to anybody. If I was looking for an ego stroke I would be posting links to mixes saying “THIS IS OK, RIGHT?”. It’s not so much a need to prove myself as it is wondering why someone else would go out of their way to invalidate someone’s method.

I can obviously understand his point of view. He sees somebody else skipping right over what he saw as his greatest obstacle when he first decided to DJ. This guy was just completely ignorant to the other things that could be done once that was out of the way, and couldn’t get past it. It was the way in which he conducted himself (which like I previously said, he was shitfaced)

edit: I don’t know if your reason for starting that new thread about “how many of you can actually beatmatch” had something to do with my OP on here? If you look at my response there’s no place where I am being defensive in my response.

16

This is also a nice one. I also got a few CDJ only DJs that were confronting me of spinning Digital. I just turned that one round into: “Dudes… You’re spinning CDs, that pure 1s and 0s… You’re spinning as digital as I am.”

You should have seen the ignorance in there eyes, they first looked like water was burning, then they just acknowledged.
(Ofcourse, they had to. :wink: )

17

i can almost guarantee you that everybody on the board that has experience playing gigs has been in the exact same situation.

but like someone else had mentioned, it has less to do with digital djs vs. vinyl djs and more to do with dumbasses being assholes because they’ve had too much to drink.

your “friend” was probably just trying to fuck with your head to make you mess up while you were playing. next time just tell him your too busy to chat.

18

I try hinting to people one important message.. don’t get way rapped up in being deemed a ~DJ~ stick the focus to becoming the memorable party rocker of the night, cause If your killing it on the solid occasion, people will give you a good name. then the drunkin comments from some jackass will get diluted in the mix.. In any occasion make use of the tools and make 'em want to convert to our homage! ha either way it’s chill traditionalists usually take pride in there culture (yet commonly confused & played off as power over others by dickweedz.) got to dip. - s