Not to turn this into a “Hey all djs suck because they dont use current technology” thread but do you find controlerism a way to be much more involved in a mix compared to your standard CDJ?
Before i got into Djin i always though DJs were much more involved in mixing then they really are. Once i started to mess around with real equipment, and saw a few of the “local” djs i felt a little bit let down. I then started to look into new things such as Dj Traktor. After awhile i found i could use my Oxygen keyboard to control traktor. End of story i ended up finding people such as ean and Moldover realizing that there is a whole community out there that dose the stuff i looking to expand on.
I just really feel as if Djing with CDjs, and all realted, truely limits what a Dj can do.
In short, I think it’s more about moving the crowd than anything else. Picking the right tracks to make ppl have fun and dance. Currently I just straight mix. On some techs and a cheap battle mixer. It has a few built in FX so i can flanger up a a build-up or something, etc, but it isn’t all that impressive.. That’s why i intend to go into a quasi-controllerism style. Doing straight “boring” mixes 90% of the time and doing some controllerism tricks to add energy.\
Because, honestly, I think a set of constant tweaks and juggles would be less interesting than a set of good tracks with clean, ‘logical’ mixes the whole night.
I gotchya, dont get me wrong every one will have straight mixes for the most part, tweaking eqs, fading in an such. I didnt mean so much the mix it self, but the ability to basically do what ever you want, compared to being limited to what your hardware allows you to do.
It’s what controllerism is all about: opening up new avenues of technique and style to allow the DJ who wants to express himself (or herself; we’ve no female Dj’s one here yet though as far as I know…) musically to do so.
At the moment I’m still using Traktor, picking up a few basics of DJ’ing on the laptop. I intend, once I have more time, to move on to using Ableton, programming my own clips and creating organic minimal techno sets that builds on itself, ala Donnacha Costello.
Well they were rocking our world only 5 years ago and they still can now, its just with controllerism we can now rock peoples worlds harder and express ourselves in ways that
A) took too much hardware to be practicle
B) are not possible in with analogue.
So saying, ill still goto my local club and listen to a dj mashing it out on Vinyl or CDJ’s and be perfectly content with my experience - though it would be even better to see them do routines with a controllerism influence Still does not stop me from going back
It depends on the DJs. I’ve seen DJs spin on basic CDJs through a simple mixer and kept me dancing all night long. I’ve seen DJs on $5000 dollar rigs just trainwreck after wreck after wreck. If you do what you do well, I don’t care how you do it. Most of the better DJs I know are looking to improve upon their mixing avenues with the digital realm.
I’ll still go to a club and see an all vinyl DJ, and if they make me want to move I’ll move.
Eventhough I am getting more and more into MIDI, I still have a strong preference for DJing with vinyl.
I am still addicted to the way you are able to work with decks, the way turntablists are able to amaze people with their skills.
This is a reason why I can never and will never think regular DJ-ing is dull.
A DJ’s job is to entertain the crowd, and at the end of the day 90% of your crowd has no idea how much you are editing up or effecting a track live so I don’t think vinyl really limits the DJ in terms of performance. The people who are going to notice are fanboys, trainspotters, and other DJs … myself = all of the above.
What is appealing about the digital revolution is the ability to expand your own horizons and innovate, vinyl has reached its limit of innovation in my mind and every technique you learn has all ready been done before. With digital each performers set-up can be wildly different with out even taking into account how they are actually using that set up.
To use vinyl as an analogue think about what a basic level of control vinyl offers and look how far it has come in the last 20+ years, that reflects the infinite potential of digital performance.
It is All about making people dance and even though most people don’t know 100% what your doing, the dance experience is still a trip. And as a DJ you are their guide. Digital DJ gear gives you more control over their trip and as such is + awesome.
I also think that, at least for me personally, DJing is a personal passion and digital allows me to do stuff I consider more fun.
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