OK, so I was talkin to a club owner of a bar that I play at sometimes last night. Hes a nice guy and all but im just fed up with being discriminated on because of my gear choice. I use a VCI 100 SE, Akai LPD8 and Midifighter. Basically his words were, " You have the track selection, you have the following, you have the skill now all you need is some real DJ equipment." I try to do what all you guys say to do and just laugh and shrug it off but its come to the point now where I just canāt anymore!
Funny thing is I rock the shit out of the place every time I play there. I know what he is referring to, specifically CDJās. Down my way basically 95% of the electronic DJās are on CDJās. I know that when in the booth it can be cumbersome switching over gear to a midi setup, I experience it time and time again. But my opinion about the whole situation is that im too limited on CDJās!
I wish this digital revolution would just hurry the %$&# up! Figured Iād just tell this frustrating story with all of you. So apart from just doing my thing with pride how do a controllerist earn respect???
Ahā¦ the local little āclubā ownerā¦ lol. Most of these types are clueless. Iām surprised he gave you the credit of even picking the proper tracksā¦ lol. Nothing you can do bro, he is most likely a complete jackass. Maybe show him a clip from the traktor site of Hawtin or another cat rockinā some of the non ārealā dj equipment.
Dude we/you will all hear this.
It doesnt matter what digital gear you use some cock-knocker will always criticise you for using controllers.
The thing is i can laugh if off 99.9% of the time. Some people will say they dont care but i think if you are human someone at sometime is gonna push your buttons and piss you off. Someone will jump in this thread and says they will never be bothered about it but i will NEVER believe it. Everyone has a tipping point and if you cant ever get mad about some hater dissing what you do as a DJ then you dont love it enough.
Its natural to get pissed at these idiots. Especially as you using equipment that the haters dont even understand.
People hide their fear of Digital behind a traditionalists attitude āYeah man i only use vinylāā¦ Probably because they are computer illiterate dumb-asses.
i cant understand why if you supply the stuff your using he has a problem with it.theres always a good following of dj watchers and trainspotters at a club night that will be impressed with what your doing and im sure your bringing in punters to make the ācock knockerā(loving your work karlos!) happy when he counts the money from the bar and tickets,so by using it i suppose your bringing attention to the digital age and are helping hurrying things upā¦you could also post some of your mixes aswell.the more you make available for people to see and hear,the quicker you can change their minds.(and also make a name for yourself outside your hometown)look forward to hearing a mix from you mate.
thatās the part that stands out to me, and to me it makes sense why the club dude is suggesting it. 9.5/10 of out the djs that come to his club and play use the clubs cdj setup only bringing some books of cdsā¦that .05/10 dj comes, brings a laptop, 3 different usb midi controllers, soundcard, etc.
my advice is to learn on spin on cdjs for that gig, I donāt think cdjs are that limited for djing*, i mean if you want to get creative there is nothing stopping you from making your own wavs and your own edits burn them to cd and use the cdj as the digital playback deviceā¦
this opinion probably sounds counter to the goals of the site here, but Iām not saying everyone throw down your midi controllers and get cdjs, Iām just saying i can see the club guys perspective, also i donāt think cdjs are as limited as you suggest, only the ways you are thinking of using themā¦
*i think there is this fine line that gets shifted around concerning where controllerism, and the live re-mashing/mixing meet the more traditional dj role, which is to mix other peoples music so the dancing doesnāt stop.
thatās something i considered doing while i work on getting back into things, but even that can lead to ānon djā taunts. if you lay down your own edits/mashes, chances are that the majority of those discs will at the bpm you prefer to work with (i know that would be the case with me) and people start complaining that youāre not mixing properly because youāve pre-pitched your discs.
but at the same time, what would be the point in making them at different bpms so you have to move the fader?
not saying itās lose/lose, but open to similar criticisms
those not a dj taunts are such slippery slopes, pretty soon everyone is cheating on some levelā¦i think that is different from where the club guy is coming from in a practical letās make money as uniformly as possible mindset
Haha yah supposidley people have been talking that I use that evil sync button. Some good points here And I guess part of the reason why I dont want to use CDJās is that im trying to be different and trying do my own thing, not just be like every other DJ.
But maybe if I just rented a pair for a week and just got the hang of them, it might be useful at some point.
props for taking a nice cool level headed approach to thisā¦I think plan on renting some sounds like a great idea. you will get the hang of them, and you will start a cd book for yourself which will be a nice handy backup or go to for these places that are so vastly dominated by cd-j users.
manually beatmatching is just a good thing to know dude. i mean yeah the club guy is a douche ive had to deal with the exact same thing several times, its a bitch but i mean whatre you gunna do right? think of it this way though, the more gear you know how to use, my more able you are as a dj. sure CDJs arent everyones shit, not mine certainly but if it gets the job done with the gig why not, unless you gotta go buy ur own. fuck that. you have extremely high quality gear that is widely respected by the educated musical enthusiast and by the openminded dj.
iāve got things set-up so i beat match the master clock, then use sync. only have to match once (but thatād be enough to shut people up) and keep all the sync benefits
I feel so fortunate to have never run into this problem. Itās ridiculous that if youāve shown him that you can kill it on your own gear that he still insists you be on CD-Js.
Myself, using my own custom MIDI setup is a selling point. No other DJ that I know of in this city mixes the way I do (Traktor w/ 4 decks), and the best part is the CROWD knows it too.
Keep doing what you do and hopefully the club owner will hear the difference.
The way I see things, performing live consists of two portions: the creative flow, and the showmanship. If you got the creative momentum in the set to get things moving, but you are glued to your screen, itās a buzz kill to be honest, and you will find that anywhere you go, a performer who is engaged with his crowd is the one who gets the most opportunities thrown his way. The problem with performing with equipment which is reliant on a computer is that itās easy to become completely engulfed with whatās going on with your interface, promoters more often than not donāt like that.
However, if you got a positive reaction and you were engaged with the people who were at the event in a positive way, and were enthusiastic about it - I would ask that club owner/promoter to justify his persistence.
If no logical response is given, kick him in the dick.
idk where you live, but i live in NYC. and there are hundreds and hundreds of clubs. so if one club cannot accept your equipment then you shouldnāt bother with them. so iām not really worried about it. i will like to master the vci100se when i buy it and take that to clubs. anyways clubs ask to hear a demo of you before you can spin at one of their events/parties. so if they see a video of one of your set then right there it would be a y/n answer for them to decide upon.
i believe itās stupid to try to use something else only cause the proās use it. or cause they think its better. its all their opinion. i believe that you should be allowed to spin with w/e you are good with. the people donāt come in the club to be curious about what equipment you use. they come to hear you drop a tech house set and or a progressive house set. they come for that reason. they are not coming because
āOMFG hes going to use a cdj2000, we shud go to this party!ā
no this is not what people go to clubs for. they go to club because they know you and they know your name and that your worth their money.
from reading this thread, i have gotten rly angry that you experienced this. i started to think that if i have this problem one day i would say āwell if this girl likes to drink coke, but you like to drink Pepsi because all the pro djās drink it. so now you think she should start drinking pepsi instead of coke. And thats you and your favorite djās opinion of taste. and iām not a monkey see, a monkey do.ā
THATS WHAT I WOULD SAY.
SHUT DAT FUKER UP.
and if they still argue with you, just tell them another story similiar to that. and just keep repeating yourself till they let you use your vci100se for 5,000 people that are in the club.
i wonder what eanās opinion would be for this. although im sure he would support and defend his product.
well again idk where you live. but hey i would just go to the next club. before i even start spinning at clubs, and after i believe im finally good enough 2 spin @ clubs. i would prob make a website w/ video sets of me spinning. so club owners or management can see/hear and decide if this is what they want in their club.
but yeah like i said, there are like 800 clubs here in nyc. and you can minimize your search for clubs by using the filters on the type of music that the clubs plays. like they have clubs that only play progressive house, or clubs that only do tribal house, or some that do latin house. and or top40. etc etc.
now put your mouse over the the music type and pick what genre of music you spin. if you know how to spin more types of genre. then youāll have more chances of finding a club to spin at.
ha this only led to questions about dj-hero which cued my act that my wiring was so confusing it needed my full intension turning my responses into 'uh-huās until he dipped.
i donāt understand where what the proās use came into it? IMO thatās not the argument being made here. the argument i believe from the view of the club owner, who probably sees djās like the line on a production factory, is that he should start using what 99.5% of what the other djs are usingā¦the in house setup, versus bringing in a laptop, 3 midi controllers, a soundcard etc.
now i see the benefit of the digital setup, but i also see it from the business/club ownerās side.
the original post paraphrased what the guy said, but i didnāt see anything particularly offense, it kinda sounds like the owner likes the OP and is just trying to give advice from his vantage point.
I think we digital djs should pick and choose our battlesā¦and there are times when we should concede and say, hey for this partcular show or event, it might be best just to spin my set on the house cdjs and save the Digital setup for a more suited event.
by learning to spin on cdjs you have this optionā¦
i dont care if 99.5 percent are using cdjs and vinyls. professionals such as carl cox and richie hawtin are using traktor. and thats the direction iām going with the vci100se.
in addition, if you have such an amount of clubs that are available here in nyc. you will find a club owner who heard your set on youtube or where ever. or he heard your 1hr video set. and he liked it so much that hes gonna care about the profit. not your vci100se + traktor. some club owners, iām sure will allow you to play with those two and what w/e else the dj uses. what he should care about is the set that he heard in the video. thats the music he wants in his club.
what you think ur badass cause u have a xone : 4D. is that it.
iām sure you can get the vci100se + some other lil toys hooked up and can get it to do the samething that xone:4d can do
but if you have club owners more worried about your equipment rather than what you spin. i think these owners would fall into the category of stupid owners.
again i have to repeat myself, i mean seriously charo, do you think people come to a party to worry about what equipment you use? do you know clubbers/dancers who go to or debate what parties to go to based on equipment? i believe customers go based on music, genre, and who is spinning it.
club A is spinning with a midi controller
club B is spinning w/ cdjās
lets go to club B ! its gonna be better.
LOL your wrong buddy
oh and btw do you need proof, of some professional djās. on their site, it shows a picture of how they want the booth to be setup and what the club has to provide in order to get the dj to spin at the specific club. if the club fails to miss any of the parts that the dj requires the club to have, well the club is out of luck towards getting that dj to spin.
i donāt mind showing you some profiles w/ pics that djās have on their page which are their requirements that clubs must have in order for them to spin.
again. djās should use w/e makes them happy. djās shouldnāt be required to spin this and use this to spin it with.
ill tell you now charo. im goin to practice how to spin minimal house, tech house, progressive house, tribal house. i want learn to spin these genres. and if a club askes me to spin something else, well iād be walking right out the door. one of the rules i learned when i decided to become a dj. is i spin w/e makes me happy. i use and play w/e makes me happy. not what makes the club owner happy. iām not going to play a set of trance because thats what the club owner wants, thats not my music. thats not what i like.
charo if what you say is a fact, then when i get turned down by a total of 205ish clubs here in nyc which prefer house music djās. when they turn me down because i use vci100se (which i dont have the money for yet LOL) then iād come back and let you kno, u were right, im saving money for a xone:4d. but for now cause of my low budget i wanna invest in a 100se and master it. and i will find out for myself how far i will go with the 100se.
b4 i buy the 100se, i should ask ean, if he considers hes product to be compatible for an event such as WMC or ultra festival. but yet again iām not sure if that is eanās goals. but hes 100se can control 4 decks so thats good enough for me.
OK, so I was talkin to a club owner of a bar that I play at sometimes last night. Hes a nice guy and all but im just fed up with being discriminated on because of my gear choice. I use a VCI 100 SE, Akai LPD8 and Midifighter. Basically his words were, " You have the track selection, you have the following, you have the skill now all you need is some real DJ equipment." I try to do what all you guys say to do and just laugh and shrug it off but its come to the point now where I just canāt anymore!
Some good points here And I guess part of the reason why I dont want to use CDJās is that im trying to be different and trying do my own thing, not just be like every other DJ.