Hawtin Laptop Goes Down — No back up?
http://pulseradio.net/articles/2013/04/coachella-files-richie-hawtin
He did have a backup but both his main and secondary drives failed hours before the show.
I think the implication was, “why didn’t he have CDs with him?”
To which I reply; you don’t tell Eric Clapton to bring a kazoo with him as a back-up in case all his guitars suddenly break.
It sounded like both his copies are on the same drive.
The chance of two separate HDD failing is so slim.
Should have had a PC. 
One was corrupt… the other had broken pins.
Umm no pro here but even I keep a Sd card with rekordbox analyzed tracks in my vehicles mind you I see where he is coming from. Wanting to play what he had planned
Richie doesn’t play tracks… everything is done on the fly. His computer is his instrument. It’s a live setup.
He posted a pic of himself holding 3 back up drives on FB 2-3 days ago. Wonder what happened to 3?
Or maybe that pic was after the first ones bit the dust.
Pretty sure that was the next day… he received his backups and played that night at Coachella.
Haha beat me to it, I just edited my post
Not gnna lie, I was thinking the same thing. So when you posted this, I tried looking up some of his live performances to see what he is all about…only watched 15 min total of 3 vids but they were all super boring. Creative yes. Maybe people have some better vids?
Broken pins are kinda ridic. Pins aren’t gonna break on their own unless you don’t take care of them.
^manchild, that’s exactly how I feel about Richie. Don’t really find his music interesting at all.
He’s not for everyone. See I think he’s a god, but I have heard quite a few people say they think he’s boring.
Each to their own..
I reallylike his sets and i know that he has done a lot for techno-music, but recently he has just become more and more of a douchebag in my opinion.
I always carry a usb-stick (128gb) with all the tunes i like to play at the moment analyzed on rekordbox and traktor as well as my tsi files and soundcard drivers on it so i can play on a different laptop or, if i really have to, on cdjs. And if i had to cancel a gig no one would care, while thousands of people care if richie cancels.
Just play a cdj set for once, no one will be as disapointed as they are now, ffs!
Hawtin hasn’t been a straight up DJ for years and years. It’s not the same at all.
We recently had Guy J come tour. His laptop packed it in. He had no backup laptop or hard drive (he uses Ableton).
He then attempted to mix using another DJs tunes. He ballsed it up big time and gave up after a few tunes.. Because he’s a producer that plays live. Not a DJ.
Now Hawtin was once a regular DJ, he’d know how to mix. But surely you can see his point at not wanting to just get up there and play some tunes. That’d be short changing people.
Of course i know it wouldn’t be the same at all, but at least the ppl would get to see him.
Him playing a cdj set would still be much better than not seeing him play at all. It’s like wantig to rent a porsche but you can only get a smart, which is still better than no car at all
I don’t know about anyone else, but personally If i paid to see a DJ and their gear failed, I’d want to see them make any effort they could to provide a show for the crowd.
I understand that straight up DJing isn’t what Hawtin does anymore but i’d rather see them try it and balls it up than just not bother.
Considering how high profile he is - he has a whole team working for him ffs - he should be prepared for every eventuality.
If you can’t play CDJ’s when you need to, then you damn better make sure you have enough spare hard drives/laptops to make a show happen no matter what. Certainly for the amount of money I assume he gets for gigs.
Though it does seem in this case that things worked out, since he’s coming back to play next week. Luckily that’s possible at coachella, but what about other events?
I don’t know, if some popular singer’s regular band isn’t available, I doubt he will perform. It’s Richie’s right to cancel his performance if his gear fails on him. There’s clausules for that in his rider/contract. That people don’t like it, isn’t his or the organisation’s problem.
He plays tracks the only thing he does on the fly is maschine. (I’m a big fan of him I’m not hating)