If our kids become djs they will never know about...

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

Things your kids may never know about DJing (NI thread stealing)

Awesome thread going on over at NI

http://www.native-instruments.com/forum/showthread.php?t=90234

A trip down memory lane.

What’s DJTT got on this?!

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How about:

  1. The fun of being covered in dust and grime from record shopping.
  2. When finding an awesome White label record brings the most joy in a dj’s life.
  3. Using a club’s turntable that had old Ortofon Concords that screwed up the contacts on the 1200s tonearm.
  4. Your dj crew back in high school and talking shit to other sucker djs. :slight_smile:
  5. Trainwrecking b/c the gig’s equipment is jacked up.
  6. Learning beat matching, harmonic progressions, just basic mixing skills.
  7. Stanton 500AL cartridge w/ a nickel taped to the headshell. (really old school)
3

from a digital aspect (and since i probably won’t be having kids for a hot minute):

  • using traktor 3
  • possibly: when ableton and traktor had to be routed together manually :stuck_out_tongue:
  • when we still used usb 2.0
  • having to buy external HDD’s to fit all of our songs because the built-in ones weren’t big enough
  • processors maxed at 3ghz (ish)
  • not all mixers were Traktor Scratch Certified (i can dream) :stuck_out_tongue:
  • the time before DJTT was known as the home of controllerism in this world, before they bowed at our feet

haha.

4

I am not about to have kids any min either so -

1- Using a crappy low resolution protocol with latency and jitter that was defined back in 1982 - aka MIDI

2- Having to mod your unit to get rid of the dreaded MIDI dead zone on either side of your cross-fader

3- Having to mod your unit to get decent buttons - ala VCI-100 arcade button mod

4- Horrible amounts of plugin latency on your favorite mastering VST’s, so you cant use them live

5- Having to use a midi translator just to get a decent mapping

6- Using a real turntable to get the best turntable emulation - ala timecode vinyl

7- Having more effects processing than CPU cycles available

8- Dealing with haters who hate just because your using sync

9 - Dealing with haters just because your digital (even if you dont sync)

10- Having to run 4 programs at once just to get a kick ass DJ\Live setup

11- Using EQ’s and volume fading as the main method of transitioning from tracks

12 - Building your own controller to get all the features you want

13 - Using touch screens without any haptic feedback

14 - Using an external soundcard even though your device has a soundcard built in (because they are 9 times out of 10 crappy quality cough VCI-300 cough)

5

all those are definitely spot on

but +1 on that one

6

  • shelling out $200+ to be an unofficial native instruments product tester cough traktorpro cough

  • “try-before-buy” software

  • hypem.com

  • facebook fan pages for promo

  • digital dj stigma

  • 192 kbps mp3s

  • cd decks

  • DJ MOUSE !!! lol lol

7

x2…
never did 7 though.

8

  1. Putting up with obnoxious, arrogant, unhelpful, bored, miserable, moody, surly staff for years in your local record shop.

  2. Having to wait in line to listen to a record.

  3. Only being allowed to listen to a handful of tunes.

  4. Record shops with no listening posts so you can’t try before you buy..

  5. The joy of wandering into a random record shop in another town and being greeted by friendly helpful knowledgeable staff who actually want to sell you some records.

  6. Soundlab DLP-1 Turntables

  7. Gemini PS626 Mixers

9

Still doing #7 lol

Bento your comprehensive list took away my ability to add anything to this thread:slight_smile:

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  1. not knowing the name of the records but it’s the one with the blue cover and the pink font

  2. checking the grooves of the records to know when is the breakdown and when is the end of the reccords

  3. the click of the pitch of an SL1200 in the middle of the pitch where the speed lock is not very stable

  4. over pitched SL1200 that goes +16% instead of +8% coupled to the fact that records in 33rpm are harder to beatmatch due to less precision of the groove.

  5. the “play a records backwards” trick when putting the needle upside down and elevating the record with an ashtray so the needle play the records under.

  6. marking scratch records with a piece of tape so you know where to cue!

  7. very, very… very heavy aluminium records case.

  8. creating a “kick” sound when hitting the records while the needle is on.

  9. Beatmatching with only the pitch…

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  • Carrying record bags/crates through the snow
  • Record store shopping - The camaraderie of going to the shop with you boys and meeting up with both no name and huge name dj’s
  • Being able to show up to a gig with some wax and not having to unplug RCA’s (hate doing this with DVS systems now)
  • Having a bookcase collapse due to vast amounts of records
  • Loosing your entire record collection due to neighbors above ground pool exploding (yep…happened!)
  • Getting those rare tracks that no one else could find.
  • Making a mix recorded to a Maxell tape.
  • Handing out mix tapes that were actual tapes!
  • Raiding you family’s old records for some disco to sample.
  • Promo’s and white labels.

…more to come I’m sure

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Spending $100 on music at a time, hoping to find one good song per album

13

hahaha most def! :wink:

14

Haha, most of whats said in NI thread I’ve experience…good times! :smiley:

From a digital perspective:

  1. Having to take our music collection with us when DJing.

(In a few years we’ll be able to connect via a secure wi-fi connection anywhere and access all music collection on home computer.

15

damn, this brings some memories back :smiley:

  1. placing stickers on the record to get an exact cue for needledropping, just place needle on the stickers edge, move back and forth->ready to go.

  2. placing stickers on the record to create a loop.

  3. Beeing limited to +/-8% pitch.

  4. Finding the correct weight/calibration for the stylus and tonearm

  5. Using a mixer with build in turntables and tape-deck.

  6. Mixing with several audio-sources like tapedeck, video etc

  7. Using playstations MTV Musicmaker to make beats and remixes.

  8. Using my XBOX as 3rd channel, syncing the other two on it.

  9. Let your GF bring that one special record to the gig that you forgot at home.

  10. writing down a setlist in advance, with infos on how, when, and what pitch it needs to be a flawless mix.

  11. visiting a record store. man is miss that.

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  1. the click of the pitch of an SL1200 in the middle of the pitch where the speed lock is not very stable

I’ve used SL1200 TTs that had no click, until now i dont know if it was upgrade or just broken. Is it hard to do, cuz, i would love it on my TTs.

17

What about Music and Music 2000 on PS1 :smiley:
All time classics ! ! !

18

Can we get an amen?!
i spent many a week making beats with that when i was a b.u.m

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If our kids become djs they will never know about…

I love being digital but there are some aspects of being a vinyl dj that will soon be lost to the next generation.

Thought it’d be a laugh to make a definitive list of the things that will eventually be gone from the dying art:

  1. Having to to choose just 50/70 records to put in the crate before a gig

  2. Making a mixed tape on cassette, making a mistake and having to start the whole mix again

  3. Going into a record shop and trying to hum a track you heard at a rave…

Any others?

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  1. These threads :slight_smile: