Thats easy work if your mixing that Bigroom House shit, most of those tracks are built around a simple formula, but Id only do that after I played my whole somewhat planned set.
Of course freestyling is possible.
But not just ANYONE can freestyle.
You can’t really “learn” how to freestyle. In order to develop the skills and knowledge to be able to freestyle, you have to practice and learn.
A guitarist that has learned to play guitar can freestyle (jam) for hours on end. Same for DJ’s.
If you’re TRYING to freestyle but not getting the results you want, chances are, you need to do some more learning.
Was another thread about phrasing and I showed a short video explaining it…
With wave display and key finders you can pretty much tracks that you’ve never heard… The problem is when you encounter vocals you may find there’s issues especially since vocals aren’t always inserted into tracks in the same structure you’d expect
For the record wave display makes a lot of things possible it’s just depends how confident in your ability to make something work and how much do you trust your musical intention… I can play a 2 hour set with tracks I’ve never heard beyond skimming through before downloading from a pool and 9 out of 10 will be in phrase or they will mixed Intro to outro and play it safe
Most electronic music follows the same track structure as other similar tracks or tracks in general
Playing random records and mixing on the fly is nothing like a musician or guitarist improvisation.
Indeed, But stuff like Dub, DnB, Trap, Etc… It would be a lot harder to pull off.
Yes freestyling is possible, it’s just generally better to know your tracks. At a pinch you can look at the waveforms and see where the phrases are without hearing them, but you can still be caught out by something that looks like a drop in the waveform but turns out to be some troll producer switching to Enya in 3/4 time in the middle of a trance track for no reason.
[QUOTE]Playing random records and mixing on the fly is nothing like a musician or guitarist improvisation.
[/QUOTE]
Have to disagree with that, when you are layering 2 or more records/effects together to create completely new textures and sounds its every bit like a musician improvising. I’m not talking random mashup, I mean when you know your records well enough that you can identify exactly what will work together and at what areas.
Like making collage art but with limited pieces of paper/pics compared to oil painting. You really tl have to believe your own hype if you start thinking it’s the same.
in the literal form, yes. in an abstract way, no.
They’re really the same, but if Youre looking for two completely different products and thats why you think they’re completely different. There is an critical assumption that you make when Youre making as assertion like that: there are “limited pieces” and applying it “collage” style. which is true, but thats over a very short amount of time. you have nearly an unlimited number of “pieces” when djing, and theoretically an infinite amount of time to collage the “painting”. Painting is the same. you have nearly an infinite amount of mediums and a theoretically infinite amount of time. however a painter is usually limited by the mediums they have infront of them, within a set window of time that the artist decides they’re done. their strokes dictate how the message of the painting is represented in their minds, with the given medium. a Dj creates the same. the medium is song selection and the way that each song is used are the strokes. Eric Prydz and Carl Cox are great examples of artists, true craftsmen in this sense.
don’t judge a fish by its ability to walk
Jeff Mills, DJ Bone, DJ Terrance Parker.. they have as much chops as any traditional player and probably spent just as much time honing their skills.
The problem is that the bar has been lowered so low that most people don’t know the difference between a performance dj and a radio jock.
DJing is a good craft, but lets not get crazy here. A DJ can just daydream and let a record play for a while, even two or three.
A guitarist cant do that.
A DJ is playing recorded music. The musician is making the music literally with their hands while having an improvisational conversation with the other musicians.
I love both hobbies, but learning to DJ takes a year, learning an instrument to a high level of improvisation takes a lifetime.
Here is a set I did other night 90% of tracks I had never heard so essential freestyled
No, just stop it. I love Jeff Mills and have had the privilege to see him play in London, but comparing a techno DJ and musicians is just silly.
Its like comparing a carpenter to someone who assembles IKEA furniture.
Jeff would be the first to say this.
Carl Cox - Miles Davis. That’s what I’m saying
If you want to say it’s the same, fine by me.
I personally do not accept “the bar has been lowered” and only started seeing the expression at DJ web sites. I too, have seen the 5 guys that everybody talks about (think about that) and thought they were great. Have seen scores of other DJs who I always thought were great. Scores. 29 years in clubs and since I’ve been listening to DJs there have been good ones and bad ones.
z-trip, dj radar..
I completely disagree on 3 turntable mix sets where the mix is pretty much continuous. I agree that djs can stroke it in the booth and not many people notice. It’s a shame..
I started listening to djs in 1990 in the city of Detroit (hometown) and have seen quite a few that do take things to the next level.. it makes me sad that it’s so easy for simple sectors to have taken over the scene.. there was a barrier to entry that wasn’t based on production before.
EDIT:
http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/lectures/dj-radar--radar-of-the-lost-art
Mike “Agent X” Clark:
DJ Bone:
Do you play an instrument to a high enough standard that you could sit in with a band without rehearsing with them?
Because if you cant, you really shouldnt be comparing DJ improvisation and musician improvisation without knowing whats involved.
Even the best scratch artists are still only making variations of one percussive sound. To compare that to the infinite timbres and sounds possible to say a cello is simply silly.
These are two separate things that shouldnt be compared.
its possible to take a scratch sound, resample it with some audio effects, and create something with different tambre
Its still a scratch sound. Im not saying there is no skill in juggling and vinyl looping, there absolutely is. But its completely different skills than a musician has.
If you think being a DJ makes you a musician, get ready to be laughed at an awful lot. Most non dance music fans think a DJ is a joke these days, while the same people would have respect for a musician playing live with just a guitar and no tech crutches.
It works the other way, a musician wouldnt just expect to be taken seriously as a DJ just because they have musical skills, they still need to learn and practice the craft.