Is modern djing boring?

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

Is modern djing boring?

As someone who has been djing for almost 20 years and came from vinyl to cds to DVS to controller and dvs and as much as I love digital djing and wouldn’t go back. I’ve started to get a bored playing the decks. When I first got into traktor I used to enjoy ear mixing trying to not look at the bpm and see how close I could get them to match. Then I would just mix them, usually not at the exact bpm and adjust through the mix like playing vinyl. More and more recently I find my self just looking at the bpm to get it exact. Now I’m starting to think what is the point. I may as well just sync, which I’ve started doing a bit. It’s getting a bit boring though. When playing on vinyl or cds, what I enjoyed about it was actually ear mixing where you used to have to really work and concentrate to get a good mix. Now you just match the bpm or sync and wait till the moment you want to bring the next track in.

I know I should start using all 4 decks like the techno djs do but the music i’m into doesn’t really lend itself to that.

What do you think?

2

nope, I feel much better spending the time between the fade in/out moments searching for the perfect song, preparing loops, using FX and EQ, being creative with the tons of tools in front of me, than hearing beats drift for no particular reason.

3

I think it’s because you’re digital DJing as if it’s vinyl.

I spend most of my time trying to find a good song to follow up with as well as dabbling with a little bit of FX.

As you said, not all music lends itself well to 4 deck mixing or even 3 deck mixing so don’t worry about that stuff.

4

But both of these things you can (FX) or have to (good follow-up) do with vinyl as well. And yes, digital DJing is rather boring.

5

Sounds like you never REALLY got beat matching down, mate. It sounds like you acknowledged how difficult it is, and more enjoyed the challenge of beat matching over actually putting together a great DJ set.

I hate to sound negative - but if you’d ever really got beat matching down, it would be second nature now, and you wouldn’t really need to concentrate to be able to do it.

It sounds like the concentration was what you enjoyed, but, with enough practice and experience, the need to concentrate that hard really disappears…

6

For me, it has allowed me to become more creative with doing live edits, remixing, and giving more focus to things other than playing tracks, scratching, and juggling. Now instead of using two records or an outboard sampler to build a loop, I can simply click a button and loop 4 tracks at once.

From the crowd standpoint, it seems to have become more of a bore to watch and I get that.

7

I totally agree with this, I loved DJing on vinyl with 2 (and occasionally 3 decks) then got kind of bored with it all and stopped for a couple of years.

Now coming back into digital DJing it has really re-awakened my love for it, yes it would be boring if I only had an S2 or similar and was mixing two decks with sync. However, the digital era has brought along so many extra things you can be doing, I’m constantly using loops and using my F1 to build extra drums/fx sounds on top of the tracks I am playing… When I play at home with my set up now I can honestly say there’s not a point where I am not busy working on something, whether it be EQing, FX, selecting the next track or selecting the next loops on my F1… In fact I often find myself needing an extra pair of hands.

8

Right. My homie and I have been essing around a lot lately with 2x4’s him mixing while I do fingerdrumming, sampling, and turntablism. He uses a DDJ SX with Serato. I use RekordBox DJ with DVS, two x1 mk2’s and a launchpad. We are definitely at a point in Deejaying that we could have never imagined when our only choice was vinyl.

9

i’ve been at it for 24 years and having more fun on digital than i ever did on vinyl. fx, loops, transitions, 4 decks, midi mapping and so so much more. the beat matching part is pretty basic and takes less than 10seconds on average for anyone decent.

10

I mean, DJing is more than just beatmatching, isn’t it?

It is true that thanks to the sync button, anyone can learn to DJ in about 10 minutes. But anyone can learn how to beatmatch, too; it just takes more time. It’s not like the pros are there just because they can beatmatch…they’re there because they do everything else better than anyone else.

This topic though has been discussed at length and every argument has been made countless times. If you’re bored with DJing, you should start producing.

11

maybe the music you are playing makes it boring. After all these years I still love mixing a great transition between two tracks that I dug for.

12

I recently got my cdj 400s back out to prove to my self that I could still mix with the bare essentials. It was one of the best times I have had behind the decks in a long time. No wave form no key display and no decimal point on the bpm. Was great fun

13

yes that’s for why i remember the best practice with 3 real turntables & real vinyls after playing a long times ago 4digits decks :slight_smile:

14

So, apparently, it’s a good idea to close this website and create DJ OldTools :stuck_out_tongue:!

15

yes

nice knowing you

16

:laughing: