I’m come to the realization that when it comes to the use of effects (I’m using VDJ), not only does the old adage “less is more” make sense, but my own, new, adage “none is more” seems to apply.
Lol.
But really. It seems like all but the most subtle effects are far too obvious and cheesy. So really my question is this: in what situations are effects not only useful, but practical? I’m still pretty green to the whole concept of DJing, so maybe I’m just missing the point.
It really depends on how much of a “performance” the audience expects. In my case they expect to hear the originals, so effects will only really be used for transitions.
I feel you, I don’t use effects for the same reason, I just don’t like them, I suppose you have to be very skilled to use them well and is not my case, it also depends on the music you play I play mainly house which is not suitable for effects because is very musical, I think more electronic genres like techno or minimal - techouse can benefit of them but you have to learn by practice how and when to use those.
I like to use a filter during almost every transition. Even though i use it more like a eq, using it to isolate the parts of the song that i want to stand out during the mix. I find filtering has more control than traditional eq’s. Especially to drop out the lows, while maintaining a quality sounding mid.
See, I use some effects just to do something interesting. Filters, Phasers, Flangers all can add some intensity to breakdowns and build ups, as well as phasing in intro’s or phasing outro’s out.
And the beatmasher is still my best friend for chopping stuff up.
I was using a Beatmasher, Filter 92 LFO and an Echo to cut out a small piece of a Housey piano track, filter it in and out then echo the result with lots of feedback to produce an entirely new Techno track in the process. Just add a beat or an acid line underneath and voila.
I like taking loops and mashing them beyond recognition and using that as the start of a new transition into harder stuff. Best part is, with the beatmasher at 0, once you’ve captured your sample you get your second deck back to add a third layer.
In general, when I use FX I use them as if I were producing a track. That means to be TASTEFUL. It’s hella fun to mash on a fader to ring in your FX, but you can’t dance to it like that. Often times during a transition I’ll mimic the sound of the incoming track by throwing an FX on the current track, which is another good trick.
Another piece of advice would be to use foresight. Plan your FX out in advance the same way you plan your sets out in advance (i.e. ideally you should know the next 2-4 songs you’re going to play, so why not think about how you’ll use FX during the transition?).
I really like the delay, beatmasher and gater effects.
I use delay for adding a bit of depth. For example, a build up can be that much more powerful with a bit of delay helping to drive it.
The beatmasher is used like a 4 bar sampler. Pretty handy to have at the ready.
The gater I use often in conjunction with the delay. Especially useful when transitioning, I can add a bit of delay to get a cool bit of added beats (generally after I’ve started the mix and I’ve brought the volume down). Then as the other track continues to build, I can use the gater to subtrack out a bit of the old track to allow the new track to shine in the right places.
I’ve also used some stuff like delay/mulholland/gater at the end of a set to create a crazy noisy finish, especially if ending a set with some trailing vocals.
I dint use effects that much, but I have found when you really have a party rocking people go nuts for effects, and apparently the more blatant the more they like it (excluding flanger from this - flanger is stupidly over used).
If the booth is positioned so the crowd can see what you are doing they are seeing a direct correlation between your actions and a change in the sound, which most people (other than DJ’s and trainspotters) never really have the experiance of.
Get a program with better effects, or alternativly try learn to use those effects correctly ! Effects are really really powerful mixing tools once you learn to use them properly.
Yeah but you dont have decent proper control over those VST effects and most vsts have wayyyy too many parameters to be useful for live stuff, also the audio routing capabilities are pathetic - which pretty much makes using VST effects effectivly a non event.
Try making a smartmixer for instance, no chance in hell !
To use VST’s properly you need to be able to get your hands grubby in audio routing and comprehensive midi mapping which no software made for digital dj’s supports.
Dj programs claiming VST support is a joke unless its got the right hosting enviroment to use those effects correctly in the first place. The only effects that are really useful in that sort of an enviroment is effects that were created intentionaly for live use, which there are really very very very little of these plugins in existance let alone any that are any good.
Ableton is the only program that is a good host for using VST effects effectivly in a live situation, but then thats not exactly targeted directly at dj’s !
Would it be a good idea to make a feature request on the Traktor forums or ask in Traktor on the record about extending the MIDI capabilities to support some sort of smart mixing? MIDI modifiers just isn’t enough and the MIDI mapping interface = Blah.
It would take more than just extending the midi mappings - the whole way the fx section works would need to undergo some huge fundamental changes. That or they just build it in with with the EQ controls.
i think it also depends a little on what kind of music you’re mixing. i like to use delay (+ freeze at times) for mixing dubstep just because delays/echoes are used a lot in dubstep music and it fits the track a lot of the time. you know?
Yeah. Plus, given that not all VSTs are set up the same way, and they all do different things, mapping out the controls on your hardware to adjusting effect parameters would be awfully confusing.
