I know this has probably been brought up literally hundreds of times but I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place here (LIFE STORY ALERT…),
I started DJ’ing about 10 years ago on some really crappy belt drive turntables and a two channel cheapy mixer. But at the same time, messed about with software like EJay and Atomix (the granddaddy of Virtual DJ). As time went on I progressed onto Technics and in parallel with the likes of Virtual DJ and then Traktor. Due to other commitments, I then binned off all computer based DJ’ing and concentrated on turtablism, solid beatmatching and I had a residency in a club with 1210’s and a Xone: 92. Since moving hundreds of miles and therefore losing my residency, and travelling a lot with work, I got back into software DJ’ing and stumbled across DJTT, which with Mr Golden’s impressive skillset, and the likes of DJ Rafik, Shiftee and numerous hours on Youtube I got back into the fun side of DJ’ing by getting creative with cue points and effects instead of just beatmatching two vinyls.
Step forward to TSP and a fair few hundred pounds of midi controllers, I still feel like I’m being held back by my perhaps antiquated views that just pressing “Sync” feels like cheating. I still have to manually beatmatch all my tunes before cutting them up with effects and hotcues. I know deep down that it doesn’t matter and it’s all about the music. I know that cue point juggling, mashups and some of the amazing mixes I see all over this site would be impossible if you were spending half your time getting your tracks in sync. But I still can’t convince myself to get rid of my beloved 1210’s and buy an S4 or something. Digital DJ’ing IS the way forward (memory stick beats a crate full of records hands down) but I can’t commit and make the change.
Long and short of it is… how did you lot learn to fully embrace the digital DJ’ing age? Have you any regrets about moving on? Does anybody miss the old ways of doing it?
Just to clarify, I’m not one of the old school who looks down on DJ’s who SYNC, I used to teach DJ’ing and a lot of my students used Virtual DJ / Traktor and I fully accept it’s just the next step in the DJ’ing evolutionary process. At the end of the day, it’s about what noises you make out them speakers, not how you do it.
My opinion: As long as you know how to match by ear, and have put in your dues, use sync. Beatmatching is the most elementary part of what makes a good dj good. Take the hassle out of the equation and focus on doing more with your set instead. Look at big names like sasha, richie hawtin, carl cox, umek. All of them are using software and controllers to take their sets to the next level.
The only thing I miss about my vinyl days was the exclusivity of the tracks. White labels, promo presses etc. I miss having that special section of my crate that I knew were dance floor slayers that no one else had.
Seems we have traded lugging around a ton of records for lugging around a ton of equipment though.
I wanted to seriously try Ableton Live and didn’t have the money for both. Once you sell your turntables and CDJS, thus making it impossible to mix without sync, it gets a lot easier. I also just got over myself.
No. Well…a lot of the time I think a pitch fader is just plain easier than warping or setting beat grids. I curse the time I spend setting up things, but…when performing, no.
Cover art. Big, useful, physical cover art. That’s the only thing I miss. I don’t think it’s worth it because it’s a physical thing that has size and weight and places very stringent limits on what you can do, but that’s one thing I miss from the old ways. Little tiny jpgs are almost good enough, and they’re certainly good enough to justify it given all the other advantages…not the least of which is that I can fit my club rig in a messenger bag. If I had the money, I could also fit duplicates for everything in case something broke.
+1 to that!!
Ive found a few ways around that though,
Do a few exclusive mashups for your sets
Produce your own
Find some cool tunes on soundcloud that are unreleased and ask the artist for a copy(Ive been successful 99% of the time)
Get on a label promo list or get a few producer mates and talk them into giving you promos
5)Stop focusing on unusual material and focus on custom midi maps so you can do shit no one else can
Agree with that. I have a load pinned up on the wall in my little “studio”. And I quite like looking under my desk at hundreds of colourful sleeves.
Your right in “getting over yourself” too . Maybe thats just what it is. Getting over the fact that you don’t NEED to work pitch faders and finger the platter anymore, you can just press a button. That the definition of a DJ has changed. It used to be someone who could mix two (or more) tunes together in a seamless blend AND entertain the crowd. Now it’s someone who can entertain the crowd without all the worry of beatmatching manually.
Tell you what, I used to be a sceptic, but DJTT has done a lot to convince me otherwise…
I’ve struggled with this a bit myself and have come to a happy medium. If I feel like just long intro/outro mixing I beatmatch and pitch “old school”, but if I’m looping, sampling and tweaking hard with FX I’ll use the sync button. Using sync when I feel like just mixing with eq over long periods is kinda boring but I feel I’m justified in using it as long as I’m experimenting with all the other things Traktor has to offer.
When I got Traktor it was after a 10 year break in DJing. At first I tried to beatmatch every mix just because I’d forgotten the skill. Now I’ve got it back to where it was when I was 18-19 I beatmatch every 3rd or 4th transition when practicing at home.
That way I still practice beatmatching, to improve my ear, because you never know when you’ll need to play a tune that hasn’t been gridded correctly or has live drumming.
i miss using vinyl sometimes but space/expense/etc.. just meant having to give it up. would love to have a pair if 1210s in the corner to fiddle on now and again
dood keep the 1210s and buy an s4 and the scratch upgrade.
shit if you wanted to you could still beatmatch by ear on the 1210s and then use everything else traktor has to offer.
i personally “truely learned” on a digital rig, so i cant really say anything about switching from traditional to digital… but … i will say this… its all about making sure people are having fun and enjoying themselves (if not more importantly youre having fun while doing that) while listening/playing the best tunes (for the moment)… which i undoubtedly believe you already know.
also, watch videos and try and recreate what the “big names” are doing – cues/loops/fx/on the fly mashups and the whole thing… cause at the very least your evolving with the technology rather than standing by idly watching the scene pass you by while youre still fiddling with the pitchfader on your 1210s.
I fully embraced it because it was more efficient, gave me access to more tools, and allowed me to really grow as a creative force while playing other people’s tunes.
I started on CDs and felt it pointless, really. I was heavily limited to just two decks and a mixer, and unless I was willing to blow over two grand those decks would be heavily limited as well, as would the mixer. But for a little over 1500 I could have four decks, total control of those decks, and access to more music faster.
And then I learned how to map controllers in a dynamic way and the doors really opened up. I have never heard a single CD DJ do what we do, even with four decks and an effects box. It’s not possible to have this kind of control as intuitively as we do.
Mine are in the loft, been there for two years since the wife went back to uni and my “studio” lost it’s IO and got a “y” instead…
I would love to spin some tunes, had been thinking about it recently while off work but I am still not allowed to lift more than 10lbs let alone two decks and my DJM600! I can do some ear-matching on the S4 which is ok, am going to fiddle with the platters to get the sensitivity something like CDJs I think, see if I can recapture that feeling!
As for being all digital and using synch, it seems that there are a lot more “older” djs on here who came up with technics and/or cdjs and there is much less abuse for synch users than on DJF for instance, I guess folks over here have embraced possibilities of digital way more than in other sections of teh interwebz!
The whole experience of learning to beat match helps you out as a musician in many other ways so i wouldn’t worry about losing a skill you had to learn as there is still a lot of merit in being able to do that and it’s a good backup if you just want to play with some CDJs.
I would keep the TTs tbh, i just like the feel of them and they can be used creatively alongside controllers as the likes of shiftee and kraze exibhit.
Exactly why I’m addicted to DJTT. It’s full of people pushing the concept further, not people stuck in the past. I’m not that old actually, only 24, and it was more the skill of scratching, juggling and beatmatching with just your ears and a finger on the platter that attracted me to DJ’ing in the first place. I seem to be stuck in the two decks and mixer mindset. I spend half my free time just watching in awe with a smile on my face at some of the crazy routines I see on the net. I just feel like I’ll be cutting off a limb binning off my Technics… took me long enough to save for them!
And it’s the likes of Shiftee and Ean Golden who got me to expand into controllerism in the first place. I saw a few routines and was like… “I so have to learn to do that!”
i learned on vinyl decks, moved onto CDJ’s and have just sold my CDJ’s to fund an Audio 8, Tpro and a DN-SC2000.
I would never sell my 1210’s, they are what got me started and i still have loads of old vinyl. They haven’t had much use recently but i feel the same as you. I’m still gridding tracks and when i do have a little mix i feel like i have barely scratched the surface.
Yet
Gonna get a mix together(first one in about 4-5 years) and post it up here and see what people think. Gotta grid the rest of my tracks first though
All of the effects and next-level controllerist bollocks in the world are worthless compared to playing a really good track at the right time. All that sh*t we all do…people have thought that DJs were doing that since EDM started, because no one knows what DJs actually do. When they find out, they tend to think DJing is pointless. Either that or they actually get it and respect the true craft of running a party.
I use Traktor now because it’s easy and intuitive. I can concentrate on my floor and my mix and not worry about a record falling out of time or a TT’s pitch fader being so dirty it jumps from +2 to +5 in a millimeter. I can spend an entire track trying out 10 to come next in my headphones without worrying so much about running out of time. Or, I can wank around with the next in a long line of pointless stutter effects.
Maybe I’m weird…and I know I’m in the minority on DJTT, but I have yet to hear an effects-heavy set hold my attention for more than 5 minutes. And I haven’t heard anyone do anything with controllers that can’t be done on hardware that’s been available for a long time if you’ve got the money and the dedication. Yes, that includes Ean. He seems a great guy, and I’m very thankful for the tips he gives and the community he’s created…but his sets (yes, recordings of sets…not example videos) bore me to tears. I gave up trying to listen to them.
Saying that FX make you creative or that they’re your reason for using sync is nothing but a cop out. Grow some balls and admit the truth: you use it because it’s easier.
So do I.
There’s nothing wrong with that.
Admit that first…then learn to play a real set. Then you can play with effects. But, believe me, your beatmasher + filter + cue point routine is nothing compared to a really good track. Don’t believe me? Make one. Not into production…play one and watch what happens.
Nothing changed…one of the menial, technical tasks now happens before the gig instead of during it. That’s it.
If you want to look at what changed, look into Ableton Live, Maschine, or the Elektron Octatrack. Almost everything they do has been around a while…except the prices. That’s the only thing that’s changed.
i only read the first post, so forgive me if everything i say has already been said.
I started back into vinyl. I have been buying a lot in the past few months. I rarely hit up sites like beatport and haven’t downloaded any music in a while. I still use traktor to gig, but when I’m home, I don’t even hook it up, unless I’m recording. I barely use it at gigs anymore. I take about 70 records to a gig, and rarely go to my computer music. I don’t have near the amount of fun using my computer. And buying vinyl- honestly, I have way better tunes. I’ve been playing a lot of my older records, and they cannot be touched by anything that is being produced these days. I’m having a hard time even liking new electronic music. There is no more soul out there anymore.
Amen to that… Not to sound like a vinyl dinosaur, I actually bought a record from a shop last month. Not because I really liked the record, but because all the decent vinyl I have bought in the past 3 or 4 years has been online as there aren’t any record shops near me. And buying records is strangely more satisfying than clicking a download button.
Although £7 for a record can buy you about 7 tracks off the t’interweb.
but space/expense/etc.. just meant having to give it up. would love to have a pair if 1210s in the corner to fiddle on now and again
