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I really believe the DJ-superstar thing started somewhere around the turn of this millenium. Before that you of coarse had some great names, but not that whole OMG-Guetta-Remix-My-poo poo-I'll-Pay-Six-Figures-Crap that the general public considers to be part of being a true DJ. In the nineties DJ's where still the lesser kind, because you generally played other people's music, from the corner of the room, while everybody else was having fun and that was all it was to them: party-music. Even in the vinyl days people tended to think that anyone could do that, never bothering to try themselves, because if you really wanted to be cool; you bought a guitar. The music being played was far more important than the person playing it. This left a void in which the first generation of those that later became todays famous DJ's started to work, play and develop dance music. Slowly but surely people started to recognize and respect these new-born artists, because of their importance to music up until the point where we seemed to have forgotten all about the music and just worship the DJ. I may be a cynic, and this piece smells like I'm yearning for the old days (which I'm actually not, I mean common house-pants and fury boots, that poo poo was plain wrong.) But I really hope the next big thing comes along soon and all the kids that just want fame start selling their controllers buying kazoo's because thats what Skrillex is rocking from now on.
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Apr 4, 2012 23:46
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epswing posted:I don't think the argument was about "this medium is better than that medium" but more of an observation that "the barrier to entry for medium X is quite low, which leads to ignorance, and a larger number of folks who have worked a smaller number of hours because it's arguably easier to learn than medium Y" There have been lovely DJs since turntables. It's nothing new with controllers. People were literally using this same argument years ago: that CDJs were easier to use than turntables and was making things worse. And now that same argument is being recycled and used here. The whole idea that the equipment you're using has any sort of connection to who you are/your skills is so ridiculous I wish it would stop being brought up. It's not any easier to be a great DJ now than it was 5 years ago, and the only difference now is its marginally easier to not trainwreck every transition. People who aren't going to put effort into DJing will always not put effort into it - vinyl, controller, CDs. Bad DJs are bad DJs. The lack of a sync button never stopped Captain Douchebag from "DJing" and the presence of it now doesn't make any difference to him now. He's still going to play his bad songs in no intelligible order, only this time the crowd won't have to endure as many trainwrecks. Technology changes, people don't. Lots of people on this planet are terrible by nature, it's an unfortunate fact of life. Just enjoy the artists and DJs that know what they are doing, and ignore the rest. Music should be fun, don't stress when Captain Douchebag plays 3 Guetta tracks in a row, just walk away.
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Apr 5, 2012 00:13
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I really miss the old days, when stringed instruments only had 4 strings on them and you had to get an ensemble together to play music, seems like these days any rear end in a top hat can grab a "guitar" and play "rock music" for his "friends" In seriousness though, DJing goes in cycles, just like anything else. In the 70s it was ALL about the DJ, where groups of 4 or 5 MCs were there just to hype the MC and the tracks to the crowd. MCs took the forefront in the 80's, and DJs became background again, and then in the 90's DJ's rose to be the stars again. Technology changes the scene a little bit, but not much. I think it's more about popular opinion swinging back and forth reichsten fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Apr 5, 2012 |
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Apr 5, 2012 00:23
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JohnnyMondo posted:I tried to go to the last one but the line was down the block by 10 pm and not moving at all from what I could tell. Not trying to wait in line in the cold for 2 hours, sorry Claude Hmm, I remember showing up pretty early and not waiting to get in. Maybe you got there right before the door price went up to $20?
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Apr 5, 2012 00:27
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The best DJs are still all the huge gay black men from 1970s Chicago. That scene fuckin owned. What I wouldn't give to be a huge gay black man in 1970s Chicago. E: on an unrelated note I'd also pay money to be Carl Cox for a day, gay or not.
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Apr 5, 2012 01:13
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mitztronic posted:There have been lovely DJs since turntables. It's nothing new with controllers. People were literally using this same argument years ago: that CDJs were easier to use than turntables and was making things worse. And now that same argument is being recycled and used here. yes yes yes yes, BUT people with controllers IN THIS DAY AN AGE tend to put far less effort into being a "good" dj than someone that has a vinyl/cdj setup that took years to get. Sure people drop 5gs on new cdjs and a djm all at once, but its alot more rare than someone buying a $350 controller. Do you see why its much more LIKELY that someone with a controller would suck? just purely because of how long theyve used a controller as compared to a turntablist. i think in a few years people will rock controllers just as hard as vinyl or cdjs, but until people become really proficient on controllers, they kinda lag behind people that dont use controllers. its not that controllers makes you suck, its most people with controllers suck.
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Apr 5, 2012 01:14
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I'm sure it's more likely that someone with a controller sucks, but only because the barrier of entry is lower. Same thing happened with fruityloops, instead of having to drop thousands of dollars on equipment you can download a program and some drum samples and make music, and then with the internet you can share it. This is a recipe for more music in general, and so naturally more of it is going to be poo poo... on the other hand, you get a lot of kids who are super talented releasing tracks that they literally wouldn't have been able to afford to make 20 years ago. So yes, there are more sucker DJs but there are more sucker everythings in the age of the internet... deal with it, I guess. JohnnyMondo posted:What a creep! The conversations above are silly to me, I can barely remember the last time I saw a truly terrible DJ in SF. As You Like It are one of the best promoters locally: https://www.facebook.com/AsYouLikeItSF They do some epic headliner shows more on the techno/tech-house side but a lot of their local DJs do local, smaller parties you might like. No Way Back at 222 Hyde comes to mind, probably more housey than techno. Kontrol at End Up is almost exclusively techno, I think that's a monthly party. My favorite club is probably Mezzanine here all things considered... it's a bit glamorous compared to 222 Hyde but their soundsystem is no joke and I've been to some great parties there. I really like Mighty too. Public Works has some great parties but there's something about the layout that kind of irks me... I can't really put it into words and I have had some great times there but the open layout of the main room kind of gets to me.
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Apr 5, 2012 03:14
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Regarding controller DJs generally being less experienced than vinyl or CD DJs, I don't buy the argument that its due to controller DJs not having to learn to beat match. Before your can beat match, you aren't going to be playing out getting experience actually DJing for people. Time spent learning to beat match is time that could have been spent working on mixing, digging for new tracks, learning which of your tracks work well together, etc. If two equally talented people start to learn to DJ at the same time, one with vinyl, the other with a controller, I think the controller DJ will have more experience with the creative aspects of DJing by the time they both have the skill to perform without trainwrecking. I think the real reason why any given controller DJ is likely less experienced than a vinyl or CD DJ is most people learning to DJ these days start with a controller. Yes, there are some very experienced DJs that have switched to controllers, but I'd wager the vast majority of controller DJs have been DJing for less than 3 years. Its similar to how in years past if you saw a DJ with a super budget mixer and cd players, they were probably less experienced than a DJ with CDJ800s & a DJM800.
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Apr 5, 2012 04:34
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Can we quit beating the dead horse that is the vinyl/cdjs/controllers are better/worse argument? In other news, Native Instruments has completely changed the way they sell their gear. From DjTechTools: quote:Native Instruments announced this morning a consolidation of their Traktor product line, centered around the new 2.5 release which contains the new “Remix Decks”. They’ve simplified the DJ offerings and finally offered precise details on when we can expect to see Traktor Pro 2.5 and the Kontrol F1 controller. This is pretty cool, except for everyone who hates controllers. You can now have a fully functional sound card with powerful software for $100. edit This seemed to get lost in the dead horse beating: Old Man Pants posted:I'll be playing at L!V, during DEMF, does that count? Also, how far away is this place from Hart Plaza, and is this a cool place people go to? I already have everything signed and set, but no idea if this is going to be a fun booking or for something no one wants to go to. Old Man Pants fucked around with this message at 15:11 on Apr 5, 2012 |
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Apr 5, 2012 13:01
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I'm interested in seeing how the new BPM detection behaves, it might make using Traktor less terrible for me. Native Intstruments should really support reading Serato cue points directly since they're saved in the MP3 so people like me could easily switch between the software. They have a converter but since Traktor writes the cue points in its database I would have to constantly run the converter when I got new tracks. edit: also controllers are dumb and/or awesome depending on your skill level and needs as a dj. TheWevel fucked around with this message at 14:05 on Apr 5, 2012 |
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Apr 5, 2012 14:03
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TheWevel posted:I'm interested in seeing how the new BPM detection behaves, it might make using Traktor less terrible for me. Native Intstruments should really support reading Serato cue points directly since they're saved in the MP3 so people like me could easily switch between the software. They have a converter but since Traktor writes the cue points in its database I would have to constantly run the converter when I got new tracks. Traktor writes them to the database but also adds them to the file. I suspect neither vendor really wants to make it easy to switch back and forth; they both want to lock you into their respective systems.
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Apr 5, 2012 14:36
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I think there's actually a good argument for a DJ-specific file format, it would be pretty cool if you could have a portable standard container format, especially if it could save cue points, loops or even multiple versions of one song [clean/dirty/instrumental/acapella].
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Apr 5, 2012 15:58
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qirex posted:I think there's actually a good argument for a DJ-specific file format, it would be pretty cool if you could have a portable standard container format, especially if it could save cue points, loops or even multiple versions of one song [clean/dirty/instrumental/acapella]. That would actually be pretty badass, to be have 4 different audio files within 1 DJ format file, so you can switch between them. If you started playing the dirty version and realize it a few bars in, just switch over to the clean one! Man that would be badass. Also on SF clubs, I agree Mezzanine is my all around favorite club. The sound system is pretty much the best in the city, and the crowd is usually down to dance. It's a LITTLE bit bigger than I would like, but that means it almost never gets too crowded, like Mighty does pretty much every time.
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Apr 5, 2012 20:05
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JohnnyMondo posted:That would actually be pretty badass, to be have 4 different audio files within 1 DJ format file, so you can switch between them. If you started playing the dirty version and realize it a few bars in, just switch over to the clean one! You could do this with some of the multichannel audio formats out there. Just use a WAV file encoded with AC3. You could also probably use MPEG4. I think the problem would be the latency in decoding and the pops/clicks when changing streams. edit: and licensing fees if you used dolby TheWevel fucked around with this message at 20:33 on Apr 5, 2012 |
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Apr 5, 2012 20:30
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Does Traktor's new BPM and tempo detection engine support a grid that changes tempo yet?
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Apr 5, 2012 21:10
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qirex posted:I think there's actually a good argument for a DJ-specific file format, it would be pretty cool if you could have a portable standard container format, especially if it could save cue points, loops or even multiple versions of one song [clean/dirty/instrumental/acapella].
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Apr 6, 2012 02:58
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Splinter posted:Does Traktor's new BPM and tempo detection engine support a grid that changes tempo yet? Oh God I hope so. It really can't be that hard.
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Apr 6, 2012 16:42
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keevo posted:I remember there being someone who was trying start this a couple of years ago. I bet a lot of labels would be against this. Why labels? I would assume the only people affected are retailers, because it would take up a lot more bandwidth per track
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Apr 7, 2012 00:03
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I ponied up the 60 bucks for Mixed in Key last night and let it analyze 5000 of my songs just to see how it went. The analysis is over and I have a gig tonight so I'll be harmonically mixing rap all night, should be fun.
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Apr 7, 2012 18:26
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TheWevel posted:harmonically mixing rap all night I did not know this was a thing.
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Apr 7, 2012 18:30
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That was kind of the joke. But yes it is possible.
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Apr 7, 2012 18:42
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Old Man Pants posted:wait, what? Hey dude, I do this from time to time It's mostly useful for longer blends and on-the-fly mashups
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Apr 8, 2012 00:20
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vanilla slimfast posted:Hey dude, I do this from time to time It that how you mixed that solid gold one(?) you did a while back? Because that was awesome. I need to grab that from you again.
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Apr 8, 2012 01:09
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Old Man Pants posted:It that how you mixed that solid gold one(?) you did a while back? Because that was awesome. I need to grab that from you again. White Gold, yup. Still up on soundcloud: http://snd.sc/IieXX2
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Apr 8, 2012 19:50
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JohnnyMondo posted:Why labels? I would assume the only people affected are retailers, because it would take up a lot more bandwidth per track Opposed to new file formats and new technology? Just a wild and uneducated guess.
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Apr 9, 2012 06:10
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So I just picked up some CDJ2000s (my wallet hurts but these things loving own). I'm getting ready to burn all of my music to DVD-R and wondering if anyone has any insight to share with regard to keeping things organized. I get that I should be organizing by Genre and Date - should I back-date tracks I've bought over the past couple of years, or lump things together and simply label every disc 'April 2012' for now? Is there any advantage to organizing by BPM, not Genre? Is it really that important to print slips to go with each disc?
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Apr 16, 2012 22:46
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Mister Speaker posted:So I just picked up some CDJ2000s (my wallet hurts but these things loving own). I'm getting ready to burn all of my music to DVD-R and wondering if anyone has any insight to share with regard to keeping things organized. I get that I should be organizing by Genre and Date - should I back-date tracks I've bought over the past couple of years, or lump things together and simply label every disc 'April 2012' for now? Is there any advantage to organizing by BPM, not Genre? Is it really that important to print slips to go with each disc? what about usb sticks? seems alot easier
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Apr 16, 2012 22:57
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Oh, deffo. Matter of fact I just got two Patriot XT 8GB sticks in the mail. But I do want to be prepared with proper backups, or in case somewhere I play doesn't have 2000s.
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Apr 16, 2012 23:15
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Mister Speaker posted:or in case somewhere I play doesn't have 2000s. Don't burn DVD-Rs then. Burn CDs and make sure they are AUDIO cds (not DATA), as only the newest versions of the 1000s (mk3) and 800s (mk2) can read data. OG 1000s, 1000 MK2s, and OG 800s can't read data at all, and they're still quite prevalent in clubs and at parties vanilla slimfast fucked around with this message at 04:54 on Apr 17, 2012 |
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Apr 17, 2012 04:51
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I had a pair of Denon DN-S1000s, and they read data and audio cds alike. The performance, however, was noticeably better on audio cds, when it came to jogwheel responsiveness. Has anyone else noticed this?
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Apr 17, 2012 05:18
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epswing posted:I had a pair of Denon DN-S1000s, and they read data and audio cds alike. The performance, however, was noticeably better on audio cds, when it came to jogwheel responsiveness. its because wavs are uncompressed and when you use data its mp3 and it has to decode it first
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Apr 17, 2012 08:46
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vanilla slimfast posted:Don't burn DVD-Rs then. Burn CDs and make sure they are AUDIO cds (not DATA), as only the newest versions of the 1000s (mk3) and 800s (mk2) can read data. Exactly what this guy said. You are more likely to find something that will play off your USB than you are to find something that will play a DVD. If you want to be prepared, keep a little book of audio cds, including one that has a premixed set on it in case of ultimate disaster.
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Apr 17, 2012 10:01
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Yeah, I don't even know if the 2000s read DVDs. That is total nonsense as a backup plan. You want USB and CDs for sure.
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Apr 17, 2012 20:46
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vanilla slimfast posted:Don't burn DVD-Rs then. Burn CDs and make sure they are AUDIO cds (not DATA), as only the newest versions of the 1000s (mk3) and 800s (mk2) can read data. Ohh, drat. This is something I really should have checked into before buying a bunch of blank DVDs. Thanks for the heads-up. EDIT: In related news, I'm really enjoying the CDJs' intuitive menus. Most of what prompted my post asking for media organizing advice, was fear that I'd have to arrange a tiered folder structure - like, Genre>Artist>Album>TRACK - on every CD/DVD I burn. Nope, the 2000 not only takes DVDs but gives options to sort by Artist or Album as well - unfortunately no Genre. Naturally, I imagine this disappears with an audio CD (so I've still got to get my poo poo together with tons of CDs), but it's rad nonetheless. The GUI looks like a guddamn car stereo. Mister Speaker fucked around with this message at 09:39 on Apr 18, 2012 |
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Apr 18, 2012 09:32
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Make sure you enable CD TEXT when you burn audio cds or your pretty displays will be basically useless for all the info it would otherwise show you
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Apr 18, 2012 16:22
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I take pleasure in reading long, drawn out, heated discussions on other online forums pertaining to the controversy surrounding the mighty sync button. It's funny because beatmatching is so easy a childe could do it after practicing for an afternoon.
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Apr 18, 2012 17:50
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vas0line posted:I take pleasure in reading long, drawn out, heated discussions on other online forums pertaining to the controversy surrounding the mighty sync button. It's funny because beatmatching is so easy a childe could do it after practicing for an afternoon. i dont understand it either, i mean, beatmatching is not really the hard part about DJing.
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Apr 18, 2012 19:59
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oredun posted:i dont understand it either, i mean, beatmatching is not really the hard part about DJing. Listen man, your giant video game controllers are breaking my tonearms when you set them down on my tables. How would you learn how to pitch bend if you never use the pitch since you have sync on????
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Apr 18, 2012 20:38
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oredun posted:i dont understand it either, i mean, beatmatching is not really the hard part about DJing. Did you know that software like Traktor does all the work for you, like, literally? It loads the song into there, detects exactly where the kicks are and what BPM it is, exactly where the tempo changes are. poo poo, it loads in cue points for me so that I know where to mix a song and it even hits the play button all at the right time for me! No wait, it does none of that. I love how people (not you, I mean like our troll friend who ran with his tail between his legs) completely overlook how much work there is involved in using a feature like sync well and properly. The sync button doesn't do poo poo if your music isn't tagged/organized/set up properly it just leads to horrible trainwreck disasters.
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Apr 18, 2012 20:46
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The funny thing about the whole sync debate is that CDJ's allow you to do the same thing, set both cd players to the same bpm, and all you gotta do is get the start right and they will stay locked for the most part.
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Apr 18, 2012 21:24
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