Went to a bar with a laptop DJ last night...

[D J 1 3 8]

The good news:

A) HE SUCKED. Half of his mixes were fvcking trainwrecks.

B) massive technical problems. His laptop kept just cutting out in the middle of songs. He'd get this really overly-confused look like "Wha'happen??!" then hit the play button again.

The bad news:

A) people danced anyway.

B) I was sitting there thinking to myself "I spend $300 a month on vinyl and this clown gets his entire record collection for FREE" [img]mad1.gif[/img]

C) I have seen the future...and it ain't us (vinyl DJs)

[The Good Reverend Rollo Goodlove]

Originally posted by DJ 138:
The good news:

A) HE SUCKED. Half of his mixes were fvcking trainwrecks.

B) massive technical problems. His laptop kept just cutting out in the middle of songs. He'd get this really overly-confused look like "Wha'happen??!" then hit the play button again.

The bad news:

A) people danced anyway.

B) I was sitting there thinking to myself "I spend $300 a month on vinyl and this clown gets his entire record collection for FREE" [img]mad1.gif[/img]

C) I have seen the future...and it ain't us (vinyl DJs)

I have a friend who uses one of those programs to make mix cds for himself. I give him shit about it all the time. If that is the future it ain't pretty.

[GROOVE VICTIM]

Something I noticed while up in New York. I really don't have a clue what the crowd wants anymore.

Listening to Jihad Muhammad and Tyrone Francis saturday night, these cats were going off!! But I'm noticing that the crowds are steering away from the more gritty cuts that are being released and tend to dance only when the "Bongo" joints are being played.

Then Sunday night at Ashe', where Jellybean Benitez and Frankie Feliciano were playing, it was almost the total opposite, and this club caters to a more "progressive crowd". Both Frankie and Jellybean were playing great vocals, classics, pumped up stuff and the crowd was feeling it.


So what do you do? I say screw the mixing skills, hold on to the crowd as long as you can, no matter whether you're on a laptop, a tape deck, or two turntables.

Peace

[Bill Blake]

Originally posted by GROOVE VICTIM:
from the more gritty cuts that are being released and tend to dance only when the "Bongo" joints are being played.

Bongo joints are big here still

[dj c-los]

I think people want to feel good and dance nowadays. The only people that get impressed of crazy filtering, crab scraching, stops, and cuttin are other DJ's. I think early DJ's played for "the crowd," then went into a "look what i can do," but now it's going back to "the crowd."
laptop DJ's are funny but if i ran a bar...having a guy playing vinyl lp's is better 'eye-candy' and much more marketable.
But if there was a laptop DJ playin all the hottest tracks but trainwrecking
vs.
a DJ who plays what he wants but cut a sweat after 20 minutes into his set due to massive table tricks he was doing...who would you replace?

[Drrtynewyork]

was that kerri chandler playin? [img]biggrinangel.gif[/img]

[D J 1 3 8]

I don't ask for crab-scratching. just basic matching beats is the bare miniumu for a DJ leaving his bedroom. It's shocking how many DJs, both laptop and vinyl, never even mastered the basics.

And with a laptop, I'm assuming yuo can just punch i the freaking BPM. How the hell can you not match two beats when you can digitally set the BPM? that's shit's bananas.

[Bold Soul]

Programming! Keep the music going and open things up for the dancers. Make certain to mix cuts that everyone knows with new music and old classics with no rhyme or reason - just full of suprises. No one "oohs" and "aahs" over turtabilism on the dancefloor, but you toss in something that people haven't heard in ages and the whole room comes alive!

[GROOVE VICTIM]

[Bold Soul]

Originally posted by clos7:
I think people want to feel good and dance nowadays. The only people that get impressed of crazy filtering, crab scraching, stops, and cuttin are other DJ's. I think early DJ's played for "the crowd," then went into a "look what i can do," but now it's going back to "the crowd."
laptop DJ's are funny but if i ran a bar...having a guy playing vinyl lp's is better 'eye-candy' and much more marketable.
But if there was a laptop DJ playin all the hottest tracks but trainwrecking
vs.
a DJ who plays what he wants but cut a sweat after 20 minutes into his set due to massive table tricks he was doing...who would you replace?

The second DJ - no question.

[GROOVE VICTIM]

Originally posted by Bold Soul:
Programming! Keep the music going and open things up for the dancers. Make certain to mix cuts that everyone knows with new music and old classics with no rhyme or reason - just full of suprises. No one "oohs" and "aahs" over turtabilism on the dancefloor, but you toss in something that people haven't heard in ages and the whole room comes alive!

The problem is, you can't play alot of older records these days. People want to hear new unreleased stuff all the time. Nowadays, any ordinary Joe has access to exclusive stuff once praised by the Big Wigs. So as a result, they forcefeed new shit down our throats and leave the stuff from 2 months ago on the shelves collecting dust.

Now if you build up a reputation for playing a certain way then you're going to create a following that's familiar with your sound. You're expected to play a certain way for the crowd that supports you so in this case, your options are more open to do things such as, play classics, cut up records, blend everything, because that's what's expected.

Peace

[Chris Conrad]

Originally posted by DJ 138:
The good news:

A) HE SUCKED. Half of his mixes were fvcking trainwrecks.

B) massive technical problems. His laptop kept just cutting out in the middle of songs. He'd get this really overly-confused look like "Wha'happen??!" then hit the play button again.

The bad news:

A) people danced anyway.

B) I was sitting there thinking to myself "I spend $300 a month on vinyl and this clown gets his entire record collection for FREE" [img]mad1.gif[/img]

C) I have seen the future...and it ain't us (vinyl DJs)

this is something i've been trying to say for a while now...all the local dj's here in jersey play strictly downloaded music and laugh at us paying for music. often times their mp3's sound like pure garbage. these are the guys getting the gigs, becasue they will play for a much lower fee than most of us would, because they spend NOTHING on music.

[Ron la Rock]

Originally posted by DJ 138:
I don't ask for crab-scratching. just basic matching beats is the bare miniumu for a DJ leaving his bedroom. It's shocking how many DJs, both laptop and vinyl, never even mastered the basics.

And with a laptop, I'm assuming yuo can just punch i the freaking BPM. How the hell can you not match two beats when you can digitally set the BPM? that's shit's bananas.

WERD!

[Fred Naked]

I've said before, if the MP3/CD dj's had to pay for a lot of their music, it'd only be those producing the music playing on the MP3 mixers!!

[Edmund White]

I've been a vinyl DJ for 10 years... but if I were new to this and playing in bars, pop clubs, etc.... I'd probably buy Final Scratch or a Denon S5000 CD deck and buy music from the Apple iTunes Music Store. How much easier could it get?

[Insert pseudonym here]

Laptop DJ(s) are the "trend" of the future, but they may not be the future entirely.

I have the utmost faith is what I call the "quality factor". We (househeads) may not be the majority, but most of us are at an age where our disposable income has a bit more power than it used to... when you go to a venue and the music is not to your liking, break out your pen or the phone and ring up management. Though, most places cater to the twenty-something, its the dirty thirty-somethings that come to drink and eat and per person spend more money.

Watching a laptop DJ without getting a bit heated is hard, I even toy(ed) with the notion of going that route because it was so easy to download music and pre-program them ... but I wouldn't have learned anything and I don't think having a digital "jonez" would've truly fueled my "true passion" for music.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to "what chu play'n for"? If you are playing for the crowd, if you are playing for the hype, if you are playing for yourself or if you are playing for the sake of uplifting dance music....

You decide.

[jurren]

i'm with Efab here.

i do think there's a place for laptop dj's, if only they bring more then a 'classical' dj. someone like brendan m. gillen from ectomorph uses a program called 'ableton live' on his laptop while dj-ing, this way he can do remixes on the fly, and other things virtually impossible on a normal set-up. that's something i wouldn't mind hearing. but if someone just transfers his records to mp3, or downloads them from the internet, and plays them 'the old-fashioned-way' on his laptop, i say: why?
why, take a superior machine and not use any of it's extra features, and basically give people an inferior end result due to the inferior sound quality?

jurren

[ruse]

Originally posted by jurren:
i'm with Efab here.

i do think there's a place for laptop dj's, if only they bring more then a 'classical' dj. someone like brendan m. gillen from ectomorph uses a program called 'ableton live' on his laptop while dj-ing, this way he can do remixes on the fly, and other things virtually impossible on a normal set-up. that's something i wouldn't mind hearing. but if someone just transfers his records to mp3, or downloads them from the internet, and plays them 'the old-fashioned-way' on his laptop, i say: why?
why, take a superior machine and not use any of it's extra features, and basically give people an inferior end result due to the inferior sound quality?

jurren

hey jurren
ableton sounds interesting ... do you have any more details about it?
i am currently making the switch to final scratch ... i want to make my own edits, and i dont have time to cut tape (reel-to-reel) ... there are other factors, convenience primarily (cant be lugging all that vinyl around) ... i honestly dont think any crowd is going to notice the sound difference, especially with the quality of most club systems these days ... and are they going to care when i hit them hard with a set of ruse-edited classics?

[D J 1 3 8]

personally I feel if you have any self-respect and respect for the art of DJing, you could never be a laptop DJ.

I'm not saying laptops aren't decent tools for edits and whatnot, but give me vinyl and a crowd and I will tear a hole in any laptop DJ any day of the week.

[kev]

Originally posted by DJ 138:
personally I feel if you have any self-respect and respect for the art of DJing, you could never be a laptop DJ.

I'm not saying laptops aren't decent tools for edits and whatnot, but give me vinyl and a crowd and I will tear a hole in any laptop DJ any day of the week.

Tell that to FK and Kerri Chandler ;)

[ruse]

Originally posted by DJ 138:
personally I feel if you have any self-respect and respect for the art of DJing, you could never be a laptop DJ.

I'm not saying laptops aren't decent tools for edits and whatnot, but give me vinyl and a crowd and I will tear a hole in any laptop DJ any day of the week.

you are entitled to your opinion. i dont really see how technology determines respect or self-respect. at what point does respect end? with the technics 1200s and rane MP2016 mixer? maybe you are discounting all the possible innovation that can come from more mobile forms of DJing. i am personally averse to CD DJing, dont ask me why but i never liked the thought of it... but i cannot say that CD DJs dont respect the art, just look around at who is using CDs.
To me the biggest form of disrespect to this art are the djs who put out mixes with 13 songs, mixed one straight into the other. Or the onew who put out a mix every week... how much thought goes into each one of these mixes? The last mix I put out took me 3 months to complete, and my next one might take 6 or more. I would never want something out there with my name on it that wasnt perfect.

[Bill Blake]

I stuck my dick in an electrical socket. It didn’t feel as good as when I stuck it in an old fashioned meet grinder. But meat grinders are gonna make a comeback, sure the electricity is stimulating but there is gonna be a backlash.

Pretty soon you’ll see, everyone will be sticking their dicks in meat grinders, like God intended them to do.

[Brian]

i only respect people who spin 7"s

[statuskuo]

F u c k CDJs~!

[D J 1 3 8]

Originally posted by ruse:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by DJ 138:
personally I feel if you have any self-respect and respect for the art of DJing, you could never be a laptop DJ.

I'm not saying laptops aren't decent tools for edits and whatnot, but give me vinyl and a crowd and I will tear a hole in any laptop DJ any day of the week.

you are entitled to your opinion. i dont really see how technology determines respect or self-respect. at what point does respect end? with the technics 1200s and rane MP2016 mixer? maybe you are discounting all the possible innovation that can come from more mobile forms of DJing. i am personally averse to CD DJing, dont ask me why but i never liked the thought of it... but i cannot say that CD DJs dont respect the art, just look around at who is using CDs.
To me the biggest form of disrespect to this art are the djs who put out mixes with 13 songs, mixed one straight into the other. Or the onew who put out a mix every week... how much thought goes into each one of these mixes? The last mix I put out took me 3 months to complete, and my next one might take 6 or more. I would never want something out there with my name on it that wasnt perfect. </font>[/QUOTE]I see your point, and I will admit to being a bit heavy-handed with my blanket generalizations (I take this DJ shit personally yo) but the exceptions to the rule seem very far and few between for me. I'm not saying a laptop DJ can't make a crowd dance. Obviously they can. I witnessed it 2 nights ago. But to me, he sucked and lacked the feeling you get from a real DJ. I have witnessed the same thing with many CD DJs as well. It's certainly a personal taste thing, and I am most likely just showing my crusty old age, but I know a wack DJ when I hear one.

As for mixtapes, that's another very subjective thing. People make mixtapes for different reasons. Some do it to impress other DJs. Some do it to get gigs. Some do it just to put some new shit on CD so they can hear it at work. One's man booty mix is another man's perfect mix. Also, what takes you 3 months might take Louie Vega 3 days, nah'mean?