Here's A Loaded Question????

[Kiani]

where are all these examples of people pushing the technology to the max with digital djing, btw?

point well made. I hear a lot of people pro-digital say "yeah but the possibilities are endless!". And yet 99% of the sets I hear from Ableton dj's just sound like basic beatmatching with vinyl, except there's no skill needed to glue the tracks together.
Anyway... I find it kinda strange to read that minimal is seen as a commercial thing by most people, meanwhile in belgium it never really happened and you hardly hear decent minimal anywhere or it's at pretty small parties. But the main part here is fidget and elektrohouse clash whatever you call it. Makes me a very sad person if you realize we once were a country where it really was all happening...

What happened to the hard techno and Acid? Some good stuff used to come out of Belgium. I always had this impression of the Belgian scene as being hard as nailz.

Wohow, you're talkin about the 1990-1992 era...

Since the arrival of new millenium, 2 many DJ's ruined it all with their rock approach towards EDM. It's soft now, or extreme chaos with the nu rave hipsters wanting to impress the chicks...

[MannyLedezma]

Well everything does go in cycles. There is a building of that wonky fidget house, dubstep, and indie/nu disko, sound here in the states as well. Must be everywhere. There is one thing you can always be certain though; when al these trends become over saturated, everything will move back to it's roots of techno, house, and dnb.

[shypht]

where are all these examples of people pushing the technology to the max with digital djing, btw?

I think a vision of where it could go is DE9: Transitions.

Obviously it's a studio mix, but I do think that technology can help get that type of a mix closer to a live setting. As people have pointed out though, is this can start to reduce producers into glorified loop-machines.

I think Digital DJing also opens things up to allow people to better incorporate their own productions into sets and getting more DJ/Live-PA hybrids where you can mix between Live-PAs and more traditional DJing easier.

Although another downside with a heavy focus on digital, is it seems to fuel this desire for "new, new, new, unreleased" which is then fueled by rather poorly produced tracks. The barriers of entry into digital distribution is so low anyone can do it easily, which floods the market with more disposable music. And hey - if all a DJ is going to use is a 16 bar loop chopped up, why make an entire good track anymore?

[Ingemar]

i agree with shypth here, because i have often felt this sort of pressure from the old wolves in the game (you vinyl junkies yeah), that using ableton to mix makes you one of a million kids that wants to be a dj.

personally I've always been sitting on the fence between 'old school' and 'new school' - i still dream about a massive vinyl collection but its still miles away - and i dj in ableton. But what i have found to be a big energy injection into my production side of things is that i always start things out as loops nowadays, if the loop turns out to be interesting i make a track of it, and if not i dj with it.

What I appreciate is dj's who play only their own stuff. live or not, whether its 'just' loops or full tracks. when I talk to guitarrists, drummers or livebands i always feel like less of an artist when i 'only' play other peoples tracks. Therefor I want to play soley my own productions and improvisations. Its not about now now now, its about me me me.

I want to be recogniced as a musician and not a dj, even though i love to dj.





i just have to continue my drunken rant here;

when I hear an awesome track that makes me feel in a specific way i want to share it to others. Even though none of my friends like electronic music the slightest i still expose them to say alex smoke or bruno pronsato in the car, just because i want to get the same reaction out of them as i do when i listen to these tracks. Need i say that they wonder whether or not i am high as im driving? At least this is what drives me to play records: to share a feeling. Therefor i understand the 'old school-ness' of playing track after track and letting them do their own thing, and sure i appreciate that, but that takes one hell of a record collection to do properly and knowledge of every track. What ive become enchanted with is taking your own bits and pieces and forging together in a way that is not what you thought when you made the loops, but what you think and feel now.

and to be honest, it doesnt sound perfectly produced or mastered, even structured, when playing my own stuff, but to me it feels alive in way i cannot achieve by playing other tracks. that can only take me so far.

me me me

[MannyLedezma]

I don't think at all it's "old school" to play track to track. Even good old school DJs on vinyl can mix and create with others music. I personally like and respect both ways of playing. I've just seen too many people use these programs to get out of the bedroom sooner than later and it's horrible. Then they will say "but you can be so much more creative with the program" yet all they do is mix track to track and use some effects, or might switch the bassline or use the vocals of a track. Everything I can do with a couple of cd decks and a mixer. I started playing "back in the day" when there were only records. I held off on switching to cds for as long as I could. I will eventually switch over to tracktor but, I will probably hold off on that for as long as possible as well.

I think a good dj progresses with time and technologies. I think they take what they learn from each format and apply it to the time. For example, if you had never spun anything but vinyl then you have no idea how to be creative mixing while working a room with such a time constraint (that is if you actually mix and not just play track to track).

[dav.id]

What do you see as the future of Minimal House and Techno?

At least this is what drives me to play records: to share a feeling.

like it!
that way seems to be a creative future for music... mnml, house or wtf.

[Christ Lewis]

where are all these examples of people pushing the technology to the max with digital djing, btw?

I've discovered traktor 3 can't adjust key while the tracks plays backward, sped up by the pitch bend and having an effect over it (if I remember correctly). I guess that's one example of pushing a new technology to the max. All I'm trying to say, we're out there.

[trak660]

I will eventually switch over to tracktor but, I will probably hold off on that for as long as possible as well.

Solution = Traktor Scratch

To me, good Ableton and Traktor DJing should be like a live remix. For a DJ to simply beatmatch with all of those tools available to them is wack.

There's been a lot of talk about minimal going commercial, and how so many scenes have degenerated into electro house and top-40 remixes. To these people, I say drag these flourescent-sneakered busters out of the booth by their pink neck bandanas and kick their asses if you want things to change.