DJ ing with laptops

steevio · Post by **steevio** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 12:23 am

it looks like this thread wont die.

i'd just like to say that most of these arguments are pointless.

i believe that the whole concept of the DJ be it on vinyl or digital is on the decline, and that more and more promoters will be looking for people to play original material at events.
if i go to see a band, i dont expect to hear mostly cover versions.

IMO the technology is put to much better use by artists playing their own material, and as a promoter that is what i focus on. i've got nothing against DJs and i still book them to play at my events, but i've found myself recently being more inclined to book live acts.
its a natural progression for me, and i know others who feel the same way,
playing electronic music live used to be difficult to achieve with fluidity, but not anymore.

livecollective · Post by **livecollective** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 12:34 am

steevio wrote: its a natural progression for me, and i know others who feel the same way,
playing electronic music live used to be difficult to achieve with fluidity, but not anymore.

some people still sound sh!t. but i agree, its all about bringing in much more live element.

oblioblioblio · Post by **oblioblioblio** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 12:39 am

steevio wrote: i believe that the whole concept of the DJ be it on vinyl or digital is on the decline, and that more and more promoters will be looking for people to play original material at events.
if i go to see a band, i dont expect to hear mostly cover versions.

there's still use for djs yet I think. (sorry, bit of a tangent here)

my mates put on a great little festival at the weekend of experimental music and the crowd was pretty far from a typical rave crowd (lots of sitting down!). at the end of the night a couple of djs soundtracked some movies (one with subtitles and the other was more repetitive visual atmospherics rather than plot focussed), and my mate showed me the soundtrack he did to a different film the next day.

fck! I think they had definitely found a niche there. Both things my mate did (one for Gojira, and the other for a french film called 13) were beautifully done, and highly expressive and functional performances that flowed in perfect tandem with the films.

Ahh, I can't really explain it at all well, but it was a really effective application of djing outside of the tradional set up. And a really good way to showcase rhythmic & repetetive music to a crowd who had a large appetite for music based expressiveness but weren't necessarily into dancing in that particular environment.

But I think perhaps you are right, for a traditional dance environment playing live is easily achievable and has many benefits to the audience and the musician over syncing other people's musicianship.

steevio · Post by **steevio** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 11:59 am

it's not that i dont enjoy a DJing performance and that it doesnt have something special to offer, but when i hear a quality artist perform his own music i think i generally appreciate it more, so i tend to lean in that direction when booking artists/DJs
i've been to some minimal DJ nights where it was hard to discern between the DJs, most of them drawing from the same pool of music.

Ruso · Post by **Ruso** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 5:04 pm

steevio wrote:it's not that i dont enjoy a DJing performance and that it doesnt have something special to offer, but when i hear a quality artist perform his own music i think i generally appreciate it more, so i tend to lean in that direction when booking artists/DJs
i've been to some minimal DJ nights where it was hard to discern between the DJs, most of them drawing from the same pool of music.

amen.

oblioblioblio · Post by **oblioblioblio** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 7:29 pm

steevio wrote: i've been to some minimal DJ nights where it was hard to discern between the DJs, most of them drawing from the same pool of music.

hmm. I think that is a fault of the djs in question rather than djing generally.

Thinking about it now, I believe djing will always have something special to offer. The example I gave above, for instance, really amazed me. I can't really describe the scenario in the way I experienced it at the time, but it was amazing. In the film 'Gojira' my mate perfectly syncronised a slection of records that he had a deep connection with, with moments in the film. Emotions, climax and resolution were parralleled and reinforced in an extraordinary manner.. more than just a merging of sensory information. Slow music as people were talking. Jump up dubstep with heavy bass for the action sequences. Rarr! it was slick and deeply beautiful.

You could agrue that all of this could have been achieved by him playing live, which I cannot disagree with. And obviously you are well versed in the interplay between music and visuals. But there is something magical about sharing records which I cannot put my finger on. Obviously having a much wider pallette of sounds & emotions to draw from, and being in a slightly more relaxed state of mind are obvious things to mention, but to me it goes beyond that. I'm listening to Michael Mayer's 'Immer' right now and it's the perfect example. That record speaks to me more than a lot of 'studio' albums do.

Though unfortunately I cannot explain why. Obviously I'm not trying to change your opinion, but this is how I feel and I wanted to vocalise it as much as possible.

fl0w · Post by **fl0w** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 7:11 pm

oblioblioblio wrote:a french film called 13

13 tzameti?? nice movie!

oblioblioblio · Post by **oblioblioblio** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 7:38 pm

oh yeah, I forgot there was another word in the title, heheh. great film!

kinda heavy on the stomache though.

what's wrong with horse racing?