vinyl vs laptop

[jspr]

Who's the better DJ...
A group of US DJs has formed a collective in protest to the rising number of laptop DJs.

With the rising use of laptops and digital files, live dance music and DJing have become as exciting as watching people check their email. Looking to bring the excitement back into the genre, five of its most visible names have united to present DJs ARE ALIVE, a collective formed by The Scumfrog, featuring dance music heavyweights D:Fuse, Static Revenger, DJ Skribble, and Kristine W.

Dutch DJ The Scumfrog (aka Jesse Houk) is the man leading the digital rebellion:

"Every live electronic music performance I’ve seen in the past year and half has been laptop based. There's no entertainment worth in laptop DJing. The laptop DJs might be doing rocket science, and creating amazing soundscapes, but it’s totally boring for an audience to watch.

There's two opposite schools of thought now – those that believe technology and digital DJing is the way forward, and then a small school that believe that DJs are, above anything else, entertainment. We are from the second school, and for us, entertainment is the key."

The collective's aim is to perform live as a band on stage, creating something that "sounds like a DJ set, but looks like a band". The group will play "mash up" versions of classic club tracks and their own material with the aid of 2 complete onstage DJ rigs, drums, percussion, guitar, keyboards, sax, FX, and an iconic female vocalist (who also plays an impressive array of musical instruments).

DJs ARE ALIVE will perform a series of special live gigs during the Winter Music Conference in Miami, March 24th to 28th.


More info: www.djsarealive.com

I feel pretty alive when I play a track with my Final Scratch and a crowd goes wild.
And what's the entertainment value of a dj standing with his back to the crowd searching for a record he can't find

Digital is the way of the future either it's FS/SSL, Traktor, Ableton Live or whatever you use.

[jpls]

ive heard this argument too many times...i think its a way out for
people who do not have the ability to move a crowd and thus blame
their misgivings on those with laptops who can make a party explode.

i have seen dj's with vinyl who put me asleep...and the same with
people on laptops.

[brianc]

The vinyl purists are just jealous that they can't do as many cool things as people with laptop/hybrid setups.

There is something to be said about stage performance though. A person just sitting there pushing puttons on his/her laptop (or just playing records) is definitely less interesting to me than someone who gets more into it. If people see you believing in the product, they're more likely to think it's a good product.

[dsat]

i like vinyl and will stick to it as long as they're around
i may be from the old generation... but simply argueing against the use of laptops for pure entertainment reasons is a bit silly

i've seen normal vinyl dj's standing pretty 'inert' behind their decks
pretty boring, and i've seen the same of laptop artists having no feel for the public whatsoever... it is true though that some laptops artists stare theirselves away into their screen, not noticing what's happening on the dancefloors

but working the dancefloors is i think a matter of experience, not of gear

it's all between the ears, in your heart and between the legs (yeah i'm not kidding)

[Shadi Megallaa]

What comes out of the speakers is what matters.. i couldn't care less if the Dj is using a birds beak on a record ala the Flinstones..

[astro]

the idea is to come up with quality stuff.
to accomplish it any dj has to be talented no matter what he uses, if he sucks he will probably suck a little less (or it will be less noticeable) if he´s not using vinyls but anyone will probably end up knowing that he sucks anyway.
lacking of talent will not be aided using vinyls nor laptops.

i think it is cool when technology widens up in order to provide us better and diversified hardware in which to play, the more stuff we can handle the better performances we will be able to perform.

[harass]

i like watching someone behind a laptop and let’s be honest a DJ using vinyl is just as boring, it’s not like they’re doing magic tricks up there. I guess it comes down to how well you can toggle knobs.

[Robot Criminal]

What comes out of the speakers is what matters...

...and thats that.
dj is an entertainer on the level that he plays music. He's not a fucking circus artist (ok, there are scratch dj-s but this is way different subject as this music is hardly ever danceable).

And dancemusic heavyweights?
never heard of these names. ever.

...would like to hear like hawtin or i don't know... gilles peterson say those utterly stupid things. lol. never.