dizkojockey Posted September 25, 2014 Report Share Posted September 25, 2014 Or rather, the question could be reworded as to which do you find the most satisfying. I personally still think it is hard to beat the buzz of mixing on turntables (although I've converted to MP3 now) as it is more of a physical thing and in my opinion the truest form of DJ'ing, manually handling your tunes without the assistance of a digital interface. some of my most memorable sets were performed on 1210s. What are your thoughts on this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spin Doctor Posted October 3, 2014 Report Share Posted October 3, 2014 How many people who DJ can still manually beat match I wonder? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Number2Fan Posted October 6, 2014 Report Share Posted October 6, 2014 I prefer vinyl, just because it feels more intense. Beatmatching by ear, the big chunky records, seeing the music!! Now I have had a go at CD mixing, I was shit at it. I have done MP3 ing too but it was boring and soulless. I'm not amazingly skilled like a lot of other people I know, if I were, I would probably be mixing MP3s nowadays. But for me, music is a hobby and the only time it's fun to mix is when it's with 12 inches. ☺️ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigsmurf Posted October 16, 2014 Report Share Posted October 16, 2014 MP3 all the way. Use to be Vinyl but less room taken. Bring on the digital age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonB Posted October 17, 2014 Report Share Posted October 17, 2014 CD's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Kane Posted October 23, 2014 Report Share Posted October 23, 2014 Vinyl was my first love & I do still love mixing with vinyl, it separates those who can actually mix from those that can't - no sync buttons! What I would say is that CDs & digital mixing opens up possibilities which vinyl limits such as layering tracks, live editing & being able to slam 20+ tracks into an hour mix without it sounding rushed & rubbish I'm exclusively cd at present but still have my turntables - I'd definitely be up for mixing more vinyl if I had resource to do so Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spin Doctor Posted October 24, 2014 Report Share Posted October 24, 2014 being able to slam 20+ tracks into an hour mix without it sounding rushed & rubbish Not so sure on that one myself. Most modern DJs sound like they have ADHD and don't let a tune breathe. I'm not asking for 8 min plus for every tune or anything but a balance must be struck. At peresent I think it has gone too far in the short direction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Kane Posted October 24, 2014 Report Share Posted October 24, 2014 being able to slam 20+ tracks into an hour mix without it sounding rushed & rubbish Not so sure on that one myself. Most modern DJs sound like they have ADHD and don't let a tune breathe. I'm not asking for 8 min plus for every tune or anything but a balance must be struck. At peresent I think it has gone too far in the short direction. Depends on the genre, techno tracks tend to be around 6mins in length - 2mins mixing in & 2mins mixing out dictates you can get lots of tracks in & not lose any energy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Briggsy Posted October 24, 2014 Report Share Posted October 24, 2014 Tricky one for me. I've used all methods - and like them all for different reasons. I loved Vinyl because it was completely manual and all "hands on" - no cue buttons, no digital screens, and, best of all, your sets could have a bit of exclusivety about them if you managed to get your hands on one of a limited number of pre-release promos or 1 of only 50 records pressed in the world, etc. These days, everyone has got access to the same tunes at the same time. I liked CDJ's because they had features that you couldn't have on vinyl decks - looping, etc. Plus, once you were beatmatched, they remained beatmatched. You didn't have to keep faffing about waiting for the inevitable wow/flutter drift. It was also great being able to download tunes for £1.20 instead of £8 each. These days, I use Traktor - just for having the occasional mix at home now that I've quit DJ'ing on a regular basis. Traktor is fantastic. Its only limit is your imagination. You can pretty much remix a track live. If I were to use it to DJ out too, I can take my entire music collection with me - rather than being limited to a bag of 50 vinyl or 300 CD's. More importantly, from my point of view now that my ears are shot and it takes 6 minutes to beatmatch on CDJ's these days, it allows me to beatmatch in seconds again -- alowing me to focus on what I'm doing rather than pissing about wasting 95% of my set time beatmatching - as happened in May when I stupidly did a gig out again. Beatmatching is a big problem for me these days with me ears - so Traktor has, effectively, allowed me to continue DJ'ing for a bit longer than I originally intended. I guess if I had to pick one from the three, then I guess it's vinyl - simply for tradition, exclusively and the "fun" element. Part of the fun of DJ'ing on vinyl was actually going to a record store, buying records, talking to people, and finding rare, obscure, amazing tunes on foreign or minor labels that had gone pretty much unnoticed. With the exception of the price advantage, MP3 "shopping" was a bit dull really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonB Posted October 26, 2014 Report Share Posted October 26, 2014 being able to slam 20+ tracks into an hour mix without it sounding rushed & rubbish Not so sure on that one myself. Most modern DJs sound like they have ADHD and don't let a tune breathe. I'm not asking for 8 min plus for every tune or anything but a balance must be struck. At peresent I think it has gone too far in the short direction. Depends on the genre, techno tracks tend to be around 6mins in length - 2mins mixing in & 2mins mixing out dictates you can get lots of tracks in & not lose any energy Oh it definitly works for techno nicely, watched a Cox be at tv broadcast and hes got two tracks going at the same time a lot of the time two or three minutes each time. Also for drumn and bass , especially someone like friction who uses 3 decks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spin Doctor Posted October 26, 2014 Report Share Posted October 26, 2014 Agreed it works for tech, but not so House or Trance IMHO. Drum and bass depends on the sub-genre; tech-step/neurofunk yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
becant Posted January 30, 2015 Report Share Posted January 30, 2015 vinyl deffo old skool is the best skool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psmith Posted February 16, 2015 Report Share Posted February 16, 2015 I prefer the old fashioned way, vinyl is the best. Pure skill, no fancy buttons to press. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dejaytim Posted April 5, 2015 Report Share Posted April 5, 2015 CD's and software provide a great platform for the young and more technically minded mix masters of today and of course this format has so much more musical potential but, for me, now that I'm over the hill, vinyl is still king for a session of pure mixing pleasure without having to worry about all those buttons! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spin Doctor Posted May 16, 2015 Report Share Posted May 16, 2015 This article about Guetta last month made me think of this thread: http://www.edmtunes.com/2015/04/david-guetta-djs-without-set-playlist-calls-old-school/ “Something crazy happened to me on the [first weekend]. I’m using Rekordbox and Pioneer to play, and before I saved my playlist to my SD card, my computer crashed. So I just had to put all my music in a random order on USB sticks at the last minute, doing it really old school, scrolling to look for the records I wanted to play next.” Depressing really. :rubbish: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingjonny Posted May 22, 2015 Report Share Posted May 22, 2015 To be fair when I think of legend DJs I think of mixing vinyl. It's pure, it's visualising the music in ur head rather than having an equaliser show the beat for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonB Posted May 23, 2015 Report Share Posted May 23, 2015 This article about Guetta last month made me think of this thread: http://www.edmtunes.com/2015/04/david-guetta-djs-without-set-playlist-calls-old-school/ “Something crazy happened to me on the [first weekend]. I’m using Rekordbox and Pioneer to play, and before I saved my playlist to my SD card, my computer crashed. So I just had to put all my music in a random order on USB sticks at the last minute, doing it really old school, scrolling to look for the records I wanted to play next.” Depressing really. :rubbish: it really is, supposed DJs getting paid silly money to turn up with a preplanned set and just play that. The youngsters that will pay to go to these evnts could not care less though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudgeWontBudge Posted June 3, 2015 Report Share Posted June 3, 2015 There is something about mixing vinyl, that wins out over modern means! Plus all the pioneering, legendary DJ's carved the way for all the modern day DJ's and brought the scene to the masses...using Vinyl! There is also something romantic about using vinyl, and the sounds over live PA always sounds better, than CD or MP3. It's too easy for modern DJ's to use effects, and beat mix with the help of software programs and mask mediocre mixing skills, hence why everyone tries their hand at DJ'ing these days. When you used Vinyl, it took a bit more time to master the skill! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y2jahangir Posted June 5, 2015 Report Share Posted June 5, 2015 Both Vinyl and cd's as well as on the computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Briggsy Posted June 9, 2015 Report Share Posted June 9, 2015 Modern software / laptops doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to make everyone amazing DJ's. Eddie Halliwell was amazing when he used vinyl and CD's. When he switched to laptop DJ'ing, it seemed to hinder him. His sets lost spark. I'll never work out why someone with Eddie's talent went down the laptop route. It baffles me. Adam Sheridan used to be good years ago - then he became bland and boring when he switched to laptop DJ'ing - to the point where he's vanished off the radar these days. PvD has gone backwards since moving to laptops too. Laptops also didn't make DJ'ing easier for everyone. It started way before that - as soon as the Pioneer CDJs came out. You can beatmatch on those without needing headphones. Match the beat counters up - voila. I've ever seen DJ's turn up with all their tracks pre-saved to a certain BPM so that the pitch fader is in the same place for every tune (and therefore, they don't need to beatmatch at all). I've nothing against that - there's more to DJ'ing than beatmatching. The biggest art of DJ'ing is finding tunes that complimenting each other and building a set. Just because two tracks are at 142.0bpm, it doesn't mean they're going to mix perfectly into each other. All it's resulted in is an over-saturated scene where everyone is a DJ - which then resulted in DJ's getting booked based on how many mates they could take along with them or how many favours they could do for the promotor. Some awful DJ's were getting big gigs - and some superb DJ's couldn't get a booking at all. You've got to be a ticket salesman or producer now to stand out. Being an amazing DJ doesn't guarantee you a gig. You've got to be profitable to the promoter. Anyway, thats for another topic........ as mentioned above, I've used all formats over the years - and all have their pro's and cons. Vinyl was great - but it was a pain in the arse lugging 50 tunes to a gig and frustrating being limited to just 50 tunes. CDJ's made things semi-automatic, which made some aspects quicker - plus it started to allow the opportunity to add a bit more to sets (loops, hot cues, etc). Laptops allow me to carry my entire 16 year tune collection with me - all accessible within seconds, it allowed me to add some trickery to my sets - and its allowed me to DJ for a bit longer at home because my ears aren't up to beatmatching out in clubs regularly any more. Its also a myth that people only have to hit a "sync" button to beatmatch. Yes, it helps. Yes, it makes life easier - but if people cannot beatmatch, they can still get caught out on a laptop. There's nothing more accurate than the human ear. I've known Traktor's counter to be out by an entire beat. If you can't beatmatch, there's no way of recovering from that in a club. In situations like that, you've got to be able to correct it yourself. Traktor hates some tunes and refuses to play ball at all - for example, try hitting the sync button with Timmy & Tommy - Full Tiltin' and listen to watch happens. It won't be beatmatched even remotely close - and it'll sync to the off-beat (making it half a beat out of sync). So if anyone goes to a gig armed with a laptop thinking they're in for an easy ride - they're not. 9 tunes out of ten will be beatmatched perfectly - and 1 will be so far out of sync, they won't be able to recover from it (and the dancefloor will stop dead!). Just ask Mr M.O.R.P.H ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lyndon Posted June 10, 2015 Report Share Posted June 10, 2015 Serato also has that problem with analyzing tunes, more so than Traktor I find. Quite a few old trance tunes I've ripped off vinyl it'll determine it's something daft like 87bpm, and if you change the range it's close to 200bpm. Luckily I started on vinyl and can still easily beat match. But even if it's close to the proper reading, it can still be out. The F&W Mix of Commander Tom's attention on mine for example is a good 0.6% out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonB Posted June 15, 2015 Report Share Posted June 15, 2015 Same problems with virtual DJ too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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