Hi guys here begins my mini rant.
Its about virtual dj'ing!!
Don't get me wrong, I own serato and ableton and think both are great and have added to the possibilities available to a dj.
But thats my point serato/traktor ableton should add to a dj's arsenal, in other words they should be able to do more stuff with it.

I feel that a lot of virtual dj's are doing what they could be doing on vinyl, but are instead using mp3's etc.. and as a result the sound quality suffers.
So to round up, if people are going to use virtual dj equipment think outside the box, push the boundaries do something different the possibilities are endless.

I hope someone else gets what i'm going on about. Mini rant over. Thanks for being ranted at.

 

So, what do you use with your Serato and/or Traktor, WAV files?
I'm a bit confused with the "mini rant" though, better explanation? ;)

 

I like a good rant

 

Can I say something that might kill small Rant.
I only use the software as I did the CD decks, the big differance is how many songs I can carry.

When my Dad worked he used a ford transit because he needed it to carry his records.
When I started I had 4 suit cases full of CD's in plastic wallets. Alot more songs than what the van could hold.
Now I use a 1.5TB hard drive 75% full of songs. I've passed the million mark.

What's the differance? Well now there's no way anyone's Granny can't have her Favorate song from when she was little played at her 100th birthday when I'm working.
Even when no one's told me what I was in advance, this happens most the time.

Just wile it's on my mind, any idea why out of all the ballroom dances do people pick a "Gay Gordons" to Dance to with the family?
It's not important, just wondering really

 

Just to clarify all I was trying to get across is the possibilities that are available with serato/tracktor and trying to get people to expand the artform.
I'll give you an example, I have a set to do this weekend. I have access to serato, technics decks laptop ableton apc20 etc.... Im not going to turn up with all that kit and just knock out a set that technically you could have heard in 1990.
So i decide to give my set a theme say 'time' , I can go on youtube and look for samples surrounding my theme time, or sample little snippets I may have remembered from a film or a kids tv program.
I can then incorporate those into my set, creating a real thematic ambiance, I can even use that same equipment (ableton/traktor) to control the lights so when I trigger a sample there is a visual response.
For the first time without having to get dubplates pressed I can think up a crazy beat juggle using 20 different tunes ( using cue points), and pull off something that just wouldn't have been possible 10 years ago. I can be mixing one tune whilst at the same time remixing the tune on the other deck! The technology available in the 70's/80's/90's forced to people to be innovative beat juggling, scratching, needle dropping the whole turntablist gamete and I'm sure people will continue to innovate with the new tech. But because things have leapt forward so much in the last 10 years for dj'ing (like massively) I just wanted to make people aware of the myriad of opportunities that are available with the new tech.

 

I got you now futureb. That's great stuff that you've mentioned, I mean the possibilities are way diverse and reachable than before... I surely agree with you on that. I've seen and hear DJ's lately do amazing stuff, there are so many guys I could name. Just a little browsing on N.I. and Serato YouTube channel gives a visual of what DJ's can do as of late. I mean YouTube period is lit up with DJ's doing beyond the norm tricks. However, we also have to take into account which category the DJ is in, which crowd he is catering to, the type of music he spins. Example, DJ Craze is a beast on 2 1200's with Traktor but as crazy is set sounds, he would not survive doing the main floor at Pacha, New York's biggest dance club. He would not survive doing Lavo, Cielo, District 36, to name a few. The crowd which comes to these places, don't come to listen to music being switched, scratched and mashup under 30 seconds. Eric Morillo, Roger Sanchez, Dubfire, Loco Dice whom have way less technique in their mixing set would still eat him up quick because these guys would know what to play to get the place goin' without ever have to scratch once for the whole night. Same thing for a Hip-Hop DJ who has no idea how to rock a Dancehall crowd. He could bring gold Technics, Ableton and shiny mac laptop, do the 360 spin on them, the crowd would just throw rocks at him.
With that said, if you have a crowd for the type of set you are talking about then great but for other DJ's in different venues and have different crowd to serve, these ideas that you put down would not work. I can see these ideas serves turntablist or DJ's who put out frequent mini mixes out on YouTube/SoundCloud/etc... or MixShow Radio DJ's with 1 hour shows on the Radio or online and obviously some other settings as well. Like I said though, certain DJ's, no matter what's in front of them, they gonna be sound minimalist to you in terms of how many buttons they push for the night but their set may still sound on point and amazing for their specific targeted crowd.

 

A well made point ron

 

vinyl is expensive.
i sold my rig and all my records years ago for that reason alone.
couldn't afford it anymore.

digital music is way more affordable.

 

I think the rant is plenty valid.

What he's saying is:

If you DJ with a digital solution you should do more than just mix like a vinyl DJ.

I agree, especially if you have sync'd tracks your mixes should be miles better.

You should be key mixing tracks and using loops, cue points and making edits on the fly, layering acapellas and using more than two tracks.

As Digital DJs you can push the boundaries so much further without breaking a sweat.

Personally I hate CD DJs most, they mix like it's vinyl but the tracks are tempo locked/don't drift so there is no mixing skill needed yet they rarely if ever do anything exciting. But as you know they hate on digital DJs as if they are some kind of cheating scum bags. No its the CD DJ that I despise most.

 

In the near future you won't even need a physical HD, just a smartphone with a fast Cloud connection to download all wishes on the fly.

 

Future? you can do it now via P2P and stuff but you can't garentee the quality of track.
Own the track in a physical medium and you know exsacterly what you got. No distortion, no artifacts off compression, no clicks, pops or radio DJ in the recording.
Plus It's amazing how many places have no internet.

I know people who download tracks wile their working and I love laugthing when the gamble gose wronge.

in the past CD's took over from records because they where more durable. That and they only released singles in some formats. I think it was the 80's when they did that cause they where unsure on what format sells best.
CD's where over took by laptops. Laptops took over cause they could hold more songs and where easyer to find songs you want with. Minidisc's nearly took over from CD's but they came out too late, and laptops where on the scene by then.

Signal has a point. I've seen CD decks do everything laptops do.

My last CD deck can't auto mix or sync tracks as far as I know but it can
record, store and play samples
bend the pitch and maintain the key, may be I should just say change speed of the song and not make it sound wronge
digital scratch (2 sets of sounds for scratching)
Record up to 3 hours of performance, store it and play it back (no burn CD feature)
Calculate beat via tapping a button
A-B and A-B-A-B-C loop
There's proberly more but my dad lost the manual before I started DJing

Anyway it's over 10 years old now. If that's what it can do the new ones must do more, the softwear I use can't do that much more then that.
Let's hear CD DJ's What are your reasons for not pushing the boundries?.
I use my laptop for song capacity, if it wheren't for that I'd still be useing my Dad's old Technics SL-1200 MK2 like I do at home