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Why do people say it's harder to mix disco with controller than with decks?

Home 2023 › Forums › The DJ Booth › Why do people say it's harder to mix disco with controller than with decks?

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  • February 8, 2013 at 12:58 pm #36415
    elmgroove
    Member

    Are you talking about like 1970s disco kinda music? I don’t think I’ve heard this one before. But I’d venture to guess these people says it’s harder because if they’re using a controller, they’re probably the ones completely reliant on the SYNC button. Disco was/is usually played by human musicians, so there’s the fact that the beats aren’t going to be running at an exact BPM the whole song. So when blending the records, the DJ needs to know how to manually nudge the turntable a bit to keep the two records in sync.

    But of course, this is all completely feasible on a controller, it’s just whether you make an effort to use this technique.

    February 8, 2013 at 3:26 pm #36423
    aaron altar
    Participant

    IMO, nudging records on turntables is easier than jog wheels. Maybe that’s because I’ve used turntables longer than controllers however.

    February 8, 2013 at 4:11 pm #36430
    adit
    Participant

    Yes it’s 70s disco. I just tried playing around with some tracks and I didn’t do badly. The problem I encountered was when I was beatmatching a new song with the verse of the playing song, then I drop the new song on the first song’s break, nasty trainwreck happened because the tempo of the break was slower than the verse and i didn’t expect that.

    rj: Why is it easier?

    February 8, 2013 at 4:33 pm #36433
    elmgroove
    Member

    If all else fails, just go the hard-cut route! As long as they’re relatively close, it’ll sound good.

    February 8, 2013 at 4:48 pm #36434
    adit
    Participant

    Yes, if I fail to beatmatch I just get them as close as possible and only let them blend for a few seconds.

    February 9, 2013 at 12:59 am #36441
    aaron altar
    Participant

    adit, post: 36586, member: 2099 wrote: Yes it’s 70s disco. I just tried playing around with some tracks and I didn’t do badly. The problem I encountered was when I was beatmatching a new song with the verse of the playing song, then I drop the new song on the first song’s break, nasty trainwreck happened because the tempo of the break was slower than the verse and i didn’t expect that.

    rj: Why is it easier?

    I played vinyl until last year so I’m more used to turntables than jog wheels. Jog wheels react differently so it’s taken a little getting used to for me.

    February 9, 2013 at 5:08 am #36448
    D Homei
    Participant

    It’s not a foolproof guide, but I’ve noticed on old disco and funk that the tempo tends to speed up during the builds, the band gets excited by the “peak” of the song. Vice versa also seems true. I’d be curious if anybody else has noticed this, too.

    February 9, 2013 at 11:18 am #36450
    DJ Vintage
    Moderator

    Like there is a zillion kinds of EDM, there were a zillion kinds of “disco”. And they each had their own little quirks.

    In general the “manual” beat and the bpm switches make it a bit harder to keep things in sync. And if you are used to (good) turntables I can see how it would feel different trying to achieve the same thing on a controller. But if you never used TTs, I imagine if you learned to do it on a controller it would be perfectly fine.

    I don’t recall making long *ss mixes back in the day … 16 beats, maybe 32 and the fader would be on the other side. But I knew DJs that could and did do just that, make lonnnnnnng mixes lol. I was just lazy.

    Or I’d just give a yell in the mic and do a quick crossfade in the background :-).

    February 10, 2013 at 7:35 am #36492
    Steelo
    Participant

    Vinyl turntables are still the most responsive to mix on. Many controllers have decent jogwheels these days but they still don’t have the sensitivity of really subtle nudges on a record. This makes it easier just to drop the next track on the last beat of the song thats playing, which is traditionally how “real” disco was mixed.

    February 10, 2013 at 7:59 am #36496
    adit
    Participant

    ^ If you just drop a track at the end of the previous song, you don’t need to beatmatch do you?

    February 10, 2013 at 8:08 am #36497
    Steelo
    Participant

    True, you do not need to beatmatch. Originally this is how disco was mixed as the turntables were either belt driven or didn’t have pitch controls and the goal was just to keep the music going without gaps.

    February 10, 2013 at 8:15 am #36498
    adit
    Participant

    Exactly, so I don’t see the correlation with this jog wheels topic. Pardon my confusion.

    February 10, 2013 at 11:46 am #36514
    adit
    Participant

    one more thing: when you adjust the jog wheels to match the beats, do you do it with one ear to headphone or via speakers? I find it easier to do it with headphone but the problem is I can’t listen how the mix comes out from the speakers.

    February 10, 2013 at 11:55 am #36516
    DJ Vintage
    Moderator

    Uhm … speakers for the main sound … cue from ONE half of your cans? And if the speakers are too far away and/or pointing away from you (so you can’t clearly hear the main output and/or there is a delay), you could set up a monitor speaker (especially handy if the controller/mixer has booth output).

    Alternatively, if your controller/mixer supports split cue you can have main on one earpiece and the cue on the other. Once you got it set, do your mix and either listen through the mains (with cue still on one ear for last minute nudging) or set split cue to master and keep your cans on.

    Personally I have a monitor speaker which gives me the correct main signal and use only one earpiece for the cue signal. As soon as I start the mix, the monitor speaker will reflect what is happening (i.e. what the audience hears).

    Greetinx,
    C.

    February 10, 2013 at 4:12 pm #36523
    adit
    Participant

    yes, I put one half of my headphone on my left ear to make sure the beats keep matched, but that way I can’t hear how the output is from the monitors!

    as for split cue, I have difficulty differentiating which song is faster than the other that way.

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