Video 3. Funny to see him talk about algorythms doing the DJ-ing within the next 10 years. I just made a statement in another posting that that is precisely what won’t happen. Why? Because no machine can come up with the creativity that the human brain can. Sure you can probably have a great automated bar music system that you just throw a few wishes in and then plays an entire auto-DJ set all night long.
The nasty thing about algorythms is that they will come up with the best match, every time. So play track a) under certain circumstances and it will always come up with b) as the next track. b) being the best match according to the algorythm.
Too boring, no?
Same is true for harmonic mixing. An algorythm would never play songs that don’t fit harmonically. Yet, sometimes that is exactly what an event, crowd, situation calls for. Or it will play two harmonically compatible tracks that sound horrible together.
This is a typical technical DJ approach to things. Where machines tend to come before people. But DJ-ing is ultimately a people business.
In another posting Ajax tells his story about his Novation going to pieces on a gig. He ends up playing from his laptop with iTunes and quicktime player or something (decks 1 and 2) and still making for a happy crowd. That to me says DJ! to the max. F*ck the gear, when push comes to shove it’s the man (goes for the women too!) behind the knobs that’s gonna make it happen. Even without sync, pitch faders, cross faders, remix decks, FX. Just two decks playing music at a fixed speed. Easy to do? No! Feasible? Absolutely. But it does take the kind of flexibility and creativity that I don’t see machines produce anytime soon. Definitely not in the next 10 year.
Greetinx,
C.
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