Do you know any DJs who don't mix?

If it was mixing vs music selection, i’d go with the music selection. To me mixing is importaint to create a good flow of music, like water. If the mix lasts to long it will sound crowded with overlapping sounds from both songs, if the mix is too short it wont generate enough blend on the transition and thus leave what i call “Dead Beat” which to me is boring. Dropping in song after song sounds too choppy to me. Must be like water…

I prefer to look at it this way:
Music is like a steak and mixing is like great spices on that steak.
Now if you have a stinky pile of meat, you can throw any excellent spice combination at it that you like, you never get a good steak.
However if you have an excellent piece of tasty right steak, even if you only have a little salt and pepper it will taste good and with the right spices you can make it taste even better.

I’d rather hear 3 seconds of silence in between songs than a trainwrecked mix. I don’t see why any semi serious dj can’t just learn to do both, it’s not asking too much.

I’m definitely not hating, because I’ve seen him twice and it’s always fantastic but I think Steve Aoki is a great example of a dj who doesn’t mix. Both times I’ve seen him he isn’t even behind the decks half the time. He presses play on track A, gets out of the booth, jumps around, spits champagne, throws cake, crowd surfs, and lights things on fire before climbing back in the booth, pressing play on track B when there’s 32 beats left in track A, getting back out of the booth, and continuing to do whatever so inspires him. The great thing is you never even realize it because you’re having such a blast the whole set.

I guess the measure of a great set for me (or maybe for anyone) is a continuum based on track selection, mixing, and performance/charisma. If you’re lacking in one area you can use the others to make up for it.

I remember in the 90s seeing Boy George and him not being able to mix for toffee but still having a fantastic night. A few years ago I saw Arthur Baker in London and same thing, he didn’t even attempt to beat match but his track selection was superb and his lack of mixing didn’t make one bit of difference to my enjoyment of the night.

As said in previous posts, the programming (the tunes themselves and the order they’re played in) is way more important to me than simply being able to beat match. Don’t get me wrong, as an artform I totally appreciate a DJ who can beat match perfectly using vinyl. And if a DJ does not mix at all but just plays tracks back to back, so be it, if they’re good tracks I will still dance and enjoy it. But if they do try to mix, I’m more interested in how they blend / mix the tracks together, with creative use of EQ, FX, levels, loops, whatever.. I don’t care if it’s a computer doing the actual beat matching / sync, because I think the only reason DJs had to learn to beat match in the first place was because they had no choice – the technology didn’t exist to do otherwise.

People specially the Mainstream Club people are Sheep…Musical Sheep. They dont know what they want to hear and all they want to hear is what is popular.

Thee Commercial Scene where its all about that catch phrase or jingle that makes all the girls go OMG THATS MY FAVORITE SONG screaming as they stumble to the dance floor. I have physical proof of this as I did a show for a friend of mine that is a promoter at a top40 club.

I took ALL songs that were pretty banging underground electro, artists like Hirshee, Lazy Rich, Bassjackers, Lucky Date, Minero, Fast Foot, Farleon. Then since i had to appease the masses i just made a bunch of 32 beat samples of the top songs around like LMFAO, AVICII, Goyte, blah blah blah.

EVERYONE in the club went nuts when “I’m Sexy and I know it” popped up at the right time a basic 32 beat sample of an LMFAO song and they go beserk. Now were they going nuts to my music? or my mixing skills that kept them moving all night? NO they went nuts cuz of “I’m Sexy and I know it”. I didnt even play the freaking song…only a little 32 beat clip.

Same thing happened when i played a remix of Levels…the only thing that was the same was the 64 beat breakdown and then went into Banging Electro. Crowd goes nuts.

Now how can you tell me that its not about “Song Selection” with a mainstream crowd?

But in my city the underground scene is HUGE…Underground Electro, breaks, House(real house not SHM), Tech House, Techno, Hard Style, is in abudance and a lot of people really come out to dance drink and party their ass off. The Majority of the people here wont recognize most of the songs but they are there just groovin to the dance floor and having a really good time. A lot of actual Blending is done…aka what has now become known as “Mashups” When in reality all it is is extending mixing…(mixing a song togeather for more than the basic 32 or 64 beats). That to me is real skill.

Anyone can play what everyone wants to hear….but its about playing stuff they HAVENT heard and making them go nuts which is the REAL art of DJing

Steelo, post: 20785, member: 1368 wrote: There is really nothing underground about any of those artists you mentioned. They are all quite mainstream. Not as mainstream as SMH, Guetta, Aviccii etc but still mainstream none the less. Fast Foot is unbelievably commercial cheese.

But I agree with the point you were trying to make…just not the examples

Yeah fair enuff, i agree. Its not what i usually play, but it was definitely not what the club normally played.

Hee Wong the Lazy Rich remix of Body work is one of my favorite songs right now!

Anyway, I experienced this very thing at a packed club in Philly recently. I sware the DJ was up there with 1200s/DJM800 house setup and played most of the night in internal mode on serato (or was strictly on the dicers)

There wasnt even like a scratch cut in on the one it was just hard slam into new song, I was miserable until I looked around and realized everyone was having a ball.

The night went something like this “oh oh sometimes …..Starships were meant to fly…..and I used to Know….how to party rock”

Don’t get me wrong I’m big on Top40 club remixes and dance music but you have to use that as the bait to get people into it and then start showing them a little bit more of your style….