How Do You Feel When ….

I never ran into that problem.

Most of the time when I got angst from musicians, it’s because they didn’t consider electronic music as “real music” and were hardened rockers.

I just ignore it all.

People who can play an instrument and come up with their own melodies, chord progressions etc do need some kind of title for recognition. However, so to does the ability to use software or may an midi-controller like an instrument – I went to see Octave one the other week and they do play their equipment like instruments:
[media=youtube]Et1OVfM8yd4[/media]

Try telling him his electribe aint an instrument lol

Then you also get producers like Deadmaus who cant play a keyboard he just enters notes into a step editor, but he managed to come up with strobe and the beginning of that is as good as any classical piece I’ve heard:
[media=youtube]a_tXVdnDRZw[/media]

Then on the other hand how many guitar rock music is just made from simple chords – nirvana and beatles spring staight to mind.

mr_john, post: 2988 wrote: u sure about that can’t play a keyboard part? I mean IDK either, but he’s got all these pianos in his house n stuff I would assume he knows….

I’ve got a keyboard but I can’t “play it”. I stuff around until I find some sounds and patterns that I like, then I record it into Ableton Live and neaten it up.

mr_john, post: 2988 wrote: u sure about that can’t play a keyboard part? I mean IDK either, but he’s got all these pianos in his house n stuff I would assume he knows….

If you’re talking about the picture/videos I think that you are… those are all synths loads and loads of glorious moogs etc. I would love to just go nuts in there! 😉 He customizes them to create analogue sounds from the ground up instead of using the default sounds programmed in them or programmed in software.

really interesting this topic….i can only run my thoughts and hope that something usefull comes out, let`s see:

for me there`s a difference between a musician and a dj. a musician creates music out of nowhere regardless if its a techno producer or a guitar player or a hornblower. on the contrary a dj plays music, mixes it together, but he always needs “music” for his art which has already been made/created. without music he could not do anything. one could argue that the whole hip hop music is also built up on a mixture between already existing music:soul-, jazz-, blues-samples and so on…. that`s true, but in hip hop music the samples or loops are only short cuts and pieces, which are put so `dense` (hope it`s the right word for what i mean) together, that they create a really unique character and drive. and a really good dj could do this too, but therefore he has to mix incredibly fast several different things together and bring them in a cohesive unique groove which stand on its own. the parts he mixes together should not be recognized obvious as already known things, they should be recognized from the listener as something new. i think that some hip hop djs could to something like that like kid koala or dj krush, but only because hip hop music is all about bits cuts and pieces. but when it comes to the dancefloor like for example house music or techno its a total different thing, it works different. i think its impossible to create something new, new music, only out of two synchronised tracks, even if you make some really good tricks, because the beat must go on to push the dancefloor, you can´t have break after break. you will have to add another deck or a fourth one, or maybe a roland tr-909 analogue drum machine like jeff mills did, to even get close to create out of existing music something totally new and unique. and therefore you must have incredible djing skills.

so here the result of my thoughts: if you are a dj and you want to be called a musician, you have to find a way to create new music out of the tracks which you play, means you have to create new rhythms, textures, sounds, vibes through mixing several “tracks” together. think like a producer/creator. in music production you have also several “tracks” which you lay over another. and if you want to have a unique sound/texture you have often to overlay differnt sounds or samples to get the result, but therefore you need several “tracks” in the music software like ableton or cubase. if you create a beat in an audio software you have to program and also overlay sounds to get the groove done. sometimes you need 20 audio tracks to get a techno tune done sometimes only 5. so when you compare this to a djs work: two decks mean two audio tracks, four decks mean 4 audio tracks and so on…..any producer who create music, regardless which music genre, will tell you that 4 audio tracks for creating a new piece of music is really little. and now think of the new wave of 4 deck controllers which arise only now. when you keep this thoughts in mind, it`s not difficult to understand why so many people think and argue that djs are no musicians.

but all that is only theory…in general: do music and don`t care about labels like dj or musician. cheers!

DJ GRE, post: 3023 wrote: If you’re talking about the picture/videos I think that you are… those are all synths loads and loads of glorious moogs etc. I would love to just go nuts in there! 😉 He customizes them to create analogue sounds from the ground up instead of using the default sounds programmed in them or programmed in software.

well i know he’s got tons of keyboards n whatnot.. But I’m pretty sure he’s got some grand pianos layin around as well.

last time I checked, it’s the digital age and mixing softwares are just “instruments” of the digital.

I would like to enter a Frank Zappa quote: “All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff.”