using pitch +8 oldskool hardcore > jungle > dnb // happy hardcore

… p.s. the first question is more of a question of philosophy/custom. I figure the hardcore genres are pitched while the more smooth (namely, DnB) is not. Also, with time, DJ’s who play oldskool had to speed up to keep up, right? :\ The other question has to do with sound. Tracks just sound strange when their pitched up to +8, especially without keylock. But then again, I’m a n00b, and I’m figuring, if they are ALL pitched up to ~+8 then they wouldn’t. Would appreciate some advice.

I would figure, yeah, some styles would sound horrible on +8. But … given the nature of the sounds of oldskool hardcore (chipmunk vocals, for example) and the entire reason why it’s called hardcore — faster = better, wouldn’t it make sense to pitch to +8? I’m sure there were other times where this “hardcore ideology” was used in record pitch. For instance, the reason why Richie Hawtin and John Aquaviva called their label +8 was because they were pitching records before their time to +8, right? I think they even alluded to the difference between “punk” techno (not directly) and sanitized house in Logical Nonsense, the bonus track on Dimension Intrusion. When asked the question “what’s the difference between house and techno?,” Richie said, “plus eight,” indicating a faster than supposed to “punk ideology” to their performances, which they did do back in the day from what I was reading in old newspaper clippings and books about the plastikman parties, which evolved from this punk aesthetic. I don’t think oldskool rave and breakbeat hardcore producers, even most jungle and happy hardcore producers back in the day would care but would in fact prefer their records to be played as fast as possible. As 2 Bad Mice were quoted, if I’m not mistaken it was them, “sampledelic,” just quick cuts into new tracks, back and forth on the cross fade, and I think the pitch was peaked for the same reason, most bang out which means shortest time. I figure right about until ’97/’98 pitch went down, and it did — trance is the obvious example, or 2-step predominating Drum and Bass giving it it’s modern and more lush less raw sound, this is mainstream underground music. The renegades such as planet-mu and others which stayed hardcore not just by name but by aesthetic, I would figure, kept their pitches up as high as possible reflecting their roots, as well as, their other roots, those of the b-boys, by how they construct their music, like Goldie said, to paraphrase, “boy’s aren’t about what they can do with a piece of equipment, but what they can’t do with it, and then pushing it to its boundaries.” The more melodic style out just don’t have this aesthetic/style/attitude it’s raw, and for most, that would mean going to a dodgy venue where they’d be constantly looking over their shoulder. Well, that was my time, anyway. Opinions? Am I onto something?

Terry_42. You are right. +8 sounds horrible. Earlier today/yesterday I tested it out and it just sounds terrible. I wounder is there any merit to what I wrote in the two previous posts and that that’s why some DJ’s do this. I guess, what I have to learn is what the crowd wants, not what I want to do with the music I’m using … that’s the “next step” into becoming a good DJ. Thank you.