When do you think it's OK?

It always looked like SW-1 was having fun. Whodathunk Shawn Wayans was just funny?

there was no pretending i mixed it live in the studio either.

Hi Emma:)
I would of loved to of live mixed for the show. I think the line gets drawn if we had of ‘pretended’ that the mixing was ‘there and then’ live tho.

It’s never okay. I mean people come to hear you mix, to hear your creativity come out of those speakers.. by doing that you are plain cheating them. They come to listen to you mix LIVE, they can always put on a CD with your mix and listen to it without paying the ticket.. I frown upon Angello’s shenanigans.

DJ Max D., post: 6743 wrote: It’s never okay. I mean people come to hear you mix, to hear your creativity come out of those speakers.. by doing that you are plain cheating them. They come to listen to you mix LIVE, they can always put on a CD with your mix and listen to it without paying the ticket.. I frown upon Angello’s shenanigans.

Here’s my opinion about this thing:

At Angello’s level, people come to see him ‘perform’. This includes the music, the air-punching, the pyrotechnics, all of that. As long as the crowd is having a good time, I don’t see a problem – he’s there to entertain them, to create a connection with them so they feel somewhat of a personal link between them and him. Of course, when a DJ sees that, he frowns upon it – it’s a professional hazard :). I know in my case, when I go to a club, I automatically pay a lot of attention to the DJ’s transitions (although I wish I didn’t and were able to enjoy the music like everyone else :p).

And to link this to D-Jam’s fear of DJs becoming models/popstars. To some extent, this has already happened. Why else did I pay $100+ to see Tiesto mix/perform? Well I guess I paid for the show as a whole (atmosphere, lights, music), but that includes him as a character. I still like to brag and say that I was less than 10 feet away from him :D. I wasn’t there for the quality of the mix when there are plenty of better, cheaper shows out there.

You guys have to remember that we as DJs tend to be very critical of other DJs (especially from the technical point of view). But the general crowd is out there for the whole shabang – and the DJ interacting with them is pure heaven. No one notices that he’s actually supposed to have his headphones on and actually twist those knobs and cue his songs. Except US…unfortunately 😛

I plan EVERY set unless i need to stand in and go over my alloted time, thats the only time ill wing it.
I know very few dj’s who just take a record bag and wing it on the night, but there are a few… and i hang out with a few well known (in the North of England at least) names

Its whatever works best for you, i posted a mix somewhere on here that a mate did on a big night-
He rang me after the line up was sorted and said he wished he was playing.. I secretly phoned the organiser and told him this guy really wanted to play- this guy is really respected and well liked among us lot so a few slots were shuffled and an hour found.
I got a phone call from this guy a couple of week later ” I believe a little birdy has been pulling strings to get me a slot, thanks!”
I asked him if he had a set planned as everyone was sweating over set list and starting to panic a bit as the event got closer- and he said words to the effect of “no just him and his records and see what happens”

I swear on my life this guy played the best set of the night, and everyone played an absolute blinder! His just had a certain something extra i couldnt put my finger on!

I’ve heard a quote on a Dutch party site about this not being a really big exception, especially due to the pressure of messing up and getting their reputation damaged.

That being said, I know some (internet) radio stations don’t commonly provide for live broadcasts (it’s a lot of effort with a lot of variable factors – like link quality, etc), so they schedule mixes. These mixes are usually recorded live.

A live set is a live set, despite being pre-recorded…

if it’s for broadcast!

However… 🙂

I’ve seen footage of other events and had someone see this live, that some “DJs” use Ableton for their sets; with the set completely prepared start-to-end. Sometimes it’s even just 1 audio track! In those cases, independent of the quality of the mix, I feel that it could have just been played out, without the “DJ” being present! (Put “Just add audience” on the CD cover? :p)

What’s the point of doing a performance, if you take out the performance? And thereby also all the options of crowd interaction?

My opinion:
I’ve done a production to be played out at the wedding of a family member, adding a lot of special effects and inserts.
Something that I personally could not really have done live due to the shear complexity of the project and my personal experience.

The rest should always be done live, whether you make a complex technical setup allowing you to hook up more equipment and/or reroute audio through something like Ableton for added effects, but don’t make a production out of something you couldn’t do live in the first place.

As a finishing quote/anecdote, Dutch Hardstyle DJ Headhunterz recently mentioned in the 5th episode of his podcast Hard With Style, that all his podcasts are “hand-crafted”. He goes on to explain how a lot of DJ-mixes are carefully produced in Ableton and how he has always enjoyed live shows more.

To me, after considering doing it for a special mix, it’s a no-go, a live mix will *always* allow you to go other places than you’ve originally planned to; you go with the flow, instead of creating a flow. Even if you plan it, or have certain tracks you want to play, you might be picking another track because it fits better than the track you originally picked.

Sorry for the essay; just my 2 cents 🙂