backtothefront

I’ve had my Technics RP-DJ1200 (black/purple version) for about 16 or so years now, admittedly they are taped up in places and the cups are well worn but they’ve never, ever let me down at a gig or home. At the time, for me, it was a straight choice between the Technics or the HD25’s, both of which are superb IMHO.

J-Zed, post: 25515, member: 1486 wrote: What’s so bad with beatport?

There is tons of music on there both very popular and almost unheard of. It just takes some time and some digging but it’s all there. Listen to sets by djs you enjoy, get a tracklist and then most of what you can find is on BP. Other than that, if you wanna get more into local scenes with producers who aren’t on BP you might have to contact their label or the producers themselves.

There’s always a way!

I think the problem is that Beatport, for me, seems to have a growing bias towards certain genres (not always correct IMHO) and labels/producers which are often pushed nearer the front. I agree that with some digging there are good tracks to be found but my experience of trying to do this is a frustrating one – navigating brand new releases in Deep House for example.

Traxsource on the other hand is a joy to use if you’re in to Souful/Deep/Jackin House music. I also use iTunes as well as the pricing is very good for deep/soulful house tunes on general release.

Back on topic regarding D&B. Junodownload and iTunes are certainly places to look but I would personally recommend to check out the labels sites directly, Hospital Records for example has a superb online shop. I think that it’s still the case that a lot of D&B tracks are passed around between the scene well before any promos or even full releases are available so it’s definitely keeping tabs on labels for any early exclusives.

http://download.breakbeat.co.uk/Default.aspx
http://www.hospitalrecords.com/
http://www.shogunaudio.co.uk/shop/
https://shop.ramrecords.com/
http://www.surus.co.uk/Critical-Music/
http://www.metalheadz.co.uk/headzStore/

These are probably the big guns but all are underground D&B labels with superb reputations.

Interestingly I found 2.5.1 to be much better load wise than 2.5. I also noticed the difference with the S4 connected/disconnected too, with the load being worse when connected – but this is much better with 2.5.1.

El Jefe, post: 24931, member: 638 wrote: So, I DJed in public on vinyl for the first time last night at the equivalent of a DJ open mic event. Verdict?

You can keep it. No thanks. Was like going from indoor plumbing to an outdoor hand-pump. I’ll stick with my VCI-300.

That’s a shame, despite the great advances in digital DJing, I still love hopping on to the 1210s – DJing in its purest, fun form IMHO. I get more satisfaction from vinyl than the digital platform I use. Just out of interest, what was it you didn’t like?

synthet1c, post: 23997, member: 1107 wrote: It’s a trap! mixing in key sounds safe and stops you from developing the ability to pick a good track from your memory. The best mixes I have ever come across have no business being together key wise but work absolutely perfectly. I you have a hunch about what will work run with it, don’t worry about the key try it otherwise you will sound exactly the same as the million other dj’s who play the same tracks and rely on the key to choose their next song.

If your not original you better be damn pretty or well connected because literally anyone can go to a popular blog and steal music, sync tracks on pirated software and rely on key matching or genius to choose their next song. If you develop your own identity people can copy your setlist but no one can copy the spontaneity and the musical knowledge that you have earned, that’s were you value lies otherwise there can be any good looking autopilot dj doing it.

Absolutely spot on, totally agree. I don’t analyse any tracks, never have done; sure I may work out what may go together during home mix tapes, but it’s not all about harmonic mixing, the track selection is of upmost importance for me and how you put one to the other – this does not always have to be harmonic!

And exactly as Steelo says, a bad out of key mix is not good at all!

I sound contradictory but relying on software to calculate key and then mix solely against the key wheel is foolish IMHO, rely on your ears and knowing your tracks and go with it, you learn that way.

U31, post: 3140, member: 195 wrote: Ask yourself, especially those who have used vinyl, would you willingly get rid of your vinyl EP’s & 12″ or 7″s?
I tend to think the answer is “No” your main collection stays in the decks room at home and your playing out set goes in your record bag or box…

For me its a very similar principle, main bulk choons on an external drive, a very good selection of tunes of a style i would regularly play on a partition on the lappy, then my set selection for the night copied to a folder on the desktop

I’m not putting down Phil’s idea, i can see the merit of a smaller selection of choons that you would get to know every nuance of, and with these building sets of a certain flavour… its just sometimes i’m mixing a pre arranged set and something will pop in to my head and 9 times out of 10 i can search the partition and find it

Yep, agree with this. I have 5000-6000 vinyl records, most of which are stored away with about 1000 of my most prized tracks available to hand. Similarly with my digital collection, they are all stored in folders marked in months, i.e. what I bought in March, April, May etc – out of this I have separate DJ folder which acts as my virtual record box, in which I weekly amend with a 1 or 2 in and out policy. This way I still have access to all my music but in a controlled and manageable way. I know digital music has become more ‘throwaway’ now but I would never delete something I’ve just paid for, it’s not as if it takes up room in the house, just mothball away for another day. I often go back to listen to older music.

I’ve just read your blog article and agree with all the points and recognise the scenarios you outline however I’m still not sure I could chuck stuff out, think I’m a hoarder! 🙂

Apart from the terrible music (IMHO of course 😉 ), yep, set a loop, fade up the other track and cut on the drop. Defintely wouldn’t do this for every transition however.

mashups/bootlegs live or prerecorded have been around for years so no problem with playing either imo. In the early 90’s for example, Sasha used to drop lots of accapellas over tracks, the combination of which would often then come out as a limited white label/bootleg run Degrees of Motion ‘Do You Want It Right Now’ over Gat Decor ‘Passion’ is a well known one.