DJ Vintage

DJ-Nostalgia, post: 41575, member: 10832 wrote:
Hi Chuck van Eekelen,

Hey Nostalgia

I detect a tone of sarcasm in your post!

Gosh, you noticed! LOL

Back in the days of REAL Disc Jockeys – the clue is in the name …

Pfffff … did you happen to see my name? And 80s vinyl? I was running 70s vinyl when I started :-p. No mixer was for bedroom/friend’s attic room practice. When we went out to play we actually had turntables (not 1200s) and a very basic mixer. Kit-built amp and some shabby speakers. It worked though.

– I think you need to separate in your mind the DJ-side of things (controllers, laptop, soundcards, etx.) and the PA side (speakers and amps)… –

… Not sure what you mean by this, as it seems I need ‘all of the above’?

Obviously you need all of them, but your OP suggested that needing amps or active speakers was somehow “new” because of digital DJ-ing. My point was that it isn’t.

I don’t really know what Digital Vinyl is, but…
I am finding it hard to think of getting rid of my vinyl, but the thought of digitising it all is quite daunting. Phil Morse*, the guy behind DDJT, suggested that I replace the vinyl I might want to continue using with MP3 versions of the tracks. That’s OK, but a digital file does not give you the emotional attachment you get from remembering when & why you bought the vinyl. But I guess that is just sentimentality.

Nothing wrong with sentimentality I guess. But it is a bitch to rip old vinyl and have them sound good. And you’ll always have the original album art if that offers any consolation.
DVS effectively let’s you turn regular turntables (you can go and get a decent set of 1200s – finally!) into controllers for digital music residing on your laptop. You use what is called a timecode record that basically tells the DJ software where the needle is and at what speed and in what direction it is spinning. Since you apparently weren’t a great beatmatching fan back in the day, I think DVS shouldn’t be something to strive for. Cumbersome and heavy equipment, harder to master, less help from modern day tools like beatgridding and sync. Even though your crowd may not expect it, it doesn’t hurt to show some technical agility.

…so am pretty much starting from scratch (forgive the pun!) again.

Love puns, keep ‘m coming.

* Incidentally, Phil does not mention in his 50-part ‘How to be a digital DJ’ video series on Youtube that you either need powered speakers or a separate amp, as well as your chosen mixer/controller & DJ software. I think this is a bad omission on his part, but the videos are nevertheless very useful.

Can’t remember the free stuff. I know he goes into it substantially in the paid course and there is a zillion posts on the blog and threads on here.

Greetinx and good luck, if you have any more questions let us know,
C.

I am working hard on a new workflow to get my library in working order. I want to be as platform indepent as I can be.

Meaning I want a central place to store my actual tracks (both original lossless versions in wav or flac and in 320kbps/256AAC format). This is where I would to all my tagging (Tag&Rename or MetaBliss), key detection (Mixed in Key) and sound optimalisation (Platinum Notes).

I am not sure if I am gonna be using iTunes (for the simple reason that I just hate it’s workflow and totally unApple-like non-intuitive workflow), but not sure what to use then.

With so many tools around (DJ Software, library software, etx.) it is hard to have a good centralized way of working with audio tracks and keeping track of the changes you make to them.

Not much help here, as we sometimes say around here: “… if only there was a simple answer …”.

Greetinx,
C.

It’s a gray area that is different from country to country. Personally (but this by no means a legal standpoint) I believe that as an artist you want as many people to hear your song(s) in the hope of them going out and buying it. As such I think DJ’s provide a valuable service to artists by playing their songs. DJs don’t play that music for their own musical pleasure but to please their audience.

Especially in the “old” days DJ’s would get records shoved in their hands by “pluggers”, people working for the record companies trying to get airplay. So it feels strange to have a vinyl collection that is half free and then paying to actually play it for a crowd, right?

Having said that, I can make an argument for the “other” side saying that a DJ makes money using their music and as such should pay for using it.

Then again we have already paid for the right to play a song when we “bought” it, since you don’t buy the song outright, just the play right.

In some countries you can pay a cover fee, that allows you to play any store/online purchased music as a DJ. In which case it is up to you to comply or take your chances. If all of your gigs are private parties, I can’t see to many people walk in to come and check this out (and ruin a couple’s wedding in the process).

Best thing is to find a specialized lawyer in your part of the world and have him spell it out.

Greetinx,
C.

Yep, and by the time you really master this stuff, your ears will be gone, your knees to weak to stand for six hours straight (let alone jumping up and down) and you look like a dirty ole man that nobody want to hire anymore.

Other than that … great career!

Greetinx,
C.

p.s. NOOOO, I DO NOT WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT … hahahahahahaha

Yep, it’s like that sometimes. I got “lucky” with my first pro residency. 6 days a week in 5-star hotels. And you know it isn’t packed with dance happy folks every day of the week (weekends it is of course). So you learn to play for few or at times no people (great times to practice all kinds of stuff or play the records – yes, VINYL 🙂 – that you really like or that just got in).

You grow some callouses that way.

Lot’s of weddings are like that too. Lot’s of family that hasn’t seen each other since the previous wedding or funeral (I never gig at those though … just kidding :-)) and want to catch up for the first two hours. You end up with a handful of 5-year old not exactly dancing, more like chasing each other across the dance floor.

It’s all good. Every song you play does something with the crowd, building their dance desire. You can tell by the telltale tapping or swinging of feet, heads, fingers if their subconcious is registering the music you play. And then, this is a big bonus of being a mic-bearing DJ, at some point you can get creative with your call for action and kick the party off. Doesn’t work all of the time, but most of it.

As long as the majority in the crowd is sitting like they are made from granite, tossing you angry looks with every new song you play or move as far away from the speakers as they can get (might be a good idea to pipe it down a bit early in the evening when nobody’s dancing yet anyway) and the person in charge is not coming to you in panic because nobody’s dancing, then you are probably fine.

Greetinx,
C.

Come on, guys … we started with QTX speakers at almost no money. When the choice is between Thumps (and I wholeheartedly agree with Simply Disco here) and Behringer/Alto’s, the choice is influenced by the price (B and A being cheaper than the Thumps with better spec performance). So I dare venture a guess that a decent EV set is out of budget.

Greetinx,
C.

Obama is fat? He hides it well :-p.

Greetinx,
C.