D-Jam

Phil Morse, post: 19993, member: 2 wrote: Personally, I can beatmatch manually, but I use the tempo match (not sync) button religiously. Otherwise it’s like saying “I can long divide on paper, so I will never use a calculator”. But as someone who’s always manually beatmatched, from there I then phase match by ear. The physical act of getting two tunes to the same speed is not worth beating yourself up over, in my opinion.

Love the analogy. It’s like when I’ll ask “would you still drive with a manual steering system? Or use power steering?”

The only rule we all agree on is a DJ should be able to go manual when sync fails. I use sync, I like it, and I’m glad it’s made things easier for me and many others.

I thought the VCI-300 was all about ITCH. Phil uses one.

I’m not young anymore either. I’m going to be 39 in August.

BUT…I started when I was 19. I wished I could have started sooner, but I didn’t have the income to buy gear and music until after high school.

I did play saxophone from 4th grade all the way into my first year of college, but stopped since EDM was calling me more than jazz or concert music.

I will say you younger DJs are at an advantage. Your life is merely school, your peers, and such. You can build a following here that will follow you into adulthood. Seen many locals grow big simply because they had the kickstart of playing house parties and school dances for their peers. It’s harder when you’re not in school and thus can’t easily promote to your peers…or your peers have gotten older and now aren’t going out clubbing anymore.

Use this time to perfect your technique, keep producing, and grow. Build a fanbase in your high school and carry them into college. Play people’s house parties and school dances if you can.

When you get a little older (17, 18, 19, 20)…network in the rave scene or look into teen clubs for possible gigs.

I sometimes think with the popularity of gogo dancers, that some club might try combining a normal club night with strippers. Maybe no nudity and toss in male dancers for the ladies. So it becomes a more erotic evening.

I’m a fan of going internal when you don’t need a lot of music. External if you need a very large amount.

So when I go play guest spots or something, I’ll just move files into my internal HD. If I was playing a larger event, or being resident somewhere, I’d bring the external.

WATCH YOUR STUFF!!!!!! People will steal those hard drives right out of the booth.

OK…I looked into the SoundCloud issue.

They ONLY right now service SoundCloud…so you can either just link up to your profile feed or post individual tracks you put on SC.

So let me get this straight…they are mainly saying you can only use SC to post sounds, BUT…SC is right now showing they don’t want DJs posting mixes there…and this is a site/setup for DJs.

Who thought of that brilliant idea? That’s like opening a club, setting up a DJ booth, but not installing speakers anywhere…then telling the DJ to fill the room with music somehow..

Remember that not every blend has to be a beatmatched transition. Sometimes slamming in a tune at the right moment is just as good.

You can either try remixing the tunes to be more “dj friendly” or just creatively slam them in at the right points.

Here’s an easy way I’d look at it…and I’m sure some might disagree, but I’ll say it anyway:

SERATO: Ideal if you are looking to go into timecode and want things simple. I notice most vinyl purists who aren’t into the effects/sample banks/technology prefer Serato’s simplicity. The upside is it’s very stable and works well for PC and Mac users. The downside is you’re often married to only their hardware in terms of timecode and/or midi controls.

TRAKTOR: This is probably the more popular title nowadays, and it’s even where I went now. Traktor is versatile where you could go “simple” like you do on Serato or get complex like you see others do with sampling and effects. The upside is you get a wider array of possible options on how you want to do your setup in terms of gear. The downside is that sometimes Traktor can get a bit complex for many, and there is no video support. So if you want to play videos, this one isn’t for you.

VIRTUAL DJ: Virtual DJ does boast the largest user base. I was torn between VDJ and Traktor to be honest. VDJ has an easier setup and workings, it handles video, and the new 8th Edition will offer some very cool new features not really found on the others. The downside is you won’t quickly and easily find “dedicated gear”, if that’s important to you. However, this is changing.

So what’s your dream? Midi? Turntable? CDJ? What kinds of music do you like to play? Do you like scratching and tricking with the decks? Or push buttons and other technology?