DJ Hane K

My guess – and I have absolutely no data or research to back this up whatsoever – is that the record companies needed to somehow re-brand dance music because of the sudden popularity of top40 dj/producers like David Guetta etc., and the term ‘dance music’ just felt too… 90’s, if you get what I mean? So they simplified the heterogeneous field of various sub-genres and grouped it all under one marketable name – EDM. To the true fan this simplification is of course an abomination, but I guess the same goes for most types of music. I’m sure there are a gazillion different sub-genres of jazz, but since I don’t really listen to the genre, it all sounds jazz to me!

…except for, you know, missing your cue, sliding the crossfader over before the manually beatmatched mix is in in sync, then frantically fumbling with the pitch controls to regain some form of control over the mix… Really, I thought this forum was all about embracing the new technology and the possibilities brought with it – and all of the sudden we’re having an argument on why people should learn to do things the old skool way just because it’s a “get out of jail free” card? Really? How many times has the scenario put forth in a previous post (“an eldery gentleman comes to you with a CD, “Hey man your set is tite, but can you play this “Dancing Queen” for me ?” (with 2 100 dolla slip in)” happened to you? And would you really accept the request if it did, or tell the gentleman in question to go bugger himself with his ABBA cd? Do you take iPhones too, hook ’em up to your mixer and play a track off YouTube if some douche with a couple of hundies asks you to?

I understand the situation is different with mobile/wedding DJs, but playing a club/bar/etc scene? No way. Again, I’m not saying it’s not a nice skill to have… But I maintain it’s really a rather unnecessary one. Why not spend your time mastering more important stuff, like good transitions, live remixing, creative use of effects and remix decks (if using Traktor) etc? If you’ll allow an analogy, if you know how to code Java, is it really necessary to lean Assembly? I would think it’s high time to let go of these burdens of the past and start focusing on things that will be relevant in the future.

Again, I ask… If all your music is on your laptop; and “the technology fails” i.e. your laptop dies; how is beatmatching by ear going to help? I mean… I’m not saying it’s not a nice skill to have, but I just think it’s rather an _unnecessary_ skill in this day and age.

Assuming you’re playing stuff from a computer, not vinyl/cds. But I guess you wouldn’t be on this particular forum if you weren’t.

Let’s play a little game, shall we. If you were asked to play a gig at an event such as this, for good enough money that you said yes, what would you play? 😀

Well, I have a couple of vinyl turntables too, paired with a Kontrol Z2 but I don’t think that has anything to do with the topic here – what I was saying is that you will have access to visual aids if you bring a laptop to play music from. Sure the beatgrids might be a bit off or the tempo might drift with given songs but you will _always_ have those waveforms to help you out. If technology fails (i.e. your laptop dies) then that’s it – or are you telling me you actually own all your tracks on vinyl too? And bring that collection with you to gigs? What you’ll do (or what I do, at least) is have an ipod with a few ready-made mixtapes on it hooked up to the mixer in case the worst happens, so I can put those on while trying to figure out the laptop issue. And then I’ll have my waveforms again.

Didn’t you just ask basically the same question in another thread? (http://digitaldjtips.com/forum/threads/first-dj-set-questions.9260/)

Anyways, quick’n’dirty answers… if you’re using your controller with the house mixer you just plug the controller into one of the channels on the mixer with an rca-cable. Simple as that. No need to touch the house mixer after that, just make sure the channel your controller is hooked up to is active. You’ll do everything on the controller as per usual, but instead of hooking the controller directly to a PA, there’s just another mixer in between.

Home setup:
[controller]——>[speakers]

Club setup:
[controller]—–>[house mixer]—–>[house PA]

Regarding the CDJs, if you prepare your music in the Pioneer rekordbox software and put it on a USB, then no, you won’t need a laptop. But like I said in your previous thread, if you’ve never played on a cdj-setup before, don’t do it for the first time playing live.

Lastly, and I know I’ll probably take some flak about this, but if you one day hope to be a pro, learn to use the Pioneers. The mixtrack is nice and all, but it’s a toy compared to the real pro setups found in clubs around the world.

Yes, the 900s and 2000s can be used as controllers for traktor. But with other cd-players you’ll need timecode cd’s and an audio interface such as the traktor scratch A6.

This thread would move along much better if you just gave the place a call and asked them i) what gear do they have and ii) can you bring a controller. That way we wouldn’t need to speculate and could get down to giving actual advice.

I’d think it’s even worse if it’s a nexus setup 😀