SimBa

DJ Homei, post: 40242, member: 5649 wrote: Interesting question, and I sense the responses are going off-topic. I bet every DJ in this forum over the age of 25 has lost some hearing!!! However, most of us are a long ways from being deaf.

I’ve heard that Deaf people can actually hear or feel loud booms. Sort of like when you turn a filter sweep to deep muffle. So the Deaf’s perceptions of music not as limited as most people with normal hearing (like me) think.

Assuming this is what a Deaf DJ (DDJ – hope this isn’t an offensive term) would be working with, my reaction is that a DDJ would come at DJing from a completely different angle. And coming at things from a radically different angle is often the source of amazing creativity and breakthroughs.

I think only hearing or sensing the booms would connect DDJs on a primal, raw level with the rhythmic side of the music. I also think DDJs would read crowd reactions much better and be finely attuned to the social aspects of music. That combination could be very extremely powerful.

But I might be stretching things in an attempt to be fair-minded. I don’t think muffled booms are the most interesting part of dance music. To me, the art and craft of DJing is putting the intricacies of the full spectrum of music together. I could also see all sorts of key clashes and musical mismatches happening.

Even though digital software could minimize many sonic clashes, it creates a problem that plagues DJ’s with normal hearing. Another DJ who’s going on top10 lists and software suggestions, instead of feeling the spirit of the music.

But does that matter for the people you’re trying to help? I sense your motivation isn’t to turn DDJ’s into the next Ritchie Hawtin, but expand their horizons. That’s a good thing.

A quick side note: apparently there’s a DDJ out there who’s famous enough to be the star of a national US commercial I saw a year ago.

This is a really interesting well balanced response. So much so I’d like to quote you in the written part of my assignment if that’s cool with you?

You’re right in saying Deaf people perceive music differently. I’ve done a lot of research on this already and frolm what I’ve been reading, Deaf people have a more well developed sense of touch that hearing people, even to the point where Deaf people actually sense touch through the auditory complex of the brain as well as the part of the brain you’d normally use (i forget what the technical term is!)

That makes me wonder if, with training, the brain of someone who’s deaf would do a similar trick with the visual cortex? Would a Deaf person be able to perceive as much through the waveforms on something like traktor or Serato as we do with our ears?

Anyway, that’s all speculation and you’re totally right, I’m not trying to create megastars here, it’s really about giving people the confidence to do it and find new ways to appreciate music.

By the way, the DJ you’re talking about it Robbie Wilde. Look him up, it’s a pretty inspiring story 🙂