Ableton DJs, please pack your bags and go home

fsk · Post by **fsk** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 6:19 am

Im always dancing when Im djing, I don't think Im very good at it (djing.. Im a great dancer

), and usually it turns out to be just 2 tracks, at max 3. Every so often I try to be adventurous, but not all the time, thats something for the future, right now Im doing my own stuff, just cant find the time. if the crowd is lovin it and dancing, then Im loving it too. Im always mixing genres and commercial stuff with very obscure stuff, think that works well.

LOFA · Post by **LOFA** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 9:05 am

sonorous3 wrote:OK so I dont mean all obviously. But this has been bothering me most lately is the wave of the Ableton DJ who thinks once he/she has got beatmatching/warping down they are a DJ to be of the future.

Guys, beatmatching is not even half of what DJing is about...congrats if you find out how to warp a track after your 2 month learning curve. However, DJing is about your tracks selection, the order you put it in, the flow, the moods you create with it- one that makes makes musical sense...and for God's sake please do it all harmonically!

just a rant.

p.s. dont bother playing around pushing buttons and truning knobs on your controller when your not actually doing anything...alot of us do know the tracks and when you do that stuff you only make yourself look like a fool

Does this horrible generalization include "Ableton Musicians" and "Ableton Artists", because if so, I feel that all these people who wield and utilize instruments are really just hanging on the coat-tails of all those dudes that like to bang on rocks. Frankly, I think you are an "Ableton Troll."

I thought really hard for a really long time about becoming a DJ. Once I realized that the only music that really worked well with my approach to it was bloody boring, I decided to learn how to play my own beats with a kit and wait fot something like live to come out, rather than compromise my own ideas to some very abritrary (pitch, time, space, the infinite and beyond... whatever

) limtations and music I generally wouldn't like unless I was high (I don't think there is anything wrong with getting high and listening to music, but if it only sounds good when your high, either it isn't good, or you should really clean up your life.)

Now Ableton live is out, and all of us who want to blur ever sonic boundary imaginable, have that option, so we can stop banging our heads with rocks, I mean leaching the ailed, I meant to say; mixing with turntables.

Maybe we should juggle knives too? Or maybe we should honk our Fuc_ing noses at the same time? That would be more honest right?

Hell. What about if if they use an mpc?

Actually, the more I think about this, the more I want to agree with you. If you are a "Hip-Hop" DJ AND all you want to do is mix one or two tracks, with Live, you are a GENIUS. There cannot be an easier thing to do in the world. It would be like taking an Olypmic sport and letting superman compete. BUT! As this sad media pushes more and more towards Image versus talent, it doesn't matter at all if you are even doing anything! So, you must be a GENIUS, because you are so handsome and precious, and perfect as well. By the way, do you know where I could...

But wait... do dancing. intoxicated youngins want to hear music from a genius?
Probably not. It seems there is a Lab Rat in a G-UNIT cap having a Pavlavian coniption-fit to the same records he has been having a Pavlavian coniption fit with for years, just down the block!

Life is too short for running around in the same two beat-matched hamster cycles at once, over and over again, That's why some of us might DJ wih "Live."

TonySoprano · Post by **TonySoprano** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 1:57 am

cubbie wrote:..I'm pretty amazed with some of the glitchy crazy computer dj sets some of the 19-20 years olds are pumping out lately. (at least here in Toronto where I live)

They live on MSN and use VST plug ins like they were just always there and don't have any preconceived ideas about electronic music genres or how they're supposed to be presented. So its like they put a lot of different rock n roll, techno ideas in a blender and don't even realize what it is they are doing.

That's exactly how it is in my eyes. Nicely worded.

CopyRightJustice · Post by **CopyRightJustice** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 12:03 pm

So performance DJ's came when hip hop arrived.DJ's took small breaks from funky tunes beat matched and scratched them to produce their own backing track for the MC to rap over.They had to do it this way because it was the only solution avalable(beat boxing as well)
Then clubs and dance music came along and the music that the DJ's were playing went from small portions of live music to whole records made up from just these repetetive breaks that the hip hop DJ' were creating using original live music.The records that DJ's use are now so boring that it's the DJ's job to make them interesting.What I'm trying to say is that I think that ableton now gives us the solution to go full circle(as music has been doing since it's creation) away from whole records of the same 4/4 beat and back to a more interesting less anal way of performing this music.

This thread is like a tabloid newspaper a load of swizzle but somehow I had to read it.

Peace all happy living

robin · Post by **robin** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 12:07 pm

CopyRightJustice wrote:So performance DJ's came when hip hop arrived.DJ's took small breaks from funky tunes beat matched and scratched them to produce their own backing track for the MC to rap over.They had to do it this way because it was the only solution avalable(beat boxing as well)
Then clubs and dance music came along and the music that the DJ's were playing went from small portions of live music to whole records made up from just these repetetive breaks that the hip hop DJ' were creating using original live music.

Not really true, you've forgotten that disco djs came well before hip hop djs (I'm not denying that what you say is true more the lineage). They pioneered the technique of taking two copies of a record and extending the break.

We're talking early 70s here.

djastroboy · Post by **djastroboy** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 1:06 pm

Yeah I met a disco DJ from the early 70's that had a pair of audiophile Gerrard turntables that he had an engineer modify to give him pitch control and start/stop buttons. Beatmixin madness! His transitions were short, but effective!

robin · Post by **robin** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 1:18 pm

djastroboy wrote:Yeah I met a disco DJ from the early 70's that had a pair of audiophile Gerrard turntables that he had an engineer modify to give him pitch control and start/stop buttons. Beatmixin madness! His transitions were short, but effective!

That's what I'm talking about.

Tim Lawrence's book is a good read on all this.

thx1138 · Post by **thx1138** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 5:39 pm

£63 off Ebay a few months back:-

onyxashanti · Post by **onyxashanti** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 7:51 pm

why do people argue about the same dumb shit.

the future isnt coming, like it was a couple of years ago. dude, it's here. i play with ableton...and get paid to do it. i also play wind synth at clubs with DJs that make $2-5k a night and they use it too, as well as final scratch and serrato.

at one time i would have said "deal with it!", but you dont have to. it's a reality now. now it's your problem.

[wow, i must be really bored to have posted to this thread

]

Kaidenjohn · Post by **Kaidenjohn** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 8:06 pm

I have played from San Fran to Boston. Vinyl has always been my work of choice. In the past ten years I have built up an amazing collection. Although there is a flip side. People spend to much time on what people can do as far as beatmatching or just plain warping. STOP being dumb. It all depends on if the crowed is moving or standing still. Who gives a crap what method the person is using. Beat mixing prog slow style or Breaks Quick style is all easy but unless you know what to play you are at a loss. I guess what I am trying to say is everyone who wants to talk about vinyl verse Ableton just go away. Ableton or some other method of digital will prevail one day its just how stuff works. Give up on the subject of being a bunch of babys and just play the music, is that not what we are all here for?

djadonis206 · Post by **djadonis206** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 9:53 pm

Wow like this hasn't been debated before

I love vinyl (as a matter of fact I'm going ot go to Platinum right now)

I love Ableton

peace

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