Daft Punk ARE DJs

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.

Are Daft Punk DJs

Poll ended at Mon Jan 19, 2009 3:02 am

yes
23
47%
no
26
53%
 
Total votes: 49

quandry
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Post by quandry » Sat Jan 10, 2009 2:12 am

robotsound wrote:daft punk samples, but not nearly as much as you think they do.
I challenge you to go listen to some of the songs they sampled and compare them to songs on DP albums:

http://palmsout.blogspot.com/2007/02/sa ... -punk.html

Hearing some of these albeit obscure original tracks took a LOT of wind out of my DP fanboy sails--they most certainly sample the shit out of a lot of old records, and on songs such as Robot Rock, where the main hook is completely sampled--take that hook away and the DP version isn't a song--it is totally built around that sample.

Not to say that I don't like their music, but much like a number of hip hop artists (Dr. Dre, etc.), once I start hearing how most of their songs have crucial elements (beats, hooks, and basslines) that are 100% sampled, I lose a bit of the awe and respect I have for them. I think on one hand it's great that these cool obscure songs/hooks are given new life, but you gotta give props to the musicians who composed and played those parts--please don't try to say that beat matching and collaging samples from various sources is just as difficult as learning to play an instrument and compose these hooks and riffs from your own head, cause it's two completely different things. It takes years of hard practice on your instrument and learning/absorbing music theory to properly play and compose music on instruments, not so with beat matching and collaging samples, sorry.

Bottom line is, it's personal preference. Sure, it takes some skills to be a DJ, and they are artists in their own right. Depending on how you define "musician", DJ's may or may not fit in that category. Depending on your taste in Live music, you may wish to dance and not give a shit how the music is reaching you, or you may prefer to see musicians with traditional instruments performing, improvising, and taking risks on stage, not relying on studio tracks and other people's music to get them through the night. It's personal preference, depending on what you listen to and what you want out of a live show. Both methods have advantages and disadvantages.
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teknobryan
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Post by teknobryan » Sat Jan 10, 2009 4:28 am

I'm tired of this...

pulsoc
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Post by pulsoc » Sat Jan 10, 2009 5:02 am

There was no "suck' option?

kpa
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Post by kpa » Sat Jan 10, 2009 4:05 pm

teknobryan wrote:I'm tired of this...
+1. another daft punk good/not good thread. boring.

art is subjective. nothing else can be said. all this is is arguing over opinions. i suppose that is what the internet is for though.
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LithiuMind
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Post by LithiuMind » Sat Jan 10, 2009 4:13 pm

It's neither DJ nor Live Instrumentation.

It is Live Electroacoustic performance.

Daft Punk are Musicians, but not Instrumentalists. A composer who does not play an instrument is a musician, would you not say so? He is not an instrumentalist, but he is still a craftsman of music.

Machinate
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Q

Post by Machinate » Sat Jan 10, 2009 4:33 pm

LithiuMind wrote:A composer who does not play an instrument is a musician, would you not say so?
No, I'd say he's a composer.

And yes, daft punk (the later years) are, to me, nawt but djs - they certainly don't create their own music any more, at the most they regurgitate and - in a pinch - remix. "Remixers" would be more appropriate, I guess?

I share Quandrys sentiments in terms of the loss of respect.... and what a fall from grace!! Do you guys remember Rolling and Scratching? The Homework album? That shit blew my mind back in the day!

teknobryan
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Post by teknobryan » Sat Jan 10, 2009 9:43 pm

I hate myself that I am still replying on here but here goes.

Daft Punk do make completely songs without samples you know.
examples:

Steam Machine
BrainWasher
Rollin & Scratchin
Human After All
Television Rules the Nation
Emotion
Aerodynamite
Prime Time of your life
Rock N Roll

what confuses people is that yes some of their songs are completely dependent on samples, while others are not, big deal, both take talent. Eric Prydz did the same with Call on Me, but he also makes songs without samples.

LithiuMind
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Post by LithiuMind » Sun Jan 11, 2009 3:20 am

Well, sorry there Machinate, but you would be what we call "wrong".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musician

sxezskoz
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Post by sxezskoz » Sun Jan 11, 2009 3:40 am

this is an interesting topic, something to ponder, not so much about whether or not Daft Punk are Djs, but what being a DJ means these days... performing electronic music live is a hard concept for many people to grasp, even those within the know.
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nbinder
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Post by nbinder » Sun Jan 11, 2009 11:25 am

That is if you are thinking that Daft Punk are in fact performing live which a lot of people strongly doubt. :roll:

quandry
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Post by quandry » Sun Jan 11, 2009 9:51 pm

sxezskoz wrote:this is an interesting topic, something to ponder, not so much about whether or not Daft Punk are Djs, but what being a DJ means these days... performing electronic music live is a hard concept for many people to grasp, even those within the know.
As someone who has performed using Ableton as a live looper a lot, I guess that once one understands the session view, scenes, routing, and effect capabilities of Ableton, you realize that with proper preparation of pre-recorded material for performance, the actual act of performance is a cakewalk. Even more so for those using the arrangerview for performance.

If people started off their live-music-out-on-the-town seeing mostly live bands playing, a DJ set can seem rather tame and less interesting visually. As someone who has played in tradiontal bands as well as slightly more DJesque setups using Live, I personally feel like it takes a lot more skills and balls to get out in front of a crowd and play a real instrument Live, with all the possibilities of totally messing up--you really must either know the song, have charts, or be far along enough to simply play by ear. I feel that laptop-based perfromances lack this element of risk and chance-taking, and also lack that mysterious possibility that on any given night a good band might just be in the "zone", and that kind of magic just can't really happen with one or two dudes on laptops.

Don't get me wrong, on the whole the DP show I saw last year was incredible--with pre-recorded material the mix is clearly more controlled an better, and they make up for their lack of visual interest (ie no visible "instruments") by having an incredible light show (best I've seen), which also benefits from tha ability to sync the lights/video to midi from Ableton. Bottom line is that DP is by far and away the most visually intriguing laptop/DJ act around, hands down, as they seem to recognize the inherent lack of visual interest in standing behind a laptop, and done a lot to compensate for it.
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sparkletone
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Re: Daft Punk ARE DJs

Post by sparkletone » Mon Jan 12, 2009 5:22 am

Marx wrote:On Homework, Daft Punk has stated that the samples were cleared and they used CDJs to sample.
Ignoring the rest of this thread.

Why has no one called this out?

CDJs? Used to record Homework? An album made around 93-96? Not, you know. Any of the actual gear they were known to use around that time?

Quite frankly, I can think of fewer discussions more boring than the one the OP intends to have in this thread, but if you're going to waste your time, at least know the facts + history of what you're discussing...
Last edited by sparkletone on Mon Jan 12, 2009 5:27 am, edited 1 time in total.

Tone Deft
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Re: Daft Punk ARE DJs

Post by Tone Deft » Mon Jan 12, 2009 5:26 am

sparkletone wrote:
Marx wrote:On Homework, Daft Punk has stated that the samples were cleared and they used CDJs to sample.
Ignoring the rest of this thread.

Why has no one called this out?

CDJs? Used to record Homework? An album in the mid 90s? Not, you know. Any of the actual gear they were known to use around that time?

Quite frankly, I can think of fewer discussions more boring than the one the OP intends to have in this thread, but if you're going to waste your time, at least know the facts + history of what you're discussing...
and that's what your momma would call pwnage.

starving student
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Post by starving student » Mon Jan 12, 2009 6:52 am

I think alot of the heartbreak comes from artist not giving upfront and outfront credit with what they do, alot of folks got their feelings hurt when they found out all of the songs daftpunk sampled from you wouldn't believe some of the post i've read about it from some fans, it was like finding out that jesus christ was an alien or something they just couldn't deal with it and I'm sure it was an especialy difficult thing to accept from people right after they were talking so much shit about hiphop artist not being musicians......
to each his own
fuck it

stringtapper
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Re: Daft Punk ARE DJs

Post by stringtapper » Mon Jan 12, 2009 7:44 am

teknobryan wrote:
Marx wrote: So, in my book, if you produce the same way a DJ does, and Perform the same way a DJ does, YOU ARE A DJ.
so I guess Mozart was a DJ because he doesn't "perform" his music.
No he doesn't play his own music because he's dead. When he was alive he performed plenty of his own music.
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