Was Jeff Mills really doing something?

[Steve Wade]

I do not have a problem with a new way of Dj'ing-I think the advances in technology are letting us as DJ's do stuff we never thought possible 10-15 years ago. So, I am not against a news ways of Dj'ing just for the record.

[doc holiday]

Since when are sloppy mixes a godawful thing?
Anybody remember Claude Young?
..

he'll post on here from time to time.
great tunes!

Really? Under what name? Wow.

Growing up in Michigan Mills and Claude Young were LEGENDARY and people endlessly talked about them, how they mixed and actively aspired to be like them more so than any other djs.

He posts as claudeyoung, I have many old party filers with his name on it.

for me Mike Huckaby would be the most influential detroit artist. That guy has amazing sets and amazing tracks. and he played ALOT.

[wildtek]

I'll don't enter the debate about what is better ... A DJ set with three Technics or an Ableton set ... But I'll try to explain my vision of the difference and where I situate Jeff Mills in it.

Why the debate don't count ? Because very simply I use both techniques.

I explain. And it's quite complex to not enter the debate, anyway :

I'm DJ since now around 10 years, I've played a couple of major events and a lot of smaller ones but not less interesting. A crowd of fifty peoples can be mad as a crowd of 3000 (talking with experience) it really depends of the ambience or the musical knowledge or open minded attitude of who form this crowd.

I'm a big user of Ableton, I use it to produce and play techno including Jeff Mills productions, most likely when I need perfection 'thanks warp markers' ...

I think about digital when I do my weekly radio show, when I offer a mix to peoples on my mailing list, when I do a guest radio show somewhere out of my own. Radio is very similar to studio. Peoples who listen to it are not on a dancefloor, they're maybe at home, at work, maybe doing sport or in a car (think podcast) and in these situations, I wish to offer them something near perfect 'technically talking' to listen and despite I don't take pleasure to mix some 'crappy' mp3's (trust me mp3 sound way lower than a vinyl)I enjoy focusing on the selection of the music and various effects, loops, edits of the tracks, possibilities offered into digital mixing to gives my listeners a good experience, a good moment out of a dancefloor.

Also, digital mixing let me play a ton of tracks from friends who are not sufficiently experimented to press their tracks on vinyls, they will do in future, I'm sure but right now some fine tuning is still needed. Ans because of digital, they can compare a track of their own in a set that includes a Jeff Mills or a Robert Hood or even a Dave Clarke one. Top notch feature/possibility of digital mixing.

Now, when it comes to play live at a party, I just don't even think to take the computer along me. I take an heavy bag of vinyls "again including lot of Jeff Mills" inside it and I take a real pleasure to play them. A lot more than clicking a mouse or touching a couple of knobs on a controller. Because a vinyl is an object you can touch, feel, love, collect, think about and at top of all, it's the best support for the music we call techno. The warm sound of vinyl let you have a bass that moves any ass around, the hi-hats are shaking heads, the synths and pads are taking you to another level.

And if you're lucky enough to own some rare transparent first pressings of labels like Basic Channel or 'again' Axis... It's something mp3 and digital world can't offer you.

Does any of you own rare or collector mp3 ? Certainly not.

And after these years playing the DJ game, I have a couple of supporters, fans, friends who all said it to me at least once... Dimitri, I'll move wherever you go if you play vinyls because I want to see you doing it. But I'll never move if you play on a computer, I'll download and will listen at home when I'll feel it because I know your selection of music will be good, but I don't care seeing you manipulating a rack of knobs and a mouse.

I think Jeff Mills or any other DJ from Detroit, Chicago, New York are part of the legend of the DJ work and the legend on a lower level is what we call the 'culture' about it. And it's our role/job to respect it and continue it by introducing new technologies but also to never forget where it comes from.

This is a melting pot of respect/education/knowledge and tolerance. This is the value behind the whole thing.

And look around, all digital mixing techniques try to emulate vinyls, prove that vinyl is definitely the best support.

Right now on the first or second page of the Ableton 'general' forum, someone ask for videos to emulate vinyl scratching... I'll say put your hand on and scratch ... With a vinyl ...

To do a conclusion because I need to end at one moment or another lol, I'm excited to hear for example Richie Hawtin 'Transitions' that is purely a digital mix but cool, at home, to analyse and wonder how he used the technology at his hands. It's the perfection.

But at a party, after few beers, some vodka shooters, having fun with friends, seeing the right and wrong sides of nightlife, I fuckin don't want to 'bug' in front of a nerd turning knobs and thinking he's god... I want a pure dj who looks through his fly case to find the unique track that will make me think 'right, I'm there and I'm a lucky bastard to experience this moment' I want the man to dance behind the turntables, I want him to scratch and I want to see him doing it, not clicking a button and hear the similar or emulated effect. I want something real in this 'ALL' fictive world. And Jeff Mills offered me some of these moments many times guys, many many times... Paris, Berlin, Gent, Brussels, London, each time I was able and around, I was there to see/hear him and I never been sad about few 'accidents' in the mix because the funk was there, the soul, the magic.

It's what he offered me since years ... The Reality.

[twitterytom]

your stereotype of someone turning knobs instead of moving vinyl is a nerd and not a real dj is a bit narrow minded.

vinyl is already an abstraction of music, abstracting further into a digital medium does not make the difference between a "real" dj and a "nerd". a "real musician" who plays an instrument could say the same thing about vinyl that you are saying about using a controller.

i guess its mostly a matter of personal taste. but attributing tags as to what is a real dj vs a non-real dj is silly. some
"real djs" believe they're god just because they've got a vinyl in their hand and some "nerds" believe they're gods just because they can twist some knobs. whatever...

[ryansupak]

This is a matter of personal opinion -- I'd really like to believe that "Ableton DJing" could be as interesting as turntable DJing -- but it almost never is. I'm not sure why; it's a mysterious thing really.

rs

[doc holiday]

lots of vinyl dj's should not be up there anyway.



it's all about how you work it.

[Minimal Justice System]

Having been a DJ for around 15 years I have been through the change to CD from vinyl and now from CD to laptop and I have to say that progress is something that some people will always frown upon... How you mix is something that is 100% personal preference but what you mix with is something that can't help but evolve. I have massive ammount of vinyl and I love so many things about it but I also never us it to mix with anymore due to the inconvenience of heavy record cases and skips, cracks and heavy bass feedback loops. I mix with CD's and Ableton these days and often more so with Ableton than CD becauseI can be way more creative while using Ableton than I ever could with vinyl or CD. See this thread for an example

http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=111983 (Can't help but have a little plug here)

I will never give up on vinyl as something to own and cherish but when I'm doing what I love I want to be able to do things I could only dream of when I first stared out and for me using Ableton is a big part of realising those dreams!!

[ze2be]

Since when are sloppy mixes a godawful thing?
Anybody remember Claude Young?
The man that puts so much force on the decks, that the whole stage needs reinforcement.
Its not like anybody expected him to do a clean mix with his freaking elbows or teeth.
But he did pull it off a lot of the times. Add to that, that he mostly spinned the classics..

Yeah, herd him at Quart Festivalen in 95 (biggest musical festival over here) His set was just unbelievable! I had a "dj talk" with him after the show, and he was really the humblest sweetest guy! awsome! big inspiration!

4 decks, 20 second to next mix, one record under each arm, and one in the mouth, plus scratching!! It was a fresh breath from the usual mills warehouse machine with 909. (im big mills fan though, of course, but...wow)

[aqua_tek]

paris hilton is a better dj than all y'all. She'll tell it to your face, then she'll sic her dbag boyfriend on you, then she'll blog about it.

Even if the boyfriend gets a beatdown, she remains unphased. Because she knows who runs tings in the dj world.

Reconize.

[Minimal Justice System]

paris hilton is a better dj than all y'all. She'll tell it to your face, then she'll sic her dbag boyfriend on you, then she'll blog about it.

Even if the boyfriend gets a beatdown, she remains unphased. Because she knows who runs tings in the dj world.

Reconize.

Paris Hilton is my mum... She taught me my skills!!

[Alejandro]

He really was doing something, playing the art as any other musician playing an instrument.

OK, so listen, let me add into this conversation from different perspective, I consider myself
a new DJ performer, I do not care if it is the correct name for me, I've been a bass player for almost
two decades, and just a year ago I started DJing with live, and producing my own primitive stuff.

I will not take 1@#^$ from a simple vynil spinner, I've seen them play enough, it sounds great because
of the needle that's it, I am impressed when they mix a lot of records as you have said, or when they
master the scratching and tone making as it is a damn sitar.

I refused to be minimized, I beat match on the fly with ableton, I make terrible mistakes, so far I
do not use warp markers, and man I think I am doing more then simply vynil decks spinners, as I am
adding a lot of effects, and tons of orignal and other samples on the fly, no set of mine sounds like the other, let me tell you if I can do that, it is just as led Zeppelin policy of never playing in the same way Dazed and Confused.

All of you DJ's should really learn music and masterize an instrument to trully understand what the art of music is, so respect any kid performer we do not know what they can do with it. Long time ago I used to hate anybody that did not play conventional instruments, I hated hardware players, vynil spinners, even Jean Michelle Jarre... life is strange isn't.....

respect...