Ableton Forum

Why do people feel the need to validate what they do with others opinions? Whether you are a DJ, engineer. musician, composer, or whatever...if you are creating art that is straight from your heart, it shouldn't matter what anyone thinks is skill or not. Stay humble and do the best you can at what you do. That's all that really matters.

if your djing the music you created,then i think it will be accepted more.then again the people who are dancing dont care that much as long as the music sounds good.

if your djing the music you created,then i think it will be accepted more

why?

DJing is about playing others peoples music (and maybe your own of course).. what difference does it make whether its played on turntables, CDJ's, reel-to-reel or a laptop?

As said in sign language by a trained chimpanzee who's currently DJing with the Live 5 Beta

none of what you described has anything to do with good DJing... the ability to beat-match is irrelevant and can often hide the fact that a good 'mixer' is playing (subjectively speaking of course) shite tunes...

if you follow your theory thru you will come to the conclusion that the ultimate dumbing down is the DJ who just plays 1 vinyl record after another without beat-matching at all.. I mean ANYONE CAN DO THAT RIGHT? well some of the best DJ sets I've ever heard are those kinds... its about THE MUSIC - about playing things at the right time in the right order.. that will never change...

The current generation will always be looked down upon by the one before it.

It's ignorance. Just like most old fashion people don't like all this electronic music. They enjoy what they grew up with: instrument playing bands. All completely original music and lyrics.

Now the disc jockeys are looking down upon the new digital jockeys because they think there is less skill involved. It might be subconcious jealousy, ignorance, or sometimes they actually embrace the change, but whatever it is, it happens everytime there is an advancement like this.

So before long, digital jockeys will look down upon the future genertion of the MJs, where all they have to do is think about the music and it comes out of the speakers. Of course they won't like this because it takes almost no skill at all, but everyone will soon realize that DJs are just about the music.

But for the digital jockeys of today, they're not going to last if they don't learn how to "perform". No one wants to know that the music they're hearing is coming from a guy clicking away on his computer. It's embarrassing.

So I think that the new computer DJs will make it mainstream only if the hardware can catch up and we don't have to touch the mouse at all.

I think that video and music will slowly become one, and that mix will be the future of DJs.

The current generation will always be looked down upon by the one before it

I'm not sure this is the case here. I am 1 of the 'previous generation' and I fully embraced Live when it came out. I DJ'd with Francois Kervorkian last week and he is most certainly of a previous generation yet he is one of the pioneers of laptop DJing... (he used Traktor that night, but he had just done a Kraftwerk pre-concert gig using Ableton).

I can't really 'stereotype' the kind of person who doesn't accept new forms of DJing... but it certainly isn't regular punters...

I think the negativity mainly comes from people who misunderstand what DJing is all about... maybe those who have a competitive spirit rather than a creative one... those who feel safer dealing with objective skills like beat matching where they can PROVE to themselves they are 'better' at something than somebody else, rather than the subjective matter of whether they actually play good music or not...

Midi controllers are the key to the performance aspect - I really felt my energy levels go up once I got the UC33. I don't think its embarrassing compared to a DJ waving his arms around during large snare roll build ups

DJ Chim-Chim wrote:"ChimChim put song in session view. Chim-Chim push play. Chim-Chim put in new song. Chim-Chim push play again. Chim-Chim slide fader. Chim-Chim do this many times. Chim-Chim like mp3. Live figure out tempo. Chim-Chim big hero."

Well it wouldn't be the first time: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_b ... ory=648503

Burt wrote: Midi controllers are the key to the performance aspect - I really felt my energy levels go up once I got the UC33. I don't think its embarrassing compared to a DJ waving his arms around during large snare roll build ups

lol yea that's true. have you done any live sets though, without using the mouse much?

i'm thinking of getting a UC-33e or a Mackie Universal control. which one os better for DJing?

I only use the mouse (trackpad actually) for triggering clips... everything else I do with the UC33... the next stage will be that Mawser modular controller I hope...

it makes a HUGE difference.. makes you feel more secure that you're physically doing something more than clicking...

I haven't used the MAckie... the UC33 is good enough for now - I treat it rough and its lasted so far...

Livewire wrote: have you done any live sets though, without using the mouse much?

I run Live on 2 Tibooks with my band. They both chase midi clock from my Roland A-37 controlled kbd. I use a ReMote25 as well. The Tibooks sit off to the side of stage because once the Sets are loaded, we do not have to touch the computers, or look at the screen AT ALL. Everything is controlled via midi.

This is using Live Sets that are roughly 110 tracks wide and 250 scenes deep. I think it should be completely possible to "DJ" on live without touching the computer, and quite possibly without even looking at it, if you set up your Live Sets in advance to allow for the spontenaity you need, and choose your hardware controller accordingly.

my 2c

:sigh:

i guess its too much to hope well all ever get to the point where we stop saying "my way is better than your way" about things that are actually all-inclusive in nature...

Hi Sinjin, not saying its "better", just saying its "possible".

i don't see why whenever 'definition' is brought up in a discussion that people think it's a plea for validation, or an attack on art itself.. thats nonsense if you ask me, I for one don't need anybodys validation for anything I do but that doesn't mean that I don't know what a dj is, or a composer, producer, remixer, engineer, or arranger for that matter and I respect all of these skill sets, and call on all of these individuals at some point in my music making process so I don't see whats the problem in asking 'which one are you', you could be all of them or you could be just one, whatever my respect for you stays in tact and my discussion about what defines a dj is not an attack on you no matter who or what you are.

Livewire wrote:It's ignorance.

Case closed.

i can beat mix faster then live 5

::mic-minimal:: wrote:i don't see why whenever 'definition' is brought up in a discussion that people think it's a plea for validation, or an attack on art itself.. thats nonsense if you ask me, I for one don't need anybodys validation for anything I do but that doesn't mean that I don't know what a dj is, or a composer, producer, remixer, engineer, or arranger for that matter and I respect all of these skill sets, and call on all of these individuals at some point in my music making process so I don't see whats the problem in asking 'which one are you', you could be all of them or you could be just one, whatever my respect for you stays in tact and my discussion about what defines a dj is not an attack on you no matter who or what you are.

Mic,

Your questons are valid and it would be nice to have a discussion about it. But this discussion has turned up before and although the intentions are good, sometimes things turn into a pissing contest. It's human nature, I guess.