Alex Bond wrote: > so maybe digital dj'ing allows someone to think more about > programming than actual mixing (as it's virtually 'automatic') > and I think that has to be a good thing. I think?
I'd actually say that digital dj'ing gives DJs the flexibility to choose how much "automation" they want to use - you're not *restricted* to nicely automated beatmatching and so on if you don't want to be. For example, I've been using Ableton heavily for over a year now (having used it on the Offworld Party Time and All Cylinders mixes, as well as playing out with it three or four times) and count myself as a pretty experienced user by now. Recently, however, I played with Final Scratch for the first time, and it was a major eye-opener. It's a different world from Ableton altogether; in the world of Ableton, if you want imprecision in your mixes, you have to actually *build it in* (do very minor adjustments to the warp markers etc to give the impression tracks are drifting subtly in and out of time), which is quite bizarre when you think about it. However, with Final Scatch, there's really no difference from vinyl mixing apart from the fact that you can play tracks that only exist on hard drive as well as tracks that exist on vinyl. So there's space in the world for both Final Scratch and Ableton Live, but the two of them represent completely opposite sides of the whole spectrum of digital mixing. Want to keep the rawness and imprecision of vinyl mixing without having to break your back carrying records around? Use Final Scratch. Want to be able to concentrate more on the arrangement, sound and programming of your mix than on the mechanics of mixing? Use Ableton Live. Ideally? Use a combination of the two as well as real records (that's my approach at least!). All in all, I do think it's a good thing that when a person thinks "I'm going to do a mix" there are a number of approaches he or she can adopt in producing that mix; each of which will play to different strengths that DJ might have, each of which will affect the nature and structure of the mix in interesting ways. Not all digital DJs will automate their beatmixing and concentrate more on structure; maybe the key thing to understand about digital DJing is that it will lead to a whole bunch of people doing a whole range of different things, a lot of which we can't really predict right now. Brendan www.lunarselector.com www.non-stop-djs.com
