True, true - I've seen some great stuff done with both - but I think the game is about to get hotter - on Wednesday I witnessed one of the best, if not only real-time controllers for these packages - I can't say any more, as I'm under an NDA but the end of Feb will be very interesting...
23/1/04 11:47 AM Brendan [EMAIL PROTECTED] > 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 >
