as an avid vinyl collector for the last 20+ years, [who also made the
mistake of buying entire catalogues of some labels on cassette, sadly]..
I originally thought I'd hate to use a digital imitation of the real
thing.
Especially from the packaging perspective [which led me into being a
director anyway, by way of 4AD and Factory's stellar album artwork]
At one point, Dan Bell + I spoke of being able to download music and
play it that night; but we didn't expect it to be MP3's; rather, we
thought the Vestax personal record lathe would actually allow you to
cut your own masters and play them.. ha.
But then record sales became harder for most of the world, not just
those who buy the records and play them at clubs; the vinyl plants in
the US were shutting down left and right, and it became increasingly
difficult to get quality vinyl manufactured here in the US.
Unfortunately, I fell into the same pitfalls as the rest of us, got
lazy, and started writing most of my music on the laptop and using a
breakout box to mix it down.. Somehow, with the advent of using
Logic, Live, I downloaded / traded / bought stuff from anywhere and
everywhere, promo packs from labels, sharing vinyl RIPs with friends,
buying stuff from Beatport, Stompy, Classic / MumboJumbo, Word and
Sound; [I do feel like I did my share of supporting the vinyl
community, with about 5,000 records, old + new]...
Now, as I tour, playing live and DJing often in the same night, I've
been trying to find the right solution for a gig, and for me playing
music digitally [still controlled by vinyl control records] is the
way to go for me; with the NI Traktor Scratch + Audio 8 DJ interface
I'm able to not only play a sh*tload of different music, faster, and
3-4 tracks at a time, but can also switch into doing a live set; play
loops while DJing, and add effects to the mix and move music forward
in another direction.. I used to use Serato + a Presonus Firebox [for
the live set] but as soon as Audio 8 came out, I dropped it, for a
box that did not only MIDI + audio I/O but would allow me to DJ with
the same hardware as well..
and now I can bring more hardware to play live with, which as a
musician, is more important to have more tone control and knobs, than
a few more pieces of often "one good side only" vinyl...
Just because you use Serato / FS2 / DJDecks / Traktor, doesn't mean
you have to play mnml or hip-hop only these days.. [as the case often
is in NYC]
and you can have your friends bring a Flash drive and DJ with you..
or add stuff at the last second to your collection.
I don't want to kill vinyl, but I'm recognizing that "us dinosaurs"
might be among the last few that still hold on..
I've been to parties [and played clubs] where there's no freaking
1200's in sight.. just CDJs!
somehow, I hope that people still recognize the value of the mediums
[visual + aural] and what they are _ALL_ good for...
+odd
--
On Jan 2, 2008, at 5:51 PM, ben thompson wrote:
i have used Final Scratch 2 for the past 2 years, to some success.
however, i am still not able to play a proper, balls out set with
it. not because the tunes are not there, but because:-
1. the sound quality is not an iota on vinyl
2. i agree with senor Francis on the covers thing. much easier to
pick and choose in the heat of the moment, through sight of and
feel of the vinyl and covers.
3. although much lighter and much less fuss than vinyl, i love
vinyl and FS2 has not given me any better alternative.
having said that, it does allow me to play new stuff that i, or
flat mate, has written that afternoon. and not dub plate it. so in
that respect, it is a useful tool
sorry, but same old argument... vinyl rules
Ben.T
On 2 Jan 2008, at 20:34, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
When I first read this I thought "yes I'm sure that's absolutely
right".
But then I thought a little bit more and I'm not sure it's the
whole answer.
What I think looking at covers (real or virtual) gives me is some
information / association that I can absorb very quickly and use
to make a decision on what to play next.
It's not the only way you could do that though - i.e. I don't just
want to do it this way because it's what I'm used to. I can
think of other things. In fact the "covers" thing would not be as
good as a gadget that quickly "previewed" in the headphones how a
load of alternative tracks would sound mixing out of the one
playing. But of course there wouldn't be enough time to do this with
too many tracks - what I was saying about accessing the info quickly.
So let's imagine some other wonder gadget that did a different
version of "covers". How about a jack that plugged into your head
and gave you a millisecond flash of how a track "made you feel"?
OK I'm being silly now but maybe you get my drift.
And the funny thing is even though I don't DJ with a PC (yet) I
know what people mean when they talk about not being grabbed by a
list of file names. Sadly I keep a log (not always up to date or
accurate) of the records I buy. Just a clipboard with a few A4
sheets with the 12"/LP names pencilled on. I started this about
15 years ago when I only had 3 or 4 hundred records and wanted a
way to quickly look through them. I've kept it up and it isn't a
big deal to do - just a few words every week or two when I've been
to the shop a couple of times (there's no way I could start it
from scratch now, it would be too big a job, I'd like to switch to a
database with more details on but it would take winning the
lottery and employing someone to transcribe). But the point is
although
I keep this up, as it's easy, it's never really served its
purpose: sitting down at the kitchen table with a list of all the
records
I have and being able to quickly skim down to select a boxful to
take out. It just doesn't sink in and your eyes slip over a title
without really taking in what it means. I still end up on my
hands and knees crawling around my record shelves actually looking at
them because only then do I really see (=hear?) them.
So although I agree it's partly about making new digital forms act
like old analogue ones by aping their physical aspect, it's also
a psychological one about how we absorb information.
Phew! (good job I'm off on holiday for 3 weeks on Friday as that's
313ed me out).
-----Original Message-----
From: JT Stewart [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: 02 January 2008 19:59
interesting...i think this has more to do with music
appreciation/collecting than dj'ing (although relevant to many
dj's),
turning digital music into a digital "object" closer to what we
experience with actual objects. we had like a 30 page argument
touching on that on c-b-s recently.
