can't believe I bite. still half asleep... so okay, I'll say it: If you think it's not worthwhile going through the effort of dragging your vinyl to the clurb, it's not worthwhile for me to drag my ass there. To me there's something very ugly about djs working with laptops, it just looks lame. My personal opinion.
Sounds bad, too. There's the point some people make that the sound systems at clubs already don't sound too great so it doesn't matter what you play from. Wrong: A bad soundsystem is much more likely to multiply the lameness of a flat and cheap sound source and it will never make a mp3 sound like a record.
If you're some superstar DJ who's got all his shit on hi-res wav files and spins loads of personal edits, remixes and own compositions, of course it makes sense to use Microwave. And of course, none of the people who fill their dancefloors would care if it's OG vinly or some digital format.
Same thing goes for the club DJ who's playing sets of various different styles and who wants to be able to have access to a vast variety of tracks from each genre, often not knowing which direction the will go when packing his gear as he will have to adapt to the crowd on how to play more let's say Hip Hop, Reggae, Disco or Funk... DJs who are playing a busy club on a Saturday night that attracts all kinds of people probably see it as a huge advantage to have thousands of titles from a couple of different genres on the harddrive.
Now on the other hand someone playing a Rare Soul or Funk party with a laptop in my eyes looks like a joke and sure as hell will also sound like crap. There's nothing that comes close to the sound of an OG Funk 45 and everybody who says differently don't know what they're talking about.
Why should anyone go to a club and hear the same mp3s one could download oneself and listen to at home?
As a bottom line, I think it's great that so many people are using Microwave. Makes their life easier and if you're playing OG vinyl, it makes it much easier for you to promote and present what you're doing as something entirely different.
And as far as all those djs go who used to spin comps and reissues, I think it's more honest and actually better for them to use microwave since comps and reissues already were mastered digitally so in this case there's really no difference.
I think this says a lot about how Frank experiences being a DJ and a collector. For christsakes, he spent years tracking vinyl in the third world like it was a 12 point buck. Obviously vinyl means a great deal to him. It stands to reason that his DJing values would reflect this experience.
I also hear in his criticisms the mourning of a passing era. When you had to hunt for your collection, that made the DJ guild a much more intimate and personal experience. Knowledge was handing person to person. You had to leave your house to find more records. There was a community based on this shared experience. Now that community exists (for better or worse) at places online like Soul Strut and not nearly as much in the clubs and (remaining) record stores.
I personally have chosen to embrace the new. I enjoy listening to MP3s and love all the new sounds that I am getting because of it. Unfortunately, I don't have the time or the interest to spend my cash looking for OG stuff. I am thankful that I can still keep learning about amazing new records everyday at places like Soul Strut
I think someone should make a "get off my lawn" grumpy DJ graemlin with Frank holding African raers.
I'm not grumpy at all... seriously. I though I was actually trying to point out a couple of reasons pro-Microwave. I think that this format makes perfetcly sense for some DJs and I would never look down on anyone for using Microwave.
Personally, I find it aesthetically unappealing to stare into a computer screen while partying but that's a personal thing.
I think the biggest danger is that people don't pay enough attention to the quality of their files. Who needs legions of laptop djs with downloaded and pirated lo-quality mp3s? I think this is just ruining the value of the music and having a negative impact on how people consume music in general.
On the other hand, neither I nor anyone else with half a brain would want to argue against the club DJ who plays lots of home-made edits, self composed tracks, exclusive mixes. No reason to get dub plates cut and lugg those around. Especially since you'd submitt wav files to have the plates cut that you just as well could play from your laptop.
I've seen another DJ recently who's also a drummer, has impeccable sense for rhythm and mixing and plays everything from Disco, to Hip Hop to the one or the other rare Funk track thrown in and for him, Microwave is just perfect. Gives him the possibility to have access to all his records on high quality wav files, well done!
Then I've also recently seen a DJ who (just like me) can't mix at all... he played with Microwave, trying to overlap tracks every know and then which always resulted in trainwrecks, combined self-ripped mp3s with badly compressed downloaded fair and it just sounded godawful... I've seen simular DJs with records, playing all over the place, from Alternative, Punk to random fleamarket finds and I've never minded that at all. In fact, I've had some of my best and drunkenest nights at occasions like that. The DJ had brought his records and played them for you. If you didn't like it, you go someplace else. It's the cheap and effortless presentation of music that I despise, the disrespect towards it. Listen to that shit on your ipod, that's bad enough or use it as a ringtone for your cellphone but don't plug yourself into a club or bar soundsystem!
I think the biggest difference is in the discovery for yourself...when you find a gem amongst hundreds of Crystal Gayle, England Dan 45s and the like, you evaluate music differently...you listen for things you like and things you think would sound good...bottom line is you evaluate and think about the music you are playing when you are deciding for yourself, "is this a good record?" Whereas if you just download shit from Toms super dope ass funk and soul blog, someone else has already declared that this is a good record and here it is...bam! it is now loaded in your microwave and you are ready to go. A very important aspect of DJing has disappeared with this method I believe.
I think the biggest difference is in the discovery for yourself...when you find a gem amongst hundreds of Crystal Gayle, England Dan 45s and the like, you evaluate music differently...you listen for things you like and things you think would sound good...bottom line is you evaluate and think about the music you are playing when you are deciding for yourself, "is this a good record?" Whereas if you just download shit from Toms super dope ass funk and soul blog, someone else has already declared that this is a good record and here it is...bam! it is now loaded in your microwave and you are ready to go. A very important aspect of DJing has disappeared with this method I believe.
I very much like Microwave for playing live for all the obvious reasons, but I'm still an OG vinyl dude mostly for the collection/artifact aspect of it. When I post a mix, you better believe it's from all original vinyl. That's one of the reasons I post full tracklistings and pictures with my mixes so there's no confusion there. Whether or not I play records or use Microwave live depends on the venue, crowd, and distance from home. The shows I prefer are the ones where vinyl matters, but I'm not as naive as I used to be in thinking it matters at all spots.
Not sure if I wanna take it there, but the negative aspect to all the technological advances in DJing and the attitude DJs have towards it is that it's going to replace the person. I don't want to see that happen, but when I hear "it's all about the music" and "nobody cares what you're doing", etc. from dudes trying to make a living out of this, the inevitability friggin kills me. If you don't introduce some sort of performance into what you're doing, you are replaceable... period. It's so shortsighted to only do what the crowd expects and wants because then you might as well be a jukebox. It's not easy to find the balance between crowd pleasing, performance and uniqueness, but it's the only way DJing live is going to exist in the future. Dudes like Z-Trip and AM are real good at this... hate all you want, but it's true.
I'm rambling here, but my main point here is that if people don't leave the venue remembering you the DJ[/b], then there's no reason for you to exist.
I think the biggest difference is in the discovery for yourself...when you find a gem amongst hundreds of Crystal Gayle, England Dan 45s and the like, you evaluate music differently...you listen for things you like and things you think would sound good...bottom line is you evaluate and think about the music you are playing when you are deciding for yourself, "is this a good record?" Whereas if you just download shit from Toms super dope ass funk and soul blog, someone else has already declared that this is a good record and here it is...bam! it is now loaded in your microwave and you are ready to go. A very important aspect of DJing has disappeared with this method I believe.
"Tom's Super Dope Ass Funk & Soul Blog"
Who just went to Blogger and registered that???
I just have this mental picture of the guy from Cratediggers.com starting up something like that...
so if the majority of the people can't tell the difference in sound quality, then that means it's OK to play low-quality shit? i can't get with that. i mean i agree that low-quality shit is better than no shit (following the original post), but as an artist myself (admittedly not a DJ), i couldn't live with myself if i had the attitude that it's ok to play like shit because no one can tell the difference anyway.
Maybe I missed it, but who said it's okay to play low-quality shit?
just the overall tone of a lot of posts. everyone agrees that mp3s generally sound worse than records. some people implied that since the crowd can't tell the difference, then go ahead and just play the mp3s.
I think the biggest difference is in the discovery for yourself...when you find a gem amongst hundreds of Crystal Gayle, England Dan 45s and the like, you evaluate music differently...you listen for things you like and things you think would sound good...bottom line is you evaluate and think about the music you are playing when you are deciding for yourself, "is this a good record?" Whereas if you just download shit from Toms super dope ass funk and soul blog, someone else has already declared that this is a good record and here it is...bam! it is now loaded in your microwave and you are ready to go. A very important aspect of DJing has disappeared with this method I believe.
Cosign. Microwave is an inevitable reality for people playing newer music, and I'd use it myself instead of CDs for my bollywood/bhangra nights if could afford the laptop & software. No arguments there.
But for old music, the DJ 60s/70s/mod/funk/soul/garage scene in LA totally confirms what the_hook_up is saying. There's TONS of DJs who play that kind of stuff here, and the ones who spin OG vinyl in those genres are simply better than the ones who play off CDs or Microwave. Even with the limitations of cost & availability, and even when they're playing dollarbin 45s, the vinyl spinners just have much better taste & selections while still pleasing the crowd.
Meanwhile, the CD/Microwave DJs typically resort to completely played-out AM radio golden oldies selections, when they DO play something "obscure" it's usually from a popular and "approved" compilation (yawn), and not surprisingly these cats often have similar playlists to one another. Though their digital options are limitless, they still don't have any imagination when it comes to their selections.
And on another note, people still do appreciate vinyl DJs. I've got two wedding gigs out here where the couples have INSISTED I play original vinyl. And just this past Sunday at a little bar gig, we had a great dancing crowd and many people came up to look at the 45s I was playing to say how much they liked them. So vinyl's not dead yet.
Maybe I missed it, but who said it's okay to play low-quality shit?
I don't think anyone said that, but I often hear otherwise skilled DJs playing some really bad sounding files. This is comparing to other songs within their set. Not to the real DJ who comes on after with actual records.
Maybe I missed it, but who said it's okay to play low-quality shit?
just the overall tone of a lot of posts. everyone agrees that mp3s generally sound worse than records. some people implied that since the crowd can't tell the difference, then go ahead and just play the mp3s.
I play digital files, either WAV or high quality MP3. If they didn't sound good I wouldn't play them. In fact I'll toss an MP3 if it's shitty quality. I would rather have no copy of the song than a crap copy.
But yes, vinyl sounds better. It's a fact. On my Wednesday night we play mostly vinyl and CDs and when a song comes on through Microwave I can tell the difference. Whether or not the audience can, I have enough faith in them to know. So I make sure that when I go from vinyl to MP3 that it's EQed and mixed, and positioned, correctly to compensate for it not having that extra "umph" to it.
But, the fact of the matter is that what we have here is two different types of DJs talking about two different types of DJs. I've been doing this for close to 20 years and if I wanted to do an all rare funk 45 set ala what Hook Up is talking about then I would go grab my vinyl and do that. But, for the most part it's a completely different animal. Shit, there are people who will shit on you as a DJ if you pitch your 45 up to +2, let alone actually beatmatch and mix a f*cking record. But who gives a shit?
UNDERSTAND WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT HERE - Microwave is a revolutionary tool. It's leveled the playing field for DJs in a sense that now DJs have to work a lot harder to separate themselves from the pack. Accept it, this shit is not going away.
Back in the days we used to make our butter out a motherfucking butter churn. F*ck it - things progress. You adapt or you die.
so anyone who uses Microwave is ugly and sounds like shit?
No, I think the reality is that anyone who uses Microwave is boring to watch. Period. You look just like the dude in the cubicle at work watching porn.
Why are you up in the club watching the DJ?
Um, when I'm not dancing, getting a drink, talking to a lady or using the loo, I'm checking out the DJ. You know, the guy/gal that I PAID at the door to be entertained by. I did not pay at the door just to hear music. I paid to be entertained by someone playing music. A club aint I-tunes.
Personally, I find it aesthetically unappealing to stare into a computer screen while partying but that's a personal thing.
Perfectly stated. A DJ at a club is supposed to be running a PARTY, and I want him/her to ACT like it!
So many crazy things said in this thread. Here's one that's not:
It???s great when a DJ really gets into what they???re doing, dances, makes eye contact with the crowd and has that interaction. I???ve seen folks cue something, get a flash of whatever, change their mind and then scramble to get something else on in time, who hasn???t been there? That???s a great connection to make with the person who is working to entertain you for the evening, even from a distance.
I mean, what working vinyl DJ dosen't do this? For me, that goes hand in hand with playing the right record. Ok, here's a crazy one:
I seriously think s.erato has changed the game for good. It has given dj's the power to play a wider spectrum, and jump genres incredibly easily by sorting through bpm. Doing that before would require dedication of stickering your records, marking bpm's down. The only person I know of that does this successfully with vinyl still is Mr. Scruff. Which again is what makes him special.
The "power" to play a wider spectrum? Dude, you're talking about digging for records, buying them, bpming them, writing said bpm on a sticker, attaching the sticker, then putting the record in order in your box. WHEW! Now I have the "power", and can jump genres "incredibly easily" by simply flipping my fingers through my record crate. I've been playing like this for 15 years. Only me and Mr. Scruff are special?
This all sounds dangerously like laziness. C'mon, none of this really takes that much time, either to learn or to do. The main thing you need, though, is DEDICATION. I bpm all my records because it speeds up my selection process in the club, but in reality I have listened to ALL of my records extensively, and know the general tempo of everything. I know when its gonna break down, when the vocal comes in, etc. This can only be achieved by dedicating a bunch of time to my records, time that I spend listening to my records, and hey! I can bpm them while I'm listening. Wowzers.
Lastly, my sets are almost always all over the map, at least 5 different "genres" each night, and I'm schooled in hip-hop type dj'n, so I usually play a new track every 2 minutes or so. For a 3 hour set, thats about 100 to 200 records. OOOOOhhhh. 3 crates! How terrible! the weight!
Puh-lease.
Like Fatback said in another post:
i look fwd to digital sound that is as good as analog sound. but until then, all ya'll got is convenience and whatever that "i live in the future" bullshit is supposed to be about.
Maybe I missed it, but who said it's okay to play low-quality shit?
just the overall tone of a lot of posts. everyone agrees that mp3s generally sound worse than records. some people implied that since the crowd can't tell the difference, then go ahead and just play the mp3s.
I play digital files, either WAV or high quality MP3. If they didn't sound good I wouldn't play them. In fact I'll toss an MP3 if it's shitty quality. I would rather have no copy of the song than a crap copy.
But yes, vinyl sounds better. It's a fact. On my Wednesday night we play mostly vinyl and CDs and when a song comes on through Microwave I can tell the difference. Whether or not the audience can, I have enough faith in them to know. So I make sure that when I go from vinyl to MP3 that it's EQed and mixed, and positioned, correctly to compensate for it not having that extra "umph" to it.
But, the fact of the matter is that what we have here is two different types of DJs talking about two different types of DJs. I've been doing this for close to 20 years and if I wanted to do an all rare funk 45 set ala what Hook Up is talking about then I would go grab my vinyl and do that. But, for the most part it's a completely different animal. Shit, there are people who will shit on you as a DJ if you pitch your 45 up to +2, let alone actually beatmatch and mix a f*cking record. But who gives a shit?
UNDERSTAND WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT HERE - Microwave is a revolutionary tool. It's leveled the playing field for DJs in a sense that now DJs have to work a lot harder to separate themselves from the pack. Accept it, this shit is not going away.
Back in the days we used to make our butter out a motherfucking butter churn. F*ck it - things progress. You adapt or you die.
Adding on:
I think the biggest difference is in the discovery for yourself...when you find a gem amongst hundreds of Crystal Gayle, England Dan 45s and the like, you evaluate music differently...you listen for things you like and things you think would sound good...bottom line is you evaluate and think about the music you are playing when you are deciding for yourself, "is this a good record?" Whereas if you just download shit from Toms super dope ass funk and soul blog, someone else has already declared that this is a good record and here it is...bam! it is now loaded in your microwave and you are ready to go. A very important aspect of DJing has disappeared with this method I believe.
Cosign. Microwave is an inevitable reality for people playing newer music, and I'd use it myself instead of CDs for my bollywood/bhangra nights if could afford the laptop & software. No arguments there.
But for old music, the DJ 60s/70s/mod/funk/soul/garage scene in LA totally confirms what the_hook_up is saying. There's TONS of DJs who play that kind of stuff here, and the ones who spin OG vinyl in those genres are simply better than the ones who play off CDs or Microwave. Even with the limitations of cost & availability, and even when they're playing dollarbin 45s, the vinyl spinners just have much better taste & selections while still pleasing the crowd.
Meanwhile, the CD/Microwave DJs typically resort to completely played-out AM radio golden oldies selections, when they DO play something "obscure" it's usually from a popular and "approved" compilation (yawn), and not surprisingly these cats often have similar playlists to one another. Though their digital options are limitless, they still don't have any imagination when it comes to their selections.
And on another note, people still do appreciate vinyl DJs. I've got two wedding gigs out here where the couples have INSISTED I play original vinyl. And just this past Sunday at a little bar gig, we had a great dancing crowd and many people came up to look at the 45s I was playing to say how much they liked them. So vinyl's not dead yet.
What Hook Up and Mark say are on point here. Yeah there's a way that music is discovered that has died. I know and see it. Like Aser said, young kids don't know a time when everything is available all the time for free. That's just the way of the world. Does it make me sad about the years of work that I put in learning about this music, studying it? Not at all - it solidified my connection to this music. I feel sad for the kids whom their connection to music seems more fleeting.
And lots of DJs who use Microwave are lazy as F*ck. F*ck em. They're lame - case closed. But shit, 80% of all DJs are lame so let's get used to that too.
But yeah, DJs who do their thing on some vinyl, playing funk and soul and garage and 45s and shit, they do their thing. Doesn't make it any greater or lesser than what other DJs do. Just a whole different world. I just don't get the whole "You use Microwave and so you're not as legitimate" thing. I relate it to the whole thing about "Real funk DJs don't beat match" argument. It smacks of a misguided elitism, and in fact seems like an insecurity.
"Shit, there are people who will shit on you as a DJ if you pitch your 45 up to +2"
Why you gotta call out the British like that?
And Fatback - I don't know any working DJ who isn't pro-microwave (or at least, accepting of it). I don't think they're half-assed. They just realize convenience when they see it.
Personally, I can't really tell the difference between vinyl and sound files where I DJ. Maybe that's because my hearing is f*cking shot or maybe the sound system doesn't really convey the fidelity differences. Either way, I always rip as high as is reasonable and since I'm ripping from vinyl, I don't notice the same kind of fucked up digital-sounding issues I hear when I rip from CD. But I've never had a single person come up to me and complain about the quality of the music based on fidelity EXCEPT in cases where the highs have ended up way harsh but I think that's more of an EQing issue than digital issue.
so anyone who uses Microwave is ugly and sounds like shit?
No, I think the reality is that anyone who uses Microwave is boring to watch. Period. You look just like the dude in the cubicle at work watching porn.
Why are you up in the club watching the DJ?
Um, when I'm not dancing, getting a drink, talking to a lady or using the loo, I'm checking out the DJ. You know, the guy/gal that I PAID at the door to be entertained by. I did not pay at the door just to hear music. I paid to be entertained by someone playing music. A club aint I-tunes.
Personally, I find it aesthetically unappealing to stare into a computer screen while partying but that's a personal thing.
Perfectly stated. A DJ at a club is supposed to be running a PARTY, and I want him/her to ACT like it!
So many crazy things said in this thread. Here's one that's not:
It???s great when a DJ really gets into what they???re doing, dances, makes eye contact with the crowd and has that interaction. I???ve seen folks cue something, get a flash of whatever, change their mind and then scramble to get something else on in time, who hasn???t been there? That???s a great connection to make with the person who is working to entertain you for the evening, even from a distance.
I mean, what working vinyl DJ dosen't do this? For me, that goes hand in hand with playing the right record. Ok, here's a crazy one:
I seriously think s.erato has changed the game for good. It has given dj's the power to play a wider spectrum, and jump genres incredibly easily by sorting through bpm. Doing that before would require dedication of stickering your records, marking bpm's down. The only person I know of that does this successfully with vinyl still is Mr. Scruff. Which again is what makes him special.
The "power" to play a wider spectrum? Dude, you're talking about digging for records, buying them, bpming them, writing said bpm on a sticker, attaching the sticker, then putting the record in order in your box. WHEW! Now I have the "power", and can jump genres "incredibly easily" by simply flipping my fingers through my record crate. I've been playing like this for 15 years. Only me and Mr. Scruff are special?
This all sounds dangerously like laziness. C'mon, none of this really takes that much time, either to learn or to do. The main thing you need, though, is DEDICATION. I bpm all my records because it speeds up my selection process in the club, but in reality I have listened to ALL of my records extensively, and know the general tempo of everything. I know when its gonna break down, when the vocal comes in, etc. This can only be achieved by dedicating a bunch of time to my records, time that I spend listening to my records, and hey! I can bpm them while I'm listening. Wowzers.
Lastly, my sets are almost always all over the map, at least 5 different "genres" each night, and I'm schooled in hip-hop type dj'n, so I usually play a new track every 2 minutes or so. For a 3 hour set, thats about 100 to 200 records. OOOOOhhhh. 3 crates! How terrible! the weight!
Puh-lease.
Like Fatback said in another post:
i look fwd to digital sound that is as good as analog sound. but until then, all ya'll got is convenience and whatever that "i live in the future" bullshit is supposed to be about.
I don't know you but you sound so completely ass-hurt it's incredible.
But for old music, the DJ 60s/70s/mod/funk/soul/garage scene in LA totally confirms what the_hook_up is saying. There's TONS of DJs who play that kind of stuff here, and the ones who spin OG vinyl in those genres are simply better than the ones who play off CDs or Microwave. Even with the limitations of cost & availability, and even when they're playing dollarbin 45s, the vinyl spinners just have much better taste & selections while still pleasing the crowd.
Certainly for this type of music, I've heard some pretty shocking sets and poor DJ'ing from CD DJ's, Microwave Heads and ipod fiends. Some seem to think they only need to look sharp in suit to get the job done.
Who needs legions of laptop djs with downloaded and pirated lo-quality mp3s?
Unfortunately, lots of people don't hear the difference.
My sister doesn't care about music really, she listens, but she's not enthusiastic. I bought her a pair of Shure headphones, and she claimed that they sounded the same as her ipod headphones. <---This is the majority of the audience. Most people have no need to learn to hear like record collectors/producers/musicians/audiophiles, thus for most people the quality of vinyl versus mp3 is a moot point.
Personally, I don't care as long as the music is banging. When someone like Frank is playing it's like icing on the cake, an aesthetic/fetishist indulgence that doesn't make or break the night, but adds a good bit of reverence.
But for old music, the DJ 60s/70s/mod/funk/soul/garage scene in LA totally confirms what the_hook_up is saying. There's TONS of DJs who play that kind of stuff here, and the ones who spin OG vinyl in those genres are simply better than the ones who play off CDs or Microwave. Even with the limitations of cost & availability, and even when they're playing dollarbin 45s, the vinyl spinners just have much better taste & selections while still pleasing the crowd.
Certainly for this type of music, I've heard some pretty shocking sets and poor DJ'ing from CD DJ's, Microwave Heads and ipod fiends. Some seem to think they only need to look sharp in suit to get the job done.
3 crates (give or take): 150 pounds. Laptop: 6 pounds.
Hmm...which would I rather cart every week to the club?
I've been DJing 16 years. I've done the 3 crate thing. I don't regret that shit at all. But I also don't feel like I'm gaining anything by STILL toting 3 crates every week to my own party. Like I said, almost all of the working party DJs I know feel the same.
That said, I've been doing vinyl-only sets this winter/spring in LA and NY and I've greatly enjoyed having that as options too but this either/or mentality is crazy narrow minded.
But for old music, the DJ 60s/70s/mod/funk/soul/garage scene in LA totally confirms what the_hook_up is saying. There's TONS of DJs who play that kind of stuff here, and the ones who spin OG vinyl in those genres are simply better than the ones who play off CDs or Microwave. Even with the limitations of cost & availability, and even when they're playing dollarbin 45s, the vinyl spinners just have much better taste & selections while still pleasing the crowd.
Certainly for this type of music, I've heard some pretty shocking sets and poor DJ'ing from CD DJ's, Microwave Heads and ipod fiends. Some seem to think they only need to look sharp in suit to get the job done.
The fact of the matter is only record/DJ nerd types really give a shit what format the music is presented in, and these folks usually don't dance anyway so F*ck 'em.
When someone like Frank is playing it's like icing on the cake, an aesthetic/fetishist indulgence that doesn't make or break the night, but adds a good bit of reverence.
But see it makes or breaks the night TO HIM - hence being an integral part of the experience. If he was playing an Ebo Taylor MP3 he wouldn't be happy. And why should he do something that doesn't make him happy?
Comments
I'm not grumpy at all... seriously. I though I was actually trying to point out a couple of reasons pro-Microwave. I think that this format makes perfetcly sense for some DJs and I would never look down on anyone for using Microwave.
Personally, I find it aesthetically unappealing to stare into a computer screen while partying but that's a personal thing.
I think the biggest danger is that people don't pay enough attention to the quality of their files. Who needs legions of laptop djs with downloaded and pirated lo-quality mp3s? I think this is just ruining the value of the music and having a negative impact on how people consume music in general.
On the other hand, neither I nor anyone else with half a brain would want to argue against the club DJ who plays lots of home-made edits, self composed tracks, exclusive mixes. No reason to get dub plates cut and lugg those around. Especially since you'd submitt wav files to have the plates cut that you just as well could play from your laptop.
I've seen another DJ recently who's also a drummer, has impeccable sense for rhythm and mixing and plays everything from Disco, to Hip Hop to the one or the other rare Funk track thrown in and for him, Microwave is just perfect. Gives him the possibility to have access to all his records on high quality wav files, well done!
Then I've also recently seen a DJ who (just like me) can't mix at all... he played with Microwave, trying to overlap tracks every know and then which always resulted in trainwrecks, combined self-ripped mp3s with badly compressed downloaded fair and it just sounded godawful... I've seen simular DJs with records, playing all over the place, from Alternative, Punk to random fleamarket finds and I've never minded that at all. In fact, I've had some of my best and drunkenest nights at occasions like that. The DJ had brought his records and played them for you. If you didn't like it, you go someplace else. It's the cheap and effortless presentation of music that I despise, the disrespect towards it. Listen to that shit on your ipod, that's bad enough or use it as a ringtone for your cellphone but don't plug yourself into a club or bar soundsystem!
"Tom's Super Dope Ass Funk & Soul Blog"
disagree. i've heard a lot of "regular" people talk about noticing differences.
Who just went to Blogger and registered that???
Not sure if I wanna take it there, but the negative aspect to all the technological advances in DJing and the attitude DJs have towards it is that it's going to replace the person. I don't want to see that happen, but when I hear "it's all about the music" and "nobody cares what you're doing", etc. from dudes trying to make a living out of this, the inevitability friggin kills me. If you don't introduce some sort of performance into what you're doing, you are replaceable... period. It's so shortsighted to only do what the crowd expects and wants because then you might as well be a jukebox. It's not easy to find the balance between crowd pleasing, performance and uniqueness, but it's the only way DJing live is going to exist in the future. Dudes like Z-Trip and AM are real good at this... hate all you want, but it's true.
I'm rambling here, but my main point here is that if people don't leave the venue remembering you the DJ[/b], then there's no reason for you to exist.
I just have this mental picture of the guy from Cratediggers.com starting up something like that...
b/w
so if the majority of the people can't tell the difference in sound quality, then that means it's OK to play low-quality shit?
i can't get with that.
i mean i agree that low-quality shit is better than no shit (following the original post), but as an artist myself (admittedly not a DJ), i couldn't live with myself if i had the attitude that it's ok to play like shit because no one can tell the difference anyway.
Karizma is NASTY.
just the overall tone of a lot of posts.
everyone agrees that mp3s generally sound worse than records. some people implied that since the crowd can't tell the difference, then go ahead and just play the mp3s.
Cosign. Microwave is an inevitable reality for people playing newer music, and I'd use it myself instead of CDs for my bollywood/bhangra nights if could afford the laptop & software. No arguments there.
But for old music, the DJ 60s/70s/mod/funk/soul/garage scene in LA totally confirms what the_hook_up is saying. There's TONS of DJs who play that kind of stuff here, and the ones who spin OG vinyl in those genres are simply better than the ones who play off CDs or Microwave. Even with the limitations of cost & availability, and even when they're playing dollarbin 45s, the vinyl spinners just have much better taste & selections while still pleasing the crowd.
Meanwhile, the CD/Microwave DJs typically resort to completely played-out AM radio golden oldies selections, when they DO play something "obscure" it's usually from a popular and "approved" compilation (yawn), and not surprisingly these cats often have similar playlists to one another. Though their digital options are limitless, they still don't have any imagination when it comes to their selections.
And on another note, people still do appreciate vinyl DJs. I've got two wedding gigs out here where the couples have INSISTED I play original vinyl. And just this past Sunday at a little bar gig, we had a great dancing crowd and many people came up to look at the 45s I was playing to say how much they liked them. So vinyl's not dead yet.
I don't think anyone said that, but I often hear otherwise skilled DJs playing some really bad sounding files. This is comparing to other songs within their set. Not to the real DJ who comes on after with actual records.
I play digital files, either WAV or high quality MP3. If they didn't sound good I wouldn't play them. In fact I'll toss an MP3 if it's shitty quality. I would rather have no copy of the song than a crap copy.
But yes, vinyl sounds better. It's a fact. On my Wednesday night we play mostly vinyl and CDs and when a song comes on through Microwave I can tell the difference. Whether or not the audience can, I have enough faith in them to know. So I make sure that when I go from vinyl to MP3 that it's EQed and mixed, and positioned, correctly to compensate for it not having that extra "umph" to it.
But, the fact of the matter is that what we have here is two different types of DJs talking about two different types of DJs. I've been doing this for close to 20 years and if I wanted to do an all rare funk 45 set ala what Hook Up is talking about then I would go grab my vinyl and do that. But, for the most part it's a completely different animal. Shit, there are people who will shit on you as a DJ if you pitch your 45 up to +2, let alone actually beatmatch and mix a f*cking record. But who gives a shit?
UNDERSTAND WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT HERE - Microwave is a revolutionary tool. It's leveled the playing field for DJs in a sense that now DJs have to work a lot harder to separate themselves from the pack. Accept it, this shit is not going away.
Back in the days we used to make our butter out a motherfucking butter churn. F*ck it - things progress. You adapt or you die.
Um, when I'm not dancing, getting a drink, talking to a lady
or using the loo, I'm checking out the DJ.
You know, the guy/gal that I PAID at the door to be entertained by.
I did not pay at the door just to hear music. I paid to be
entertained by someone playing music. A club aint I-tunes.
Perfectly stated. A DJ at a club is supposed to be running a PARTY,
and I want him/her to ACT like it!
So many crazy things said in this thread.
Here's one that's not:
I mean, what working vinyl DJ dosen't do this? For me, that goes hand in hand
with playing the right record.
Ok, here's a crazy one:
The "power" to play a wider spectrum? Dude, you're talking about digging
for records, buying them, bpming them, writing said bpm on a sticker, attaching
the sticker, then putting the record in order in your box.
WHEW!
Now I have the "power", and can jump genres "incredibly easily" by simply
flipping my fingers through my record crate.
I've been playing like this for 15 years. Only me and Mr. Scruff are special?
This all sounds dangerously like laziness. C'mon, none of this really takes
that much time, either to learn or to do. The main thing you need, though, is
DEDICATION. I bpm all my records because it speeds up my selection
process in the club, but in reality I have listened to ALL of my records
extensively, and know the general tempo of everything. I know when its
gonna break down, when the vocal comes in, etc. This can only be achieved
by dedicating a bunch of time to my records, time that I spend listening
to my records, and hey! I can bpm them while I'm listening. Wowzers.
Lastly, my sets are almost always all over the map, at least 5 different
"genres" each night, and I'm schooled in hip-hop type dj'n, so I usually
play a new track every 2 minutes or so. For a 3 hour set, thats about
100 to 200 records. OOOOOhhhh. 3 crates! How terrible! the weight!
Puh-lease.
Like Fatback said in another post:
Adding on:
What Hook Up and Mark say are on point here. Yeah there's a way that music is discovered that has died. I know and see it. Like Aser said, young kids don't know a time when everything is available all the time for free. That's just the way of the world. Does it make me sad about the years of work that I put in learning about this music, studying it? Not at all - it solidified my connection to this music. I feel sad for the kids whom their connection to music seems more fleeting.
And lots of DJs who use Microwave are lazy as F*ck. F*ck em. They're lame - case closed. But shit, 80% of all DJs are lame so let's get used to that too.
But yeah, DJs who do their thing on some vinyl, playing funk and soul and garage and 45s and shit, they do their thing. Doesn't make it any greater or lesser than what other DJs do. Just a whole different world. I just don't get the whole "You use Microwave and so you're not as legitimate" thing. I relate it to the whole thing about "Real funk DJs don't beat match" argument. It smacks of a misguided elitism, and in fact seems like an insecurity.
Why you gotta call out the British like that?
And Fatback - I don't know any working DJ who isn't pro-microwave (or at least, accepting of it). I don't think they're half-assed. They just realize convenience when they see it.
Personally, I can't really tell the difference between vinyl and sound files where I DJ. Maybe that's because my hearing is f*cking shot or maybe the sound system doesn't really convey the fidelity differences. Either way, I always rip as high as is reasonable and since I'm ripping from vinyl, I don't notice the same kind of fucked up digital-sounding issues I hear when I rip from CD. But I've never had a single person come up to me and complain about the quality of the music based on fidelity EXCEPT in cases where the highs have ended up way harsh but I think that's more of an EQing issue than digital issue.
I don't know you but you sound so completely ass-hurt it's incredible.
B/W
And for the BONUS BEAT:
Sounds like a lot of people who aren't DJs up here talmbout DJing...
Certainly for this type of music, I've heard some pretty shocking sets and poor DJ'ing from CD DJ's, Microwave Heads and ipod fiends. Some seem to think they only need to look sharp in suit to get the job done.
Unfortunately, lots of people don't hear the difference.
My sister doesn't care about music really, she listens, but she's not enthusiastic. I bought her a pair of Shure headphones, and she claimed that they sounded the same as her ipod headphones. <---This is the majority of the audience. Most people have no need to learn to hear like record collectors/producers/musicians/audiophiles, thus for most people the quality of vinyl versus mp3 is a moot point.
Personally, I don't care as long as the music is banging. When someone like Frank is playing it's like icing on the cake, an aesthetic/fetishist indulgence that doesn't make or break the night, but adds a good bit of reverence.
It's like that for "DJs" of every genre, dude.
Even worse, them people prolly should go do what they are actually getting paid for right now.
Laptop: 6 pounds.
Hmm...which would I rather cart every week to the club?
I've been DJing 16 years. I've done the 3 crate thing. I don't regret that shit at all. But I also don't feel like I'm gaining anything by STILL toting 3 crates every week to my own party. Like I said, almost all of the working party DJs I know feel the same.
That said, I've been doing vinyl-only sets this winter/spring in LA and NY and I've greatly enjoyed having that as options too but this either/or mentality is crazy narrow minded.
You sound mis-informed
Word - I dress AND DJ poorly.
But see it makes or breaks the night TO HIM - hence being an integral part of the experience. If he was playing an Ebo Taylor MP3 he wouldn't be happy. And why should he do something that doesn't make him happy?
Yeah, sure....but for the LA 60's scene, there's too much mohair, and not enough audio quality