Blackout FM launched. A pro quality station station in the vein of WEAR FM!!

looking forward to new shows , pushing to restart my own dj shows in july .

on another note i recorded my first ever demo on a tape in 2001 and sent it to promise , , aaaaa , tape , ummmmmm

You are assuming you DJ with a digital controller in the same way you would with records. If you did do that you definitely would be a lazy DJ! The fact is that digital DJing opens up new possibilities. You don't just press a button and wait for the next track to end before pressing another button.

I love my vinyl and still have my Vestax decks but I do much prefer DJing with Traktor because it is more fun. I love that you can cut the tracks up however you want them to make your own edit. I like layering multiple tracks and loops on top of one another to make your set unique. Then there are the effects units - you can make really complex effect combinations. This is all done instead of beatmatching, which to be honest, is a piece of piss.

Each to there own though! Different strokes and all that

Earl Greay.

Thanks mate. I look forward to your shows too.

On the note of tapes I just bought brand new 300 cassettes for my cassette deck on Ebay. I buy in bulk as I worry one day they will dry up. I use cassette as my main format still. Sure, a 24 bit 5 million k wav is no doubt better sounding, no hiss, no wow and flutter etc but there is something magical about a physical tangible item over a virtual file inb the same way volume records piss's all over the likes of Beatport.

Ive got a top ranking Sony D6C pro walkman too I love cassette man. If I want to find a particular track or mix, my brain immediately members the cover I am looking for that I often hand drew or wrote. And immediately nostalgia etc starts sparking of. I honestly think getting out a vinyl and watching it spin on the deck, the crackle etc even before the music plays put a human in a musical state of experience, much the same is true for cassette. Its certainly not the same listening to an virtual mp3 bought from a virtual record shop or virtual uTorrent more likely and listened to in the background whilst chatting on facebook from the same old arse groove.

Tapes rock! Apparently though my ways are all old hat. These new methods are far superior. Maybe, on paper, yet why does everything computer lack soul to me then. I think the thing computers replaced mainly is the experience of doing anything.

IE having a pint with your mate, or tapping away with a random who only bothers with you because your on facebook and they are too.
Going into volume, rubbing shoulders with the staff and making new like minded mates or iTunes / Beatport.
Listerning to tunes via laptop speakers whislt farting about staring into the screen of said laptop as its there, as opposed listerning to Wear FM in your bedroom.

Ok, ill cut it there. I really have a tendency to rant about this. Its just music is the biggest part of my life behind my family and friends. And it kills me the way the experience of it has been replaced.

You sent your first mix tape to Promise?? How old are you? I was 30 when I was getting mashed in Promise haha. Brilliant night Promise, every Friday. But then they combined it with Quality and Promise went monthly, never liked Quality very much.

SECT

Hi sorry, missed your reply.

Yes fair point. I hadn't looked at it like that. Beatmatching may be a piece of piss but try emulating what Traktor does in the real world . See how long you can keep your 2 decks and 8 remix decks in sync :]

These days its all about preparation BEFORE the set. IE how well you trim your loops. How well you beat grid stuff and how you set your loop points. When your actually DJing the only thing that can go wrong is the power can go out. Sort of takes away the live aspect to me. These days its normally just a guy pressing buttons and pulling fuck faces over the top and such, to make it look to the unbeknown section of the crowd that he's actually working hard and is a genius DMC type DJ. At least with 1200s you could actually screw it up.

Traktor even has a quantize foundation so you cant even drop in your tracks on the wrong beat. If your too early it waits for you. Like said, as long as your prep is in order (IE studio work) then your set is guaranteed to be 100%.

Thats a drastic shift from just 10 years ago Ok so there is still a lot or skill involved in the prep, but your more a studio tech these days than a DJ. Mind, it still beats bands miming to tape!

^^^^^ Yep, def agree with that. Just airing my view. Not arguing or getting arsey or anything, but enjoy discussing with other long standing DJs there views. Even if there totally different to mine.





.

If you use Traktor you will find its beatgridding is pretty shit!! Ha! Trust me it can still go wrong. But yeah you do have to analyse the tracks before you mix.

You do not have to prepare your set though. I rarely ever do this. I just browse my library and play what I want.

Yeah I have used Traktor mate. And I must say I was amazed by what it can do. But I worry who couldn't do what I could do with it. I just feel someone who just opened the box and started with Traktor a week ago could mix better than me on my 1200s now. Its a case of get on board with the latest tech, or get left behind.
A very similar story with hardware vs software studios.

So, im guessing like me you've been mixing for decades. Line up some teenagers all armed with 1200s and Ill bet you rock. Your 2 decade experience will shine through. But on the modern day alternatives such as Traktor were all the same. I sort of feel ripped off, if you know what I mean.

You know mate. Perhaps its just me. As I have been saying I preferred life in the 90s pre internet. I just felt that was more an outside life compared to today. Man, if im this tainted now im going to be a right grumbling grandad one day haha





.

I always thought to move with the times but at Age 31. Djd since 95 .I've always wanted to make a tape Dj deck with pitch so I can Dj off tape. Like I did when I was 15 with 2 hifi's


Analog rocks. Gritty sound. Like my mackie 24/8

On another note oldskool is harder to mix compared to newer styles which are made at the same bpm. I feel the older music has feelings that new stuff lacks. Must have been the e's

Also when people play 'live' with a laptop and a pathetic keyboard. Doesn't float me. I enjoy hooking up the Roland gear for a jam. However back in the day I seen videos of raves with keyboard players playing nothing haha

well as someone who spent 20 years learning to play a real musical instrument and saw live music be overtaken by people playing other peoples recordings with a couple of decks, it seems to me that Blackout's regrets about the overtaking of his skills by new technologies is just part of a long process of old skills being replaced by new ones. If you invested time and effort learning those skills then its depressing to see them get overtaken. But this has always been the case. I used to be a draughtsman, spent time learning how to do it only to see CAD wipe out the need for those skills, photography went the same way.
I still like seeing live bands and taking photos and I like a good DJ set. Creativity is very different to using a learned skill, it needs talent and fresh thinking. Good DJ's, musicians and photographers still exist, whether they use new or old technology, but just standing in front of people and expecting them to be impressed by your ability with a pair of decks and some vinyl is not gonna happen again any time soon. There are still 60's nights where old hippies go to try to relive their youth but it can't be creative because it's frozen in time. The times they are a changing, we either change with them or ossify.

Forks,

As much as I hate to admit it your right, and that's an excellent post.

In fairness I could make a Blackout FM show in next to no time using Traktor. At the moment because im so sentimental it takes weeks. Perhaps the time has come to at least consider upgrading. Very sad though, but as I have said and you have echoed, you either get on board or get left behind.

One good thing I can think about Traktor what would float my boat, is actual musicians who write there own stuff, not using loops and such and instead performing their own tracks using there own original material that way. Now that is talented.

To me DJing has drastically shifted. It was always about experience and skill allowing you to perform live and get it right infront of the crowd. Now its about hours of preparation locked in a dark room so you just have to push buttons in front of the crowd with a 1% chance of things going wrong. That is no different to me programming a sequencer in a dark room and then pretending I can play live as I mime to the crowd.



.

Good thread, all valid opinions. Bravo.

Rigsby,

Yeah, isn't it great when a group of guys can have there say and agree to disagree. I find to many forums are full of immature kids and all hell breaks loose.

Ive enjoined this discussion. Even learned a few things contrary to my opinion. Even if I did hijack my own thread that was initially about BOFM awareness haha

Sorry Earl Grey I missed that.

Id much rather watch a guy with a bunch of hardware. Doesn't have to be classic 303s and 808s. Even a JP8000 or anything hardware.A laptop to me has nothing to do with music and puts me in the wrong frame of mind. Mind back onto Traktor with its excellent hardware interface I can get away with that from that point of view.

I think the problem there is that now that music is so polished in DAWs its very hard to produce live as its all so studio based . 303/808/guitar pedal acid sounds superb raw and in your face live. But try recreating a Ferry Corstern trance tune live. I find 75% of that genre (that I love) and others are all about automation and compression etc. Its more studio music than performance pieces.

If you got the old Roland kit and you do a live jam be sure to do me a vid.

I know bugger all about the gear and have heard some appalling mixing but at the end of the day what's enjoyable is- does it make me wanna dance? I've played in bands with some amazingly good players but often the ones with the most technical skills are the ones that put the audience to sleep. Dance music is about dancing. A stunningly virtuoso solo is impressive to other musoes and I can get off on a really great sax solo because I can tell what's skillful and what's clever because I know I couldn't do it like that. But if it is supposed to make you dance and it doesn't then it's basically rubbish.
I also don't agree about modern technology being isolating. I have a much richer social life due to facebook and sites like this, because I have met people who have later become friends in real life and also through finding out about events that I wouldn't have heard about and having parties with like minded people. I love that it's all in one box instead of having a tv, cassette deck, CD player, DVD player, record deck, telephone, mobile, watch, mixing desk, recording studio, on and bloody on, wires all over the place, crappy connecters, wire, cables, piles of plastic. I love my iPod, it's made a massive difference to my life
It's a cliche that every generation thinks that things aint as good as they used to be, but thats usually a case of 'I'm not as young as I used to be' If you stay interested and curious then you find that they are just as good, but different. Embrace change, this is the best time in the history of mankind to be alive, jump in with both feet. Remember the old days but don't try to live there. That's my philosophy anyway. Nice to have a civilised debate on here. Even though you are all a set of cunts

WORD G.
The digital connections have helped me find friends i made on the dance floors of Mbrough/Stockton/Sunderland/Newcastle/London during the late 80's and early 90's, that i thought i would never see again. It has also helped me make new friends that i know i will have for the rest of my natural.

Made me LOL

forks / rigs - u only like new technology cos your both old burnt out ravers searching for that new lease of life on the scence.

(forks stuck in the countryside and rigs stuck in a windowless secret bunker guarding everybodys money)

forks , im liking your thoughts --- "Remember the old days but don't try to live there." - but im still not leaving the records , and im more determind to put together a live hardware setup at some point with all the old shite i have kickin about.

If you love em then do it for all you're worth. I look forward to seeing you. And I aint burnt out yet. Just smouldering a bit round the edges.

Forks, have to agree to disagree fella. But I respect your opinion.

Yeah forks. That smoledering is just the haze of substances oozing from your pores. That reminds me .....