Vekked

Generally people seem happy but I know 2-3 guys who went back to the 62. There aren't glaring flaws with the S9 (aside from the fader cut-in without a laptop hooked up, which may have been fixed?), but there are features that it doesn't have that the 62 does. Also both mixers have a different "workflow", which is kind of an interesting thing that is only just starting to become a consideration in 2-channel mixers. 62 and S9 are the first two high-end mixers on the same DVS system, and when you try both you can see how they implemented the exact same feature in different ways with their own advantages/disadvantages. So it becomes sort of like choosing production software or something, where both mixers can do a lot of the same stuff but the way of doing it might be better or worse for how you perform. Looping + effects are the areas I find both mixers to be pretty unique so far.

Naw key locking or key correcting or whatever is pretty good now. I don't like scratching with it for normal samples because it ignores your natural pitching, but for melodies it's good. You can hear it at extreme lengths but anything under 10% is barely detectable with Pitch n Time and such nowadays.

Yea one of the cleanest juggles in the first round, but still a lot to be desired from a routine perspective. As for him being unlucky for being one of the best jugglers in the round, I look at it like this... (and I would be more politically correct here, but this guy's a dick head so I'll just say it like it is), I don't see it as bad luck when at the root of it, it's a 4 out of 10 routine using strictly pre-1998 patterns with a completely arbitrary track... he didn't do anything to flip that beat specifically, he could use ANY hip-hop beat and the juggle would be identical and the only thing that would make it "better" or "worse" is how much someone likes the beat he used subjectively. Him choosing a track with vocals does absolutely nothing except take away from the routine since he's not making them make say anything relevant in the juggle so it just makes it sound even more repetitive than it would otherwise. Is it wack? No. Would I have put him in my own top 10? Probably. But in the end, it's still not a good routine and wouldn't place at any DMC regional but the worst, so it barely matters. Vekked grade: D-. Not wack, but not not bad.

In practice you would want to have more than just a C-note on your record as well, that's why I use traktor remix decks for my tones, have a whole octave for each sound. E.g. if a track is in C-major that is easily done with the C record, but if your track is on G#-minor it becomes more complicated to do with C-note. Maybe musical geniuses don't think of it in that way, but at least for me it helps to match up the right sounds, scales and backing tracks. Yep, when I'm doing PDX 3000 stuff I have various root notes + octaves to make it more practical to play in the given key of a track. But I think Jam is talking about situations where it's not in a "real" key, it's between keys... like in certain old music where the record was sped or slowed down in post-production, or the band tuned to each other but aren't tuned to an "absolute" tone. I think having a fine-tune feature is cool in theory, especially for live jam situations, but I think in practice nowadays there aren't many times when you can't just re-pitch things digitally to be in the true key. Like how often are you scratching a vinyl melody samples over a vinyl beat where neither can be tuned digitally... and even then in Jam's example IF you are going pure_anal0g, I think the play is just to move the speed of the beat a few % to put it in a real key. How often do you NEED to play a track at an exact tempo that requires you to play slightly out of tune from the absolute key? The maximum pitch change you would need to ever do is 3% (half a semi-tone) to tune up or down to the next real tone, and it's difficult to imagine a scenario where that would not be an option. For me the fine-tune feature is only *necessary* if you're playing with real musicians off the cuff and they aren't using tuners for extended periods of time.

Yea tbh the public vote isn't ideal but the alternative was judges not watching all the sets anyways sooo it's better than that unless they make a budget to give judges incentive to put in hours and hours judging dozens of sets. And in reality I don't think the battle is big enough to where the public vote is broken though, like I don't think any round in previous years has had the clear skill winner not make top 10 public vote, there's still some organic pull for good sets to get shared enough to make top 10 votes.

yuppers

Positives- -Faders + pads are dope on it. Soo many adjustments for the faders, you can make em feel like any fader pretty much. Pads feel like Maschine pads and are super responsive for finger drumming stuff. -Effects are high quality, and fairly good selection. -Latch effects is nice for on the fly use. Negatives -I really dislike the effects implementation. No FX send/receive or external effects at all, and you can't use hardware + software effects simultaneously or even multiple software effects, so you can't do flange + reverb at the same time for instance. -the recording isn't as versatile as the Rane 62/57. On the 62/57 you can output each channel, aux, master, and effects all individually so you have a lot of control for mixdowns and such. -filters don't cut completely so not as good for filter transitions in and out -upfaders aren't the same model as the x-fader (not swappable I don't think) -the layer-based work flow isn't great for me. The 57mk2 has this a bit too. I prefer the 62 having maximum 2 layers for each section and visual cues for which layer you're in. I don't like tapping buttons 3-4 times to get to the features I want. -I've hit the pads from time to time when cutting on the upfaders. -When routing audio through USB there's seemingly no volume control on the mixer (i.e. if you're playing a beat from a looper or your DAW without a Y-cable) Neutral -It sounds... different from the Rane mixers. I've heard people say it's both better and worse. It sounds to me like the Pioneers have a few dB more mid by default or something. Seems subjective tho. It's definitely a solid mixer and I don't mean the negatives to come off like it's awful, I just think they're relevant if you value those features and there's a bit "honeymoon phase" with this thing at the moment. For me right now I'm all about effects versatility and efficient workflow, so most of the negatives are really minor except lack simultaneous effects + too much layer switching on the fly.

I thiiink so. The only way I defend is if I happen to come up with 6 mins of great material by DMC but I'm not preparing at this point (which I have been the previous 4 years). There's a slightly bigger chance that I do teams with Brace again, but maybe not this year because he's in USA and my year is looking more and more full by the week.

it's real, he talked to me about it ages ago, I think he has more plans for it than what he demonstrated

if it wasn't platter off 100% of the time I think I could see myself wanting to use it but seems like you can't actually play the samples? I've always been interested in a straight forward/back scratching device instead of disc-like, to make left and right sides equal

Might as well start the thread up... Here's the link for round 1: http://www.dmcdjonline.com/leaderboard/ Haven't watched all the entries, post up any good ones!

Don't push it. Do a lot of stretching, make sure you warm up properly, and maybe ice it if you have to. Take care of yourself, because RSI is real. I don't have RSI but I've had a lot of temporary pain from over-practicing. I think when you push it is when you cause permanent damage, but there's a good chance that if it just started suddenly and noticeably that it's maybe some sort of tendon strain and probably not permanent. Just rest and take proper care of yourself when you get back.

In 2013 I had a tone pitch thing with the St150 and in 2014 I had this breakdown with it, both routines I never got to use in DMC because of the 1200s limitation

I didn't even realize that... I will recite 50 hail kool hercs to repent for my hip-hop sins...

I couldn't remember the best beat juggle in the world, so this is all you get fml.

I've heard the same thing about the Ruck I've heard about Ruck being similar to online in real life haha

Yeeeap. I was stoked on it too at one point but I've heard nothing good about it really...

Haha jeez that's harsh... But it's kinda true. Rob never really followed up his early routines with more classic routines like all of the other X-ecutioners. I can't really think of a really good juggle of his past the early 90s...

Wellll to be fair Rob was once the No1 beat juggler and arguably solo battle DJ on the planet (he lost to Q, MMM and Apollo as a team at the time) With all due respect Vek, I think it was always Raida the No1 beat juggler. RS was always somewhere in the back within the X-Men and behind Butcher, Raida, Eclipse, Precision and Boogie Blind. He might had the most musicality out of all, but that was still 20 years ago. Obviously Rob didn't maintain being number 1, but I think in 92/93 it's hard to argue he was one of the best. Raida had tons of skill but I don't think he (or anyone) had a better juggle than Rob's Biz routine for a few more years. Of course this doesn't excuse some of the stuff he's said this week, or that sloppy Queen juggle he just posted. I'm just keeping the record straight since there are a lot of people who get mad at his comments and say "ROB SWIFT HAS ALWAYS BEEN WACK" when he's still a legend and pioneer, despite any perceived douchiness.

Wellll to be fair Rob was once the No1 beat juggler and arguably solo battle DJ on the planet (he lost to Q, MMM and Apollo as a team at the time)

I've heard the AMXs are very unstable for DVS use. Do they actually work with USB power/no laptop? That's pretty cool, I assumed it was all midi and wasn't actually cutting the analog signal.

Yeeaaa, I think he deters a certain amount of younger DJs by telling them they might not be born with the funk... I don't think kids want to hear "no matter how hard you work, you might just not be born with the talent you need to be good at this". Not exactly a welcoming idea.

yea it's a mini innofader for sure. Which IMO is pretty ideal because I mean we're going for portability after all. If we were chasing the best quality scratch setup without size considerations, we would just end up making normal turntables and a mixer with a car battery attached.

I really like beat juggling, but admittedly it's really difficult to incorporate a traditional "beat juggle" without there being a jarring amount of setup... like the typical "loop a beat for 8 bars" to set up the juggle is one of the worst things and a remnant of the vinyl days more than a musical choice. But nowadays people (including me sometimes ) STILL do it even though you don't have to a lot of times with DVS. No one actually likes the sound of progressively shorter loops of music for 20 seconds before the beginning of a juggle. But when beat juggling is done well and musically, however rare that is, I love it.

I think that's absolutely why it's done. You almost exclusively see guys who happen to be really good at scratching doing it, and usually to me it's them saying "well I guess I have to beat juggle... so I'll do this for a minute so I can get back to my scratching which I actually like". I would rather them just scratch for 6 minutes because that's what they're good at or do weird gimmick stuff instead, no one ever said you HAD to beat juggle in order to win. Look at Woody's winning Vestax routine, not a beat juggle in sight, but he varied his ideas enough to make it work. And not to toot my own horn, but for live DMC World set last year I didn't have a single "beat juggle" section of my routine, all of my beat juggling was incorporated into a scratch routine/feedback routine/something else. I did that on purpose too. I wanted to try and fit beat juggling in musically without being like "ok here's the token beat juggle section", because I think I agree that beat juggling itself needs to be updated but I don't agree that pre-production is the way to modernize it.