Your attitude to laptop only DJs............

[Steve]

What do you think of DJs that only use a laptop for DJing hip hop? I'm talking specifically about hip hop and just DJs that use only laptops, not ones that use a laptop as part of a bigger setup.

 

Would you be disappointed if you went to see a DJ like Kentaro or Woody and rather than performing on decks they used just a laptop, so no juggling or scratching?

[Blak Randy]

It's gay. Nothing to do with the music, sound quality, ect. It just simply looks ghey. It in no way looks cool. It makes me just think of on one hand nerds, on the other hand propper spanners who have orange fake tans and muscles and slap eachother on the ass.

[Phology]

steve u mean only using a laptop and thats it? not, for instance using Serato?

 

i dont know any DJs or have seen any that use JUST a laptop

 

but if u mean DJs using computer based programs like Serato

then im for it, id rather carry a laptop than 100 records

[Steve]

I mean just a laptop with some kind of software running on it - Virtual DJ, Ableton and the like.

[Phology]

ah ok

ye that wud suck ass

 

its gettin that way tho i reckon

more and more up and comers think its the norm to just rock a laptop

 

shame

[Gizmo]

It depends. If I go to "see" a DJ, I expect a show - movement, decknastics and a stage presence. But that's entirely about the DJ as a performer where you would expect to see them "at work" as it were. This is where the knob twiddlers fail - watching club DJs perform is dire.

 

If however I was going to a club where a VIP DJ was playing, as long as the floor is rammed, I really don't care if the DJ is busting out original 45s on Technics or playing mp3s from their email client. That's all about the music rather than the DJ.

[x2k]

I think there are 2 categories here...if they are playing the current beatport top ten one track after another then I don't fucking care so long as they aren't getting paid some god aweful amount of money. If they are using just a laptop but with something like ableton to mixup and create their own music fucking right go for it!

 

I could go into a massive rant right now but I think I'm just going to stfu.

[Wax On]

They're a bunch of chumps who ruin it for the rest of us.

 

with the mp3 revolution and such, there are more people who will go out and DJ off a laptop or whatever for no money, which in turn makes it harder for vinyl buying-hard working DJs like us to get paid

 

Would you be disappointed if you went to see a DJ like Kentaro or Woody and rather than performing on decks they used just a laptop, so no juggling or scratching?

i'd be livid

[djdiggla]

There are a few of those guys in town... they mostly stick to electronic stuff... but I'm not a fan. It could be that I just have no idea what they are doing (if anything), but it seems very boring and kinda homo erotic to all jam out behind a laptop. That said, I've been thinking of getting one of those Vestax VCI-100 for a more portable setup... anyone tried it???

[Lorn]

I've never really paid to go see a DJ play, so its not that big of a deal for me. I did, however, pay $50 on a whim one night to go see Sasha perform and all he did was sit behind his iMac / Ableton Live setup mixing 7-minute tunes for a few hours. Then again the sound was fucking amazing, the lights were dope and the floor was completely packed... I'm not really even one for trance, but I still enjoyed myself entirely.

[djfoly]

I almost cant get the words out from sheer anger at the thought of it! But let me just say I fucking HATE mp3s there i said it. they fucking bore me to death. Im sick of people telling me they have tunes on mp3 they might aswell not have it for all I care. there has to be a few custodians of the vinyl artform so I will be one. mp3s can go from rare to saturation in a day it kills music! Digging for vinyl and playing it out to good people is such a good feeling, but one of the things that keep it sacred is that people will not be able to find things easily and when they finally get the track they heard you play 7 years ago it brings back all sorts of memories and feelings. This is all dying and I think its a shame. if everyone has access to all the music I play all the time whats the point in me playing it.

 

One positive thing from this is that good djs are going to have to become very creative in the way they play their music which I suppose in the end is a good thing..

 

But laptop djs are ghey!

[Lorn]

I almost cant get the words out from sheer anger at the thought of it! But let me just say I fucking HATE mp3s there i said it. they fucking bore me to death. Im sick of people telling me they have tunes on mp3 they might aswell not have it for all I care. there has to be a few custodians of the vinyl artform so I will be one. mp3s can go from rare to saturation in a day it kills music! Digging for vinyl and playing it out to good people is such a good feeling, but one of the things that keep it sacred is that people will not be able to find things easily and when they finally get the track they heard you play 7 years ago it brings back all sorts of memories and feelings. This is all dying and I think its a shame. if everyone has access to all the music I play all the time whats the point in me playing it.

 

One positive thing from this is that good djs are going to have to become very creative in the way they play their music which I suppose in the end is a good thing..

 

But laptop djs are ghey!

 

So I take it you're the dude on the side of the venue with his arms crossed while the rest of the crowd is getting down to the music?

 

if everyone has access to all the music I play all the time whats the point in me playing it.

 

Well, for starters, because you actually enjoy the tunes? I hope? Otherwise why even be a DJ if all you really care about is owning exclusive copies in specific formats...

[Steve]

Would it have made any difference if Sasha was using decks or CDJs instead? The reason I specified hip hop is because of the limitations a laptop has in terms of scratching and juggling.

[Bubba]

I think if a hiphop dj is simply using a mac and ableton to mix hiphop hits etc and doesn't do any live remixing or what not, that pretty much sucks. Electronic music is a completely different game, so I'm glad that you specified Steve.

 

I think the problem is as always that the consumers don't often care about what's going on at the dj table, as long as the music gets them moving. Most people go out and want to have a party to process the passed week, see nice girls dance and not think too much. However if I'm going to see a specific dj known for his deck skills like A-trak, Woody, Kentaro etc and they're just sitting infront of their mac's I'd go ballistics.

 

On the electronic music story tho: I've seen djs perform soley with a laptop and a hooked up midi-fx-module. That was insane. But for example a German Dj Duo called the Turntablerockers...they used to perform with live remixing, fx, vinyl, computers it was like the craziest things ever. These days they dj mainly minimal/houseish-electro stuff with something like serato (I think it was traktor)....and their track selection is just so sick. So yeah it's a pity they aren't performing their deck skills anymore, but the show they have now is just so good aswell.

 

In all honesty though I think the time of the "vinyl" dj is slowly dieing...but what counts most (IMO) is that you put on the most amazing track selection and can feel the crowd therefore chosing tracks that kill em one after one after one.

 

Pee.z

[that guy from P.A.]

there are a lot of mixtape djs in texas that don't own tables at all...

 

i think we should line them up and shoot them.....

[Lorn]

Would it have made any difference if Sasha was using decks or CDJs instead? The reason I specified hip hop is because of the limitations a laptop has in terms of scratching and juggling.

 

I hear you..

 

I cant say I really have a preference either way because he killed it and by the end of the night I was happy to have seen him perform

[Steve]

I think the problem is as always that the consumers don't often care about what's going on at the dj table, as long as the music gets them moving.

Is that really a problem? I don't think so, but with hip hop and going to see certain DJs in particular, you have expectations that would not be fulfilled if that DJ was using just a laptop. It just seems weird to me that a hip hop DJ wouldn't scratch at all and would choose to use a medium that makes it impossible - not that people go to clubs to hear 10 minute ahhhhhh solos, but I wanna hear a little bit of cutting in the mix cos it adds to the experience.

[Giraffe Dung]

as for what bubba said and steve quoted, reh i can't be bothered to quote sorry, for my experience you're slightly off point- if you goto a music club you go because of the music, but most clubs are set up solely for people to get drunk and maybe be on drugs but not really visibly all over the place or it will get shut down. i don't think the age of the laptop dj or anything like that is to blame for the 'end of the dj' so to speak, i think it's this. club managers understand that sex booze and drugs sell, and that's all there is to it. there could be a fucking jukebox on, it wouldn't matter, and i will not be surprised, and i say will not instead of would not because it is somewhat an inevitability, when playlisted club nights appear. IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT YOU PLAY at your average town centre club, there are 50 songs, 25 'classic' and 25 of the last two months, which will make people dance because of sheep mentality. that's all there is to it. no mixing, no exciting stage presence, nothing. if people stay in the club and keep drinking, which *will* happen if you're the most popular club, then you will make money. the only people who run music nights are independent promoters, and they're all skint because they have difficulty persuading people to come to a smaller club, most importantly i think because if music is first on your agenda, then sex is not- and either explicity or implictly, sex has to be number one on your agenda to make a LOT of people come to a club night. meanwhile your town's 'superclub' will play get low by flo rida, please don't stop the music by rihanna, and the scooter song, and absolute fucking RAKE IT IN because people don't feel like they have to know any secret passwords or codes that put them off going to a music night. bottom line is most people go to a club to get rat arsed and hopefully pull and go to a concert to add something to their cv of life. actual music fans, ie people to whom music is important emotionally, are genuinely few and far between, imo.

 

anyway that's pretty off topic, alllllthough i do have a link- i would be really fucking annoyed if i went to see a hip hop dj just mash things up (or worse just play things one after another) on a computer, but that's because if i actually go out to a music night then i have gone primarily for the music and i want to see what i paid for and expected- i wouldn't be happy if i went to see a film and they showed a few friends episodes instead even though i do enjoy friends and it would be quite cool to see it on the big screen, by the same coin.

[will]

Depends who it is and what they're doing.

 

I saw Luke Vibert do 2 amazing laptop sets at the bangface weekender a few months ago. He's fucking awesome.

 

 

Not at bangface but the sort of thing he does.

[Giraffe Dung]

that welllll looks like an afterparty where it's got light and it's coming through the curtains and everyone is so incredibly incredibly fucked that they don't know whether they're coming up or down anymore and it's maybe half in the garden now too and people are more or less convulsing with the repetitive bits and getting microsleep every few seconds, wishing they were dead then suddenly never feeling more alive and connected with all these people like a constantly flipping coin every few seconds. check the gurns at about 1.28. whoa. whoa. whoa.

[x2k]

That fact is that only in very rare situations are DJs actually interesting to watch, most just stand there. If you want a stage show either go and see Roc Raida, some german trance DJ dress up in day glow latex jumping up and down like a twat or go and watch a fucking band.

 

On this note a I played a really surreal set on Friday night, I was behind a screen, no one could see me and I couldn't see anyone all I know is I heard a few screams from the crowd and by the sound of it there were a shit load of people there haha.

[Bubba]

Ok after having seen that youtube video my verdict is clear: A simple laptop dj is completely gay. Basta. Standing there with no midi tools infront of him simply creating playlists - fuck off. However as for the purpose of the dj in that moment of course he can only work with a laptop and make people happy. I just imagine it being dead boring. Therefore I CHOOSE to be someone who uses his laptop as an accessory to enhance the musical spectrum and experience.

 

But fuck man, just standing there with a laptop in front of you on a stage? At least get a midi controller or something to throw some horns in...then you're already tons better in my books.

 

Pee.z

[Jon]

So I take it you're the dude on the side of the venue with his arms crossed while the rest of the crowd is getting down to the music?

 

I had one of those last night at a gig with button basher and it made me really depressed. He was standing no more than five feet in front of me taking the piss to his mate (who later apologized to me on his behalf) when we were doing are performance just shouting 'oh this ain't hiphop, there's no skill' and making wanker signs whenever i started scratching. The rest of the club was enjoying it including his friend. He then came up to me afterwards and tried to argue that we shouldn't have played because it wasn't true hiphop and attempted to 'out hiphop- knowledge me' (i'm sure every hiphop dj has experienced this). Fair enough he came to hear hiphop as it's the only local that plays non top 40 hiphop, but the other dj and i had been playing hiphop from various styles and countries from the 80s to present day for about 4 hours that night apart from our 50 minute set of our own material. I guess people don't like things outside of their comfort zone sometimes.

 

I'll post a few videos from last night soon

 

 

 

As for the whole digital/purist argument:

Vinyl is brilliant and i love it and buy as much as i can and at the minimum i buy cds if i cant get stuff on wax, just because like something physical i can touch/read/hold etc and vinyl will always be what i'll use at home for scratching. However, for performances and production, digital is the way forward. You can say that all laptop djs do is push buttons and there is no skill involved. It could not be any more the other way: ableton allows me to mix tiny tiny tiny bits of tracks together to create live mash ups etc that would be impossible on vinyl, cd or DVS. It's the exactly the same concept as when Kool Herc and the early hiphop djs were mixing just the breaks of funk and soul records- but ableton allows you to do that with crazy amounts of records and sources. Of course you can still rock parties with just vinyl but it's not offering much that's new anymore imo. digital= more possibilities = evolution of djing/hiphop (in terms of production) imo.

 

however i do think it is important laptop djs have learned on vinyl so they can then appreciate it's limitations and thus take advantage of the new possibilities that ableton/serato and even cd decks provide.

 

Just my two cents at this moment in time and is not a bite at anyone who is favoring vinyl

[Steve]

when we were doing are performance just shouting 'oh this ain't hiphop, there's no skill' and making wanker signs whenever i started scratching.

That's annoying. What a nob.

 

The argument isn't really a vinyl purist one, because I'm not a vinyl purist myself. I just think that with no kind of controller other than a keyboard and mouse, you're not gonna pull off the kind of hip hop set that I want to hear. I don't go to clubs expecting DJs to juggle like Kentaro and scratch like D-Styles, but if I paid specifically to see a certain DJ and they just used a laptop I would be miffed.

[Jon]

when we were doing are performance just shouting 'oh this ain't hiphop, there's no skill' and making wanker signs whenever i started scratching.

That's annoying. What a nob.

 

The argument isn't really a vinyl purist one, because I'm not a vinyl purist myself. I just think that with no kind of controller other than a keyboard and mouse, you're not gonna pull off the kind of hip hop set that I want to hear. I don't go to clubs expecting DJs to juggle like Kentaro and scratch like D-Styles, but if I paid specifically to see a certain DJ and they just used a laptop I would be miffed.

 

word, i'm the same, i like to watch djs when i go to clubs as im not a real dancey person. I get into it and nod my head off but i'm interested in how djs flip their tracks and if they scratch etc. as thre are so many djs about i expect to see the people who are getting th gigs doing some crazy stuff, but it's not always the case