Mix Club - The Remedial Class
Earlier this year, after taking guidance from this very board, I purchased a Pioneer DJ controller - the DDJ400. I had never previously had any experience of digital mixing or dj’ing at that point, I had only ever used vinyl.
My initial thoughts are that it almost feels a little bit like cheating? Being able to see the BPM of the track, and the key, as well as the beat counter along the top means that the actual basics of beatmatching are totally covered arent they? It allows freedom to focus on the actual transition itself, but it still feels a bit too ‘easy’ if you get what I mean? And then there is the master sync button which has got me wondering - is that used a lot do you think? What is to stop a DJ turning up, and using master sync on every single mix in a set?
I can see that there are hot cues, and loops etc but I havent looked into that yet really. It’s certainly a fun piece of kit and has opened up a whole new library for me - I go to beatport/bandcamp now and pick up about £20 worth of tunes and that tides me over for a month or so. Although file management is probably going to be an issue over time as my library grows.
Would be keen to hear others experiences of digital mixing - is the functionality of the DDJ400 similar across all of these digital mixers/controllers? I would be worried that I’d go to a gig expecting it to work like my kit, but then it would be a whole different interface!
Homegrove just fade out and fade in the tracks?
Along_the_Wire I think that’s only necessary with a fade out end. You have to leave the track before that.
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gcw well……….its a completely different experience than vinyl and much more boring if you ask me, especially if you want to play solid 4 × 4 progressive and techno with no use ball-juggling ‘skillz’ and using all the hot cues and leaping around cuntery which i solidly deprecate ….
it can get a bit samey so - 1. programme set so harmonically not shit. 2. play track 1 . 3. wait 5 mins. 4. put book down. 5. Cue track 2 to exact bpm - and where you want to start on the waveform. 6. Loop the first 16 bars of track. 7. Read another paragraph. 8. work out where you want to transition on the correct phase 7. fade in track 2 - 8. fiddle about ion the eq for a bit as if you were sasha in 1998 9. fade out track 1 . 10. Repeat for 4 hours.
A lot of the jeopardy of the rail crash is taken out of it which is ever present (for me) on vinyl - however it does produce more consistent mixes because you can programme the tracks much more easily and see what works with what. on vinyl that can take all week and often is very hit and miss. it shows the genius of diggers others programming really when all he probably had was his ears, a bontempi keyboard and lots of time.
rant over. enjoy
b x
baggers44 lol you know what, that 10 step synopsis is very much what it’s like isn’t it! You’ll get a nice clean mix every time but it will get a bit boring after a time. I was never very good at vinyl mixing anyway, so I am enjoying the novelty of a clean mix, and it’s great to easily record and listen back in the car later on
gcw aye ….so it begs the question that if we can all do that with a bit of practice what is it that people are prepared to pay for - and it looks like what they pay for is performance - so good looks, ripped physique, pouting, stupid dancing and ‘audience engagement’ . obvs not the music unless it enhances the above. maybe it was always a bit like that …dunno …getting old! and I know that there are many who still eschew all that stuff. anyroads I’m off to listen to a bit of Tozzi for whom mercifully none of the above applies
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I played for 5+ hours at home last night, and was listening to the recording today while raking the leaves in our garden. Not sure if the activity would have required Slayer instead, but bored myself with the mix. A case in point I don’t share everything I record. There’s deep and then there is snoozefest.
Form an orderly queue please gents:
Looks like something from a bargain bin in Asda post Christmas
For people with T/Rex hands?
I played a warm up set for Orkidea last Saturday for his Turku-stop on his 30 Years of DJ Orkidea-tour (dude started young, he’s 45). Playing only bars and lounges for a couple of years left me a bit lost at first with a proper big sound, it’s so much fucking louder. 
Checking the recording now for release tomorrow, and I’m surprised how good I did, no trainwrecks, a few dodgy mixes maybe. I also played for the first time with the CDJ 3000s and I don’t recommend just waltzing in when you’re playing with them for the first time. The settings were all over the place after the last DJ, and I had trouble setting them to my liking on the fly.
Warming up for a trance DJ was fucking fun though as a prog DJ, I could not go too hard. He requested I end with 126 bpm ffs. I used to warm up for him a lot back in the day, and he had requested me again. Got to play 2,5 hours too.
Requested I end with 126 bpm .
Proper Blue M&M Moment.
Homegrove Sounds like a good gig, looking forward to hearing it. I still remember my first time on a loud system, that initial panic of “I wasn’t prepared for this” fades, but it definitely smacks you in the face. That’s why I always like to have my first 3 records planned, just to give me time to settle in.
I think I still have a white label of unity kicking around, that vocal is probably worth sampling.