There is a lot to be said for CD's now... with DJ CD players as good as they
are nowadays - you should be able to DJ okay on them.
I normally play vinyl out and buy all new stuff on Vinyl but for foreign
excursions vinyl is just wayyy too heavy - you get wacked on excess baggage.
I'm going to Japan to play in a couple of weeks - so I'm frantically
transferring my collection onto CD!
Actually I'm quite looking forward to MP3 dj-ing maturing. There's one very
good program on PC called Traktor (from Native Instruments) - apparantly
it's being
converted to Mac this year. The idea of going to a gig armed just with a
laptop appeals to me.
-----Original Message-----
From: Leslie N. Shill [mailto:icehouse@redshift.com]
Sent: 23 July 2001 06:06
To: Erik Boralv
Subject: RE: DJ skills
Since I spin largely CD's, I am able to take a BIG bag of tricks to any gig
I play and I usually have around 500 discs at any gig I go to unless it is
something very specific. As Mark points out, there are those DJ's who work a
relatively small box of records and who know the music well and have their
set down pat but who operate in genre patterns, personally I like the
challenge of being as spontaneous as possible and being able to move in
several directions and I play everything from some very funky music all the
way through to psy-trance and beyond. Since my radio show has been rooted in
ethnic (largely African) music, I am very comfortable with that music but I
really like to mix things up and I always try to make sure that the dancers
on the floor have dancing experiences that are as transcendental as possible
and that incorporate music that appeals to the whole body and also the mind.
Over the years I have developed some sequences of music that work very well
and I try to incorporate whatever new stuff I am getting into the mix as
quickly as possible, its really a thing that grows out of experience. There
are DJ's out there whose technical skills far surpass mine but I like to
think that the depth of musical knowledge that I have allows me to fly in
any sort of weather and I am working pretty steadily as a DJ at a wide
variety of parties. Having the ability to drop unusual things into your sets
is something that comes with knowing the music and having a feel for the
crowd. It is possible to learn the technical side of being a DJ but the feel
for it is innate and evolves out of experience, you either got it or you
don't but it cannot be taught. To me the challenge is being able to take
people on a journey and to push the envelope at the same time. I really love
the rush and thrill of having a bunch of people tripping out on the music I
am spinning and seeing the dancers go absolutely off, there is nothing quite
like it for me
leslie/The Power of Sound
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon Jul 23 2001 - 11:27:41 CEST