Re: NYTimes.com Article: The D.J.'s New Mix: Digital Files and a Turntable

From: Olaf Molenveld (olaf@interactivelink.nl)
Date: Fri Oct 26 2001 - 10:04:34 CEST

  • Next message: Thomas Szirtes: "Re: NYTimes.com Article: The D.J.'s New Mix: Digital Files and a Turntable"

    not wanting to start a war vinyl VS cd's, but just some of my personal
    thoughts:

    "CD burners allowed disc jockeys to make a
    track at home, then play it on a club's CD player that
    night, but D.J.'s couldn't manipulate the music as they
    could with vinyl. "

    personally i think CD-sets with pitch etc. are just as easy to use as
    turntables......maybe it's different when you're a turntablist and/or do a
    lot of scratching, but i don't need scratching, so i only need to have an
    easy and fast cue option, pitch-slider and a way to pitchbend the
    music....no difference here between vinyl and CD's except maybe you can cue
    somewhat faster when you want to start in a break or something...

    "At the same time, it is important to him that Final Scratch
     works through standard turntables. "It gives me the
     advantage of a physicality that not only I understand, but
     the crowd understands," he said. "People understand what a
     D.J. does now. It's just like how people became accustomed
     to freaking out when someone did something cool with a
     guitar. We don't lose that, but it opens these floodgates
     to a whole new potential."

    this is what i, as a vinyl DJ who turned to CD's in 1995 or something due to
    money constraints, have been thinking a lot of lately....i can do a
    perfectly good set using CD's, but i am thinking of switching to vinyl again
    only because of this issue: the magic of vinyl for the audience....i
    personally don't care about the medium, but it seems a lot of the people on
    the dancefloor *need* to see a DJ spin vinyl to enjoy the music......what do
    you think about this?

    Olaf

    ----- Original Message -----
    From: <mrfliz@rcn.com>
    To: <acid-jazz@ucsd.edu>
    Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2001 6:38 PM
    Subject: NYTimes.com Article: The D.J.'s New Mix: Digital Files and a
    Turntable

    > This article from NYTimes.com
    > has been sent to you by mrfliz@rcn.com.
    >
    >
    > Great article on the state of live digital mixing....
    >
    > kevin kiernan
    > dj k-now
    >
    > mrfliz@rcn.com
    >
    >
    > The D.J.'s New Mix: Digital Files and a Turntable
    >
    > October 25, 2001
    >
    > By BILL WERDE
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > ON a recent Wednesday night at Centro-Fly, a trendy
    > Manhattan dance club, Richie Hawtin was using two
    > turntables to play the latest and best techno, a crisply
    > syncopated hybrid of dark, electronic drum rhythms and
    > metallic high-hat and snare effects. Like so many other
    > celebrity disc jockeys on the international circuit, Mr.
    > Hawtin was mixing records together to imprint his style on
    > the night's music: he played two records simultaneously to
    > blend the drum kick of one song with the melody of another,
    > waited about 45 seconds before replacing the drum sounds
    > with a new album of more pronounced bass sounds, and
    > manipulated audio effects equipment to further tweak what
    > clubgoers were hearing. So it went for hours, Mr. Hawtin
    > adding and subtracting sounds and the crowd of about 600
    > dancing and cheering when they heard a mix they liked.
    >
    > The scene was typical for nightclubs across the globe; the
    > records Mr. Hawtin was placing on his turntable were
    > anything but. Mr. Hawtin uses new technology called Final
    > Scratch from N2IT Development, a Dutch company. The vinyl
    > records he places on the turntables may look like normal
    > albums, but they work as conduits for the 900 or so digital
    > files he has stored on his laptop computer. If Mr. Hawtin
    > places the stylus on the three-minute mark of the Final
    > Scratch vinyl, the technology interprets that as a signal
    > to play at the three-minute mark of the digital file he has
    > selected.
    >
    > Final Scratch is not the only music or technology company
    > looking to help a growing D.J. culture embrace digital
    > music. A variety of software programs allow D.J.'s to use
    > laptop computers to mix digital files without turntables
    > and include perks like sonic filters, synthesizer emulators
    > and samplers that can add well-laced loops of additional
    > music or vocal snippets. Traditional audio companies are
    > making equipment that allows D.J.'s to mix and edit digital
    > files from compact discs. All of this gives D.J.'s new
    > freedoms, both pragmatic and creative.
    >
    > Before the onset of home studios and CD burners, D.J.'s who
    > wanted to play a new track would have to secure studio
    > time, then make a dubplate, a fragile vinyl pressing that
    > costs about $50 and provides 15 or 20 plays before
    > deteriorating. CD burners allowed disc jockeys to make a
    > track at home, then play it on a club's CD player that
    > night, but D.J.'s couldn't manipulate the music as they
    > could with vinyl.
    >
    > A breakthrough came in July with the release of the Pioneer
    > CDJ-1000 Digital Vinyl Turntable. Featuring a
    > touch-sensitive jog dial that can be manipulated the same
    > way a D.J. does with vinyl - dragging a hand on the dial to
    > slow the tempo of the CD, using a finger or two to push it
    > faster, or "scratching" the CD back and forth, creating a
    > myriad of potential sounds through friction - the Pioneer
    > machine made believers out of many analog purists,
    > including New York D.J.'s like Aaron Albano, known as Ming,
    > and Freddie Sargolini, who goes by FS. Ming & FS recently
    > released an album of hip-hop and techno beats called "The
    > Human Condition" and have promoted it with frequent D.J.
    > appearances.
    >
    > "You touch the plate and it reacts like you're touching
    > vinyl," Mr. Albano said. "If you run your finger on the
    > side of it, it slows down the platter, just like a normal
    > turntable." The pair still spin mostly vinyl, but they
    > experiment more than they did before.
    >
    > "If we make a track now, we might do three or four
    > different versions," Mr. Albano said. "Maybe one will have
    > more bass, maybe one will be faster, and we'll play what's
    > right for the moment. If we hear a funny sample on the
    > radio or television, we might grab it and use it. We don't
    > have to go out and get records made. It's sped up the
    > creative process immensely."
    >
    > Audio companies are rushing to embrace the fertile
    > intersection of two exploding markets: digital music and
    > D.J. culture. "Except for the engineers," said Brian
    > Buonassissi, marketing manager for Pioneer's pro audio
    > division, "everyone who works in marketing and product
    > planning are all D.J.'s." (Mr. Buonassissi himself spins
    > discs as Granmasta B in San Clemente, Calif.)
    >
    > Because of the Digital Vinyl Turntable's price - $1,299,
    > with a street price of about $1,150 - "we expected we'd
    > only sell to professionals," Mr. Buonassissi said, but the
    > audience has proved to encompass "everyone from home users
    > to gearheads in search of a new toy."
    >
    > If the gearheads are excited about the CDJ-1000, they may
    > flip their propellers at the thought of Final Scratch, a
    > $3,000 hardware-software package that went on sale last
    > week. The software is loaded on a Sony (news/quote) Vaio
    > laptop computer that is connected by a tiny processing box
    > to standard turntables. (A version without the laptop will
    > go on sale early next year for about $600.)
    >
    > Conceived at a hacker convention in Amsterdam when some
    > programmers saw a D.J. run out of records after an hour or
    > so, Final Scratch allows the mixing and scratching of
    > virtually all formats of digital music to within a
    > millisecond of precision. And as those at Centro-Fly could
    > attest after hearing Mr. Hawtin's mix, it is impressive
    > when put to the test of an enormous sound system.
    >
    > Mr. Hawtin says the best part about Final Scratch is that
    > it is all contained on his laptop. "I don't travel with a
    > CD burner, and if you start burning a lot of CD's, you run
    > into an organizational challenge," he explained. Mr.
    > Hawtin's 900 files are stored within the Final Scratch
    > software, broken down by subgenres and easily
    > cross-referenced by a variety of search categories.
    >
    > With his frequent travel, having his whole set available on
    > his laptop creates time, in a matter of speaking. "In May,
    > I flew to England on a Saturday," he said, "played a gig,
    > flew back Sunday morning and had a gig that night in
    > Detroit. I had eight hours there and back. I went through
    > all my records, sorted out what I wanted to play in
    > Detroit, what I wanted to play in London, picked a couple
    > of tracks, re-edited them to create some special versions
    > and played them that night."
    >
    > Mr. Hawtin is quick to praise the freedom and spontaneity
    > granted by the digital realm. "This lets us evaluate what's
    > happening in the world as quickly as possible now," he
    > said. "I can take a snippet of some news or a popular
    > record and throw it in the mix in a completely different
    > way."
    >
    > At the same time, it is important to him that Final Scratch
    > works through standard turntables. "It gives me the
    > advantage of a physicality that not only I understand, but
    > the crowd understands," he said. "People understand what a
    > D.J. does now. It's just like how people became accustomed
    > to freaking out when someone did something cool with a
    > guitar. We don't lose that, but it opens these floodgates
    > to a whole new potential."
    >
    > Some of the greatest potential revolves around much more
    > mundane issues than digital revolutions may inspire. Mr.
    > Hawtin carries two crates of records to his D.J. sessions,
    > each holding about 100 albums. "I'll be down to one crate
    > by the end of the year," Mr. Hawtin said. "The only reason
    > I'm carrying as much music as I am now is that there is a
    > time lag between when I get a record and when I can
    > digitize it. I have plenty of room in my laptop for tracks
    > I may only play once a year, but that one time I play it,
    > it will make the night."
    >
    > Reducing the number of albums may turn out to be the
    > greatest advantage of all. "Do you have any idea," Mr.
    > Hawtin said with a laugh, "how much a crate of records
    > weighs?"
    >
    >
    http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/25/technology/circuits/25JOCK.html?ex=1005027
    925&ei=1&en=48f1914efe805a99
    >
    >
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