I hate to revive this old argument about mixing inside software or outside but it came up again last night while I was spinning at a friends party . The axe for the night was a new template we are working on for the vci-300 and Traktor. The controller was working well, but my mix sounded like garbage. I cant help but feel that, while the deaf dj must take some responsibility- it was largely because there is no headroom when mixing inside dj software. Has anyone else had this experience or might have found a way to combat this truly troublesome problem?
The complaint is not a new one, as digital summing of multiple audio signals is just never going to compare to the analogue counterpart. I know, for example, of many a sound engineer that will run several groups of a song (stems) out to an analogue mixer for the final summing. That’s not to say that you can some-how magically turn up the signal louder in the analogue domain. No, the analogue distorts at the same point but the distortion itself is night and day. Take that classic Mo-Town sound that we all love and associate with being rich and fat- its just bucket loads of good distortion.
As the night progresses and djs tend to want to turn things up louder and louder, there is just no where to go in digital land. Well you can always turn up the master channel- you might counter. Not exactly, because the problem is this constant balance of sonic levels between the tracks as you mix. Some songs for whatever reason, even after auto gain- just require a little extra pump when in the middle of a mix. Once you have hit the digital ceiling, which is un-bearably low- then it’s all bad from there.
If they really expect everyone to mix in a computer, digital dj companies need to start making their software more dj friendly. Which means expecting us to turn it up too loud and putting rich, warm compressors on every channel.
Just when you thought that dance music, djs and club culture was the lowest ring on the social totem pole- we go green. Yes Mom, djing and taking ecstacy 4 nights a week CAN be socially responsible!
Imagine the conversations that might surround this remarkable development reported by engadget.
Boss: What have you done for the enviroment lately Jerry?
Employee: Well last night I got my freak on with these fine girls from Liverpool
Club Owner: Maan, these electric bills are killing me. Got a good track?
DJ: Let’s just spin “Jump Around” (House of Pain) all night!
Club Owner: Sweeeet! Just mix, blend, and scratch it so they can’t tell.
DJ: Done deal!
We have jumped far into the deep end of the digital pool. There is no lifeguard, no floaties on your arms and no grab holds in site. Time to figure out how to swim. Developing cool technology is the easy part, thats well under way. Figuring out how to use it in an artistic and emotionally compelling manner is another thing all together. Once that is complete then boom, all those nay-sayers will line up in droves. Until its complete digital djing or “controllerism” is just a term that loosely describes our direction not a cohesive creative movement.
Continue reading ‘Point of no return’
Perhaps you decided to hold off buying a new controller in hopes of waiting for the Vestax VCI-300? While not exactly a “better” controller than the VCI-100 it did have a few specific upgrades that could mean big performance gains. Namely, high resolution faders and jog wheels. Well, sorry to be the first bearer of bad news but you should not wait around any longer.
Continue reading ‘Itching for a VCi-300?’
If you spend any time in the forums, it becomes quickly apparent that we have a very international group of djs hanging around these parts. A glance at the Google analytics global imaging (above) reveals that we are all over the place! The top countries are US, Uk, Germany, Canada and Australia but we have visitors from just about every single country in the world including Kenya, Haiti, Saudi Arabia, and even Iceland!
So this brings me to my point. Obviously my writing skills are limited to the English language but many of you are in non-english countries. Would you like to share your knowledge and experience of digital djing with others in your native language? Dj TT is working on a system that will help you do just that. It will allow you to start your own site but benefit from the tools, experience and reputation we have already built. While we cant provide much more info than that at this time- If your interested, shoot us a line and we will add you to the beta list when the system is ready to go.
service at djtechtools.com
While we are on the subject, I felt like bringing back a part of this older article that I wrote for Remix magazine on the future of visuals in music. Mike Relm had some interesting things to say about his transformation from a turntablist to a visualist (?) Many people including Dj Kentaro, seem to feel that visuals are the next big thing:
Continue reading ‘Mike Relm and the future of Visuals’
One of our readers here at DJ TT mentioned that he had recently sat down with Felix the HouseCat in the studio and demonstrated the benefits of Traktor. While interested, Felix commented that many pro djs felt that the sync function was cheating. This argument has popped up several times in the past so we felt the need to address it.
To be specific, Traktor (and most other dj programs except for Serato Scratch) offer 2 types of sync: Tempo and Phase. You can either automatically match the tempos of 2 songs up or also allow the computer to attempt and keep them in phase with each other rhythmically. Lets address each of these independently and offer arguments for both sides.
Continue reading ‘To Sync or not to Sync’
For those that avoid acronyms like Perez Hilton’s blog, DVS stands for Digital Vinyl System. Aka Final Scratch, Serato Scratch, Traktor Scratch, Butt Scratch, Back Scratch and anything else that ends in Scratch that may interface with a computer. Mr. Kirn of CDM has unearthed this very interesting story about our friends at NI who apparently settled a law suit in favor of the reported owners of one type of digital scratch technology. Wait a moment, I thought Riz invented that? Well apparently not according to this article in Create Digital Music:
Native Instruments acknowledges the validity of patents held by N2IT, and has now fully licensed their usage worldwide for its TRAKTOR SCRATCH digital DJ system and related products.
The patents held by N2IT relate to general principles of digital music playback using time-code records, which are being utilized in TRAKTOR SCRATCH as well as in other manufacturers’ digital DJ systems with time-code control
Continue reading ‘Who actually did invent DVS?’
The Final Round!
In round 2 everyone really stepped up the game and came back with better and more polished ideas. Several people were working together, pooling ideas and integrating each others concepts to create a better logo. Its really hard to say, they are all very good, but which one do you think best represents Dj Tech Tools?
These finalists are the re-vamped versions of the top 3 logos from the first round and 1 late comer which due to his efforts should be included. Midian and I joined forces to merge my original concept with his great turntable/hard drive idea.
Continue reading ‘Logo Contest’
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