----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Brendan Nelson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "Mann, Ravinder [CCS]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, June 13, 2003 2:52 PM Subject: RE: (313) 3rd wave djing
> this is what BMG (Ecotmorph) has been doing for about a year now. > Definatly the way to go. <RANT> Eggzactly. I'm sure anyone who stuck around at Cannonball this year will agree. Brendan (of Ectomorph, not Brendan of Brelson) blew the roof off the place using Ableton and an Evolution controller. His set must've lasted over 2 hours, and covered such an obscene amount of ground with a fluidity I've almost never heard. I was actually quite jealous, even if it was all sequenced in advance (i don't know for sure that it was, but since he didn't use headphones I assume it must've been). I've always thought DJ's make too much of 'reacting to a crowd', when really it's a matter of having the right crowd for the assembled lineup. Once this bit is accounted for, it's all a matter of execution, and then *exceeding* your limits with what you hope to do - regardless of whether the set is fully, partially or not planned. I hear people bitch about how the tunes are more important than the mixing, and God knows I don't want to reignite that reductive debate. The point is that the tunes are the point of departure - they will always be the building blocks of a set and we've covered this topic to death twelve times over. The DJ either presents them unobstructed, completely hoses up the presentation, or arranges them in a way that the sequencing *moves the dancefloor*. This can be accomplished though trickery, long mixes or just a good sense of direction, but hopefully, a masterful Dj will be fluent in all aspects and employ each accordingly. [Excuse a bit of editorialisation, but this is what I think Mills has regained so well in the last year or so]. At any rate, if you have a DJ's ear then the records map themselves out for you, allowing space for creativity where applicable, and you figure that out by trial and error in advance, or you intuit it as you go, feeding off the crowd. My point is that there is very little difference in crowd reaction when either is done well because 90% of even the most educated crowds aren't paying attention, don't care, or are open-minded to any tools a respected DJ wants to use. When Ron Trent played at least 25% of his 4-hour set from CD @ the Works @ DEMF 2002 no one said a word. But what reinforces this the most was watching Brendan (of Ectomorph, not Brendan of Brelson) pull it off at Cannonball. I would be really surprised if anyone in attendance disageed, and I would love to hear everyone who was there chime in with their impression, because it is (sort of) something new and I think it could change a lot of pretentions about planned sets. <AXE GRINDING DETOUR> I would wager that most of the sets that people love the most are planned. Choose to believe it or not, most touring DJ's operate with a very simlar selection of tunes from gig-to-gig while they are on the road. It is a logistical imposibility to do something different in every port when playing a longer slot (assuming you only have vinyl), and when you're only as good as your last gig, repeating things that work makes sense - especially when your audience could never know you've done it before. When people bitch about Mills repeating his sets, I don't think they realize how common this is.</AXE GRINDING DETOUR></RANT> To tie this back into Brendan of Brelson, y'all should take note that he has been making wicked mixes for ages the manual way, and has chosen to give another mode a try. Both have their value. Hopefully more DJ's will come out of their caves and use the tools that are available to push things in new directions. This has already been happening a lot over the last 3 or 4 years. I have been using CD players since the first Denon's came out (~94). It wasn't until I learned how to mix with the pitch slider that I gave them credibility again after a long break from them, but now I am really excited about using CD's in my sets. I have a ton of stuff from the early-mid '90s that I only have on CD, and I think it's criminally negligent to retain that for myself. It also masquerades as my answer to Final Scratch, since I don't give a sh*t about touching my records (versus the interface on a Pioneer CDJ-500S) 97% of the time, and I can burn anything I want for $.25 rather than carting around a latop to that end. Anyway, I'm sure I've made my point 12 times over by now, but I had to chime in and say that this is nothing new even if it seems like it (most of us probably don't even notice how it's been creeping up), and it's crazy this should result in 110 emails in less than 24 hours. It's common, you better get used to it, and it will ultimately improve the quality of performance. DJing has never had it so good. Cheers! Tristan ======= Text/Mixes: http://www.phonopsia.co.uk Music: http://www.mp313.com Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
