http://www.calendarlive.com/nightlife/cl-wk-upfront4aug04,0,2861796.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Enter the digital rage
You can dump the vinyl, keep the tricks of the turntable trade.
By Susan Carpenter
LA Times Staff Writer
August 4, 2005
The entryway of Eddie Mendoza's North Hills home is stacked with unopened
packages stuffed with records advance copies a lot of fans would kill
for. But DJ Eddie One, as he is known on his KIIS-FM (102.7) and Sirius
Satellite Radio shows, doesn't care about those anymore.
"As of two months ago, I'm not collecting vinyl," said Mendoza, 26, a
hip-hop/reggaeton DJ who switched to a digital DJ program this summer.
"There's no point really. The new stuff I get, as long as I have the MP3s,
I'm good."
Mendoza is one of a growing number of DJs who are going digital because
it's so convenient. Using a computer-based system means he doesn't have to
break his back carrying heavy crates of records or pre-select what he
brings; he can carry his entire 5,000-song library in a compact,
lightweight laptop. He also doesn't have to spend as much time looking for
records or as much money buying them; MP3s are quick to download, easier to
categorize and less expensive per song than vinyl. When he creates his own
remixes, he doesn't have to go to the trouble of pressing them onto vinyl;
he can immediately add them to his digital library.
Most important, he doesn't have to sacrifice any of the tricks of his
trade, like scratching and matching beats. And listeners can't tell the
difference.
When laptop DJing first came on the scene a few years back, there was a
small handful of software programs for DJs to choose from, and none of them
offered the same range of song manipulation options available with
turntables or even CD DJ players. DJs could cross-fade (or blend) digital
tracks, but the crucial function of shifting the pitch (or speed) of a song
to match beats was unreliable. There was also the question of credibility.
Vinyl was for purists. Digital was seen as cheating.
But in the last year, technology has finally caught up with DJs'
expectations and given them a way to keep it real. From techno to
hip-hop, on the radio and in clubs, many of the genre's biggest names are
ditching their vinyl and CD collections and going with audio files instead.
All the DJs at hip-hop station Power 106 (KPWR-FM, 105.9) now use a digital
DJ program to "spin" their shows. So do huge hip-hop DJs such as Snoop's DJ
Jam, and techno/house DJs such as Paul van Dyk and Josh Wink.
Some of them are using laptops alone, others are using their computers in
conjunction with the traditional two turntable (or CD DJ player) setup.
This fall, even iPod users will be able to get in on the game with the help
of an iPod mixing console that can overlap tracks, not just play them back
to back. The cost of these systems: $200 to $800.
Digital DJing "is really catching fire," said Josh Levine, president of the
Rebel Organization, a grass-roots marketing company affiliated with the
dance music magazine Urb. "We've seen DJs from just about every genre using
it DJs like Jazzy Jeff, who are known for their turntable skills. So from
our view, that's probably at least the near future of where the profession
is going."
Jazzy Jeff, an old-school DJ who works with actor-singer Will Smith, was
one of the early adopters of a program called Scratch Live. On the market
for a year, the program is one of two turntable-based systems that uses
vinyl "control records" to manipulate audio files on a computer. The
records aren't engraved with songs but with a signal that controls the
digital audio file on the computer and allows it to be manipulated. Scratch
the record, and you scratch the computer file. Spin it backward, and the
file plays backward. Speed it up, and it speeds up, and so on. The system
works the same with control CDs and CD DJ players.
"It's weird," said Daniel Hall, a.k.a. DJ Haul of the duo DJ Haul and
Mason. "If you told me two years ago that you're not going to bring out
records anymore, that you're going to play on these digital records but not
the real thing, I would have said, 'No. I don't believe you.' "
But in November, Jazzy Jeff urged Hall to check it out, and he hasn't
looked back. Now, instead of bringing 150 pounds of records to a club or
party, Hall brings two laptops and his control records.
"My back has stopped hurting ever since," he said.
Scratch Live is actually the second turntable-based computer DJ system. The
first was Stanton FinalScratch, and it debuted in 2002. Although
groundbreaking, the system also had its bugs. There was an audible lag
between the time a DJ moved the vinyl and what he heard. Particularly for
turntablist DJs, who work with extreme precision, slicing and dicing beats
into milliseconds, that was a major problem. That issue has been fixed with
subsequent versions of the system, including the most recent, FinalScratch 2.
FinalScratch was created with traditional vinyl DJs in mind, but it was
developed with the input of DJs John Acquaviva and Richie Hawtin. Its
software system is called Traktor DJ Studio, and it takes a different, less
vinyl-centric approach. The program can be run either with the FinalScratch
turntable/CD DJ player system or on its own with just a computer.
The program was originally developed in 2000 as "an answer to the phenomena
of people transferring their music more and more into the MP3 realm," said
Tobias Thon, press manager for Traktor's parent company, Native Instruments
in Berlin. "It was obvious as soon as people had their music collections on
their computer they would need a tool to DJ on their computer, and that
tool could be way more powerful than a turntable."
The current incarnation of the program, Traktor DJ Studio 2.6, was released
in February and allows DJs to create loops from a song while that song is
already playing and to filter out individual components in a song, among
other things.
Because it was developed with house and techno DJs in mind, Traktor has
found a strong following in that scene. It recently partnered with the
online club music store Beatport, which offers a free entry-level version
of the program. In the future, the Beatport store will be integrated into
the program itself, so DJs can preview and purchase new tracks directly
from the software.
Club music or otherwise, not every song is available as a digital file or
on paid websites like iTunes or Beatport. Many of the DJs who've switched
to computer-based systems have spent hundreds, even thousands, of hours
converting their vinyl and CD collections into MP3 and other digital-format
audio files. Others are shortcutting the process by trading copied files.
That takes them in to dicey legal terrain. Distributing copies of licensed
music is generally illegal. So is downloading music without proper payment
or proper authorization. Some digital DJs are doing both. Although the
Recording Industry Assn. of America doesn't seem concerned about this issue
now it hasn't yet sued a DJ on such grounds the rapid rise of digital
DJs may force the issue.
Next month will see the debut of the iDJ iPod mixing console in two
versions a mobile DJ model by Numark Industries and a consumer version
from Ion Audio. Both are traditional mixing boards with volume control and
a fader to segue from track to track; the only difference is that these
mixers are built with docking stations for two iPods.
Both of the new iDJs were developed in conjunction with Apple the Ion
Audio version targeting iPod fans and amateur DJs, and the Numark version
aimed at the mobile DJ market: the ones who play weddings, parties and bar
mitzvahs.
Right now, iPod users with an itch to DJ are restricted by the limitations
of the iPod itself. The current incarnation of the wildly popular hand-held
digital music player allows the user to create playlists and to shuffle
songs, but it doesn't allow users to overlap or change the speed of songs.
Whether Apple will incorporate such features on future models, the company
would not say, but Numark and Ion Audio are working on a second-generation
iDJ that will enable more tricks.
In its present incarnation, however, the iPod remains an imperfect DJ tool
on its own.
"It's work, work, work. The major detraction is that to cue up a song, you
have to press play at the right second, so you're cutting off the last song
that was playing," said Alfred Daedelus, 27, a Ninjatune record producer
and DJ at the Dublab online radio station who occasionally uses an iPod to
play shows.
"There's still something to vinyl. You can see your music," he added. "But
gosh it's fun to play from 10,000 songs."
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
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