Most of them cannot manually beat match or even know what mixing in key is if they didn’t have rekordbox pulled up….yet they will be so angry when AI takes their gigs….
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This isn’t facts though is it, it’s just what you think.
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I go to clubs, I hear the train wrecks, but more frequently I hear the “hiding” and not even trying to hold a transition for more than 3 seconds before the “whoosh” fx comes in….I listen to mix CDs and notice the “beatless” transitions and lack of creativity….I have not heard this generation’s Mills’ Liquid Room mix…where is it, please tell me?
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Back in my day…
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Have you tried going to clubs, getting fucked up and enjoying yourself?
Going to clubs and moaning about the mixing sounds like a shit night out.
You fuckers are pure meme fuel.
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No answer, then.
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Oh right, cos this is the part where you chat raw shit then put some sort of pressure on me to prove you wrong…
i can’t tell you what to like, I don’t give a fuck what you like, and I can guarantee that whatever “evidence” I offer will be dismissed, because that’s how you fuckers are.
Fucking know it alls.
I thought you’d all gone to Berlin to see out your days complaining about how it was better when it was all abandoned factories round there…
But here’s five name-drops of DJs I’ve seen in the last year or so that rocked to roof off the room. Which is all that really matters.
SHERELLE
Helena Hauff
Mandidextrous
G Jones
Tim Reaper
You can look them up on YouTube to see if their technique is good enough for you, maybe you can drop them some comments on how they could do better, I’m sure they’d love that.
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don’t worry, in the near future barriers will be so high people won’t even notice them, they’ll just think that wall over there is where the earth ends 
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I like Helena Hauff and Tim Reaper
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its easier to make low effort techno on an elektron box than it is to wrap your head around a daw and create something with limitless tools in an open ended linear timeline. they basically spit out techno if you just mash random buttons and use the factory sounds. lots of youtubers do that. most, really.
BUT that being the case, if only upper middle class people can afford a $2000 rytm mk2, then only people with a lot of disposable income and people older than college-age can experience that. i think gear in a lot of cases helps define a workflow much more easily than a free copy of vcv rack or reaper. if i had a syntakt or digitone when i was 19 versus a cracked copy of reason 5 on windows 7, i feel like i’d have made more interesting stuff
i know that technically, reason is much more powerful. but its much more effort for minimal output versus hardware imo. and much less fun/inspiring
i think this is true too, but more in terms of splice sample packs, fl studio, the rise of vaporwave
I’m not sure that the CDJ has done the art of DJing any favours.
But I expect the First Violinist of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra would say something similar about midi sequencers.
Don’t see many MIDI sequencers in concert halls though, do you… Unless all those people are just miming!?
Sadly a lot of church bells these days are actually rung with MIDI sequencers (or some similar electronic means).
I actually think CDJs have a lot of potential and it’s the fault of the users for being lazy and seeing them as a way to make life easier/more automated.
They more of a hack than progression IMO. I bought the CDJ3000 when they came out but I sold them a year later, just found playing them a bit boring compared to vinyl. You can’t beat a pair of 1210s and a box of records a skilful DJ knows intimately.
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True. But that requires effort and dedication to learn. Some nitwit with a social media following, a USB stick full of Beatport top 100, and nothing between their ears will never understand or want to even try to match what being a DJ is really about in that sense.
I’m confident that I’m a good DJ who understands the craft, but I know that because of the people I learned from and countless hours spent in my bedroom practising so that when I went to do it in public I would be good. And after hundreds of gigs I can tell you nobody actually cares. The number of times I was followed in the booth by some wally who can’t beat match grasping 4 CDs of pop music is a sad reminder that what I have to offer isn’t what people really want. And I would use CDJs when I felt like it, because they offer something extra that I could apply my skills to. Then the popular name after me uses them as a fancy hifi system. So it goes. Don’t even get me started on the Serato wankers…
I will say though that real recognise real, and every so often after a set someone would pop over and offer me a spot at their thing. That was always nice.
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CDJs and “controllers” with laptops basically becomes a non performance for the audience, too. So much more engaging watching a DJ with vinyl, IMO. Watching while dancing before Fin says something…
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CDJs are so easy it takes the fun out of it. It’s partly what made me buy my very first synth. I felt like I needed more to do so I bought a TB-03 on a whim and fell down the rabbit hole on the first go! 
I read an article years ago where the author said CDJs had democratised DJing. I’m not sure I agreed though. The gatekeeper it sidestepped is skill level and development of musical memory of your records. People argue that being able carry 10,000 tracks means you are ready for any situation but you can’t effectively know and intergate 10,000 at any one time, to some degree you just end up an outlet for the connections and suggestions in the device.
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Having everything you will ever need on one USB stick just makes it seem like a technical operation instead of an art.
This completely negates the idea of planning a set and getting your box ready for the night ahead, which is, to my mind, the main part of it (and a big part of the fun as well, that hour or so earlier in the evening spent going through your collection and pulling out stuff you haven’t heard in ages). A good DJ knows to stick in a couple extra records they probably won’t play, but might if the mood is right for them.
I remember reading something yonks ago about Joey Beltram touring the world for years with the same 70 records. Bet every single set he played with that box was an absolute banger.
One of my favourite DJ quotes, from one of my favourite DJ’s, Craig Richards. A DJ’s DJ if ever there was one. Giles Peterson asked him how he’d managed to have such a long and distinguished career (especially considering his unflinchingly underground sound) and he answered that it was hard to be sure but he thought a big reason was he knew he’d never been afraid to go down in flames.
Love that.
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I love Craig, although I do recall many of his 10-3 opening sets being “challenging” to get through at times, lol.
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Dj’ing on vinyl is a totally different thing than dj’ing on cdj’s or controllers unless the modern equipment dj is super lazy. You can do wild things with hot cues and looping compared to just using vinyl. Debatable, but its as a much of a paradigm shift as the leap from acoustic guitars to electric guitars. In the same way as guitars the modern digital stuff doesn’t make the vinyl DJ’s irrelevant, it’s just a different set of tools.
I don’t like this guy’s music but James Hype would be a good example of someone doing stuff with cdj’s that just isn’t possible with vinyl.
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