I’m a bit loathe to continue this tangent that the thread has taken, but just want to say that what a CDJ offers isn’t without precedent. The first mixer I ever used (my mate’s older brother’s Gemini 626) had a more expensive version (676 Pro) that included a super basic built-in sampler for looping and one-shots. Crunchy as fuck, and possibly worth grabbing now for the lo-fi crowd, as these mixers can be had for peanuts. Pretty sure some of the really old Vestax ones had something similar as well. There was also a company that made a ‘sidekick’ sampler to put next to the mixer for the same purpose (were they called Red? Anyone remember?). So the idea has been there for a loooong time, just not widely available/utilised.
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How the hell did I get that right!? Strange what information a brain stores.
Fair enough, I wasn’t really thinking about the technology built into the mixer side. It’s still in the continuum of a leap from analog tech to digital tech though.
That little sampler looks like it’s seen some shit!
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Oh they were some of my favourite. Let’s get fucking weird! 
agreed.
This is a personal take, but I always wanted to have a synthesiser, but I thought I couldn’t because they were very expensive
Of course I had other instruments, but because of my disability and chronic illness, it was much harder for me to make music with those so I did it much more seldomly
Last year I discovered that they were synthesisers/groove boxes I could afford and I was happy now I make music much more regularly and it’s way easier for me because I caneven do it in my bed and at night without disturbing my roommate
So yes I think when there are less barriers you have more people making good music of course it depends what you think as high-quality but for me it doesn’t have to be high-quality to be great music
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Yes the groovebox is probably the thing that really made creating your own music (meaning whole compositions) cheaply a reality for those of us who count as ‘the masses’
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Lately, I’ve really been noticing that sometimes I get the feeling to make a beat, but I feel this weird underlying resistance. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it’s sort of like I just can’t be bothered to turn on all my gear and get going, even though I have a pretty low barrier setup.
Sub, two speakers, sampler and synth.
I’m sort of suspecting it’s the startup time of my sampler, and the cognitive space it occupies while using it.
So yes, I think low barriers in tech and gear definitely leads to more music, which eventually leads to higher quality music.
I always make the most when my gear is nice and simple and chill to use, with super fast bootup times.
Lowest barriers possible.
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what kind of sampler do you use… these days most samplers offer templates but even if they don’t I just leave them on unless I know I’m not going to be back on it soon?
I was always a vinyl dj then moved to cdjs, sometimes serato with dvs and still do the odd all vinyl set.
I see mentioned above the argument that having 10,000 tracks can be a plus or negative and what I do is for every gig I make a fresh crate, usually sit for 5-6 hours over two days digging through new music and from my collection. Usually the crate has 3-4 times the length of the set so 3 hour set I’d have 10-12 hours of music. This lets me play lots of new stuff and have familiar tracks and plenty of curveballs. If I had all my music on there I’d probably go to same tracks every time. Next gig I delete the crate and make a new one.
I love cdjs and I love vinyl. Got a gig in few weeks with guy I used to dj with from our vinyl days and he’d enter battles a lot. We are playing on 3 decks with two mixers but cdjs this time. He’s great scratch dj and we will be using lots of cuts, hot cues, synced loops etc and stuff we could never have done on vinyl.
So much accessible potential on modern gear for the new dj. Yes lots of generic DJs that are lazy but was plenty of them using vinyl pre digital.
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