pretty much expected this, clearly there is a totally different aproach when you do dj and are arguably less excited about the production side of the job probably there is also a difference in the kind of music you produce, i always go for the club while i see some of you produce more hectic things.

However i expected more djs here, i am clearly more interested in djing and i enjoy it more than producing but nevertheless i foresee me more in the studio in the future than behind the decks wether at home or outside.

quote:

Originally posted by Rodri Santos However i expected more djs here

Try posting the same question in the DJ Booth forum, and I bet the responses will be flipped.

It's hard because there's so many good things I associate with either.

I'd say I'm like 85% producer / 15% dj.

I love both, but if I had to pick, production would always be on top. I'm just much more creative as a producer and much more passionate about producing. It gives me more satisfaction to complete a track than a gig and I also put more time and effort into it.

That said, my most memorable experiences in life come from dj-ing. And I wouldn't have wanted to miss any bit of that either. I've made some friends for life whom I meet up with whenever possible (fellow TA actually ), just takes an airplane and some time to get me there haha.

However, both having a gig or finishing a production get me high on life . Hard choice even though the scale obviously is tipped to one end, so many variables.

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quote:

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quote:

Originally posted by Vector A Try posting the same question in the DJ Booth forum, and I bet the responses will be flipped.

i see that production forum is a lot more active than dj forum, myself post more here than on it but it's a predictable income, i don't have it that clear though. What i see is that the scene has changed significantly since the 90's.

Back then there were few djs and most of them were dedicated solely to djing, mostly because dj equipment and vinyls were expensive enough to avoid many people to get seriously involved on it, same for producing it required a serious investment that not many people could afford or would wanted to do.

Then there was like a second wave that i see is on it's last stage apparently of dj+ producer and thats why i started this discussion, although some people succeed in both and are really talented generally isn't the case, i see outstanding producers making bland track selections (mostly because instead of spending 4 hours a day listening to promos disregarding of if their method is fine or not, they are a lot of time in the studio preparing their next hit) sometimes lacking completely of properly said dj skills(which is no longer that important) and being unable to interact with their crowd (2 hour long sets consisting almost in their own productions which in the ends becomes boring and predictable).

At this point you have a legion of people doing things that "aren't their thing" and here is when it comes what i see is the future like it or not.

If we asume that music is a business (except the real underground edm like Ektoplazm that hopefully comes in a free format and has more quality) it's logical that it acquires a business structure, it's quite common that djing now has a public face that plays in front of an audience and it's passionate and dedicated about it, someone to do the networking and press, while someone who is interested in the production aspect do that.

The ghost producing formula seems to work fine because there's no money on production but there is on djing so you guys that are good on it should consider to jump into this bandwagon because this is becoming quite popular and if it's a job that satisfies you surely it's well paid.

I see now a lot of people that can't mix, can't select proper tunes and are rich (take Pauly D) this was unbeliveable now i see it happening everywhere, i know djs playing the same ableton live set every week and getting always good reactions, double edge sword because it's easy to stand out of them but also difficult to educate the miseducated crowd.

It comes down to specialization. Time spent doing one profession is time spent not doing the other. I think to some extent DJing can help production for club-driven genres, but there is definitely a limit to the positive influence, especially when you consider the typical DJ's lifestyle.

I actually think that standards for DJing have been raised, at least the technical aspect of it, if not the track selection part. Before DJing became accessible to the masses, it was kind of a mystery to practically everybody in the club and DJs didn't need to be all that good at blending tracks or even just beatmatching. Many early DJs in the '70s and '80s hardly "mixed" at all, they just played tracks one after the other like a jukebox, but crowds didn't care because the track selection was good and that was the only thing they knew how to judge by. You'll almost never see that kind of DJ get anywhere these days, though.

If DJs play the same set every week and always get a good reaction it probably just means there is fresh blood coming to the club all the time, not necessarily anything more than that, or people are there for other things and not really listening to the music. Even an incorrigible pillhead could recognize if he were hearing the same exact tunes week after week.

i think you will find most working djs are actually alot less skilled because most just don't have the experience. Those djs you mentioned did it for 10+ years before their names came out and trust me, they had alot more skill than most of the djs out now. I think djing is incredibly easy but most people are average musicians at best and still require practice. The era before the super dj, most where club djs playing 4+ hours a night. You don't get that sort of experience playing 1 hour sets every month or even twice a week/

There was a time where it took time to be a headlining dj. You can do it in 1 month now.

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Last edited by Looney4Clooney on Jan-06-2012 at 17:23

if you are producing something meant to be danced definitely you need to at least go out to the clubs often, i see some producers that doesn't step into a club and the best way to make effective dance music is to see what is causing mayhem on the dancefloor with your eyes.

The standards have been raised but at the same time aren't, now a set needs to be mixed but with ableton live, traktor, virtual dj or any other software it's something that can be learnt in days, people generally don't notice good phrasing or equing + with ableton specially the first is easily done than with cds.

Actually i am acquiring quite a lot of experience because i am playing 4 nights a week, 2 days are pretty lame because i haven't got much room for innovation and i've to play commercial stuff but it's fun to see how you can mix dnb or dubstep with a rock classic and have people moving, in terms of programming and crowd reading this is very instructive since this kind of crowd know few tunes and it's difficult to surprise them in a good way , what really happens is what you say, on this kind of nights people aren't there for the music but at the same time care of it if it sounds displeasing, it's a compliment but since i am there the venue is packed, i don't pretend to be an arrogant prick but as i said is easy to overcome the other djs as they pretty much play the same stuff every day, but you can have girls dancing playing top 100 beatport tech house which nobody tried yet.

On thursday i am closing another club so basically i can do what i want i just have to play wild music, sometimes trance classics, sometimes dnb jungle... this is quite fun and track selection is the fucking key because if you play an inapropiate track people simply go home and the promoter wants you to have the club packed until 7am

And finally comes the saturday night where i can play to true edm heads which i find easier ironically because they are there for the music and as long as the music meets their expectations they don't care that much (+ they are on drugs which ease things :P)

Apart from that i go clubbing on fridays and i can tell you that it's a pretty damn big club of 3,000 cap which has ~2000-2500 people every friday and the selection is always the same, i have the tradition of going for a drink when i hear a mashup of Tiesto - Zero 76 + something else and another one when he starts with the eurodance section of the night and i have the strong feeling that it is pre recorded O.o hopefully there is another room where they play classics of different edm genres that even though the classic range is limited the dj manages to surprise me every week

People standards about music are very low right now, for tech house or any club genre i'd go for the groove + some original section that acts as a hook, the home listeners that are a minority that can dig progressive, ambient etc... care of the productions that took you 3 months to have them finished, if your target are the clubs probably what works best is what is done in 3 days.

I am writing long and dense, referring to L4C last sentence, nowadays what differences you from the rest is the networking, when you have the contacts if you are like or better than the rest (which is not difficult) you made it, or just by putting some greens on the table, talent means surely less than 10% nowadays and i agree that oldskool djs are better, when i see a 30+y dj at the end of his career the technique, the flow and everything else seems different, for me the standards haven't been raised is simply that there is a lot of wannabe dj

Last edited by Rodri Santos on Jan-07-2012 at 12:42