I mentioned my view on this in another thread an no one argued with me, when I kinda hoped they had just so I could get some other opinions on it.

What is the point in DVD DJs (notice I'm not calling them VJs... more on that in a bit)? Yes I understand the technical idea - manipulate both the video and the audio with a pair of turntable-esque devices etc... but every time anyone mentions it everyone points out videos by Roonie G and 2nd Nature, which are all entirely without exception absolutely shite. It just looks crap (in my opinion, of course), particularly scratching videos.

Now I can see the use for Top 40-style DJs who don't really mix, who can throw the videos on the screens while they play the tunes so people can watch them while they mince around the club, that's fair enough, but in any more of a creative context, as I say scratching, adding a video to a track that doesn't normally have one and so on just doesn't work.

If you're going to play around with visuals, you might as well be a PROPER VJ and use one of the professional bits of VJ software (or write your own - I think I read somewhere that Hexstatic did that) along with some midi controllers etc to do it properly. By properly I mean meaningless club graphics simply designed to look cool, with logos and shapes flying about the place, sorta like tailored by much more interesting visualisations including the party's logo, DJs names etc - some of the stuff these people come up with can be incredible.

Your thoughts please

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Stu Cox |

Well, I don't know too much about this subject but I've seen 'DJ Yoda at the Movies' and although I think that Yoda is a genius behind the decks, I was bored with his VJing after about 10 minutes.

There was some moments of pure genius such as the 'Duelling Banjos' scene from Deliverence where Yoda scratches against the banjos (you can see this scene on YouTube), but most of it was quite boring and his scratching/mixing was nowhere near as good as his normal DJ efforts.

So yeah, I don't see the point in this either

People using DJVs are as much VJs as idiots who cant even beat match are DJs.
So in other words...
YES they are controlling video but NO they are not artists.

quote:

Originally posted by T-Soma People using DJVs are as much VJs as idiots who cant even beat match are DJs. So in other words... YES they are controlling video but NO they are not artists.

Not strictly true as I said above, DJ Yoda is now using DVJ's all the time and I think that he may of proven in the past that he can indeed mix/scratch better than most DJ's out there

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Originally posted by agentdansmith Well, I don't know too much about this subject but I've seen 'DJ Yoda at the Movies' and although I think that Yoda is a genius behind the decks, I was bored with his VJing after about 10 minutes. There was some moments of pure genius such as the 'Duelling Banjos' scene from Deliverence where Yoda scratches against the banjos (you can see this scene on YouTube), but most of it was quite boring and his scratching/mixing was nowhere near as good as his normal DJ efforts. So yeah, I don't see the point in this either

I'd forgotten Yoda's doing his DVD thing now, I haven't seen it but I know someone who saw him do a set at Fabric and said it was really good... not sure if that's to be trusted though!

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Stu Cox |

quote:

Originally posted by Stu Cox I'd forgotten Yoda's doing his DVD thing now, I haven't seen it but I know someone who saw him do a set at Fabric and said it was really good... not sure if that's to be trusted though!

It may well of been very good - I have to admit that I watched 'Yoda at the Movies' on a small monitor with dodgy sound so to see him actually do it might be a completely different story.

Also, if you're into your hiphop and breaks (which I'm not really), then it will appeal to you a lot more.

I often wondered this. For me VJ's seem waste of time, I can't see how you can tell if the images are being mixed live or are simply pre recorded. I watched a documentary on VJ's on TV fairly recently, these guys were supposed to be cutting edge VJ's but both sets looked exactly the same to my untrained eye - a montage of random images which had nothing to do with the music being played.

honestly i haven't really seen any dvd sets that just blew me away simply because i don't think there are that many out there to begin with, but i love the idea of doing both. i think it could be something really wonderful in the right hands...but just hasn't happened yet.


sidenote: phil k did a pretty good one, but it was pretty much just a demonstration...and he was just playing around...so its not wonderfully artistic

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Originally posted by agentdansmith It may well of been very good - I have to admit that I watched 'Yoda at the Movies' on a small monitor with dodgy sound so to see him actually do it might be a completely different story. Also, if you're into your hiphop and breaks (which I'm not really), then it will appeal to you a lot more.

Oh I'm a huge Yoda fan, seen him live a couple of times and he's been awesome both times... if anyone can pull off a decent DVJ set then I think he could, but I'm still yet to see it!

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Stu Cox |

quote:

Originally posted by Stu Cox Oh I'm a huge Yoda fan, seen him live a couple of times and he's been awesome both times... if anyone can pull off a decent DVJ set then I think he could, but I'm still yet to see it!

http://www.mininova.org/tor/248085

check out sanders myspace, there is a snippit of maybe 20 minutes of his vj sets.. i think he works them in quiet well....

it just adds a little something more to the party. but nothing extreme. the videos are simplistic yet meaningful to everysong (sometimes he adds the lyrics)

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Originally posted by Halcyon+On+On OOKA-OOKA ME NACHOS ME PRESS KEYS ON COMPUTER GOOD

Yeah in Sanders case I think he just pre-cans his own video and burns DVD's of tracks with them.

The problem is that takes a LOT of work. And a LOT of money for DVJ's.

And for our genres, there aren't any commercial music videos for them, so you might as well just have a real VJ there to create stuff on the fly.

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Originally posted by nchs09 check out sanders myspace, there is a snippit of maybe 20 minutes of his vj sets.. i think he works them in quiet well.... it just adds a little something more to the party. but nothing extreme. the videos are simplistic yet meaningful to everysong (sometimes he adds the lyrics)