dubplates/prices/affordability

[jolly wailer]

Dubplate culture is a great antidote to the throwaway nature of the digital revolution.

yes...

[pangaea]

I think the vinyl fetishism thing that was mentioned is probably true And let's face it, playing off transition dubplates is a lot cooler than playing using Serato! Definately an 'elitist' aspect about dubcutting too, although not in a bad way necessarily.

Sound quality comes into it too though, and if a DJ is gonna to spend £30+ on cutting one or two tracks then it's gonna seperate the wheat from the chaff somewhat...

[elgato]

do producers not get their tracks mastered before they send out CDRs?

if not why not?!

[jolly wailer]

because producers don't make as much money as DJs...



actually I believe its more in the hands of the label - or in this case the Dj commiting his/herself to spinning (and in turn profitting) the track - to getting it mastered for full impact potential on the soundsystem...


now now... you don't expect the producers to spend their own money getting tracks mastered to just hand them out to the armchair Dj public now do you?

[dubwise_gamgee]

well. i can't think of any names now (and i listen to radio shows but don't really remember names or so, just listen and see how it sounds to me), but there are a lot of tunes, (from skream but also a lot of other producers) that i find fairly uninspired and boring. (especially if you compare them to the really big tunes from the same producers).

e.g. pass the red stripe. in my opinion, absolutely boring tune, bad instrumentation and very lame melody...hey, but people on this forum might get edgy when you criticize skream or others (how sacrilegious haha).. good mix and mastering but that's about it...

and as far as the unreleased forum jumping tunes go: yeah, there is a lot of good dubplate stuff out there that def should be released but i find a lot is hype. guess people are just glad when there are new tunes to listen too. not every tune that gets played is big, large, bla bla whatever. still, there is quality out there for sure.

[pangaea]

do producers not get their tracks mastered before they send out CDRs?

if not why not?!

Affordability/testing the waters with DJs first

[westernsynthetics]

Serato's a fucking nightmare man...as good as it sounds and all....

I spent my whole set recently playing twister with Mark Pritchard while he set up his serato for his set after mine...please note that his set was amazing and it sounded shit hot but fuck...its a bit of a nightmare to set up....it reminded me of setting up for a gig with a band....except at a rock gig you have the luxury of 20 minutes set up time, you dont have to literally play twister with the DJ beforehand haha

[thinking]

Serato's a fucking nightmare man...as good as it sounds and all....

I spent my whole set recently playing twister with Mark Pritchard while he set up his serato for his set after mine...please note that his set was amazing and it sounded shit hot but fuck...its a bit of a nightmare to set up....it reminded me of setting up for a gig with a band....except at a rock gig you have the luxury of 20 minutes set up time, you dont have to literally play twister with the DJ beforehand haha

nah, we use it on our radio show every week - takes about 2 mins to set up (we only have the ad breaks to do so). Get everything set up ready to go and all you have to do is connect 6 cables. A little trickier in a tight DJ booth I'll grant you....anyway it's still the bollocks for peeps like us with a weekly show and lots of new material to play but not enough time or money to cut all the dubplates we want.

[jolly wailer]

come on now if I had a crate full of "boring and uninspired" dubs on the calibre of 'pass the red stripe' I'd have a vibing fucking set on my hands... you can never have too many dubs... they are all part of a bigger picture

[dubwise_gamgee]

i think dubs are quite cool and sound good but this whole elitist thing surrounding it gets a bit annoying.

in the end, the tune is important, not just the mix/mastering/medium it's on...



is a weak tune on a good dub better or a innovative and great tune with weak mix(not meaning mp3, but professional mixing) on cdr/laptop?

is a badly mixed/procued dubplate better or a perfectly mixed and mastered cdr/laptop-wave?

[westernsynthetics]

Serato's a fucking nightmare man...as good as it sounds and all....

I spent my whole set recently playing twister with Mark Pritchard while he set up his serato for his set after mine...please note that his set was amazing and it sounded shit hot but fuck...its a bit of a nightmare to set up....it reminded me of setting up for a gig with a band....except at a rock gig you have the luxury of 20 minutes set up time, you dont have to literally play twister with the DJ beforehand haha

nah, we use it on our radio show every week - takes about 2 mins to set up (we only have the ad breaks to do so). Get everything set up ready to go and all you have to do is connect 6 cables. A little trickier in a tight DJ booth I'll grant you....anyway it's still the bollocks for peeps like us with a weekly show and lots of new material to play but not enough time or money to cut all the dubplates we want.

yeah for sure...it seemed like alot to set up...it took most of my set so yeh its not really condusive to a tight booth situation...the sort of thing you need to set up beforehand, then change the cables...still if i had the cash id probably get it...fuck it sounds good

[dubwise_gamgee]

@ johnny wailer:
nah, man! i'd rather have 5 wicked tunes then 20 boring dubs. quantity isn't always quality (even if you have more choice with 20 dubs, obviously...)

[jolly wailer]

is a badly mixed/procued dubplate better or a perfectly mixed and mastered cdr/laptop-wave?

yeah but thats the thing... no one is cutting poorly mixed dubplates... are the tracks coming with the same classic impact? not all to be sure but...

trust that a dubplate at least has been shown the care of a mastering - and conversly that most 320's have not been mastered.. I've heard the complaint before "don't bother playing your unmastered 320's out" by a moderator right here on this forum.. no one bothers to spend the cash on an mp3.. if you're going to go as far as a master on a track trust you can go the extra bit to get it on black crack

[jolly wailer]

perhaps I'm just more into boring dubs then.... gives me something to fiddle with for long periods of time

[thinking]

is a weak tune on a good dub better or a innovative and great tune with weak mix(not meaning mp3, but professional mixing) on cdr/laptop?

is a badly mixed/procued dubplate better or a perfectly mixed and mastered cdr/laptop-wave?

that's a non-question for 2 reasons:

1) I'd rather hear a good tune, well mixed down, well mastered and cut by a skilled engineer. This is like the question of preferring a DJ with a good selection but no skills, or technically brilliant but shit tunes - the answer is neither, we would all prefer good tunes mixed well.

2) your opinion of a tune is not the key here, some people like the ones you don't, and vice versa. Most of the 'big names' that you've referred to cut dubs because, in their eyes, it's the ONLY option they have if they want to play their latest tunes - regardless of whether you happen to like them or not.

[dubwise_gamgee]

@thinking: yeah, you're definitely right. it just my opinion. probably i don't feel the dubplate hype as much as other because i don't feel as many tunes as others do.

a lot of dubs (most of them) being played now are well-produced, mixed and mastered.
still, in my own humble opinion, many are repetitive and boring. check the spongebob-isheness going on (spongebob is wicked, but the following tunes are just spin offs to see how crazy we can twist the cracked plugins we have on our computers without really acchieving something new musically). but if people like that, so it be.

my question was basically rethorical. we all like good tunes...

[Steve AC23]

I like records and dubplates.

I dont like CDs & mp3s.

I don't need to give reason.

Learn it, Live it.

True?

[thinking]

@thinking: yeah, you're definitely right. it just my opinion. probably i don't feel the dubplate hype as much as other because i don't feel as many tunes as others do.

a lot of dubs (most of them) being played now are well-produced, mixed and mastered.
still, in my own humble opinion, many are repetitive and boring. check the spongebob-isheness going on

that is irrespective of what format it's played on tho i.e. not pertinent to the thread topic.

[elgato]

because producers don't make as much money as DJs...

actually I believe its more in the hands of the label - or in this case the Dj commiting his/herself to spinning (and in turn profitting) the track - to getting it mastered for full impact potential on the soundsystem...

now now... you don't expect the producers to spend their own money getting tracks mastered to just hand them out to the armchair Dj public now do you?

i dont fully understand your position. But anyway, obviously a producer doesnt have a 'responsibility', but im surprised that they dont want their tracks to sound as good as is possible. especially up and comers, surely they need to maximise the possible impact of their tunes. and in terms of 'commitment'... why should this lie with the dj not the producer?

how much can it cost to send a few digital format file to be mastered but not cut?

[dubwise_gamgee]

@ elgato:

exactly. mastering 10 tunes is probably cheaper than mastering and cutting ten dubplates. also considering that at some point or the other you'll have to cut the same dubplate again because it has become all jumpy and crackled from playing it so often. a mastered uncompressed digital file seems more benefitial for people that mainly play their own music (or that of friends).

i like vinyl, and i wish i had dubplates. but i'd rather have a good cdr which will last (at least longer then a couple of gigs haha)...