beginner DJ woes
Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 4:11 pm
So here are my thoughts.
Im about 3 months into my "official (in the sense of having pseudo-equipment enough to SPIN etcetc) DJ experience" and Im feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all. Being a 22 year old who grew up with technology and the especially web 2.0 I have so much music & information, at my fingertips, literally, via torrent websites, free file sharing sites, etc + my usual website routines that lead me to downloading albums, singles, and mixes daily. Obviously its great that Im exposed to so much music but I feel so detached from 90% of it all because clicking on a file name or most of them time not even clicking just letting the iTunes shuffle, or play through tracks, I dont get to build a solid knowledge on the tracks themselves, and I feel that even though my skills are very premature, it will 100% bring upon a handicap as I move forward as my skills progress.
Currently I am using noting more then a laptop and Vestex 100 USB controller, but want to make the jump to something more legitimate as well as more professional. My battle is deciding between vinyl and CDs. I do not fully understand the ways in which DJs spin CDs. Vinyl is easy, cause there are such few tracks on each plate, but CDs, do DJs have to prep CDs with like 11 tracks on them, with a preset order for a set, going back and forth between each deck? (this is a question I could use some real knowledge on.) Ide appreciate all vinyl snobs to hold back, unless you have some real debates between CDs and VINYL. I dont need subjective opinions making this decision harder for me. I need knowledge.
My comments regarding being able to download so much music does make it seem like i dont support artists by buying CDs and i admit, i rarely do. But now that I have a reason to (because the quality of the music matters when spinning, as appose to me just listening) My issue is having to buy vinyl or CDs for everything I would in theory want to start to spin. Going from 316GB of music , to nothing, seems like a HUGE step backwards for @ this second a small step forward.
I want to stick with using traktor + my mac book pro.
Thanks guys.
Im about 3 months into my "official (in the sense of having pseudo-equipment enough to SPIN etcetc) DJ experience" and Im feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all. Being a 22 year old who grew up with technology and the especially web 2.0 I have so much music & information, at my fingertips, literally, via torrent websites, free file sharing sites, etc + my usual website routines that lead me to downloading albums, singles, and mixes daily. Obviously its great that Im exposed to so much music but I feel so detached from 90% of it all because clicking on a file name or most of them time not even clicking just letting the iTunes shuffle, or play through tracks, I dont get to build a solid knowledge on the tracks themselves, and I feel that even though my skills are very premature, it will 100% bring upon a handicap as I move forward as my skills progress.
Currently I am using noting more then a laptop and Vestex 100 USB controller, but want to make the jump to something more legitimate as well as more professional. My battle is deciding between vinyl and CDs. I do not fully understand the ways in which DJs spin CDs. Vinyl is easy, cause there are such few tracks on each plate, but CDs, do DJs have to prep CDs with like 11 tracks on them, with a preset order for a set, going back and forth between each deck? (this is a question I could use some real knowledge on.) Ide appreciate all vinyl snobs to hold back, unless you have some real debates between CDs and VINYL. I dont need subjective opinions making this decision harder for me. I need knowledge.
My comments regarding being able to download so much music does make it seem like i dont support artists by buying CDs and i admit, i rarely do. But now that I have a reason to (because the quality of the music matters when spinning, as appose to me just listening) My issue is having to buy vinyl or CDs for everything I would in theory want to start to spin. Going from 316GB of music , to nothing, seems like a HUGE step backwards for @ this second a small step forward.
I want to stick with using traktor + my mac book pro.
Thanks guys.