The Many Faces of DJing

It's a whole new world for DJs - and there's a whole new world of DJing options

by Craig Anderton

If the term “DJ” makes you think “someone playing Barbra Streisand songs at my cousin’s wedding,” then you might think gas is $1.20 a gallon, and wonder how Ronald Reagan will turn out as president. DJing has changed radically over the past two decades, fueled by accelerating world-wide popularity, technological advances, and splits into different styles. 

While some musicians dismiss DJs because they “just play other peoples’ music, not make their own,” DJing demands a serious skill set that’s more like a conductor or arranger. Sets are long, and there are no breaks—you not only have to pace the music perfectly to match the audience’s mood, but create seamless transitions between cuts that are probably not at the same tempo or key. On top of that, DJs require an encyclopedic knowledge of the music they play so they can always choose the right music at the right time, and build the dynamics of the music into an ongoing series of peaks and valleys—with each peak taking the audience higher than the previous one.

What’s more, the bar is always being raised. DJs are no longer expected just to play music, but use tempo-synched effects, and sometimes even trade off with other DJs on the same stage or integrate live musicians—or play instrumental parts themselves on top of what they’re spinning. Quite a few DJs have gotten into not just using other tracks, but creating their own with sophisticated software DAWs.

 Let’s take a look at some of the variant strains of DJing. These apply to both mobile DJs, the closest to the popular (mis)conception of the DJ as they typically bring their own sound systems, music, and play events including everything from art opening to weddings; and club DJs, who are attractions at dance clubs and renowned for sophisticated DJing techniques (like effects and scratching).

VINYL AND TURNTABLES

This is where it all started, where DJs have to beat-match by listening carefully to one turntable while the other is spinning, line up the music, then release the second turntable at the precise moment to sync up properly with the current turntable, and crossfade between the two. Vinyl is where scratching originated by moving the record back and forth under the needle. Vinyl is still popular among traditionalists, but there are many more alternatives now.

The Stanton STR8-150 is a high-torque turntable with a "skip-proof" straight tone arm, key correction, reverse, up to 50\\\% pitch adjustment, and S/PDIF digital outputs. 

DJING WITH CDS

As CDs replaced vinyl, DJs started looking for DJing solutions involving CDs. Through digital technology, it became possible to DJ with CDs, as well as use vinly record-like controllers to simulate the vinyl DJ experience (scratching and beat-matching) with CDs. Originally frowned on by traditional DJs, CD-based DJs developed their own skill set and figured out how to create an end result with equal validity to vinyl.

THE OTHER MP3 REVOLUTION

As MP3s replaced CDs, DJs again followed suit. But this time, the full power of the computer started being brought into play. Many MP3-based DJing packages now combine hardware controllers with computer programs that not only play back music, but include effects and allow seeing visual representations of waveforms to facilitate beat-matching. What’s more, effects often sync to tempo and map to controls, so the DJ can add these effects in creative ways that become part of the performance.

Native Instruments’ Traktor Kontrol is designed specifically as a match for their Traktor DJing software.

MP3-based DJing also meant that DJs were freed forever from carrying around records or CDs, as they could store gigabytes of music on the same laptop running the DJ program itself.

ABLETON LIVE: THE DAW FOR DJS

This article isn’t really about mentioning products, but in this case, there’s no other option: Live occupies a unique position as a program that straddles the line between DAW and DJ. It’s hard to generalize about how people use Live, because different DJs have very different approaches. Some bring in complete songs and use Live’s “warping” capabilities to beat-match, then crossfade between them on-fly-while bringing in other music; others construct entire compositions out of loops, which they trigger, solo, mute, and arrange in real time. 

Live’s “Session View” is the main aspect of the program used to create DJ sets out of loops and other digital audio files.

Although a runaway favorite of DJs, Live isn’t the only program used by DJs—Propellerhead Reason, Sony Acid, and Apple Logic are three other mainstream programs that are sometimes pressed into service as DJ tools.

NONE OF THE ABOVE: OTHER DJ TOOLS

A variety of musical instruments are also used for DJing. Although the best-known are probably Akai’s MPC-series beatboxes, people use everything from sampling keyboards to Avid’s Venom synth in multi-timbral mode to do, if not traditional DJing, beats-oriented music that is closer to DJing than anything else.

Akai’s MPC5000 is a recent entry in the MPC series, invented by Roger Linn, which popularized the trend of DJs using “beatbox”-type instruments.

I've even used M-Audio's Venom synthesizer to do a DJ-type set by calling up Multis and soloing/muting/mixing drum, bass, arpeggiator patterns, and playng lead lines on top of all that. Here's a video whose soundtrack illustrates this application.

If you haven’t done any DJing, it’s fun—and if you haven’t heard good DJ sets, internet radio is a great place to find them being played out of Berlin, Paris, Holland, Bangkok, and other musical hotbeds. But be forewarned: You may find a brand new musical addiction.

Craig Anderton is Editor Emeritus of Harmony Central. He has played on, mixed, or produced over 20 major label releases (as well as mastered over a hundred tracks for various musicians), and written over a thousand articles for magazines like Guitar Player, Keyboard, Sound on Sound (UK), and Sound + Recording (Germany). He has also lectured on technology and the arts in 38 states, 10 countries, and three languages.