why all the eqiptment?

if in mixing, all you do is mix the end of song A into the beggining of song B, then why do you need the 500 dollar turntables. and in that case, why do pople consider it making music with someone elses music, shouldnt it just be blending? Anyway, if theirs something im missing again, fill me in.

thanks in advance,

DJGone

You need the $500 turntables because you've been mixing on the $100 turntables for 6 months and you can't stand how {censored}ty they are any more, and you need something you can WORK with. Why? Because as all EDUCATED people know, mixing is NOT just blending song A into song B, at least not anything beyond the purest of basics. And if you've read any of the thousands of threads in which people ask the EXACT same question you just asked, you'd know that NOBODY considers blending song a into song b making music, except a few uneducated morons and party people on drugs. It's playing music, it's performing music, but it's not creating or making music. Mixing CAN be - Just ask people like DJ Shadow and Fatboy Slim - but not JUST blending song a into song b. Okay?

woa, im sensing some strong animosity their. sorry if i affended you. You told me why i was wrong, but can u clear up my confusion? how is it performing music and how is it more then just blending. I know that its different with producers but i dont do that, i just dj. what are some things in mixing that make it more then just blending?

thanks in advance.

DJGone

PLUR

If you want to totally over simplify the type of mixing that's in question here, you could probably just consider it to be blending records together, but there is a lot more to it than that. IMHO, there are two things that distinguish dj's from one another and make mixing much more complex than just aimlessly fading songs back and forth. Track selection is the first one. The music that a good dj plays over the course of a period of time is really more like one giant, fluctuating piece of music instead of however many individual records it might be made up of. Pulling the right record according to what people want to hear, what feeling you want to project, etc is important but it absolutely has to be done within the context of the other music that has been and will be played. The second thing is just plain old technical and musical aptitude. If you can keep your beats tight and mix the songs so they compliment each other everything else gets a lot easier.

I think the answer lies in what happens when you combine those two things. By combining sounds accurately and choosing an original or imaginative sequence, you can create something that is larger than the sum of its parts. Two records can be unremarkable as individual pieces of music, but sometimes you combine them and suddenly there's a whole new sound and feel coming from both of them together that wasn't there before. A dj's style and sound comes not only from the records that they play, but the methods of mixing they call upon and how they choose to combine the tracks. It's just like how a painter will use several different colors and brush strokes to get the new colors and appearances that they're really trying to make. Too many people (including many dj's) think of spinning records as doing nothing more than waiting until there's nothing but the drums at the end of song A and quickly fading the very beginning of song B into it. Do that, and you'll be left with some very bored listeners. Use your records as tools for creating new sounds in conjunction with each other, not as stand-alone pieces of music that you just hope sound okay for the time that they're playing together.

forgive my animosity, but it sounds like you're challenging the integrity of an art form I both participate in and respect.

let me answer your questions with a question:

When you watch a DJ live, does he just put the needle down in a random spot on the record, and then immediately move the cross fader slowly from one side to the other?

I'm asking because 'blending' is just that. moving a crossfader, or a volume slider/knob. MIXING not only involves blending, but beatmatching, eq-ing, sampling, cue-ing, and above all else, SOUL. Anybody, and I do mean ANYBODY can get behind turntables and blend a song into another song. It takes skill and love to make it sound good.

Have you ever heard of a double drop? Look into it.

1: not everybody just mixes the end of one song into the beginning of another, many people scratch (creating an original composition using previously recorded sounds, much like people who play keyboards are usually just playing samples of sounds someone else created in the first place, i.e. it's not nessesarily where the sound came from but what you're doing with it that dictates if what you're doing is creative)

2: people don't NEED the $500 turntables, we WANT the $500 turntable because the $500 turntable is reliable as {censored} and will last the rest of our lives. and don't forget good carts so records will sound good.

again, it depends what people are doing with it. i mean i largely just mix records together like you mentioned but often will drop 2nd tracks in and out and am working on mixing them both together at the same time and am trying to get better at scratching. ideally i'd like to be only scratch dj'ing my own dnb records for maximum creativity as i don't feel what i'm doing right now dj-wise is very creative at all. i express my creativity through making tracks. but i do feel that dj'ing CAN be creative and i'd like to be a creative dj. that is the live element of electronic music.

mixing yes. and most people here are mix dj's and not scratch dj's.