Big Name Dj's who cant mix..

DJ RichieParker

Ive been listening to alot of sets by some of the " worlds best djs "..??? lately such as carl cox, judge jules, fergie etc..and there are loads others..

Its like my understanding of what makes a good dj is by being able to mix tracks and make them sound like they go together good, also choosing tracks that compliment eachother in some way, this complimenting of tracks can be obivious or more deeper in the sense initially you dont think it goes well but then after hearing it a few times or hearing the songs the follow you say to yourself " ah yea that did fit in there nicely " like my idea of doing a set was that your tryna tell a story by putting them all together etc, ok some sets that doesnt work, you might have an hour to play and you need to play **** to get the crowd on the dancefloor or your gona look pretty ****ty..

But in fairness like what the feck is goin on with all these world class dj's..and they get away with it really because they have big names..because they released a hit track in 19 nintey feckin two or something or because they have a good voice for radio etc..

I duno it gives me hope really to think that these are the best djs in the world an you know you could mix two tape decks togther better in alot of situations...

And i know im gona get slammed for this so i will give the positive sides first:
Dave Clarke:eek: i love his productions some of my all time favorite techno funk tracks are southside, compass and shake your booty.. Some of his skills on the dex are stuff i try to similate in my own sets, some scratchin etc..But the way 50% of the tracks are thrown in is just i duno lazy..? like i know some people are gona say well techno is like that, it doesnt take on the same characteristics as trance mixing etc but like where do ya draw the line..??

i feel better now..:v:

mordeith

I understand where you're coming from in terms of building a set to sound aesthetically pleasing, but when it comes down to it, its more the slection of tunes in terms of what the crowd wants thats important. For instance if you're playing a track that the crowid is going mad for you're not going to wreck that by playing a track that fits well but is a floor-clearer. You're gonna want to get the people even more hyped up by dropping something that they'll love even if the mix won't sound as clean and as structured as you might like yourself.
In terms of DJ albums well, I find that some DJs take for ever to get to the meat of a set as they spend about 20mins of the CD playing fillers that while beautifully mixed, do nothing for the soul!

Kolodny

mordeith wrote:

In terms of DJ albums well, I find that some DJs take for ever to get to the meat of a set as they spend about 20mins of the CD playing fillers that while beautifully mixed, do nothing for the soul!

Totally agree. It's all very well starting off a mix with a nice slow build up but if it's not supposed to be a chill out mix and 10 minutes later you'll still listening to 'whooshing' and strings and waiting for the beat to kick in, it's kind of easy to lose interest.

Kingsize

the very reason i hate those dj albums is the fact that they try & represent the entire club experience in 74 minutes,including the part where most people are still in the pub & the only person in the nightclub is the barman & an asian guy with a sweeping brush.

joker77

Ok are you basing this on their live performances or the mix CDs?

I think that on a mix CD the mixing from these so called "superstar" DJs should be absolutely flawless. It might take them a couple of takes to get it right, but if you think about the money that people have to spend buying them, it's the least they could do!!! I used to do a bit of DJing, and know that when you're putting a tape/cd together, it should NOT be made to be a proper representation of what a club night would be like. Tapes/CDs are for home listening, or on a walkman, or in a car, or at a house party (where there's no decks).

A club night should NEVER be as planned as a tape/cd. With a tape, you spend a bit of time selecting the tracks you want so that you can build up a theme, and also that the music flows into each other. With a club night, it's completely different. First of all, you have to get people up dancing. Then when they're there you have to keep them there. You might have a rough idea of what you're going to play, but things change, and you have to adapt and know what tunes to play and when.

griffdaddy

if you wanna hear some absolutely amazing mixing, it's easily in my top 5 electronic albums, try cream disc 2- james levelle. i dunno why he's credited but it's not actually james levelle mixing, it's the psyconauts on 4 decks, i think he just likes taking credit for everything! anyway have a look for it, if you cant find it let me know and i'll throw it up somewhere for everyone!

smeggle

How Carl Cox ever got a name is beyond me - he used to be gack on two decks, disapperaed for a while and came back with his three deck gimmick (cheat)...

Its like my understanding of what makes a good dj is by being able to mix tracks and make them sound like they go together good, also choosing tracks that compliment eachother in some way, this complimenting of tracks can be obivious or more deeper in the sense initially you dont think it goes well but then after hearing it a few times or hearing the songs the follow you say to yourself " ah yea that did fit in there nicely " like my idea of doing a set was that your tryna tell a story by putting them all together etc,

It is and I agree totally with what you said :up:

DJ RichieParker

well what im talking about is big name dj's, who dont need to get the crowd up dancing because he or she can probably only see a few thousand of them in the front row.., who are not under pressure to fill the gaf or they will get fired, who have hundereds of tracks posted to them weekly..etc

obiviously they are under alot of pressure at the same time but i duno what the story is..like someone mentioned alot of them come from an era where the whole mixing idea was only very fresh or not in at all, which is fair enough.

although they have had about 15-20 years to sort it out..??

Look im really not trying to put dj's down, im not exactly a wizard myself (but close..ha) i suppose im just pointing it out..

A dj should be called a good dj if he or she is one..Not because he Produces good tracks or because he plays the top 20 most sought after records and keeps the crowd happy..

Like i think you can make a really good set out of average tunes if you mix them well, how often have you sat at home or listened on the dancefloor to your favorite dance artist bangin out a great track..to then just lob this total oblong beat into it and throw the whole buzz off..But you still support him because of what he produces or does for the sceene..!

So you might ask " what's the problem..? the problem is that great dj's are never going to get noticed if you have " big name " djs" who take recognition for being a great dj when they are actully only a name..

I know this is a very common thing to say but its so true.. the best dj's are still at home in their bedrooms getting their mammys to sit through their fantastic mixes because there is not a hope they can get anywhere else with it..because the dj's who do make it are not great dj's their either producers or radio jocks or shrude promoter's...

I suppose that is just life.....:(

Eddie Brennan

in fairness clarke's style of mixing is amazing, he isnt a blender, thats only one type. his cuts, sampling, loops, scratching are better than u or i will ever get close to. he can mix perfectly when its needed buthis style isnt that way.

mauro picotto cant mix thats for sure. enither can DJ Rush. Jeff Mills thinks he can mix, wotta joke (ive seen his woeful DVD and in a club and how he thinks he is flawless is beyond me!!) ive never heard such double beats as Rush and Picotto just uses the effects to "merge" track to track. Its near impossible to become a big DJ through DJing, it all comes from production.



"How Carl Cox ever got a name is beyond me - he used to be gack on two decks, disapperaed for a while and came back with his three deck gimmick (cheat)..."

Carl Cox is one one the greatest DJ's around for a reason, his productions are largely **** par a few so how do u think he made it, he is one of the few DJ's that has really made it big time from his DJing capability. He's amazing. Theres a video around somewhere and he's destroiying the mixer and the place. You may have seen him on an off day or wotever but you honestly cant say the guy cant mix



"he used to be gack on two decks, disapperaed for a while and came back with his three deck gimmick (cheat)..."
when did he go away. he was one of the first DJ to play 3 decks live in 1989 i believe!!

and im not a cox fan. it aint my type of techno. Ben Sims does it for me

jonny68

That ponce Jeremy Healy springs to mind,i remember seeing him in the system years ago and he was gank,couldn't mix a bowl of porridge,the only reason it was a good nite is that i found 2 grams of coke and 6 pills in the system

jonny68

Eddie Brennan wrote:

in fairness clarke's style of mixing is amazing, he isnt a blender, thats only one type. his cuts, sampling, loops, scratching are better than u or i will ever get close to. he can mix perfectly when its needed buthis style isnt that way.

mauro picotto cant mix thats for sure. enither can DJ Rush. Jeff Mills thinks he can mix, wotta joke (ive seen his woeful DVD and in a club and how he thinks he is flawless is beyond me!!) ive never heard such double beats as Rush and Picotto just uses the effects to "merge" track to track. Its near impossible to become a big DJ through DJing, it all comes from production.



"How Carl Cox ever got a name is beyond me - he used to be gack on two decks, disapperaed for a while and came back with his three deck gimmick (cheat)..."

Carl Cox is one one the greatest DJ's around for a reason, his productions are largely **** par a few so how do u think he made it, he is one of the few DJ's that has really made it big time from his DJing capability. He's amazing. Theres a video around somewhere and he's destroiying the mixer and the place. You may have seen him on an off day or wotever but you honestly cant say the guy cant mix



"he used to be gack on two decks, disapperaed for a while and came back with his three deck gimmick (cheat)..."
when did he go away. he was one of the first DJ to play 3 decks live in 1989 i believe!!

and im not a cox fan. it aint my type of techno. Ben Sims does it for me

Having seen Carl Cox many times over the years his mixing has always been top class so i totally refute what you've said.

Eddie Brennan

jonny68 wrote:

That ponce Jeremy Healy springs to mind,i remember seeing him in the system years ago and he was gank,couldn't mix a bowl of porridge,the only reason it was a good nite is that i found 2 grams of coke and 6 pills in the system

geez long time no hear from him. is he still going?

smeggle

jonny68 wrote:

Having seen Carl Cox many times over the years his mixing has always been top class so i totally refute what you've said.

I just remember when he first appeared and never really got the hype about him. He's done some good stuff in Africa though and has a large following there...but then I don't particularly care for The Prodigy either. More overhype because of there outladish behaviour...

Dunno - maybe it's because I'm working across such a broad spectrum at the moment - like last weekend I was playing swing amongst other stuff, jazz, blues, bit of reggae. This weekend it'll be more jazz/folk orientated though I may get some light D&B in or trance.

Was more into the likes of Sasha, Clarky, Digweed, slippmat, stu allen, mickey finn, top buzz (For a while).

Myself I'd have to put Sasha at the top of the list though Fatboy Slim would be a close second.

Still you can't beat it as it was - some of the best nights I've had is taking of into the hills with a nice 5k system, about 50-100 folk turning up, far better than being squashed in amongst a couple of thousand people so all you can hear is them screaming - even Sasha agreed some of his best nights were playing gigs like that. Similar to the smaller clubs like Shelleys I mentioned in another thread. When he was first starting he'd come up from Cardiff to play. Some of his best music I think. That was around 89-91.

Course he went on to become resident at Twilo's, New York amongst other top venues but as I said he is quoted as saying he prefered the early days and that style of party...

The price of Stardom eh....

jonny68

Eddie Brennan wrote:

geez long time no hear from him. is he still going?

Hopefully not his mixing and selection of music was awful.

rabbitinlights

smeggle wrote:

Myself I'd have to put Sasha at the top of the list though Fatboy Slim would be a close second

Are you saying Fatboy slim is a good DJ? Did you see him @ Electric Picnic? After seeing Laurent Garnier, Fatboy seemed like a joke on the decks.

Sean.

garthv

Fatboy Slim was useless, hes an overhyped niteclub DJ who spent half his set sitting on the edge of his decks nodding his head. I expected so much more from what Ive been told about his gigs. He did play some cracking tunes though

damiennolan

not my style at all, but seb fontaine springs to my mind.
stands there like a sack of spuds on the decks with half the mixing skills!!!

how he ever got his name is totally beyond me

joker77

jonny68 wrote:

That ponce Jeremy Healy ... was gank,couldn't mix a bowl of porridge

ha ha ha - that'll be used!

mordeith

Well whatever about DJs mixing live I have a copy of a cover cd (Mixmag I think) that was done about 97 / 98. It's done by Tall Paul and the mixing combined with the track selection is absolute class. This is what I meant about DJ albums being really slow to start. This CD starts off with a purpose and just gets better throughout. There's a particular standout mix when he brings in "Jark Prongo - Movin' Through Your System" (class choon) over another track (can't remember the name, goes something like 'system thumpin so here's a little somethin'). It just makes you wanna find a club and dance your ass off all nite. That's waht Djing should be all about.

joker77

Ah the auld Jark Prongo "Can you feel that rhythym, movin thru your system"
Class choon alright, had it on Sasha mix cd, he mixed in Breeder - Twilo Thunder, was a good mix if I remember correctly

sur_1_nuage

hey guys!

i d say something, nowadays the most famous dj's are actually more producers than pure dj's. I mean every international guest now is before anything else known for his prods and maybe not for his sessions so it s true the some big names you d expect loads from them are actually poor dj's but at this stage, i know that the most important part of the show will be their selection and not really their dj skills
Some big names but poor dj's: Dominik Eulberg, Oliver Koletzki, DJ Hell is not a fantastic dj neither ....