Finding my feet

So there were two burning questions that I had as I plugged five grand’s worth of new toys together… will it work and will I still work?  I’ve not mixed a tune for five years and there was definitely some mix-based nerves as I flicked the switches and powered everything into life.

The nerves were short-lived when I realised that the laptop was only half talking to the decks.  Tracks were loading but it wouldn’t let me actually play them.  Clearly this was user error of some sort but I couldn’t figure what for the life of me.  Being a man it’s against the law to read any instruction manuals but I was utterly defeated, read them, learned nothing and messaged support for both Serato DJ and Denon.  Well done Serato Customer Service (can’t blame them for the New Zealand time lag)… they responded quickly and with sensible advice / questions.  Didn’t solve the problem though.  Two days of support and no progress.  So I decided to do the honorable thing and unplug the whole lot and start again.  It was during this process that I realised I had only half pushed the USB cable into the mixer.  Doh.  Very embarrassed I messaged Serato to thank them for their help and point out the error of my ways.  Equipment now up and running – can I still actually mix?

I originally learnt to mix CDs but quickly transferred my skills onto vinyl which isn’t that much different.  The art of beat mixing isn’t a genetic skill you are born with.  It’s a pure hand / eye thing that you learn with practice.  Hearing how two different tracks differ in speed by fractions of a percent and then adjusting them back in-line is the skill that we all strive for when we want to become DJs.  I’m delighted to say that once you’ve got have it, it apparently doesn’t leave.  Even after five years.  Like riding a bike DJing.  Or something.

My first mix sounded good and was technically flawless.  A very promising start.  The truth is that these days you could buy the equipment that I have with no prior DJ experience, turn up to a club and make a pretty good stab at it.  Hit anything button that says SYNC and the decks do all the work for you.  I reckon if you went through the Top 20 chart doing that most people wouldn’t even know you are rank amateur.  It’s like auto-pilot on an aeroplane.  It frees up pilots’ brain-power to worry about other things.  That’s not to say that you shouldn’t have the basic flying skills, but those automatic systems are very helpful.

So why hire a DJ in 2016?  Well music choice is obviously something we know about.  We can guage a crowd’s mood and choose the tracks to manipulate that.  Speed things up, slow them down.  Keep it cool, cheesey, dancey, hip-hoppy.  We know what’s needed at what time and can feel / manipulate the atmosphere accordingly.  Also having all this technology behind us does free up capacity to add more effects to our mixes.  If the decks are syncing the beats then we have all this extra capacity to add samples, loops, rolls and effects to the output.  It’s like making a Sunday roast and serving with two veg.  Now we have the time to add spices, gravy, Yorkshire pudds, and a béarnaise sauce.  You get more bang for your buck.  My suspicion is that there will be plenty of people calling themselves DJs out there who can’t beat mix and rely on the technology.  I’m afraid they ain’t DJs in my book.  Turn off those SYNC buttons and watch the look on their faces…