Coming out of the burn is always difficult. The drive is like a slow fall through the atmosphere back to earth. Nexus does it right by creating a soft landing pad in Reno to catch the ashes. This year at the GSR resort again we muddied up their pool and had sex in the elevators, partys in the hallways and had the assistance of some S.W.A.T. style thugged out security guards in the club. We got kicked out for having a pool noodle fight. I know crazy huh? Overall its always weird to spend time in Reno. After the burn is no exception. Though it is made a bit less surreal having been in the desert for a week or more. D
There are plenty of reviews of Traktor Scratch on the web, so I thought I would approach it from the point of transitioning from vinyl to digital. I’ll also explain my desision to go with Traktor over Serato. I have finally gone to the dark side. Digital. WTF huh? My excuse is that I needed an external sound card for production and Native Instruments provided a nice one with the ability to Dj along with it. I bought it, six months ago and just this week installed the djing software. Impressed? Sort of…
Truthfully the NI box is a really nice piece of hardware. I chose it over Serato mostly for the production features, like midi in/out and the extra line ins and effect loops and sound quality…..ect. If you do your homework you see pretty quickly that technically speaking NI has a solid edge over Serato. Sound-wise here is why I went with Traktor. In the field I have a few beefs with Serato. First, vinyl sounds like crap through the serato box. Period. I play on a lot of different systems and in mixed media situations and this was apparent. The truth is in the phono pre amp that takes the stylus voltage up to line level, amplifying the signal over 1000 times. A cheap phono pre amp circuit is around $.05 to spec. Audiophiles spend up to $3000 on a good preamp. There is a difference. Traktor adressed this with a phono switch, (covered later). Traktor also is USB powered. Lastly the Traktor box, called the Audio 8 doesnt stop working ie no sound when you close the lid of your laptop. Insert moment of terror from actual experience here. Gnar Gnar. So from my experience with Serato I went with Traktor.
I’ve been using the Audio 8 interface with Logic Pro 8 for about 6 months. Its great. The sound is good, its stable and it looks nice in the studio. In the field I really love the color coded rca’s for drunktime setup in dark environments. Can I recommend glow in the dark inputs though? The hardware itself is well built. The multicore cables are effective and keep my box less cluttered. So far everything is great. Now the bad part. My first gig out with Traktor fucking sucked. It refused to work. The control vinyl needs to calibrate everytime you fire the system up. Kinda lame when it refuses to find the signal even though its coming through the phono setting. WTF I downloaded the updated drivers and went to my next gig. This time it worked flawlessly. Next gig, Traktor Scratch refused to work again. I am kinda a tech nerdus and I know Im not retarded when it comes to trouble shooting. Also I have worked with computers my whole life and I know their sneaky tricks. This was a serious NI fuck up. Re installed the drivers and Next gig it worked flawlessly. 2 for 2, Except now I’m carrying too much gear!
This Sat I’m playing for 30000 people at Lovefest in SF and I have to leave Traktor at home because its too risky to rely on it. Here is where Serato has the edge. Serato is reliable. We will see if Traktor holds on but its looking kinda sketchy. Im gonna keep using it for instore gigs where its not life threatening if it goes down. Im gonna have to stick with vinyl for anything bigger. Which brings me to the sound.
I have written about the sound of Mp3s and had many discussions with my peers about it but now its conclusive. Vinyl sounds better that any Mp3 ever!!!! No debate really needed. When I drop the needle on a piece of wax the whole room warms up. The bass gets fatter and it feels better. Yes this is technically because there is distortion. But it feels better. Which is the point really of going to a club with a soundsystem that is not a home stereo. Or sitting infront of your monitors at home or listening through your headphones. I don’t play headphone music. I play dance music. When I switch from Timecode Vinyl to Phono on the Audio 8 there is a further difference in sound. Thank you NI for still caring about vinyl enough. Now can you please make the software “listen” for the vinyl control signal and switch the setting automatically? Thats what the scopes tell us, make the software recognize this too.
Lastly, what has changed in my Djing by going to digital? In the last 4 sets Ive played out, my sound has changed. Traktor has allowed me to play a bunch of music that was made by friends of mine and has allowed me to participate in a whole new genre of music that is region specific to the SF bay area and I’m really proud to be playing. The next phase is to apply my own remixes and productions to my live set. Its awesome to feel like I can contribute to a scene in this way. The next step is to move away from the turntables completely and into controllerism. Weening myself off of vinyl only until I can afford to press my own tracks. For now Im looking for wav files. Send me anything you think I’d like. D
Meanwhile in ohio.
OMGLOL!!! on the 10th of may was really one of the most fun sets ever. I have never heard anyone scream so loud at the end of the set before. That basement is ready to go off. People just need to get in there. Its super hard to explain how dope it is because everyone says that their shit is the awesomest, but really LASERBASS!!! Its like we have a helicopter in there.
That leads me to the thought I had about comparing DJing to other arts like writing. Just because I know how to write doesn’t make me a writer. Just because you have the software to mix tracks together does not make you a DJ. Nor does having Illustrator on your computer make you a graphic designer. True with paints and cameras and instruments. Well then, what is it that makes us what we are? The answer is in how the act of creation shapes us. The tools are not what’s important. If you take the brush away from the painter he is still a painter and will continue to be, because he thinks in paint. The world that he perceives is through the lens of painting. His clothes are covered in paint and his style is a functional response to his working environment. True for every artist. This is what separates artists from hipsters(another conversation). Its like a level of truth closer to selfhood that came from the expression of an individual’s art. But in truthfully creating art you put a part of your self aside in order to give that art somewhere to live within you. You become your expression of yourself through creation.
Djing is more than just playing other peoples music. I am not a keyboardist or a drummer, Although I could hack my way through those things its better to leave them to people who use them as their expressions of self. I am a purveyor of sonic culture. My goal is create a space using sound that moves you into another headspace. Its kinda like an amusement park. The illusion there is that its dangerous and therefore thrilling. The perception I would like to create is that this is a place to get out of your mind through the experience of music. Have you ever been in a mosh pit? I like to play music that feels like a rollercoaster, or like a rocket being launched into space , or a monster truck rally. I love to use music as the invisible walls of a bounce house. This is in contrast to many other “DJs” I see in the process of going out.
In many cases the DJ has become a warm bodied jukebox. Lame! A human Ipod? Fuck that. But this is how so many DJs act and how so many spaces treat the DJ. Like background music for something else going on. Im sure people leave the night not realizing how much the music affected them. Because it s an invisible creation its hard to quantify how important a good DJ is. When you wake up the next morning and feel great its not usually the music you first think of. Often its the people you were with and that you had fun in spite of the shitty DJ. I know, I feel the same way a lot.
Being a great DJ has nothing to do with genre. A great DJ can find the gems in the crate because its how they perceive the world. Its how they see everything around them. The question moves from third circuit logic, past fourth circuit social connection to the fifth circuit hedonistic feel good space. How does this track make me and my peers on the dance floor feel? Does it move us? If not, fucking stop playing it. You are not a payola record/radio cocksucker are you. Or are you? Why are you doing what you are doing? Why are you calling yourself a “DJ” Answering honestly is what leads you towards becoming an artist rather than a douchebag hipster. It makes for a better scene when things are correctly and honestly represented (im not talking about your haircut). Hiding behind the postmodern shield of “its art” will not defend your shittyness forever. We are coming for your integrity, be ready.
The photo above is the first image that comes up when you type “shitty dj” into google. Sorry Dude. Its a classic photo though. And I had to look closely to make sure it wasn’t a venue I’m intimately familiar with. Ohhh Awesome how do I miss the Villa? Not at all! I do miss the joke, “put your stab vest on” before going out to play though. Im so glad its funny now.
The best day I’ve had in San Francisco since I moved here a year ago took place in Dolores park Sunday. Playing a set with amazing DJs for a lawn full of people on the Bangalord was a buzz I’m still recovering from. The weather has been amazing here, actually hot enough to break a sweat. When that happens SF blows open and people flood into the parks. White Mike and I did this last time the weather got nice. No plans, just keeping an eye on the weather and jumping as soon as it looks good. Mike went and got the generator and I loaded up the system. When we arrived at the park it was obvious that this was the spot to be in the city. It was like a fantastic garden full of beautiful shining faces.
It turned out that a crew of other Djs had the same idea and arrived at the same time. They were unloading the generator as we were unloading the sound system. It was clear that morphogenetic fields were at work and it was a natural solution to collaborate. When this kind of confluence occurs its a magical event that rings so loudly it resonates to the depths of our humanity. Its pretty much one of the best things that we can do as humans. Un-mediated collaboration, its what I live for as a DJ and a human being. Its impossible to plan this sort of thing. The planning itself destroys a little bit of the emergence of novelty. Novelty is so precious these days, its like cultural platinum.
So we set up, powered up the system and set to rocking the park. One major point among the Djs was how impressed we were with how well we all got along. Djs on a system could be like cats in a bag, except when they are all confident with their skills. Then its like a pride of lions chillin in the park getting each other’s backs and sessioning to attract the ears of the female lions What an amazing crew. Every single artist was able to keep up with the others and keep the whole place elevated. The energy just kept rising through out the day. The culmination for me was Dj Aspect’s set. Check out his Wandering Star remix. He was the only Dj not playing vinyl and unfortunately we couldn’t get Serato to work. It worked at OMGLOL!!! for Matt Heagen but not in Reno and not this time. But with no attitude he just blew it off and was was like “whateva it’s cool” He waits all day and goes on last at 7pm. He has one piece of vinyl and out of the crowd comes Kid Beyond beatboxing on the mic. What happens is truly the stuff of legend.
Everyone in the park had been listening to music all day and as the sun was setting the fog came rolling in over the hills. The steeple of church on the corner across from the park was the only thing tall enough to still catch the fading light of the descending sun. The people who gathered around the sound system were there because they refused to stop dancing until either the rapture or divine intervention drove them away. Aspect stepped up, introduced by Kid Beyond and proceeded to rip the park to pieces. They started doing a call a response with Beyond beatboxing a phrase and Aspect matching it with his hands. The beats were so good!!! Anyone left in the park came running over to see what was going on and to start cheering and dancing. The two of them just kept pushing each other to get more and more complex while sticking to super fresh rhythms. People were loosing it. I was losing it. Shit was manic. It was one of those rare moments that the trinity (DJ,audience,soundsystem) aligns and the event goes into space. And as always when we get that close something collapses. These two guys lost themselves in the performance and took us with them. But for whatever reason as has happened to me in the past on different systems, the sound system just stopped. It was like a hole was torn in heaven. The Bangalord was defeated and the people cried. Maybe the generator burped or someone tripped on the power, I don’t know. But it was an epic ending. We were done. There was nothing left to do at Dolores park that day. The party had been taken as far as we would be allowed to that day.
Sunday was a shinning example of why DJing is what I want to do with my life. All the suffering of poverty and ego death and hunger didn’t matter in that space. That was it. That is what needs to be done every time. Congratulations to everyone that got to experience it. Thanks to everyone that made it happen! Nisus
Why would I continue to subject myself to playing venues that are outside of my genre? Because they are outside of my genre, silly. And genres’ are silly. I really believe that great music is great music. DJing is all about exposing these great new sounds to people that wouldn’t have had a chance to hear them otherwise. Playing The Matrix was the most perfect example yet.
If you’ve never been to The Matrix, imagine a really modern space with a black gravel fireplace and huge floor to ceiling windows on the front. Its like an expensive living room that happens to have a bar. The DJ booth at the back is on a curved stage and really the Fung Shewweee is pretty good. Its got a nice vibe. Now take this nice feeling space and fill it with a truckload of Guidos from the shores of Jersey. Striped shirts with popped collars wrapping muscley dudes talking about their popped collars. I didn’t just make that up to be funny there really were dudes talking about their popped collars. Of course these guys wouldn’t be complete without model trophy plasticine used to be strippers to piss off their rich parents accessory girl versions of themselves, still following? En mass. My favorites were the super geeky ultra rich donkey lopers making out with the hottest girls in SF. The irony delighted me to no end. I really wanted to talk to the long haired kid in the T shirt and trench coat. He seemed wonderfully out of place. Actually I know now how it must feel to be on the outside looking in at Burning Man peeps. “Whoa weird people, where did they come from?” Its kinda like that. Totally surreal, its as if the TV had become a reality. The Matrix is a perfect name for this place. “In the Matrix some rules can be bent, others broken” And thats what happened.
I fired up the Bangalord and buttered out the bass. Threw Scott on the BBQ to test the waters and hide from any incoming just emptied cognac glasses. People started arriving and the place filled up. The energy rose and I could feel the bass reverberating the huge front windows. Pretty awesome, I really fucking love that system. I was watching the door to get a head count of the number of Vinnies that left. I think there were a few but it was hard to tell with all the people coming in who was leaving if anyone. Scott’s set crushed it, he has a great ear for music and the laptop saves his ass while mixing. After about an hour warm up and no Blues Brothers roadhouse broken bottles, I kicked the set into hyperspace and the crowd came with me. I was amazed that the place was congealing so well. The dance floor filled in and people at the bar turned to face me to watch the explosion of energy I was unleashing. Pretty stoked. This really was a text book example of what I try to do with my sound. I love to get people who have never heard this music to get on the train and smash down the walls that separate them from losing their shit on the dance floor.
As 2am rolled around I wanted nothing more than to keep barreling through banger after banger. The staff was stoked and as the last track faded people started applauding. I threw my hands in the air and yelled with them. This is how a night should be. In jaded SF where everyone has seen everything this felt like a proper good time. The bartenders told me that I was the only DJ they had ever seen receive applause at that place. That felt good.
When I returned the next day to collect my check and talk to the manager who was sick and had to leave that night. I asked him if the feed back was good. He paused and then half said, ” I heard it was loud” Did you get any noise complaints? “No” Huh? Well when do you want to do it again?…….”Uh well were pretty booked for the next few months and……….” I was dumbfounded, I just tore the fuck out of his little bar and he was blowing me off.. I don’t understand. Whats the problem? I left feeling sick and frustrated. What do I have to do around here? I play my fucking heart out and still get nothing? Typical. It turns out that he is a Dj trying to make a name for himself by booking himself. Whatever.. Enjoy your Stevie Wonder bitches.
This one was epic! Thanks to everyone that came out. Huge shout out to MR Projectile who rocked it hard with a solid set early on. OMGLOL!!! is really for you guys. This was amazing. I can’t wait for the next one. We got the photos up Click Here<—-
Records are heavy, they scratch, they take maintenance, they wear out, they hate sun, they’re hard to find, expensive and take up space but these are not bad things. In fact these reasons are what makes them valuable. They have a character unique to themselves. This is a good thing in these days of increasing homogeneity and bland consumption culture. The fact that I have to be aware of their needs puts them in a category usually reserved for friends. The interface for playing them live for people, turntables, are beautiful. The interaction of beatmatching and mixing is a performance in itself and way more interesting than watching some dude fuck with his laptop (sorry dude I still love you but buy a monome). Its true that there is more to Djing than pressing that fucking autosync button in serato while pretending to use the turntables. It takes a fair amount of skill and practice to craft a great set using vinyl. You owe a performance to the audience for being there to see you especially if they paid to get in. One of the DJs I look up to, DJ Magitope plays all vinyl and his theory is that the audience participates in the performance by way of the needle which picks up external vibrations like screaming and dancing. There is a huge backlog of music that might only exist on wax. Whole lives are spent digging for lost audio relics. No Digital Rights Management. This is where I throw a fit.
Dear iTunes buyer. You are a sucker. All one billion of you, you’re not alone don’t feel bad. Your ipod is only an island and the songs you buy are RENTED from itunes. You think you own them but you are wrong. You payed to rent them from itunes and store them on your island and you have been duped. The French government knows this. Also if you are DJing with these MP3s please stop. It hurts my ears. I would rather you punch me in the face than make my ears bleed with your shittly compressed snares and “soundsystem” that has to be turned up too loud ALWAYS to get any bass out. Beatport.com will sell you .wav files. Yes they are a dollar more. Its worth it. Here is why in one word, Psychoacoustics. There is research that says people perceive a higher quality environment if the audio is less compressed. Translated, you will be perceived to be a better DJ by playing .wav files or even better by playing records.
Of course records sound great. Really, I play with a lot of people who are all digital and its cool but not because digital sounds great. Its sounds digital/clean and in some cases this is awesome. The precision of digital is rad. The sound quality isn’t an issue with things that have been produced well and played as a .wav file. But for dance music I like records because they provide a layer of humanity to any digital production. Dance music is usually a bit sterile because its made on computers and the format of vinyl softens the harshness.
I have people come up and request hip hop all the time. Im usually busy playing not hip hop and don’t have the time to explain my “NO”. So this is for all the people that want me to play hip hop. First of all I love hip hop. The soul of hip hop captured my attention and put me on the turntables in the first place. I have run poetry slams and learned to dance listening to hip hop. That led to digging for the sounds that made it what it is. The art of hip hop is fucking amazing. The relationships with history through sampling are unprecedented. Sampling is a great way of passing forward the myths of the past and carrying a heritage that is so critical that it shouldn’t be legislated. The production in the studio has been illuminating for all areas of recorded music. Hip hop production has put us where we are in the grand evolution of listening and dancing to music. 2008 is a unique time that we will look back on in the future and be amazed at the sounds that were created largely thanks to hip hop.
Being literate I can appreciate the verbal virtuosity of the MC. Poetry is poetry. Good poetry is one of the most powerful uses of language. Oral storytelling is a fundamental element that predates writing. We need this. We will always need this. The voices in hip hop are beautifully diverse and at most times form the spine of the music. Sharing experiences is what is going to move us forward in knowing that we are unified in our wants and needs. Hip hop can lead us into a deeper unification of humanity. I am so thankful for hip hop. So why would I deny people their request?
Hip hop and I have broken up. We are no longer in a healthy relationship. It became abusive and boring. It has trouble innovating ie contributing. Its like an addict who only cares about its selfish fix, the thrill. Mostly to blame are all of us for letting it devolve into rap. Can I throw an antecedent in here? At one time it was funny (disarming) to appropriate the symbols of power of the oppressors, it stopped being funny when they started selling us their symbols and we started to believe in their power and again became repressed though less aware of it. Im thinking of Cadillacs specifically. Never pick up the tools of the oppressors not even as a joke!!!! Violence and materialism are not paths to liberation. The fun times Hip Hop and I had were over as soon as it was consumed by the confusion inherent in the tools of “resistance” offered by the state (violence and anger and separation). The state being rich white fucks in the tops of buildings dictating to the world through hip hop what hip hop is. Hip Hop has become a zombie. A dead soulless corpse with someones hand in its ass making its mouth move and saying stupid shit that the masses follow. Kinda like a politician. Why the fuck would I ever pander to you, my dear Hip Hop?
So who are you that asks for zombie music?………Confused. Mistaken, you want the sounds of rebellion without the work. You want blowjobs from zombies with no teeth. I know your life is boring at your bank job or pizza job or whatever and you want to feel like you are really pushing the envelope by identifying with frustration and the thrill of saying “Fuck you ho”. I can appreciate that desire for breaking the mold. But you are being lied to. You are being tricked in the same way by the same people who sold you the Cadillac. Your efforts will be fruitless because they are the efforts given to you by the oppressors in a very safe to them, nonthreatening way. I know you want to escape. I feel the same way. Something is wrong around here. The imagination and story form of hip hop helps pretend we are something else. There was a time when Hip Hop pointed the way out. Now is not then. Until hip hop comes to its senses its just as confused.
So No I will not play hip hop. I believe that thoughts are things. I believe that the word created the world and that means sound creates reality. The sound of gunshots will bring gunshots. The sound of violence and frustration brings violence and frustration. I will not contribute to a sound that encourages separation. Especially not amplified through a soundsystem. No one on this planet has the time to indulge in small egoic outbursts that encourage conflict. We’re beyond all of that. Now its time for hip hop to catch up.
PS If you read this and you know this critique doesn’t apply to you, you’re right! keep doing what you do and know that the world is waiting for someone to resurrect Hip Hop from the dead. Do it. D
Hey, I just finished my newest mix Nisus’s Curtains. I know its been a while since I posted any new music but things have just been accelerating in my Dj world. I have so much great new music that I will be putting out a few more mixes over the next month. Let me know what you think. Also I am going on tour in March. If you know of anywhere that would be down to book me send them to this site. The dirtiest hardest electrocrunk mix ever will be next. Here it is!!! Email me if you want a track listing http://www.zshare.net/audio/6394979b530ecc/
I do miss the joke, “put your stab vest on” before going out to play though. Im so glad its funny now. 
Click Here for my podcast!!