Anyone use cd’s anymore?

[quote quote="Chunkycoldmedina":c36odbct]Haha, I think you are a little early to bring this debate up!!
Theres still hardcore vinyl purists out there!

I still love vinyl but sadly it is on its last legs. More and more clubs have their 1210’s
in a cupboard somewhere just collecting dust.
It is also very hard getting stuff on vinyl these days.
Yes you can be very creative with software mixing but to me it is soooo boring!
I tried using both Traktor and Ableton in a club and was back playing on the CDJs
within 15 minutes in both cases.
I also found (unless I was doing something wrong) software was completely useless at trying
to mix RnB, Hip Hop, Reggaeton if fact anything that wasnt house or similar!

I know software has come a long way but to me it is just not good enough or exciting
enough yet for me to leave my CDs at home.[/quote:c36odbct]

Im just agreed to sell my cdj1000s and am beginning to wonder if it’s the right thing….

I am looking at Serato, Traktor and M-Audio Torq but am worried about the crashing factor plus the drunken punter "ooops i spilt a pint in your laptop" factor however I am excited about the prospect of controlling 4 plus decks with effects live..

iv already agreed to sell these cdjs so I guess im gonna have to try some of these out

[quote quote="bumpthechannel":14ruyrau][quote quote="Chunkycoldmedina":14ruyrau]Haha, I think you are a little early to bring this debate up!!
Theres still hardcore vinyl purists out there!

I still love vinyl but sadly it is on its last legs. More and more clubs have their 1210’s
in a cupboard somewhere just collecting dust.
It is also very hard getting stuff on vinyl these days.
Yes you can be very creative with software mixing but to me it is soooo boring!
I tried using both Traktor and Ableton in a club and was back playing on the CDJs
within 15 minutes in both cases.
I also found (unless I was doing something wrong) software was completely useless at trying
to mix RnB, Hip Hop, Reggaeton if fact anything that wasnt house or similar!

I know software has come a long way but to me it is just not good enough or exciting
enough yet for me to leave my CDs at home.[/quote:14ruyrau]

Im just agreed to sell my cdj1000s and am beginning to wonder if it’s the right thing….

I am looking at Serato, Traktor and M-Audio Torq but am worried about the crashing factor plus the drunken punter "ooops i spilt a pint in your laptop" factor however I am excited about the prospect of controlling 4 plus decks with effects live..

iv already agreed to sell these cdjs so I guess im gonna have to try some of these out [/quote:14ruyrau]

any decent club should have the decks placed on a level above the punters below you. so there shouldnt be a drunken "ooops i spilt a pint in your laptop" factor lol

And if you stick with serato and windows xp you should be fine. I have herd alot of people complaining that vista crashes. but from my experience windows xp doesnt crash with trakor and serator

i would leave a positive comment about cdjs aswell but right now i dont have the that type of cash to buy a decent one haha

Using the Serato…..

I have always watched clips of people mixing and on vinyl it’s exciting and crazy, the way you have to move and actually grab the vinyl…not like a cd, press a button, twiddle a knob….

I personally use CDs for 2 reasons:

1. The technology is still affordable and reliable.

2. I get a little more respect than when I try and just bust out a lap top and call myself a DJ…

Using a Hard Drive/hard disc is just not the same as actually using disc… Records, CDs, whatever you want to use still has an added skill that is lost (the ability to match beats). Once you remove that, you have a bunch of people who are just picking songs. That is very important and I will not discount that. However, when you remove that skill it is akin to saying a studio altered voice that comes from someone who can’t hit 3 notes is the same as someone who has classically trained chops… It’s not. DJing, like singing is a craft. It should be honed and humanized… not standardized and mechanized. When anyone can call themself something it’s harder to respect the people who actually do it!

"Oh, I’m an actor… but I also bartend/serve here until I’m discovered"…. How many people lose respect after hearing that come out of someone’s mouth?

i was a hardcore vinyl user untill i bought me a pair of pioneer cdj 100’s mk3! oh my what a buy!!!!!

[quote quote="tobacco_slammers":2egm1cfo]I think that it’s going to be mp3 for the future but i’m hoping that some decent hardware will be produced instead of software as it just feels like cheating and is so boring.

I don’t like using a "mouse" to dj! then again, I said I would never turn away from vinyl…[/quote:2egm1cfo]

it seems thats exactly what the manufacturers think aswell…

like the new cdj 400 can play mp3s off a hardrive/memory stick.
same with the new numark h-cdx (hardrive) and i-cdx (connects to laptops and micro-pcs)….

thats a good step, because not only are mp3s cheaper, but in my opinion they also give better quality!

DJ Alborz wrote:

…not only are mp3s cheaper, but in my opinion they also give better quality!

Hehe, really!?!

It seems like Turntables are gaining popularity because of all the Digital Vinyl solutions out now days.

all computer now…

I definitely am not a fan of computer mixing, doesn’t take much talent in my book. What BentoSan is talking about definitely requires a lot of talent. Creating live remixes is a tough task but can create some amazing rewards. Go watch Junkie XL, Deadmau5, and Paul Van Dyke and you will see how amazing things can turn out. I just loose respect for the computer mixers because they don’t have to beat match and when you show up at a party to play, you have to take the time to set up your computer and then how are you supposed to mix into the person before you that was on CD’s or vinyl? Battling between a few DJ’s is one of the most fun things to do, but if one person wants to play off a computer, what to do then?. I personally will leave the computer in the studio and stick to my CDJ800’s and Vestax PMC-500.

I use denon dns-5000’s and they have a active (motorized) turntable so I can scatch cd’s like vinyl

What!!! I use SERATO. This program does nothing for you but transfer the music from a computer through a usb cable to the serato box into your mixxer, so you can be able to control it through time coded vinyl. It doesn’t beat match the music for you at all. It’s all about your skill and how you use it. It’s the exact same thing as djing with vinyl. The only difference now is your not carrying around 4 crates of music from club to club, thats what your computer is for.

[quote quote="DaveT":1mmszaim]Gotta stick my tuppence in here..

I’ve been djing professionally for longer than a lot of you have been alive, no disrespect intended, and as a Dj and more importantly, a clubber, I can safely say that watching a dj play in a club on a laptop is without a doubt one of the most boring and detached experiences you will find in a nightclub. When you factor in the ‘no-skills needed’ lick it might as well be a pre-recorded CD playing over the system.

Of course it is possible to use a laptop and in all regards play as if you were playing from vinyl or cd, but 99% of dj’s don’t. I see them week in, week out playing preset playlists doing nothing but cueing the next track up (and not even having to beat match it – at least that would take some degree of commitment).

It’s bad enough that the World is full of half-arsed dance tracks being made by people with no talent whatsoever as software will pretty much do the job for you, but now the same thing is happening to Djing.. It’s a tragedy!

I’m not a vinyl snob, I switched to CD a few years back and wouldn’t go back to vinyl without a fight, but this plastic DJ virus sweeping clubland is just one step too far until people learn how to be creative again.

Let’s face it, most dj’s don’t even choose their own records anymore, they download the beatport top 10 and off they go. So let’s at least make them work the tables instead of staring into a computer screen, oblivious of what is happening around them.

If there is one single innovation that has threatend the very soul of clubbing it’s laptop djing.[/quote:1mmszaim]

I think it all depends on the dj, there are large amount of dj’s that use cd/vinyl that are just as uninspiring, cueing a track and then just mixing the last couple of minutes.
Lets face it, the only difference is the beatmatching element which is what the majority of cd/vinyl djs get defensive about. I think this is due to once you take away this element, which is this most simplist of djing skills then it really comes down to being creative.

I still use cd’s but plan to go laptop in the future, I just think there are far more possibilitys.

There’s also a new music format being developed (I forget what its called) where you will be able to access the individual stems from a track, which sounds very interesting.

There can be good and bad djs on any format, laptops dont make djs crap they just expose crap djs for what they are!

[quote quote="DaveT":2v8yc45i]I guess the point I was trying to make ultimately was that all this new software has taken away the art of learning your craft, which any DJ worth his salt has spent years doing. As a result of this "quick way in" approach we are being bombarded by people clicking a mouse and calling themselves a DJ, just as we are being swamped with awful productions.
[/quote:2v8yc45i]

I think that what you’ve said is spot on, there’s no going back now though.

I suppose it will stay like this for a while until you get the stand out djs that really push the new technology to the limits and set the bar for future djs.

I should imagine it was like this when turntables were the new "in thing", so called djs clanging tunes together untill someone said "actually, this is how it should be done".