PC vs DJ...school me

[doctah]

Ok folks...I'm one of those cats that lurks. I'm active @ another board - but this topic fits this board.

First...when I think DJ - I think scratching and mixing songs together. I have never owned a record - and I can't figure out a way to emulate any scratching sounds with Cool Edit - BUT - I can match beats and mix X acapella with Y vocal. I can even throw in some cheezy sounding scratch samples and reverse effects - hell...I bought a DM2 back in the day, so I guess I can kinda/sorta make a scratch sample ...kinda...

I've taken a chunk of mp3's (acapellas, instrumentals, songs, etc...) and made a mixtape. Some songs faded in/out w/ each other on beat. I took Magic Stick - let it play - extended it w/ the instrumental and mixed it w/ Usher's "My Way" acapella (...jammin!).

...but I would never call myself a DJ.

So my questions...more out of curiosity than anything:

1. Fill in the blank.
"If a person calls themself a DJ, he/she must be able to ____"
(In other words, do you get upset when people call themselves DJ Xyz, but they don't even own a turntable)

2. A PC is a tool. How does a DJ use this tool? Do ya'll use computers @ a live show or when rocking a party? Do you rip songs from records, beat match w/ the computer, and add samples from turntables? Do you use the computer as more than a recording medium?

Please forgive this long winded Texan...I'm just kinda curious

 

[jay_jizle]

"If a person calls themself a DJ, he/she must be able to ____"
(In other words, do you get upset when people call themselves DJ Xyz, but they don't even own a turntable)

I think they must be able to either scratch, or mix well enough to make a crowd think they know what they are doing. Or in the case of a beginner, at least have the basic knowledge of how mixing works.

A PC is a tool. How does a DJ use this tool? Do ya'll use computers @ a live show or when rocking a party? Do you rip songs from records, beat match w/ the computer, and add samples from turntables? Do you use the computer as more than a recording medium?

There are computer programs where you can actually mix songs pretty well. I don't know about any scratching emulation, but I'm sure it's not far behind.

Personally, the only DJ-related ways I use my computer are to record off the tables, and to make minor edits to what I have recorded. Otherwise, its strictly production-related.

I know that people do have 'laptop battles', though, where they basically mix songs together, but all they're doing is tapping keys on their laptop. Never actually been to one, but I've heard of them a lot.

 

[doctah]

a laptop battle? That would be interesting...

I'm very, very comfortable mixing songs within CEP...I got it down to a science....but it takes me a pretty long time to get a song "perfect". Hell...took me a few weeks to do my "mixtape" project. I can't imaging anyone being able to do it live. I guess a program such as Mixman would be pretty good in a live environment (...always seemed like a toy to me). I may have to download some demos of the different progs I see ya'll discussing.

 

[citytank]

i think a dj as just anyone that can put down a live sequence of recorded music. i.e. a wedding dj, to a hip hop dj, to a dance dj.

of course how good you are comes down to your skills whether its turntablism, mixing, choice of music and reading a crowd, or even other creative approaches, such as other live elements, etc.

i don't use a pc in a live environment (yet)but i think those that do, the most common ways are using Final Scratch or Serato (combining a more traditional rig), Using Traktor, or PCDJ (for straight live software mixing), or using software like Ableton Live to do more 'live remixing' style of dj-ing.

(you might want to look at traktor (by Native Instruments) as it has some software based scratching capabilities if i remember (but it is like jay said, just tapping buttons))