manipulator. thats what a DJ is. manipulator of
pre-recorded sounds. some write their own shit, but very
few.
manipulator of energy, too, but using other peoples stuff
to do it.
Pongoid said something about the DJs who jump on the
newest hottest shit to come out in their genre. Ive often
wondered about this when i go out to see a name I know
(and have liked in the past based on track selection and
style) and I end up being blasted with a constant barrage
of same-sounding big farting basslines and the stock
beats. I cant BELIEVE how far the Amen break has gone...
but anyway..again, I saw Dara last night, who I have kept
up with over the years, since the "renegade continuum"
mix came out, which I am still totally in love with. THAT
stuff..the Future Forces shit, etc, took a LOT of thought, as
does all GOOD jungle. the shit on those mixes is equally
at home at a party or rockin in the car on a trip to the
mountains..and Daras mix skills are impressive, too.
Since then, he has steadily embraced the "NOW" sound of
DnB which is sounding more and more like Slayer every
time I hear it.
Do I question him for the change? I dont know..cuz in a
way, he is nothing but a mirror, and has no choice to play
whats "The Shit" if he wants to keep his name around,
but then again..the stuff from the past...is it all crap now?
Is only the NEW groundbreaking shit any good? I say NO,
and Im disappointed in the DJs who think differently.
anyway..sorry for the rant..as an answer to the original
post...
why dont people just bring a keyboard?
well..you clearly havent done much production yet. A lot
of the stuff you hear, well..one man just couldnt do it.
pongoids gonna shit but its true. The majority of the
tracks are written in the studio and processed all to hell,
and to try to get them out live would be quite difficult, a
task that most producers wont tackle.
more often than not, it is simply not ONE keyboard doing
the whole thing, but a whole slew of synths, samplers, FX,
processors, etc, and would take way more than one
person to get it all together.
does that answer your ?
as for the Producer vs engineer vs musician thing? Im not
even gonna touch that cuz unless you can manipulate a
musical instrument in a controlled fashion, you are not a
musician in my eyes. this, sadly, excludes me..I consider
myself more of a "manipulator" than anything and im
ashamed of it at present, but working on changin this
aspect.
someone once said that if you dont really know music,
but are writing it, then youre "fakin the funk"...and for
some reason it struck a nerve, and seemed directed at
me...
maybe some DJs should take a look at this too