Thursday 9 June 2011

Hey Mister DJ

Nowadays everyone including your next door neighbour's cat claims to be a deejay, a disc jockey, turntablist ... whatever you wanna call it. And with the invention of the mp3 format at the turn of the century, an instant music collection was now achievable for anyone with just a few keyboard strokes and a broadband internet connection. Who can't do that? Convenient - yes I guess it is. Easy - no doubt it's a doddle. But is it as much fun and going out there and physically hunting down records in the field? Is the atmosphere the same online as being surrounded by crates of dusty record sleeves in some out of the way spot no-one seems to have pillaged yet? Is it the same as stumbling upon that rare 70s funk 45 you've been looking for for ages? I very much doubt the excitement levels are the same.
Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that the mp3 format allows me to digitize and even enhance my old tapes, and the ability that Serato gives you to cut up doubles of your freshly created beat is mind boggling. I recommend it for circuit DJs who are fed up with carrying boxes of heavy records around the globe. But for me personally music recorded on vinyl, plastic, styrene, flexi-disc, acetate etc. in disc form will always be my preferred choice. You can come and empty the hard drive of the PC here at DAILY DIGGERS HQ and you will find plenty of old school tapes, break mixes, hip hop mixtapes etc. but I care not for individual tracks or albums so you won't find much. If I like a long player or single then I hunt that release down either on my many record spot missions, through dealers and other record buddies, or trace it through the web if I'm struggling on a certain title. I do buy a lot online, and there's no shame in my game where that is concerned - I have paced the pavements of South East England and beyond in search of records for more years than the average age of most of today's DJs. So I have already paid my dues, and I want to give respect to all those like minded cats I have met or communicated with that share the love for vinyl also. Props to you fellas and ladies - keep diggin'. But to those wack mp3 only DJs out there ... you can kiss my cue burn!!

4 comments:

Leo Slayer said...

worrrrrrrrrrrrd!
mp3-jays (yeah, i said it) are killing hip hop - how many new releases make it to 12" every week compared to a few years ago? as for the death of the record shop, don't get me started.

Drasar Monumental said...

Thanks for speaking the truth (as far as foundation Hip Hop is concerned).....

Nothing is wrong with keeping the tradition alive...I will never switch over to Serato, NEVER.....

Peace-
D

Mac McRaw said...

Word up Dyno ...Serato is straight wac! ...it's to f!*king easy & I don't want to see some dude checking his emails!

I even noticed you don't have to spin your records back to cut anymore, just press a button on the mixer & your back to your cue point! ...a lot of DJ's are doing that now ...straight wackness of the highest order.

Dudes get trigger happy on that sh!t, playing it on some one chorus jive bunny steez, never letting a record breath.

As I say shit's to easy & I don't like easy ....rant over for now ...keep up the good work my man.

neil said...

Totally, it used to take hours of work to get money (!)for tunes, days of digging to get tunes & years of practice to be even half decent on the dex. Fact is most of these digi-djs are not even half decent, it's just hidden behind the tech.