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Looper's Delight
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>>powerbook shows have ranked among some of the >>most boring/disappointing events i have gone >>to. > >I would have to jump in and agree on this one...100% > >Although i also have a hard time with the whole "DJ" thing too. Not that >DJ's shouldn't have as much fame and fortune as guitar slingers...far from >it...it's just more fun to watch paint dry than see these guys spinning >prefabbed tunes. > >I was at a record store recently that specializes in trance/rave/techno/dj >records and culture. They have a dj turntable setup in the store and a >guy >spinning. I was watching with curiosity wondering how they were >generating >the beats and synching them with the sounds of the turntables, assuming >they were at least seperate elements that the 'talented' dj was assembling >with his own creative flair. > >So, i ask the guy "how are the beats being generated and how are you >synching everything?" and "do you have records of just beats, and is the >other turntable playing other sounds?". > >Answer: "No, man, it's all there on the record". > > >Am i missing something? Are there any DJ's here on the list that can >vouch >for the effort and talent that it takes to compose on turntables? Or is >it >all premade for you on the vinyl, and your talent is 'record shopping'? > I'm not a DJ, nor do I play one on TV... But I have been working with a really creative DJ for the last year, and have gotten some insights into the art. There are the DJ's that just play records and CD's all night. Then, a little further up the creativity continuum, there are lots of records made specifically for DJ-ing, usually with titles like "Phat-ass Breakbeat Bombz" or such, and these consist of beats alternating with wierd samples from king fu movies, key lines from obscire funk records, etc, and the DJ can use 2 of these records to create a performance, layering a beat from one record beneath scratching a sample from the 2nd. There's also the ancient technique of getting 2 copies of the same record, cueing up a drum break on one, letting that play while you cue the same break the 2nd, crossfading back an forth to turn a 1 or 2 bar loop into a whole tune. I've seen this done, and it's really quite a feat of synchronization to do it smoothly. Then there's the DJ's like Q-bert, Spooky, etc, who really use the source records to create something new. Fortunately, the guy I work with aspires to the latter. I think it's like anything else in music, simple turntabling is no less difficult than playing the "Louie Louie" riff sloppily, but doing something original and creative takes a lifetime of study. Seeing a really good DJ at work can be pretty eye-opening. As far as the powerbook performance thing, I think it ultimately depends on the music. Some years ago, I attended a concert of computer music by Carl Stone and Yuji Takahashi. Takehashi is pretty well-known as a pianist that specializes in the most difficult of 20th century works. He's less well-known as a composer, but his pieces, which just featured him at a computer assembling elements, were absolutely transcenedent. ____________________________________________ Dave Trenkel : improv@peak.org Minus Web Site: http://listen.to/minusmusic Minus MP3's: http://www.mp3.com/-minus- ____________________________________________