Renowned DJ blog site DigitalDJTips.com posted an article today “The Single Skill You Truly Need To Be A Real DJ” — A great read for new DJs and seasoned pro’s alike.
It puts things squarely in perspective; while DJ software technology has evolved to greatly assist with mixing music seamlessly, with beat-grid based sync and quantized looping and effects — programming still rules. Being a true professional “selector” of music is what sets the top DJs from the pack.
In the blog post Digital DJ Tips quotes an article featuring one of the iconic and influential producers of our time, Jimmy Iovine of Interscope and Beats Audio fame:
“I read an article this year by Jimmy Iovine. Now one cannot argue that he isn’t one of the more influential producers out there and someone with deepest knowledge of music. There in the interview stood one sentence which totally floored me: “You have to know what’s next and software simply cannot do it, yet.”
“Yet.” It won’t stop us from trying. We’ll soon introduce a “suggestion list” in DEX 3, which will suggest a list of mixable songs based on BPM, year, genre and key. This will help DJs in time of need, when they simply don’t know what to select next that mixes well with what’s in the decks.
While I’m certain our DJ software users will get great use out of this feature — and it will work well — in my opinion it’s not a replacement for a skilled selector of music. Music is a personal experience, and a DJ strives to take listeners on a journey throughout a mixed set. To successfully accomplish this, “You have to know what’s next…”
