This year marks the sixth time I’ve attended the IDA World DJ Championships in Kraków, Poland. While I haven’t been competing myself after 2013, I’ve really grown attached to the IDA Family and wouldn’t miss that chance to hang out with all those awesome people. It’s the only event with such a high density of raw skill, and every single time I’ve walked home with some new ideas to work on.
Headlined by Qbert, Woody, Ritchie Ruftone and Irie, this year’s event was moved to a massive congress centre called ICE. It sold out, attracting a crowd of 2000 which – if I’m not mistaken – makes it the biggest turntablism competition in history. There’s really nothing I can say here that hasn’t been said before – it’s awesome and words don’t do it justice. Check it out this small selection from the official photo gallery (courtesy of staronphoto.com) and come see for yourself next year if you can. 2016 will be the 10 year anniversary of IDA, and the Zooteka crew will no doubt find ways to top what went down this time.
Although I’ve been busy hosting my #unrealDJing workshop and handling various other affairs at the event, I’ve still managed to set up one of my cameras to capture Woody performing his awesome “Hip Hop is 40” video DJ set on the Rane Sixty-Two. Like Irie (who just became the first DMC World Video DJ Champion), Woody is among the world’s best turntablists using video in their sets. I hear he’s also involved in a theatre production called “Blake Remixed” where he assembles both the soundtrack and 3D-mapped visuals to the piece live. Maybe we’ll be able to catch a glimpse of that some time in the future – for now, enjoy this trip through hip hop history. The other showcase performances and photos will be made available on IDA World’s official Facebook page.
Would love to go to this event. Sucks the Canadian IDA rep was flop and thus no Canadians in the comp. Love Woody and his C1 skills.
Absolutely brilliant stuff. It has inspired me to have a play with video a little myself. It won’t be like that though. Hell no.
This is one of the best and most inspiring DJ sets I have ever heard. So, so glad I had the opportunity to see it live, I’d go as far as saying this was the single best thing that happened at IDA 2015!
And Woody’s C1 routine also rocked, by the way! Sorry to hear about the problems.
I met Woody a couple of BPMs ago and asked him about putting together a video mix like his from scratch. I enjoy putting together fairly complex audio mixes with music, clips, cuts etc but the way he described the effort that goes into their kind of work, damn, it’s another level of pain. Woody rocks!
I met Woody a couple of BPMs ago and asked him about putting together a video mix like his from scratch. I enjoy putting together fairly complex audio mixes with music, clips, cuts etc but the way he described the effort that goes into their kind of work, damn, it’s another level of pain. Woody rocks!
Thank you.
Party Rockin’ is like the long lost art of turntablism.
as much as i love shortkut and qbert for there skills and technicality, id never pay to be a punter in a club they’re playing.
much respect to woody for showing much respect to hip hop
Nice routine, stop looking at the computer You’re playing music not a video game
He’s playing music AND mixing video. It’s pretty much a given that he’s going to be looking at a screen.
okay if you say so.
Only people who don’t do videos will disagree. smh. Yet he’s still a legend and they are merely commentators.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gRaZS1fFVM&t=47s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gRaZS1fFVM&t=47s
http://youtu.be/t8vzZyyONNA
I think this is a good explanation
maybe one day, there will be turntable that instantly becomes a touchscreen when you hit the stop button, so we can load tracks. there is still room for innovation and improvement, still room for places like this discuss innovation. My first thought is the pro-mix from ThinkLive, where the turntable is retrofitted to allow IT to interact with a computer, mixed with that projection “onto” the turntable system, mixed with bluetooth controls on the record label.
your comment shows that the customers in the industry are passionate and very particular. lot of money still to be made if the goods providers can be equally passionate and particular.
i mean, this is simple business, a customer wants something. “a way to interact with digital music, that doesn’t look the same as interacting with excel” seems rather foolish to dissuade them instead of providing it.
the ns7III is an attempt to address this, and good for numark for trying. I’ve “had a go” as ya’ll say(a bunch of them in fact) and well…it just doesn’t work. doesn’t draw your eye to the outside screens, the middle, yes it does,a bit. but mostly, you will still look at the laptop. doesn’t mean we should stop listening to all the people who feel looking over/up/down/whatever at the laptop screen detracts from the entertainment value.
The Emulator does just that. Check it out
Who CARES whether he’s looking at the screen or not!?
the crowd prefers the DJ to look at them instead of a screen, imagine a rapper rapping to an ipad because he needs to read the lyrics, how would the crowd react?
now stop trolling, and stop acting like a girl when somebody says something valuable, you belong in the kitchen it seems
I could care less about the DJ. Its about the music coming out of the speakers. Guess that isn’t the case for everyone.
Who told you that? The crowd mostly doesn’t care.
of course the crowd cares, i been to a mmm gig recently, and the crowd was checking every move he did, including his staring at the laptop
that is very rare. I’ve DJ’d from Cali to Japan and most crowds don’t care. A few people, probably DJs, will watch closely.
youre not Mix Master Mike, never heard of you or saw you, if you play party pop songs for girls then i understand nobody cares one bit and you might as well spin under a rock for that matter
I see CutSelekta is butt hurt. Feel free to look up my name then. I could careless what you think I do, but it’s funny that you have to try to insult people to make yourself feel better. I bet you don’t even have turntables. I guess I’ll see you at DMC next year huh? lol, doubt it.
Hi Roro, glad you enjoyed the set! :) As Mark says further down, the reason i’m keeping my eye on the screen is the fact that i’m mixing video, i need to be able to constantly SEE the content in order to do this. Imagine a VJ, a video mixer or video editor doing his job by audio only, impossible, it’s exactly the same thing. There is an insane amount of multitasking goes into a performance like this, which i guess can only be appreciated if you produce or perform this kind of set. The point is, for this kind of performance the primary visual element for the audience is infact not me, it’s the huge projection behind me. Having done this stuff for 23 years in all kinds of scenarios from bands, rap show, orchestras, battles, theatre shows, regular djing etc i do know a little about performance. The audience always seem to enjoy it anyway :)
Without a doubt, it was a good set. Keep up the good work
top notch set, loads of thought put in