Last week, a friend of mine posted something of an epiphany on Facebook. He’s a really nice chap — a turntable rocking DVS user who plays out on the wild all the time. But uncharacteristically he forgot his headphones, leaving him in a bit of a pickle, one that saw him do something he’s generally shied away from — use the sync button.
And he liked it. And the crowd danced. And the DJ world did not end.
He’s never been an enemy of the sync button — indeed he’s an active advocate of using new tech to create and play music. It’s just his choice to practice the craft of DJing in a traditional way but using elements of new tech.
And I’ve seen this over and over, where successive generations of media purists and technology haters have untwisted their knickers, removed their blinkers, and actually tried the thing they’re blindly hating on, rapidly followed by picking up all the toys they’d previously thrown record distances from their prams. Granted, they might not be converts, but I’ll happily settle for not hating. The world has enough of that right now.
WHAT HAS CHANGED?
In the whole scheme of things, not a lot since I wrote my own opinion piece all those years ago. It’s certainly not the technology, which has remained largely the same, and still requires a reasonable level of DJ skills to get it work close to the way many think thought. It was assumed that you pressed the button and your gear immediately read the crowd, picked the best track for the moment, chose the right point to drop it into the mix, applied just the right amount of EQ and effects, and knew precisely how long to run the blend for.
It did not. It never has, and most likely never will.
Instead, as people have found out, the sync button will at best beat match, and not always on the one either. BPM analysis is 95% accurate, and depending on the music finding the one isn’t bad either. And if you haven’t taken the time to prepare your tracks, checked the BPM, key, and beat grid, you’re still likely to create a cacophony of chaotic car crashing.
Instead, I feel it’s the people who have changed. Like all new technology, it hits an initial human barrier of reluctance. A few lemmings just automatically accept without question and use it from day one. Some human guinea pigs are curious and have a dabble. Others sit back and wait for the tech to mature, because there’s really nothing wrong with what they use now. But a good number will just reject it out of hand because people are people.
And it’s this mass of unquestioning accepters to tentatively interested users that eventually drag the naysayers and haters more towards their way of thinking. Not everyone you understand — not every lump of new shiny is going to work for every DJ. But it would be nice if people tried it before passing judgement.
CREAM RISES
Or shit sinks, depending on your tolerance for potty talk. But this is true, no matter what the newfangled tech is. It doesn’t make people into DJs, but simply gives a wider group of people access to it. We’re at a point where everyone with a mobile phone can be a DJ to some degree. Get over it.
But the difference between good and bad DJs does not depend on the use of a single button. Being a DJ is about everything else from track selection, understanding music structure, beats, bars, phrasing, key, BPM, energy, pacing, crowd reading etc… the list is exponentially longer than a list with “sync button” at the top. And regardless of technology, good DJs will always rise above bad ones.
SO WHERE ARE WE AT?
Like CDs, DVS, controllers, laptops, touch tech etc, I feel that we’re now in a phase where acceptance is happening on a wider scale. There has been enough online content exploring the sync button, as well as people like my friend posting their own experiences to allow others to form more complete opinions rather than simply knee jerk hating.
Not everyone is open minded of course, and there will always be those that hate simply because they can. Reading social media posts about new tech always has the same trolls hammering the same venomous blinkered full caps words of fear (yes fear) and loathing into their keyboards, somehow misguidedly believing that a single person’s viewpoint will be changed when they do. “SYNC FUCKING SUCKS #REALDJS4LIFE” is not a well articulated argument — it’s just ignorant blind hate. And those DJs you put on a pedestal probably use sync now, just like they use all the tech you previously hated on before too.
STILL HATING? OR EMBRACED THE MELTING POT?
Feel free to post your well written and reasoned discussion points, and I’ll happily engage for days with people who oppose the use of the sync button. Be warned — I have strong well articulated opinions on this subject. But I would genuinely love to find out why you still oppose it, if you’ve adopted a live and let live attitude, or especially if you’re one of those DJs that is hugging the ever-growing melting pot of new DJ stuff.
How else will I keep four Traktor decks, and Ableton Live in time?
DJs never needed so much crap to rock the crowd. We are deviating too much from the original DJ concept, we are turning it into a geek competition.
You sound like you have missed the boat – quite a while ago.
Of course, DJing is a joke this days. I quitted when people started to use CDJs instead turntables. Still, DJing with CDJs and no SYNC is acceptable.
And still, people are dancing to it and enjoy their evenings just like in the good old days :)
Are you completely sure?
No solo performer in the world could do the things I do without sync and MIDI automation… that’s where I’m at :) the crowd didn’t care back then, and it doesn’t care now. #RealDJing is when the audience has a good time.
Ideology can fight against empiria only for so long. Sync has been available for what, 15 years? These days anyone who still preaches how sync is the end of DJing as we know comes of as a raving lunatic yelling “the sky is falling, the sky is falling”, because the observable reality is so clearly in contradiction.
I still don’t get those DJs that blame the Sync button, if you think about its the BPM reader auto or manual what makes it easy to beat match. Fine, let’s say all Sync buttons are removed from all hardware, you will still have DJs looking at a BPM and matching it with another without doing it by ear.
Exactly, this is what I’ve been saying for years!
Now, say some die-hard vinyl purist who has never touched a laptop on his career has an aversion towards sync? Yeah, I can see where he’s coming from. Strangely enough, however, your average sync-hater is a pretentious douce with a Serato box.
If I had a dollar every time I see some self-appointed “real DJ” ranting “fuk button pusher fake djs vinyl for lyef!” (why do this guys always have such poor grammar?) only to find a photo of them staring the waveforms and BPM-displays on a laptop. The hypocrisy is mind-boggling.
Hating on sync has become a meme in the DJ community. It’s a meme perpetrated by the weak, insecure and the less-than-average. It’s a meme perpetrated in the hope to elevate oneself above others.
You still have to ride the mix using the platters and readjusting the pitch. It is like the difference between piloting a plane with autopilot and piloting by yourself with the help of indicators.
Commercial pilots routinely use autopilot. Some engage it right after takeoff, whereas others like to fly the plan manually to point where the plane is at cruising height.
But commercial pilots do not perform for a crowd. They are not acrobatic pilots. Watching a drone performing aeroplane acrobatics would be beautiful but way less thrilling than watching human pilots doing the same stuff. We are turning DJing into a mechanic, cold, soulless thing. No good.
I think the only real argument against sync button usage is what I might rather crudely call the Airbus argument… (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/final-verdict-on-air-france-447-sensors-left-pilots-helpless-7917949.html)
If you use the sync button routinely, then you may be helpless when you want drop in that old classic which isn’t beatgridded… you have forgotten how to ride the pitch, so now instead of a mix you have a mess.
I also wish someone would have a word with those DJs who drop a new track every minute of their set – I remember one guy giving me a real headache doing this – to paraphrase Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park, just because he Could, he never stopped to think if he SHOULD…..
“If you use the sync button routinely, then you may be helpless when you want drop in that old classic which isn’t beatgridded… you have forgotten how to ride the pitch, so now instead of a mix you have a mess.”
This is spot on in my opinion. Sync is a tool, a great one at that, but you should not rely on it!
I’ve been using satnav for a good number of years now. But I can certainly still read a map and find my way anywhere I need to go. Some skills, be it map reading or manual mixing don’t leave you.
Sure, I mean, I hardly ever DJ nowadays, but when I do I still know how to mix, so I take the point, but I can’t claim to do it so easily as back when I was spinning for several hours a week, similarly when I look at a map now it takes me a whole lot longer than I think it used to to get oriented.
The point stands, if you use sync all the time then you’re creating a situation where you’ll have to fall back on your old by-ear mixing skills only for the very hardest tracks to mix.
To draw on your analogy a bit, that’s a bit like you using your satnav to go for a journey when all of a sudden you’re at a big busy junction with a load of traffic coming up behind you, and the satnav chooses that moment to lose signal -you’ve got no idea which way to go – do you really want that to be the time that you have to pick up the map and see where you’ve got to go?
Wouldn’t you have been better off if you’d been tracing your route on the map all the way?
I use sync pretty much exclusively while mixing, now. The only time I don’t, is when I’m transitioning from a DJ on another mixer/controller.
Not sure if I would call it the Airbus argument, as it applies to Boeing and any other aircraft with an auto pilot, too.
In contrast to flying a plane, beatmatching is less than complex, too.
I was able to do that within the first two weeks of my “DJ career” and can still go back and forth between sync and mixing with vinyl.
I have to agree to your last point, though. That “sync-enabled quick mixing” sucks big time.
One of the main reasons why I got into DJing, and stopped going to clubs as a raver, was because of DJs who play one verse of a track and start transitioning to the next when the chorus is playing. I couldn’t even get to dance to the groove of a particular track before another was slapped in. I taught myself to DJ and make my own mixtapes and gave raving a wide berth.
Given that set lengths seem to be getting shorter, a 1 hour set feels more like a mixtape, and tracks are crammed in to keep ever-diminishing attention spans satisfied.
Back when I played out, I made a point of playing at least 75% of a track (12″ as well), because back in the day we were curators — it was our role to introduce new music to the audience. Nowadays, the crowd probably has your entire setlist already on their phone. But we digress.
This is why I insist on being able to play a couple of hours at least.
Funnily enough, I’ve also been on the receiving end of the extreme opposite – small town club, DJ left the track ‘Can you Handle it’ playing on a seamless loop (this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA719kwajOY) for around an hour at the start of the night while he disappeared who knows where.
It’s fair to say that after 45 minutes we could very much not handle it.
I have moved on from hating DJ’s that use sync to those that mix 30sec snippets of songs.
One of my big pet peeves. Can’t stand it. Let the song breathe. It’s like a competition to see who can play the most songs in a set. Completely loses any vibe.
I played a gig without monitors over the weekend, sync’d the whole fluffing set. Just another tool to help us do a job.
Last month I published an article in Spanish about the lies and false concepts of the “sync” function. The article was a success, but I received lots of personal attacks with “strong language” at social networks and emails. “You have never been a DJ”, “Your words are bullshit”, “You have no idea about the meaning of DJing”, “People like you destroyed this job” and many more using more offensive language. It was like opening Pandora’s box. People is not ready for embracing new technologies.
DJWORX — crowbarring Pandora’s Box. Taking orders for t-shirts. ;)
The entire DJ and music making industry has leapt forward massively over the last decade. And the very music that those hater DJs keep it real by playing has been made by every kind of modern technology possible. When the latest hit track has been made with a sampler and assembled in a DAW, the argument against DJs using modern technology is completely undermined.
I’d love to read… well have Google translate your article. Can you post a link?
Here you have it, it was published on my personal blog instead the website I work for: https://selectormusical.com/2017/07/01/el-sync-lo-que-dice-la-gente-y-la-realidad/
I was a really clever article Teo, it’s a shame how low people could get hating technology that don’t even know properlly how it works.
This thursday I had a problem with my setup a finally ended up playing with the keybord of the laptop. The only one who cared and give importance to that was just me. The promoter and the crowd loved the performace and the music.
I’m not a lazy guy, more tools more options.
New technologies sometimes implies downsides.
It’s funny, people are so full of themselves. These are just tools – when cd players came and showed the BPM on the display, was that cheating because you didn’t have to manually count with a stopwatch while tapping your foot?
It doesn’t always work and when it doesn’t you need to fix it fast, so that’s still some level of skill – you can still trainwreck with the sycn button vs cds or vinyl.
It also saves me 30 seconds or so per song that I don’t have to beatmatch that I can use to either rethink programming or do some live remixing.
But in the end the dancefloor doesn’t care. … it’s like the Analogue vs Digital in the synth debate – the user listening to the song on the radio doesn’t care what you used.
it’s all in the heads of the DJ or creator.
>>when cd players came and showed the BPM on the display, was that cheating because you didn’t have to manually count with a stopwatch while tapping your foot?
Remembered me so many “conversations” with “purists” 10 years ago :D :D
REAL DJS USE STOPWATCHES. FACT.
As a kid, the cover on that cd baffled me precisely because of that… https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bd4e18e13fbe682b8190c9a81e1bf6cb99a3baeb9b06f59a9624fd64c201e078.jpg
You still have to touch the CD platter to pitch bend and readjust the pitch slider. The difference between that and allowing a computer to do this process is HUGE. But and the end, who cares? People just want to get high, DJing technical skills never where so futile before.
Using a CD player properly is just a matter of memorizing pitch values and minor maths skills.
That feels roughly the same like using sync.
There’s no greater amount of #realdjing in CD players than in controllers.
But you have to ride the mix. You have to keep your attention on it because it it is long enough, it will start to drift (current CD players pitch resolution doesnt guarantee perfect mixes). Your mindset changes. Some would find that annoying, but some others would find it like a connection with the mix. You feel linked with your set. SYNC breaks that connection.
I have found playing with CDJs the most boring way to mix:
Find the correct pitch within seconds, nudge the jog once or twice and you’re done.
Besides that, there’s few features to get creative.
Software with sync takes away those boring and easy to achieve steps and offers a whole new world of possibilities –
or leaves you more time to concentrate on reading the crowd.
Sync does not mean that you have to mix in a new track every 20 seconds or overload your set with effects.
Compare it to manual vs automatic gears in a car.
No one gives you an award for perfect shifting.
I would say that it depends on the individual and the application. Personally, A to B mixing I don’t touch sync. Alternately, multiple decks of Traktor (with remix and stem decks), with Remixlive and Videolive… it’s hard not to use it.
One of the best DJs I ever encountered professionally never beatmatched (and when he tried, he was awful at it). But he was amazing at reading his crowd and song selection. It kept his dancefloor packed every night he worked. When I was a younger DJ, his success perplexed me. I equated the tools of DJing with the JOB of DJing – so when I saw him not using the same tools that I chose to use, I saw him as less of a DJ. As I matured and gained more experience, I realized that he understood the crowd at a deeper level than I (and most other DJs) did. At their core a lot of these tools are tricks to manipulate the energy in the room. He didn’t need them. One of the godfathers of modern DJing, David Mancuso, came to the same epiphany later in his career.
I’m not going to say that one camp is right and one is wrong. I love the artistry and technicality of a mix that takes into account not only the BPM of the tracks, but their key, phrasing, and structure. But what I love even more than that is to see a sea of people dancing with abandon, forgetting about their lives for a few hours and connecting with the music and eachother. This DJ who never beat mixed made that happen every time he stepped in front of the decks. And he’s been doing it for at least 30 years (I met him in 1987), so I think that also speaks to his skill. So if you’re ever in Memphis and get a chance to listen to David “The Worm”, it might be worth your time to check him out.
Ha! Similar stories again, @nem0nic:disqus :) A little over 10 years ago I was getting really solid technically, to the point of arrogance – 3-decking it all the way, with a loop sampler on the 4th channel – no sync, nothing. I thought I was king shit… until I saw a local crew completely WRECK a party, unlike anything I’ve seen before. And they did it with zero technique – just absolutely perfect timing and selection. I realized then that this technical perfectionism has very little to do with what DJing is…
I prefer a DJ that use SYNC but takes times to read the crowd, took time to prepare his songs, and know his songs, than a “manual beatmatching4ever” DJ that kills the dance floor in a bad transition, in the bad phrasing moment, with a bad manual loop or a bad baby scratch…
Like you said in the article, SYNC put 2 (or more ! Yeah !) tracks at the same BPM value, and tries to beat match. But it’s not an “automatic” DJ thing…
I love to DJ on Vinyl (I started on it 20 years ago…),But I evolved with DVS, CDs then MP3… I saw the new “tools” come years after years, and i can’t do the same thing with Vinyl/DVS that i can do with a multiples decks with sync… (and I don’t play the same way).
Not the same pleasure, but still giving pleasure to people.
As a DJ who plays 80% (Roots) Reggae music, sync never really works 100% because most of these tracks have a live hand drummer. When I started experimenting with DJing, it was on VDJ. Being totally clueless and being my own teacher, all tracks I threw at it would automatically sync up. As I got more exposed to DJing through DJ tech blogs and websites, so did my expertise grow and soon I deactivated the auto sync feature on VDJ. But still I couldn’t figure out manual beat matching and so I paid a noob DJ to teach me the art. I got frustrated when he disclosed to me that without the wave forms he couldn’t beat match. The only thing I learned from him was finding the downbeat, which with Reggae usually comes after a random drum roll. The other thing I learned from him was counting beats and phrasing. These two techniques helped me later in learning how to beat match and phrase my mixes.
Frustrated with his revelation, and my main aim being learning how to beat match manually, I started saving cash for a controller. I bought a Mixtrack Pro 3 and with persistence and lots of practice I finally learnt how to beat match by ear. I would turn off the BPM column and view the GUI in library mode, therefore minimizing any visual assistance in getting a mix together.
I sometimes get to play out in opening acts in weekly shows on professional equipment, usually Serato on CDJs and Rane mixers. I prefer working in Absolute mode, whereby my self learnt beatmatching skills come in handy.
I really have no problem with anyone using sync, myself I do not use it even on my home controller (I turned it off in Serato). If it gets your job done easier then go for it, especially for DJS who do multiple track layering.
The only problem I have is when I find a DJ criticising another DJ for using sync, while he himself mixes with no headphones and is wave riding. There is this DJ where I usually play, in fact he is usually the headliner, he never uses headphones, his waveforms on Serato are set on overlapping mode, yet is most vocal in criticizing anyone using VDJ or sync.
I’m not against using Sync. I used to always have it on. But I stopped using it this year because it got boring when mixing. There’s an element of connection to the groove that I lost when using Sync (when rocking a party)
Thank you for putting into print the way I’ve always felt about this subject. Sync is just another tool in the arsenal. You certainly don’t have to use it. But you articulated perfectly what the sync button ~doesn’t~ do. It does not take the place of all the other real skills a DJ needs to be successful at their job. And I would suggest that those who are the most vocal against sync are missing some/all of those tools, and are worried about being left behind. That being said, I’m an old school guy raised on vinyl, and I highly recommend learning to beatmatch that way. It takes a lot of practice, but it is highly satisfying when you get it right.
I don’t see people complaining about the software assigning beat grids, keys, and waveforms to songs. Those things could be looked at as cheating as well. You get none of that from vinyl. For my money, the best practice is to do what works for you, and let others do the same. When I’m working a room, I can guarantee that nobody gives a toss whether or not I’m using sync. Is the party jumping? Then I’m doing my job. I’ll not worry one bit if another DJ is standing there, scowling, arms crossed, wagging their finger at my use of one little tool in a mighty toolbox of modern DJ gear.
DJ and let DJ, I say.
Whoever that guy is, he sounds like a right muppet! Fancy forgetting your headphones! ;) (FYI: it’s me lol).
On a more serious note, I think @DJWORX:disqus has hit the nail on the head: sync doesn’t mix for you, it just simplifies one part of the process of mixing. The following weekend (with headphones again) I found myself using sync for quick mixes or when cutting and scratching tunes in, but manually beat matching for longer blends or when I had more time. Kind of strange I know, habit I guess…
As for only starting to use sync now, aside from being somewhat forced into it due to the circumstances, my main hang ups for not having embraced it sooner were actually more to do with beat grids than sync itself. One, making sure I had accurate beat grids (I’d been fixing this whilst recently colour coding my cue points luckily), and two, the fact that turning on beat grids in Serato – a requirement for using sync – causes loops to snap to the grid as opposed to transients. Basically, if you want to loop something that falls off of the grid of a track, you have to turn beat grids off. I’m hoping they’ll eventually change this behaviour…
You are getting lazy, mate. If the crowd doesnt really deserve respect, Sync button is OK. Otherwise, you are hampering yourself as a DJ!
Simply put…, I paid my dues, so I can use sync all day! LOL! I can play on anything vinyl, dvs, cdj, controller or straight laptop. Just because I hit sync it doesn’t change what I already know, so I’m still mixing what I know with a side of experimentation when it suits me. If you learn on sync and all of a sudden lose access to it that could spell disaster for your gig so I’d recommend learning to mix by the numbers and not depending on sync. It’s easy to tell when a dj is abusing sync. Although most of the time the dj, and even the crowd, is not familiar with the music selection and therefore it doesn’t matter anyway that they have horribly matched songs even if they’ve adjusted the key.
Thanks Mr. Settle for your ongoing devotion to this art.
Dale Daniels
djing is not an art unless you are doing turntablism.
the only people who call regular djing an art are the djs themselves (who got big egos thinking that pressing a few buttons is mindblowing) . youre just playing other people’s music for the most part usually simple metronome music .. the people who play and manipulate their own creations using controllers are controllerists
I both agree and disagree with you.
Mixing two tracks of other people’s music together and calling it an art is bit of a stretch. Being an entertainer and musical curator – a sommelier of sound, if you will – is already a valuable function by itself, so I’ve often wondered the need for such hyperbole.
But your statement that only turntablism qualifies as art is nonsense. On-the-fly remixing, multitrack mixing, hybrid performance where synths and drum machines are combined with recorded music, etc. are perfectly valid examples of DJing taken to a level that deserves to be called “art”.
what youre saying is that being a commercial pilot is also an art, actually every profession should be an art then. Even serving hamburgers.
To me the art comes when you have minimalistic gear and yet create patterns that 99.9% of people are unbable to do.
What I said and didn’t say is clearly visible in my previous message, so I would appreciate it if you would refrain from putting words into my mouth.
I just do not agree that the dj needs to change the level to be considered art!
I suggest you read my previous message again and put some though into it this time, because you seem to have completely misunderstood what I wrote.
I’m absolutely the last person who has any need or desire to classify various types of DJing into “art” or “not art” categories. In fact, the core message of my previous post was that I find the whole division unnecessary and pointless.
So, this is it!
Yeah, but that’s where I draw the line and push you away from being a DJ to enter the world of artists. If your goal is to create something knew never heard before when you perform, especially using other gear than music tracks, but also adding new sounds using synths and whatever, then you’re not a DJ. You’re just partly using DJ gear to perform. Then you’re an artist, which is something that takes a whole bunch of other skills to do successfully. If you’re good at that, I think you should reward yourself and call yourself an artist when you perform like one. If I could I would, but I can’t. But I do have very good gigs a couple of times every week where I make people go crazy, only playing tracks using two decks. I am a proud DJ, and I’m very satisfied with that. I use the latest gear available but only use the tools given to create nice transitions. I always play 4-6 hour gigs, and I often don’t even know what audience to expect until I arrive, which is perfectly OK, because I’m a DJ. I prepare and make sure I know my music, and then I make decisions and perform on the fly. I don’t know if knowing a lot of music, and being able to program that music to the satisfaction of the crowd, is an art, but that is the key to be a great DJ. If you can do that, you can cut mix the whole night and still create a crazy dance floor. That, I know for a fact.
Good. At least you got one thing right. Dj’s play music done by others. Some people confuses being a DJ with being a musician or a producer. The art part of being a good or even great DJ, is the way you program your music according to how you read the crowd. To do that well, you need an insanely good insight in how different music affects people. You also need all that music and the knowledge when and where to use it. The better you are at this, the more kind of events, different kind of people of all ages, you can perform in front of.
There’s also two very different type of DJing. One is where you are getting payed to play what the guests expect to hear, or the what the owner tells you to play. Usually this is the most common way in commercial venues that has a wide variety of people visiting, often more than one dance floor to cover more music. The other one is where you play on a branded scene, usually genre specifik. This is where you have the freedom to play whatever you think is the best, as long as you stay true to what’s advertised. The people in front of you will also expect you to play new stuff they’ve never heard before, and they will cheer for you to do it. That won’t happen when you play in commercial venues. One the contrary, one little too unknown music can empty the dance floor in seconds.
Still, you need the to have the knowledge how to navigate the crowd with the music you play, no matter if you are one or the other… or even have the experience to do both. Everything comes down to your knowledge in music and how to read the people in front of you to create the best atmosphere possible. About atmosphere: There’s a lot situations when that is the only intended purpose of having a DJ in place, and you’re not there to make people dance at all. Just create a nice atmosphere that will make people feel good and stay a little longer. If you go deeper, you can point out a lot of things that will, or will not happen, depending on how the DJ performs.
And what about the technical skills… All I can say about what matters, is what the people in front you think, and how they respond. Also, the kind of music you play and when you play it, will affect the way you make the transitions. For most of the time, if you keep the music in beat, and skip the intros/outros, people will continue to dance. Even intended chaos can be an effective party riser and what you do to fire up a live set to get the crowd going, will sound crap a studio listening to it afterwards. All this is very well known by experienced DJ’s but rarely understood by outsiders and wannabe’s, but there you have it. Art or not, it takes a lot of dedication, time and money to become a great DJ. As with most areas, you just don’t get it until you’re in it.
Sync button disconnects your body and your mind from the mixing process. When you are beat mixing, your concentration level is higher, your commitment with your performance is tighter, and your connection with the music is deeper. Sync is for lazy DJs or wannabe DJs that do not respect what beat mixing really means. I have used Sync button in the past, but I soon realized how boring it was. And that is what you see lot of times in a DJ booth nowadays: either bored DJs, or clown DJs that have no idea.
Sync is for everyone, be they lazy or skilled. Watching a skilled DJ mixing tracks and loops across four decks, applying effects, using filters, and knowing what works with what is amazing. It’s working way beyond traditional A-B mixing, and is a very long way from lazy. Used properly, sync is an advancement, and takes additional skill beyond conventional mixing to use correctly.
So sync is not disrespectful — it nods its head to the roots of DJing, and can take it to new places where two decks just cannot go.
That kind of performance shifts attention towards the DJ, when the really important thing is the music and the ability to create a cohesive and meaningful set. With SYNC, the DJ are either being lazy just performing A-B mixing without really caring about the beat mix, or over egocentric trying to be more important than the music he/she is playing. Let the music play, create memorable mixes by yourself, and forget about all that convoluted crap. The crowd want to dance and have fun, nothing else (with exceptions of course).
We live in a changed culture where the attention is on the DJ these days anyway. When I played out, it was about the music that was played, and the DJ’s name was in small letters under the genre on the posters.
About sync — what it does (and essentially the only thing it does) is to beat match — literally to line up beats. If you’re lucky, it’ll be on the one, but isn’t always. To be absolutely clear — it is not mixing. The sync button does not decide which track to pick, when to drop it in, how to mix it in, how long to mix it in for, and when to drop the other track out. I certainly don’t feel that spending minutes riding the pitch makes me mix tracks better, or improve my set overall. And I’m certain that the crowd doesn’t know one way or another, apart from when a DJ attempts to manually nail a mix and fails. Should have use sync. ;)
And still, the result feels robotic and unnatural. This is why when producing tracks we use swings and grooves, to break quantization to some extent and make the rythm pattern to feel more organic. To each his own, as being a part of the crowd, I personally really notice the difference between a quantized mix and a manual one. And I prefer the second, by far.
Chip… meet shoulder.
DJing is a relationship between the artist (the DJ) and the patrons of that artist. The artist uses the tools they feel allow them to be the most creative. The patrons decide if the resulting art is worthy of their sponsorship. An artist is not obliged to satisfy the expectations of another artist. If that were the case, we probally wouldn’t have anything that could ever qualify at pop art (whether that’s Warhol or Mozart). If a DJ is not satisfying their role as an artist, they likely won’t be in the position for long.
The DJ is an artist but before that is a worker. DJing is a relationship between the DJ and the crowd that are spending their time listening to him/she. A live act is a different kind of performance though.
Sure…everyone is entitled to an opinion, but this is utter nonsense. I hate it when people try to come up with these pseudo-science “facts” to impose their personal preference as the norm.
Have you considered the possibility that…how would I put this politely…that you are a boring DJ? If the difference between being excited and being bored to you is the sync button, to me that’s a sign that you simply don’t that have many tricks in your bag to begin with. You call others lazy, but I suspect it’s actually you who is the lazy one…lazy to develop your creative potential and possibilities.
Let’s be honest here. Manual beat-matching has fuck all to do with being connected to the music, commitment or whatever. People do it because it keeps them busy and gives them a sense of purpose. A lot of DJs learned that one skill and stopped there, feeling content that they never have to learn anything anymore. If sync makes your performance boring, it’s not because of sync, it’s because of you.
You are wrong but whatever. DJs are doing a really good work hampering theirselves.
These emotionally charged non-arguments of yours reek of desperation…desperation of a man trying to convince himself that his skillset is still relevant.
No, it is boredom about talking with people that have little idea like you. Have a nice day.
Thanks for proving my point.
I have no problem with what people use as long as it’s done properly and don’t cause problems. There’s one thing I don’t agree with, and that is your comment about ”manual beat mixing keeps you busy”… Now you’re either not very good at it yourself or have no knowledge. To start a new track and get it in beat should take a few seconds, and nothing else. To me using sync, and sometimes quantize, is a hinder and keeps me from having complete control over what’s happening during a transition.
When i play, I know exactly how I want to proceed with the next transition, as soon I’ve chosen the next track to play. This of course is very much about experience and knowledge in the music, but that should not be the reason to use short cuts. It has also a lot to do with people being afraid to make mistakes, but trying something and not get it perfect once or twice during a gig will only make you human and for some reason it usually makes people respect you more.
Unfortunately I have come across a little to many DJ’s who should still be home practicing their skills. Most gear today has lots of fancy tools to affect the music with. Effects, slip, roll, loops… and used properly they’re fantastic to have ready to use. Used improper because you just Synced an outro and intro, and have about 4 minutes to kill before next transition, will kill any dance floor and make people angry. I agree with some other comments, that the journey learning to beat match, also gives you insight in other areas. Like starting a track anywhere you want, because you can, and are not relying on dropping on the one. Sometimes dropping on the 2 sounds better, or it’s even the only options that sounds good. Dropping on a half beat or a quarter is sometimes very useful when starting a track with a vocal intro, or an acapella. These are the things that give you more options when deciding how make a transition, especially when you progress from using intros/outros to use whatever part of a track that does the job best, for the people on the dance floor.
Every and any use of the tools available should be calculated and not randomly used in every track. That tells me more about a DJ’s lack of knowledge and experience than a faulty mix now and then. If you have to rebuild/remix every track you play, you should probably choose better tracks. Very few succeed to do a better job than the artist who spend days in the studio recording the track. Of course this doesn’t apply to controllerists and the likes, as that is the whole purpose with their performance, but to all the DJ’s who are paid to entertain people with good music they like to listen and dance to, which are the case most of the time.
I feel both sides in this discussion below, some pretty good arguments and opinions. I feel there is some truth to all that is stated and it’s impossible to say one side is right.
Probably the only way we could all agree on something is to go to a event a listen to some DJ and say (depending on if he’s using sync) if it’s a improvement on him as a DJ.
Is a flautist less of a musician than a violinist because the flautist has keypads and the violinist has to position their fingers without a guide ?
I haven’t played out much recently (I’ve been busy with other areas of life), but for the gigs I have played, I’ve used an iPad running DJ Player, and I’ve used sync for every gig. I came up on turntables, and I know how to mix by ear, but I’d rather have the detailed overview of the whole tracks and the extra time so I can plan better mixes. The crowds seemed to like the performance just fine.
In my experience, the people who get the most deeply upset about automation handling a rote task put an inordinate amount of their self-worth in the ability to perform that rote task. The cure for this is not to demonize the automation, but rather to acquire new skills to replace those that have been automated into semi-relevance. I’ve found that the more difficult/demanding the skill is, the more satisfying it is. As an added bonus, the difficult skills seem to be the hardest to automate.
I think the disadvantage a lot of people forget about is that learning to beat match teaches you about a lot of other things (pitch vs key, being in the pocket, hand control to some extent, swing, etc.) I learned a hell of a lot about DJing and production from beat matching and I’m not sure I’d be as good without it. We see something similar with scratching, where some DJs never learn the fundamentals and don’t get the same depth of knowledge. That being said, that doesn’t automatically mean that sync sucks. It just means that unless you’re careful you can miss out on a lot by adopting it, especially too early. You have to be careful about using shortcuts and ask yourself if you’re missing something by taking them.
In my mind, the question should be, how does sync allow you to advance beyond what can be done without it? There are some really obvious benefits to just being able to throw down audio that’s not only ready to go with beat matching, but is also pre-gained with volume, pre-EQed etc. But there are drawbacks because the more you rely on that sync, the less likely you are to think about things like “is the mix EXACTLY in the pocket”? If you never learned to mix the traditional way, you might not even be able to differentiate at all.
Anyway, it is what it is. The whole argument seems like of played out to me. It’s way more effective to give an example of something that can only be done with the benefit of sync to prove why its useful. Otherwise we continue down this road of people who are basically just self-conscious: either people who don’t use sync trying to prove they are somehow better; or people who do use it trying to justify why they’re still good. In my mind, the only way to prove you are good is with actual audio (and even then we all have different tastes). In other words, post a file bitches.
You use what you have.. Sync is a tool. What’s important is what you build with tools.
I use PCDJ, I have used it since Red/Blue/Silver. I’m now on Dex3. Software is like a woman, every guy/girl has their preferences! I was taught how to DJ from a great Mentor who told me “It’s not about the Mix, but it’s how you program the room. The DJ is like a dance floor version of an Air Traffic Controller, You want people to jump, You tell them to jump.” This guy was DJing for 30 years before I came around into the scene, so everything he taught me was everything he learned from his own mistakes, what worked, and what didn’t. Did he have train wrecks on vinyl? Sure! did he crash and burn on CD? Of course! But to this day, he keeps going on digital.
Do I use the sync button? sure, but only when I get really close in my pre-mix and the pitch control is off my .06 BPM. But, I still manually mix the song in and make my adjustments. Sometimes, the musical phrasing you are looking for between two songs are so far off from each other using the sync button to start your mix, you have to take your skills and technique back to square one, and do it by ear and by hand. I once turned a song into a polka just because I started a track with sync. Have I learned since then, Sure I did. I would rather have a “Match” button than a “Sync” Button. But I guess i could just remap the skin.
As far as I remember, people hated Sync because it was seen as lazy, inexperienced, and/or fake DJs taking the easy way out. DJ Craze uses Sync. I guess he now falls into that category, huh? /sarcasm
Nowadays, with some DJs using pre-recorded sets during gigs (for whatever reason for whatever kind of gig), Sync doesn’t seem so bad anymore. I don’t know why anyone would still care whether or not a DJ is using Sync since there are some pretty obvious cues as to whether or not the DJ is faking their set, or if they actually are a skilled DJ.
IMO I think every beginner DJ should use Sync as a way to comprehend how the mix SHOULD sound; that’s how I learned how to beat-match manually. For example, they should take two songs that are close in BPM, and use Sync to understand how the transition should sound when the songs are properly blended together, then beat-match manually to achieve the same result. In other words, I think it’s a good idea to use Sync as training wheels for your DJ bicycle.
I have been a DJ since 1982 yes 1982 I used to carry around 30 crates of records.
I gave it up for a while when CDs began to dominate the industry i could take it after all the r cords I bought they where now moving to CDs and all the new DJ equipment was made for the CD DJ.
Well once Torq from m-Audio came out and I was able to use all my MP3 file I was back in business only one thing… other Djs were calling me a fake DJ because I was using the computer and looking at the screen..lol WTF!
Fake DJ?
Who care I was the early adopter of DVS because I wasn’t going to tow around 30 crates of old music.
Besides some of my records are now collectors items.
I continued to use DVS until Algoriddim’s came out with djay for Mac I was a early adopter and now a ambassador.
Look me up on there websight no BS.
I continue to use the latest technology I even opened a show in Florida for Armin Van Burren on a iPad.
Yes a iPad ?..Phillips picked me because I was one of the only DJs that would use a iPad.
Sync button or no sync button I will always use the right tool for the job and latest technology as long as it’s convenient.
A real DJ makes money with the gear that’s available to him or her.
A real DJ makes people dance and remember the event years after.
A real DJ doesn’t give a shit what other DJs think of him or her.
A real DJ loves the music…
PEACE!
~Masta Hanksta~
I feel you on this. there’s nothing scarier than toting around a flight case that translates into at least an easy grand of your money, through the tenderloin in San Francisco, over a few perilous blocks from your miraculously-acquired street parking, to a venue you haven’t yet played (and aren’t 100% on it’s location).
those long walks, alone, were enough for me to wholeheartedly embrace the new wave of technology.
it should also go without saying that forgoing the inevitable and repetitive frantic digging through records in a tightly packed flight case, in an unforseeably dark venue, when your fancy light up ring stops working—leaves you free to scroll and search through your own meticulously tagged track library, yielding infinitely more possibilities of places to take your set when the room evolves. it also leaves you more open to having those accidental moments of brilliance when you manage to successfully fly off the cuff and come away with a great payoff.
Dude, you’re no joke. I still get stoked on a video you did messing around with a new controller (wego?) but also chopped up the Nu Shoes joint to make Fancy.
Thank you !! I’ve been using the same program on my iPad and was flown to Goa to play. All my sets have been recorded from the iPad and whilst I don’t hide it, nobody can tell any difference !
I like smartsync on VDJ but can’t really use sync (or smartsync) because it makes it too hard to keep track of BPM changes for when I’m fixing train wrecks in a DAW later on;)
You can use sync if you’ve earnt your stripes. Most people, nearly all havent
Not true. You can use sync if you’re equipment has the sync feature.
You can also get other people to wipe your butt for you
I haven’t seen that button but I’ll be sure to look out for it!
It is the sync button
Ok. Pressed the sync button, now wipe my ass.
Haha. This is true. We dont have to earn stripes, it’s about the people, if they love what they hear then that’s all that matters.
Virtual DJ 8 has the most advanced sync function out of all of the major software competitors..that being said you still need to learn how to use it properly. There is much more to it then just pressing the sync button and it just does it for you. Once you learn it it’s a great tool to have.. But you still need to listen with your ears.
The word “sync” is such a broad meaningless label. Sync could mean that software algorithms have analyzed the encoded digital music file and has automatically placed a beat grid on the music track. The way in which the software does this is different depending upon which software is doing it, but also the options that the user has selected. This can result in a very accurate but inflexible grid…..or one that is more fluid but less accurate…..it’s not a simple matter. THE USER NEEDS TO UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS TO USE IT PROPERLY. Knowing when to turn it on is equally important to knowing when you should turn it off. You should also understand how your software is beat gridding your tracks.
Having said that, using this feature should open up many other possibilities in your performance. The brain power that normally would be used listening and adjusting the pitch faders and jog wheels can be spent on many other things…..so that your performance is much more creative and distintive. If you are bored using sync, you aren’t using your brain to be creative. People are lazy…it’s not the sync button’s fault IF YOU ARE BORED, YOU ARE BEING BORING!