quote: | Originally posted by teufel-man
You definitely bring up some good points.
Overall though I already feel like it is way too easy to be a DJ with current technology. Think, if you owned traktor and the 'mixed-in-key' software it wouldn't be hard for an absolute rookie to put together a near-professional sounding set. Mixed-in-key would tell you which songs go well together and traktor can beatmatch them for you... if technology makes in this easy now, think of how easy it will be in 5 or 10 years from now!
Obviously when you are playing live in front of a crowd it will increase the 'difficulty level' substantially as you need to read the crowd and see what gets them moving; but I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they invented some crowd reading software in the future, as stupid as that sounds. |
Well, that's when you start to get into the whole AI-category, then in which case any form of "art" can be bought into question, and expands to a larger question of "What impact will artificial intelligence have on art?" and is not specific to DJing.
To me, the 'technical' side of DJing is only one part of the what DJing is, and while technology can automate/perfect the technical side, its the other side that is harder to automate - which is the more subtle 'artistic' side of it.
If all DJing was, was taking two songs, beat-matching the opening/closing bars of two tracks and calling it a day - then yes, computers can (and do) fully automate that aspect within reason, and it'll only get better at doing that.
But say - doing an extended mix, eq'ing the two (or four, etc) tracks to make a 'new' track. Or knowing when to cut between two tracks back/forth, layering one track under another and bringing it in/out over a few tracks to build tension/anticipation before finally dropping it/etc.
For example, there is one set of Ricardo where he layers a Gabriel Ananda track into Raudrive - Here, and it's done so well it's permanently ingrained in my head as 'that is how the song is supposed to be', and pisses me off when I hear the Gabriel track w/o Here chugging along behind it
Although, I think as the automation of the technical side of DJing increases, it leaves room for people to explore the other aspects of DJing. Yes, you will get the dolt's who just click two songs, let traktor take over and stand there doing jesus-pose for the next 6 minutes, but you will also get other people who will then start to push the boundries, trying new things and experimenting.
This is also why there seems to be the increase of live-elements in sets, more people doing Live-PAs, playing instruments, synths, drum-machines, etc ontop of sets - by letting technology automate some aspects, you're now freed up to do other things.
As a whole, the old-school train of thought of "DJing being a deck and two turn-tables and vinyl" will be less relevant as technology progresses, but I don't necessarily view this as a bad thing.
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