i thought it was pretty cool

first, i think i'm totally cool with DJs using controllers and pushing buttons. some of them make awesome music and rock crowds. i support that. i don't care what a DJ plays on, it's easy to tell if they are good.

second, just because it reminds you of scratching doesn't mean it sounds like scratching. he's not fooling anyone.

its cool..then again i think lots of things are cool.....

i think we should stay away from comparing it to 2 turntables and a mixer type of thing..
he is in his own zone..i didn't enjoy the music, not my cup of tea

to be honest i except A LOT from djs that are using midi controllers, auto-sync, effects and all that fancy stuff, so if its not AMAZING im just going to be like bleh

This dude is talented... Even if all he does is push buttons..

Another clip from him : youtu.be

I thought the video was pretty cool from a skillz standpoint. Not my style of choice music that i enjoy listening to.. but overall not bad.

Why is everyone being so PC? That's not scratching, i don't care if he's pushing buttons with scratch sounds, and if "the future is pushing buttons" at the end of the day it isn't scratching because A) it sounds nothing like scratching and B) TO SCRATCH YOU NEED TO PUT YOUR HANDS ON SOMETHING AND MOVE IT BACK AND FORTH.

Personally I thought the two videos I checked by him sounded like noise. I give him props for being creative, I appreciate that he incorporated MIDI instruments other than a dicer or APC40. When he broke out the sax in the other video i gave him thumbs up, but it still sounded like noise. I know...I'm a hater, I need to get with the times, rae rae, rah rah.

But put it this way. if I'm in the studio, I hate synth guitars, yet if someone were to play a serious solo on an keyboard with a VSTi that sounded legit to me I would give him a round of applause. But if he comes to me with the same patch, all notes 127 velocity, no mod wheel, no character, just emulation...I'm not going to dig it. This is how i felt watching this.

I was going post a reply to you're comments but I see you already wrote what I was thinking..

LOL please tell me you're not serious.

Yep - I am serious... I think your hating(yeah I know it's an overused word) a bit - cuz your saying its creative but yet it sound like noise...

Just because somebody's being creative doesn't mean they sound good. is this your first time hearing somebody push a button or strum a note?

Jesus.

Nope... It not my first time with any of that... And what sounds good is always subjective - but that not my issue - I could be wrong, but it sounds like you're not giving full props because the dude was pushing buttons....
I just don't get - the "it's creative but doesn't sound good bit" - sound like a contradiction to me..

Dude, if you think I'm hating because he wa pushing buttons you're simple...seriously. read what I wrote and come back at me again.

Wow.

Scratch DJ's push buttons too!

Watchwww.youtube.com

=)

No shit!!

Like i said, is this you're first time being subjected to somebody hitting a button? Fuck i could show you a dozen musicians I know personally that are phenomenal technically but suck shit when it comes to writing a song, it is what it is.

The thread is called "push button dj's scratch too" it's not scratching, it doesn't sound like scratching...the MIDI horn doesn't sound like a horn. Done deal.

The joke is I just literally finished a set with my rdecks and comp lined up to my maschine and my oxygen and this dude is pulling the tired old "you're hating card"

GTFOH

I that why I said "I could be wrong".. You didn't give in you're post besides the noise bit and "no character, just emulation"...

Dude, I'm nt trying to beef with you at all, but that should have said it all. If a man can play a keyboard and make it sound like the real thing, I will give him props. If he comes to me with the exact same sounds, yet there's no character...i just can't dig it.

Haha - it's the self-fulling prophecy that you created.. You said it and I confirmed your assertions..

And TBH, sonically...it was just too busy..it did not sound good to me. I'm not the only one, but it's 6 in the am and I'm finishing a night so i'm a little more free with my talk.

LOL

Dude no one is beefing... I am having a conversation... It's not that serious...

Ok...Yeah I know after 6 am and I havent been to bed since yesterday..

To put it into further perspective, I've seen the video that BattleFunk posted a while back, it's dope. What people forget is the MPC. cats have been pushing buttons from time! I had an XL in the mid 90's...and back then people were shitting on button pushers..and years before that. shit today you can look at any youtube video where a condescending asshole says "pick up an instrument" or "he sure is good at pushing buttons" yet some of the most talented "real" musicians I've ever met is because of the fact that I push buttons and they want to experiment with that in their own music.

No worries the, it's all shits and giggles.





LOL My regular practice.

Ah ok..I get where you are coming from now...

lol - i just did a community production/dj forum with Vespers the other week.

not really my style, but he knows his shit about ableton.

definitely not impressed with push-button scratching tho...

what's so cool about this? my 5yo does the exact same thing with his little DJ toy that has pre programmed scratches in it. from a production standpoint it's not bad. but nothing impressive either.

I don't see what's so impressive about the video. Those same shitty "scratch" sounds have been programmed into shitty Casio keyboards for decades. Just because he's getting the same sounds from some new MIDI controller people are supposed to give props? He just re-invented the wheel. My son has a Casio with those sounds and it's also MIDI capable.

This kid just taps buttons on beat.

Mike P gets what I'm saying.

That dude is a good remixer/producer but that "scratching" sounds terrible. This reminds me of old fake ass rap songs that were used for commercials. Sampled "scratching" that is quantized perfectly never sounds good. I know this dude is doing it live so its not quantized but it gave me that same vibe. I am usually a critic of the newer type scratches that are so robotic and technical they lose the musical feel but this brings that to an extreme level.

you can invite him to this thread i guess

he got mad skills at ableton for sure

he's showing us how the scratchin' sound can be 'copied' thru ableton

trigger ahhhhhh in various cue point location
assign pitch up and down
assign reverse
it would be cool if he rocked the apc fader

oh well..

IMO lots of people here are so narrow minded and not able to appreciate creativity for what it is. Don't forget when djs first started scratching back in the day they faced the same views many of you are expressing. Guess what djs have been scratching for over 30 years it's about time we are seeing something new. I was born and raised on hip hop and the music this dj played is not my cup of tea but dude has talent

I was about to mention this tooo.... PUSHING BUTTONS LIVE!! CUT CHEMIST, NUMARK & SHADOW!

^^^ I like how CUT/NUM/SHADOW incorporate the mixers into their routine.

whats creative about playing a scratch sample??

This idea def isnt new, i was at a friends gig on st pattys day and i heard him scratching which is something i had never heard him do before so i went up to tell him the scratching sounded mad crisp then looked at his screen and noticed that the scratch patterns were all prerecorded he was just acting like he was doing them and cueing them off

Watchwww.youtube.com

If they make a "breakdancing" app I'm just gonna start smacking the crap out of people.

Look I'm not hating on anybody but from my stand point as a wanna be DJ the thing that made DJing special was the fact that it was difficult to do. It took practice and dedication all these apps and auto mix DJ programs are no different than Auto-Tune in the music industry.

Is that meant to be a subtle reference to this Watchwww.youtube.com ?

The anthem for your friend and others that wish to pursue this skill
Watchwww.youtube.com

this whole video is just a huge embarrasement..maybe im the only one who actually thinks that. But the button scratches were not even on point. And when he broke out that electronic flute I had to just close my browser. I don't know wtf..I just watched but it was god awful horrible and had cheese writtin all over it. If I ever do this in my videos I give you all the right to slap me in my face. FACEPALM!

And I'm not being a hater. As a dj spinning for 10 + yrs there's not much skill invovled in that whole entire video. As a real dj I just can't seem to take that video seriously. I think it was quite hilarious. Especially when that electronic flute came out I thought i was going to hear blues traveler..."Buddy ooooo....why u wanna gimme the run around..."

actually, the electronic sax takes way more skill than most DJs ever do as it's an actual breath controller - you actually have to know how to play a real instrument to use it unlike most DJing.

Vesper's music is definitely not my thing, but trying to claim what he's doing doesn't take skill is pretty inaccurate.

The "scratching" I could probably do without tho, but proper button pushing also takes skill - for instance:

Watchwww.youtube.com

After watched that it just made me realise how much i love my turntables :)

sure, but most of those videos take way more skill than 90% of the DJs I've ever seen. The end result may not be some people's cup of tea, but you can't honestly think that beatmatching takes more skill than building your own beats and tunes on the fly?

He's doing that all on ableton. Everythings already planned out and he's just hitting cues..correct? If not then im mistaken. For what he did I guess it does take some skill my bad. I'm just sayin the video didn't impress me as a scratch dj myself. It takes a hell of alot more time and practice to do real scratching. He's pushing buttons for chirst sake that's already pre ready in ableton..The flute part was just awkward. It sounded like a soundtrack to a nintendo game.

you still have to learn the cues, samples, effects, the order in which to play, compose the beats (this is more for the MPC jam - the vespers things was more a demo than anything).

That's like saying that playing the piano is just pushing buttons and doesn't take skill.

u got a point there. I have played a piano and it takes hella skill. It's just the OL G in me that respect that form of dj'ing more. Maybe my problem is I'm just not able to adapt/recieve to that type of dj'ing. Then again what he did is more from a producers perspective. And that does take skill. I have no idea whatsoever how to use ableton lol..i don't have much patience for it. I've tried it though. I look at the screen and go fuck why do i not have turntables infront of me.

it took me a hell of a lot longer to learn to produce than it did to learn to dj. It's just way more technical and demanding than 90% of DJs will ever get to.

maybe if we're talking hardcore turntablism that would be one thing, but basic scratches, beatmatching, phrase, and harmonic mixing are really not that hard in the long run...

I can understand pooh-pooh someone just using ableton or traktor to match 2 or 3 tracks and that's it, but once people are actually generating beats on the fly and performing them, you can't really deny the skill - even if the end result isn't your cup of tea...

Holy fuckin shit that was the dumbest, lamest thing I've ever seen.

My hate for Ableton-dependent DJs just grew even more.