With the advent of digital DJing getting more popular everyday making the old school more uncomfortable and almost angry about the new ways of doing basics that were considered skill back in the day. But digital DJing can give the masses the opportunity to spin great sets but some core skills have been automated now and I think that’s where the argument comes in. Lets start out with beat-matching this used to be done by carefully selecting songs that had the same beats per minutes. In digital DJing they use the Sync button and it automatically lines up the beats to match. Now I strongly advise every DJ learn the method of beat-matching old school for a backup plan because using software that guesses the BPM and if the software guesses wrong your going to sound horrible and if you haven't learned how to beat-match by ear you going to find your self without a solution. But if you can push a button and instantly achieve the same result why not and this gives you more freedom with the crossfader and everything stays tight. Looping is built into all DJ software and every controller on the market now even though this not new digital DJing has made it super easy. Most dance music is based on loop technology anyway so this can be very powerful tool with the right musical understanding to supercharge your set. But not everyone has musical prowess some newbie mistakes happen here because they let the loop run to long and it gets tedious and it doesn't line up right with the next song. Next are waveforms on the computer software can be a good thing for seeing how many beats are left, correcting beat-mixes but like in recording studios I think the engineer like the DJ gets to depended on visually looking at the screen and their not relying on their ears and it's distracting it keeps the DJ from being the party. Use your ears that's why you have them. And remember that DJ's are not jukebox's and the tools I talked about do not make a DJ. For more tips go to www.musicanddjinstructionalmedia.com
