For the past five or six years, the art of Dj-ing has become increasingly more accessible to the general public. Becoming a disc jockey used to require a substantial investment into gear and media to play, as well as plenty of practice in mixing and beatmatching. The advent of timecoded vinyl systems such as Final Scratch, Scratch Live, Ms. Pinky, and many others along with completely internal systems such as PCDJ, Virtual DJ, etc. changed the game entirely. Downloading of music through torrents and other methods was already widespread, so quickly accumulating a music library at zero cost made Dj-ing far more attainable and thus more Dj’s entered the market. The fully internal software mixing options, though certainly not as popular as timecode systems in the professional world at that time, began getting greater attention because not only were they even lower cost than most timecode systems, they were easier to transport, had more features such as effects, and could bpm sync to tracks or a master clock automatically– almost completely bypassing a need to understand manual beatmatching. Software applications such as Traktor Pro can even quantize events and auto-gain tracks to create perfectly timed mixes even if the user makes a mistake, and programs like Mixed In Key reduce the chances of mixing clashing songs.
All things considered, the new emerging technology certainly felt like a threat to already established Dj’s because of software’s ability to do a lot of the work for the Dj, and the implication that this combined with lower cost-of-entry would bring many more Dj’s into the already diluted pool. The way I’ve always seen it is that if new technology arrives, one must understand and utilize it where needed to stay on top of the game and use it as an opportunity for more creativity. I use Traktor Pro, and set-up beat grids to keep my songs in sync, despite that I know how to beatmatch, because this affords me the chance to do things that would be very difficult otherwise. Mixing three decks in sync, using a sampler, and manipulating effects all at the same time using midi controllers; my mixes sound far better, and are more creative than what I could do with two turntables and a mixer alone (which I started with) and so I have the competitive edge and bring a new sound to the table. The new sound which I create, and the method of doing so is called controllerism, which is the generation of DJ from which I belong (turntablism being the alternate generation). But controllerists and digital Dj’s alike have been experiencing an exponential flood of new products and will subsequently receive a wave of new Dj’s.
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