Popular Debate...What's hardest to spin?

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junglist22

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Ok DJ's, this is a popular debate me and my friends have all the time (one being a jungle DJ, one being a UK House DJ, and myself being a trance DJ). I SAY that jungle is easiest to spin because there is real no bass-kicking beat at the beginning and end of each song to match, all you really have to do is find the right places to bring in the next track.
I hold true that beat-matching is the toughest skill to learn, but that's just an opinion based on experience.
What do you all think is the hardest genre to spin, and does anyone agree with me on what I said about spinning jungle? I figure this should be a fun discussion/argument.
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Take it easy guys.
 
all things hardcore..by far...they are the easiest mixes to wreck. almost zero room for error. you miss a beat by a little and you can hear it a LOT.
so imo thats the hardest...be it happycore, hardcore, gabber, etc.
and i do agree with you about jungle
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"There's nothing a rooftop and an AK47 can't fix."
-girlEgirl
[This message has been edited by mistybug (edited 23 January 2001).]
 
hardcore would not be hard to spin if you had an mc and he called for a "rewind" every other tune hehehhehehehe
if not tho..well...i have to listen to wrecks every day while dj nimby practices his gabber hehe
elena
 
i say country or perhaps classical
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oh my god thats the funky shit
 
I completely disagree with you about jungle. There is almost always a bass beat present at the beginning and end of each song. But it doesn't matter because you don't match breakbeats by the bass anyway. You match them by the snare on the 2 and 4 counts.
I've never spun any hardcore, but to the average person I would say that trance is the hardest to spin, simply due to the fact that mistakes are nearly impossible to cover. However, this tends to mean that people are lazier spinning other styles because they know if they fuck up, most people won't notice it. I think that each style has it's own challenges, and are therefore about equally difficult to spin.
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Fuck PLUR! It's all about hardcore assfucking!--The stuck-up 8ups
Just remember, I can delete you--Spencer
Damn Lane is an annoying asshole!
 
Neither.
It all comes down to being able to count and match beats. what is so hard about that?
Trance is not that hard to spin and neither is Jungle.
FYI, If you want you trance to sound Really good, don't match bass beats, Match the click of the snare. Just like jungle.
Now, can anyone tell me why>>>>>>>>> think about it. Think about the bass in songs. If you listen closely they are not the same some times. There are afew different kinds of bass.
[This message has been edited by RhettGill (edited 23 January 2001).]
 
Well I agree but...mixing trance wont sound right unless the bass in lined up no matter how different the bass sounds are.
Of course when I cant seem to cue a song whether it be cuz I'm drunk or it's just too difficult, I will look for the break and use that to fade in. This is poor, but they are songs sometimes that you just can't seem to mix correctly. <-- My 2 Cents
 
How long have you been spinning? J22
I was taught this from a well known dj who has been spinning for 13 years. It is true. It works, sounds WAY better.
You aren't bringing in the bass at full volume are you? If you are, don't! Switch the bass on the break....that is pretty comomon knowledge,hence my question...how long have you been spinning?
 
RhettGill.. I don't think turning up the bass EQ at the break is always a good idea unless you want every transition to end up at the break of the next song... you'll get much more energy in your sets if you have both basses turned up and matched up... of course there are those two tracks that have completely different bass drum sounds.. in that case..turning the low eq down for the incoming track will work..but it shouldn't be a set rule or anything of that matter.. i've been spinning for a while and it seems that with trance the way to get the best mixes is by matching the quarter note bass..not anything else.. you might gain something from another way but i feel you lose too much of another...just be opinion as a DJ...
 
okay, with enough practice a monkey can match beats. i dont think that takes any real talent at all, and all major styles of dance music have clear beats, so that cant be a criteria for difficulty in mixing. however, it is very important to keep the set interesting and dynamic. trance songs do this for you, all you have to do is put them together cleanly, which i really dont think is that hard. i think that minimal techno is quite possibly the most difficult style, because the tracks are merely tools, and to keep them interesting you need to go fast and be creative with your mixes. this goes for certain types of jungle as well.
if you get into more diverse areas of djing, try some idm (its very hard, the beat structure and time signature change often)
any suggestions on spinning idm are greatly appreciated
 
I was wondering when someone was going to mention techno (obviously not too many people here spin it). It's without a doubt the hardest genre to spin WELL. I've been working on a new CD all week, and it's taking forever because I'm such a perfectionist...plus on a 74-minute CD, I go through about 25-26 tracks (36-40 if it's on 3 decks), which is a lot more mixes than you're gonna fit on a trance CD, which has a maximum of what...12 maybe. If I switched to trance I guarantee you that every mix I ever did would be flawless...mixing trance is soooo simple. Try making a trance CD where you're literally in the mix for the whole CD and tell me how it comes out, then take a listen to something by Jeff Mills or Richie Hawtin or Marco Carola, where they're in the mix THE WHOLE CD (minus the ocassional breakdown). No offense meant to tranceheads, but come on...it's not hard to spin AT ALL. Why do you think so many people do?
-Tim
 
I think they are all equal and think this is a stupid question!. whether it sounds good is another matter and depends on the person mixing, they are either shit or good!
the hardest thing about mixing is track selection!!
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The journey never ends!!!
 
Well TC, if you could do every trance set perfectly everytime with no wrecks, why don't you start spinning trance and teach all those other crapy DJ's (read: Oakenfold, PvD, blah blah) how to really mix. Didn't I just see a thread yesterday on megaDJ F*ck Ups? Peace,
vestaxboy
 
After reading your posts:
1. You have no clue what you are talking about.
2. Are dunb asses if you don't know what I am talking about.
I am not talking about bringing in the bass During a break, dumbass. when the there is a slight break..ya know..when the beat changes...Kill the bass on the one and turn up the bass on the other...I.e Switch basslines. Then start killing the treble and mid, and replace with otehr tracks mids and treble.
Listen boys, i know what the fuck I am talking about. Try it.........
I am NO DJ KOS< but boys, believe me I am right.
If you think I am full of it, you can suck my balls.
Also, Why do you think any of the genres are harder to spin than the other. It all comes down to beat matching and style.
House is easy as fuck, so is techno.
[This message has been edited by RhettGill (edited 24 January 2001).]
 
Before this post turns into a huge flamefest, I think we should all remember that no style is..."easy as fuck" To the common listener, yes, they all are. Like someone already said, you could train a monkey to match beats. Each style has intricacies that only become apparent once you really begin to understand how that for of music works.
I spin jungle, so I'll use that as an example. Yes, it's not that hard to get the beats to match, and the pace of the music is such that many people get lazy and just match the beats for a few measures...if at all. Where jungle begins to get difficult is in attempting to make very long transistions...which is charactaristic of my mixing style. It's very easy for mixed jungle to sound "too busy" so the difficulty comes in adjusting the volumes and EQ's to keep the mix sounding good.
And along with what RhettGill is saying about changing the bass volume, I completely agree. Following the basic structure of trance(and most dance music) which is an 8bar pattern you can follow the loops and change the EQ as the loop changes. This helps keep the flow of the music going, and makes the beat transition sound more natural.
I'm not claiming to be the world's best dj or anything...just trying to throw some of my thoughts out there. Any input on this?
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Fuck PLUR! It's all about hardcore assfucking!--The stuck-up 8ups
Just remember, I can delete you--Spencer
Damn Lane is an annoying asshole!
 
Ok, to the techno point: Techno can hard depending on the flavour you are working with. If you are using a lot of tribally stuff like Adam Beyer, then you are going to have it pretty darn easy. However, it is when you go to the more minimal and darker stuff does the challenge begin. Anyone ever try to do a set with just tracks off of the downwards lable; fuckin' hard ain't it. I love to spin techno for myself, not many kids dig it, and it was my first passion behind the decks.
Trance:
Trance is by far, the most deceptive of the genres. It is hard, very hard, to do a well place trance set unless you can perfectly beat match. It is my opinion that, trance doesn't really begin to rock until the track transitions. If you listen to trance enough, you'll notice that the producers understand this, which is why a trance track's ending is usually long as hell, there is your "DJing tools". If you can't keep records tight, then you will blow many golden opportunities to sound like a pro.
A very good example would be PVD remix of Cream into Tiesto's Remix of You Take My Breath Away. If you'll notice in Cream, when the final climax is done, the track is still pretty active, but just tame enough to drop another track... You take my breath away is more or less in key with Cream so as a good Trance DJ you can exploit this by --s - l - o - w - l - y -- bringing up You take my breath away, it's bassline is key with Cream. If you can EQ mix, you drop the kick on Cream and Bring up the kick in You Take My Breath Away on the 4; that shit rocks.
 
agreed that with trance the skill lies in the transition. clean is definitely where its at, i just feel that creativity is limited by the tracks themselves. i tried to spin trance, and just got bored waiting till the end of a track, bringing in the beginning of another, for the whole set. im not saying that all trance djs do this, and if you spin trance (which i know you all do), how do you keep involved with the set, and not end up just watching the record until the end of the track?
as far as tribal techno, its all about how creative you make it. you can go through drumcode tracks very quickly, with lots of cuts and fun things with the eqs. or you can sit there and go, "wow, cool track, i think ill just let it play", and become just another audience member.
anyone ever listened to the torque cd by ed rush? it has one cd of a mix, and another of just the tracks. the tracks by themselves are boring as hell, but when he mixes them, they sound pretty tight.
 
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