
The Art of DJing: Jeff Mills - pmcpinto
https://www.residentadvisor.net/features/3436
======
parksy
I enjoyed reading this article immensely. I'm a nobody bedroom producer but
the description of the feathering and blending out tracks, and his interaction
with the audience and how he's using layers to tell a story from his mind and
not just appeasing the crowd really spoke to why I do what I do the way I do
it, made me respect the man all the more for his integrity, and it's something
that is increasingly difficult to do - be an artist above being a slightly
randomising musical xerox. There's a message there for producers and DJs that
there's a soul or spirit that's always at risk, and we have the ability to
uphold it.

Reading Jeff's description of the mental process not just the mechanical
process... I was sad the article seemed to just touch on those areas and would
love to see deeper into the artistic process. When he's imagining approaching
a planet, or being in the forest, and how that translates to music for him.

What a legendary DJ. I'd love to see / hear him do a modern set mixing old
school hits records like he described. And now I'm falling down a youtube hole
back into the 80s:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejSvyXlin_s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejSvyXlin_s)

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dnhz
Example no. 1. Jeff Mills once put out a DVD demonstrating his techniques.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtw2-kL32YM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtw2-kL32YM)
(Exhibitionist Mix, 2014). Excerpted in the interview

(start around 18:00 for The Bells)

~~~
0db532a0
There’s The Purpose Maker as well:

[https://youtu.be/vUgwa5sJRKs](https://youtu.be/vUgwa5sJRKs)

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clydethefrog
Fantastic feature aside, does anyone love the design and functionality of
Resident Advisor? The only review sites that feels like an institute in it's
genre nowadays, while all the other review platforms have sold their soul.
They have an excellent artist and event database too. Fingers crossed it will
never change.

~~~
shermanyo
I can't speak highly enough of RA, they've been a key part of my music
discovery and insight into so many of the artists I follow.

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empath75
My advice if you want to be a DJ is to skip learning how to mix with
turntables and go straight to ableton live. It took me years to get good at
beatmatching, and played gigs in front of thousands of people, but you can be
perfect with a few hours spent learning ableton live, with as many effects and
filters as you could possibly want. I switched to ableton basically the second
I found out about it and never went back.

It’s really hard to do what Jeff mills is doing with turntables. Like years
and years of many hours a day practice.

You can recreate it in ableton live with absolutely no practice at all and
then do more stuff on top of it.

Of course ableton doesn’t tell you the right moments to mix or the right songs
or the right way to filter and so on, so there is still a lot of artistry and
skill, but just in terms of dexterity, it’s a lot easier.

~~~
igotsideas
This is terrible advice. It’s like telling someone to not learn how to
program, just use wix for your websites.

If you want to learn how to dj, learn to mix on turntables, cdjs, or a
controller. IMO, you’re missing a lot of fun if you rely on Ableton for
everything and you have less control over your mixes. You can do just as much
with Serato fx as you can Ableton effects if that’s your worry.

~~~
laumars
I am an ex-techno DJ and have had quite a number of bookings in the UK as well
as produced a few tracks of my own too. I made the switch to Ableton years ago
when I found turntables actually hampered my creativity (and I don't say this
likely since I was a competent in 3 decks and beat-mixing tracks of different
time signatures - which is a _hard_ skill to learn)

Beat mixing is only a very small part of DJing and is _not_ a creative part of
the process. It's a technical skill - nothing more.

Telling people they must learn how to beat mix on turntables before learning
Ableton is like saying someone must learn how to paint with oil paints before
they're allowed to use Photoshop. What actually matters is what enables
performers to create the best live performance.

One thing I will agree with you on is that I have more of an emotional
connection with vinyl because I'm physically connecting with the playback
media. I've never gotten the same emotional connection with CDs nor Ableton.
However this is a tactile response and nothing to do with the music itself so
the audience wouldn't experience that.

~~~
igotsideas
> I am an ex-techno DJ and have had quite a number of bookings in the UK as
> well as produced a few tracks of my own too.

Why does this matter? If you want dick swinging, I'll probably beat you
anyday. I'm a DMC finalist and toured with a few big rap groups and on my own
for more than half of my life. All this is irrelevant. We're talking about
skills vs faking the funk here.

> Beat mixing is only a very small part of DJing and is not a creative part of
> the process. It's a technical skill - nothing more.

It is a part of djing and it is a creative part of the process. Maybe you
didn't get creative with it and that's perfectly fine. However, others have
gotten creative with it(Z-trip, dj shadow, cut chemist, jrocc, mr choc, daft
punk, and many more).

> Telling people they must learn how to beat mix on turntables before learning
> Ableton is like saying someone must learn how to paint with oil paints
> before they're allowed to use Photoshop. What actually matters is what
> enables performers to create the best live performance.

So if you're going for face value then yes, I can go up on stage with my
laptop, play an mp3, dance to the music in front of thousands, and entertain
people all day. This is entertainment but this isn't djing. I'm talking about
raw skill. Sounds like you prefer someone to lip sync than actual sing on
stage. Same thing.

> I've never gotten the same emotional connection with CDJs nor Ableton.
> However the audience wouldn't experience that.

They will if you're good at your craft.

~~~
laumars
> _Why does this matter? If you want dick swinging, I 'll probably beat you
> anyday. I'm a DMC finalist and toured with a few big rap groups and on my
> own for more than half of my life. All this is irrelevant. We're talking
> about skills vs faking the funk here._

It's relevant because it's a conversation about techno and I'm explaining I
have direct insight into DJing techno.

DMC is an entirely difference scene where "turntablism" is more of a thing so
I can see why you might argue the case for learning to beat mix but those
arguments don't apply to techno.

> _It is a part of djing and it is a creative part of the process. Maybe you
> didn 't get creative with it and that's perfectly fine._

You cannot get creative with beat matching. The process of beat matching is
literally just quantising two tracks together. Everything else beyond that is
"mixing" \- which is where the creative process happens. But that is not "beat
matching".

The distinction I'm making is vital because you can do creative beat _mixing_
without having to do any _beat matching_.

> _Maybe you didn 't get creative with it and that's perfectly fine._

I do and please don't make personal assumptions about me.

> _So if you 're going for face value then yes, I can go up on stage with my
> laptop, play an mp3, dance to the music in front of thousands, and entertain
> people all day. This is entertainment but this isn't djing. I'm talking
> about raw skill. Sounds like you prefer someone to lip sync than actual sing
> on stage. Same thing._

All DJing is just playing other peoples records. You're not up there with a
guitar ffs. So it doesn't matter if it's an vinyl or an MP3 - that's just a
technical detail. What actually matters is how you mix those records, not beat
match them.

> _They will if you 're good at your craft._

You do realise you just argued that "The audience will physically touch your
vinyl if you're a good DJ" \- a statement which suggests you throw sharp
plastic objects into the crowd. Clearly you wouldn't do this - which means you
should probably go back and re-read what I'd written ;)

~~~
doublerebel
> You cannot get creative with beat matching

This is patently false, and particularly turntablists know it. There are
several ways to match beats that are hard for computers (e.g. 3 over 4), or
manually swinging the beat (computers don't have the funk), particularly to
match a live band or instrument.

I understand why people like Ableton, but don't pretend it's not limiting to
expressivity. It's like why piano players still play chords manually instead
of just triggering them -- the analog human input actually makes it sound
better than worse and the human aspect is usually what the audience came for.

~~~
laumars
> _This is patently false, and particularly turntablists know it. There are
> several ways to match beats that are hard for computers (e.g. 3 over 4), or
> manually swinging the beat (computers don 't have the funk), particularly to
> match a live band or instrument._

Actually the main reason I switched to Ableton was because it was much easier
to match music that isn't quantised because I started to throw in a lot of
rock, metal and industrial sounds into my techno sets. What I wanted was long
mixes with such tracks and while I could "drop" non-dance tracks in with
vinyl, the effect wasn't as polished nor as sympathetic to the techno sound I
was trying to achieve. This is in spite of me already being an accomplished
multi-deck DJ who was competent with mixing different time signatures and
other quirky tracks that many others might avoid.

I do still love my decks though. It's not an "either / or" for me. I'd
alternate between the different formats depending on the gig and the sound I
wanted to create.

> _I understand why people like Ableton, but don 't pretend it's not limiting
> to expressivity_

Limiting in some ways, liberating in others. Vinyl has it's own limiting
factors too. They're just different tools with different advantages and
disadvantages. Saying one is better than the other is purely a subjective
opinion based on the DJing style of the person arguing it.

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0db532a0
For people interested in learning more about the Detroit electronic music
scene, here are some more must-check names:

Drexciya

James Stinson

Gerald Donald

DJ Stingray

Sherard Ingram

Der Zyklus

Dopplereffekt

Gedankenexperiment

Transllusion

Clarence G

The Other People Place

Underground Resistance

Robert Hood

Marcellus Pittman

Moodymann

Theo Parrish

Juan Atkins

DJ Qu

DJ Jus-Ed

Eduardo de la Calle

Terrence Dixon

Omar S

Clone Records

~~~
chiefalchemist
I realize you listed UR but we have to give respect to Mad Mike and list Mad
Mike as well.

p.s. Thanks for keeping +8 off that list ;)

~~~
escapologybb
Mad Mike Banks and Richie Hawtin literally made my head turn into a small
puddle of goo at Glastonbury 98, I honestly think I left a couple of drops of
my soul in a field that sunny afternoon.

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pmcpinto
It's nice to see so many electronic music fans in HN

