Does anybody else in this world hate (or dislike or don't buy) DJ mixes? Or am I the only one?

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Everyone here seem to love DJ mixes ... Well, I don't and I think I am the only one?
I love to have the full track and I don't like it when the guy chop it off, speed it up, or edit it or whatever. I know I could close my eyes and think I am in a club and the guy's playing: I tried hard, but It just does not work for me. And I do not have the patience of listening for over one hour to the same CD, sort of a non stop track ... And if I upload the CD to my iPod, the tracks are cut down somewhere, normally at the moment i am enjoying it the most, and I do not like this either. Admiring the mixing technique of the DJ? Not for me.

― ifeelspace, Thursday, 10 November 2005 16:03 (twenty years ago)

Having said this:
What's good about DJ mixes: Very valuable source of information for me. I'd most likely buy a track that's on certain people mix ...

― ifeelspace, Thursday, 10 November 2005 16:07 (twenty years ago)

And if I upload the CD to my iPod, the tracks are cut down somewhere, normally at the moment i am enjoying it the most, and I do not like this either.

The trick is to use the "Join CD Tracks" command in iTunes, so that the CD is ripped as one long track, with no jumps or gaps.

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Thursday, 10 November 2005 16:10 (twenty years ago)

And then I have a track that is 70 minutes long ...!!! Not for me, thanks.

― ifeelspace, Thursday, 10 November 2005 16:13 (twenty years ago)

I agree with ifeelspace. I prefer to have the entire track, even if the into and outro to the track are just thump-thump kick-drums.

― paul c (paul c), Thursday, 10 November 2005 16:20 (twenty years ago)

paul, we are two!

― ifeelspace, Thursday, 10 November 2005 16:21 (twenty years ago)

The only time I have ever really enjoyed DJ mixes was on road trips.

― Caught Red Handed at Sam's Hofbrau (Bent Over at the Arclight), Thursday, 10 November 2005 16:25 (twenty years ago)

Mixes are the best thing in the world. Most of the best music genres would be a lot poorer without them.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 10 November 2005 16:29 (twenty years ago)

Yeah needless to say I totally disagree, and I'm beginning to doubt your committment to sparkle motion.

― deej.. (deej..), Thursday, 10 November 2005 16:32 (twenty years ago)

I admire the fantastic taste of most DJs I know & listen to. But I'm mostly left cold by their mad skillz on the turntables. If I have a mixed and unmixed copy of a dj set, I invariably stick with the unmixed set. I rarely have the patience to sit through an hour-and-ten-minute track unless it's late at night and I'm drunk at a party. And then I'd rather have someone doing it live.

― Billy Pilgrim (Billy Pilgrim), Thursday, 10 November 2005 17:05 (twenty years ago)

Everyone here seem to love DJ mixes ... Well, I don't
+
Very valuable source of information for me
=
You love mixes. Ded thred.

― blunt (blunt), Thursday, 10 November 2005 17:08 (twenty years ago)

I can see the point of it with dance music, and occasionally with other music (or especially hip hop DJ sets), but it's not really one of my favorite ways to consume music, and this mash-up shit has got to go.

― Al (sitcom), Thursday, 10 November 2005 17:08 (twenty years ago)

i agree re: mash-ups but isn't that more an ipod-internerd thing than a DJ thing? DJs call them blends.

― deej.. (deej..), Thursday, 10 November 2005 17:09 (twenty years ago)

I don't think I've ever even heard a DJ mix.

― Øystein (Øystein), Thursday, 10 November 2005 17:12 (twenty years ago)

Ok I think stuff like Coldcut's 70 minutes of madness can be considered like more than the sum of his parts or something, but still ... 70 minutes ...

― ifeelspace, Thursday, 10 November 2005 17:30 (twenty years ago)

I recently made a CDr compilation for my car called "Today". Can you guess the tracklist?

1 Lawrence Spark
2 DJ Koze Let's Help Me
3 Michael Mayer Lovefood (Matias Aguayo Mix)
4 Triola Leuchtturm (Wighnomy's Polarzipper Remix)
5 Oliver Hacke 21:31
6 Psychonauts World Keeps Turning (Highfish & Zander Remix)
7 Nathan Fake Dinamo
8 Wighnomy Brothers Wurz + Blosse
9 Superpitcher Happiness (Lawrence Mix)
10 Max Mohr Old Song

"La Ritournelle" did not fit ...

― nocure, Thursday, 10 November 2005 17:45 (twenty years ago)

What ist this term "DJ"?

― Matt Carlson (mattsoncarlhew), Thursday, 10 November 2005 19:05 (twenty years ago)

It is short for "Dee Jay". Dee Jay was the first entertainer to play a record for someone else. Before that, everyone had to spin the record by their own hand and hold their ear to a giant horn.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 10 November 2005 19:33 (twenty years ago)

DJ stands for Dick Jockey, because everyone who DJs is a dick rider.

― Al (sitcom), Thursday, 10 November 2005 19:39 (twenty years ago)

What's up w/the mash-up hate? Seems like the majority of ILM isn't too keen. But perhaps this is for another thread...

― darin (darin), Thursday, 10 November 2005 19:45 (twenty years ago)

I am often depressed by an inability to use mixes as "valuable sources of information" -- even with a track list in front of me, I'll wind up unable to isolate the track I want. Which sucks when you've listened and followed the tracklist for 40 minutes to figure out which song you like so much, and then you start to think you're off, and something you thought was a track transition was actually just a bold edit / song transition (or vice versa).

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 10 November 2005 19:49 (twenty years ago)

(Obviously that applies to single-track mp3 mixes, not track-cut CDs.)

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 10 November 2005 19:50 (twenty years ago)

I dunno man. "The Bells" by jeff mills is probably my favorite song, but I don't think I've ever heard it completely, beginning to end. I don't really need to hear the 45 seconds of mix fodder at the beginning and ends of most techno tracks, and get bored listenig to those parts. In the mix though, those tunes are incredibly exciting to me.

― tylero (tylero), Thursday, 10 November 2005 20:29 (twenty years ago)

Yeah I don't like this either, usually because I just want the whole track of the ones I like and could do without the ones I don't. You skip to the song you like and there's a jarring start to the track because it's been mixed in from the previous. I'm not _against_ them because obviously they're fun to listen to if you put the whole thing on but that's not how I usually like to listen to music, usually just a mix of different stuff. I'd love it if compilations were released in 2 versions - one mixed and one the whole tracks.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Thursday, 10 November 2005 21:04 (twenty years ago)

Best thing about hip hop and dance music is what's coming next. It's the *drama* of the mix that's great, along with the track selection, obv.

― paulhw (paulhw), Thursday, 10 November 2005 21:14 (twenty years ago)

I was thinking about this yesterday as I was listening to the Damian Lazarus Rebel Futurism #2, which often has unusually fast and precise switches between quite different tracks - like, there are several transitions where it sounds like the previous track just stops and the new track takes up exactly where it left off (I keep on thinking of baton relay races - instead of having the runners run alongside one another for a stretch, here the passing on is instantaneous). It's a great trick when it works, really adding a sense of drama which playing out the full track, having a pause and then starting the next track wouldn't be able to duplicate.

But it also demonstrates for me that it's hard to legislate what tends to make dj mixes good - long transitions or short one? Creating one track out of two or emphasising the stark contrast between them? Track selection or dj skillz, or something about how the two go together?

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 10 November 2005 21:53 (twenty years ago)

you just need to listen to this:

http://www.igetrvng.com/shop/images/mx4.jpg
http://www.igetrvng.com/shop_mx4.html

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 10 November 2005 22:09 (twenty years ago)

It is short for "Dee Jay". Dee Jay was the first entertainer to play a record for someone else. Before that, everyone had to spin the record by their own hand and hold their ear to a giant horn.

I learn somthing new in every ilx thread!

I don't buy them, but I don't hate them. DJ mixes and I have agreed to peacefully coexist.

― martin m. (mushrush), Thursday, 10 November 2005 22:19 (twenty years ago)

It's a great trick when it works, really adding a sense of drama which playing out the full track, having a pause and then starting the next track wouldn't be able to duplicate.

This trick is actually harder (IMO) to pull off than the standard long blend, so you can count it in the 'dj skillz' category too! I'm always way way way impressed when a dj does this well. Seriously though, listening to dance tracks from beginning to end kind of mystifies me. Takes all kinds though I guess.

― tylero (tylero), Thursday, 10 November 2005 22:42 (twenty years ago)

I agree it's dj skilzzz tylero! But that's sort of what i mean: there's so many ways in which you can create a good exciting mix that saying "a good DJ does [x]" is almost always bound to be overly restrictive.

The more sensible thing to do from a listening/critical perspective is to think about the mixes which work, ask yourself why they work, and reverse engineer backwards to uncover the formula(s) the DJ has used.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Thursday, 10 November 2005 23:39 (twenty years ago)

the one track thing stinks, except for Breezeblock of course (notably Super Furry Animals and Pitman)

The Back To mine, late night, ATP vein is totally the greatest thing ever to happen, especially because they have individual tracks, faded into eachother, and many include Kool Keith tracks for some odd reason.

― Mon Star2 (hydraulis2), Sunday, 13 November 2005 02:48 (twenty years ago)

I'm surely not an exxxxxxpert on this, but what I like about mixes is that they sometimes give you an entirely new perspective on a song (good mixes, anyway). I do agree that it's really annoying when you hear an awesome song on a mix, then you buy the single/download it and it's 1/2 the speed and 3 times longer.

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Sunday, 13 November 2005 02:55 (twenty years ago)

I used to feel like this, but I got over it really. These days I just work out by trial and error which labels/artists I prefer hearing mixed to having the track in full. Something like Areal (excepting Ada) and Get Physical I like mixed much more than hearing the tracks on their own... Kompakt I think is on the fence 50/50. And Bpitch I definitely like to have the tracks in full (but then they are often more fully formed 'pop' songs, and not so track/dj based often) Playhouse too. Of course below these famous names there's a whole shit-ton of stuff & genres which I'd never want to hear in full - mix away!

― Acid house girls and flowers (fandango), Monday, 14 November 2005 17:15 (twenty years ago)

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