Dj with most technique

[Quazzi]

Technicaly speeking who's considered the best psytrance dj? Remenber, i'm talking about technique.....

 

 

Thanks

[kabamaru]

i think tristan has a reputation for technique, don't like the music he plays though...

[seraph]

I liked Joti Sidhu, Dino Psaras and Lestat from Talamasca techniques.

[Alek]

Not that I pay that much attention to technique... but out of the ones I've heard it would probably be Dino Psaras and Peter Didjital.

[krelmatrix]

Tsuyoshi - technically speaking, he's a god on the decks. Music-wise, opinions vary.

 

I've also heard (but never personally seen) great things about the technique of Dino Psaras.

 

Dimitri Nakov is also one of the best.

[Lepton]

I was told more than once that Lestat doesn't beatmix.

[dasa]

I was told more than once that Lestat doesn't beatmix.

198758[/snapback]

goa gill sure don't.

[Ov3rdos3]

kinda hard to beatmix if there aint no beats. most ambient psytrane djs, dont beatmix. as for best technique dj, i would also have to say Mr Suzuki is one of the best, although his music is what we would refer to in South Africa as "KAK".

no mr suzuki, that is not a compliment.

 

now please guys dont flame me, but i was watching Skazi mix in CapeTown one lovely satuday evening and the way he mixes is really, really good. he's all over the place, tweaking and going mad. he has a very good style of mixing, he totally gets into it. pity about the music though. i used to love skazi but the whole full on thing just doesnt do it for me anymore. it just doesnt have enough depth for me. its not psychedelic enough.

[Ov3rdos3]

it was actaully a very funny story, one of my close friends Clive, was the person who threw the pie in his face. we even waited with the camera and took a photo as the pie hit his face,hahahaha!!!! stupid tjoshi, he was quite pissed off though.

[FrozenRealm]

haha Overdose... Kak, does that mean something like Shit?

(i'm dutch so if you talk some south-african stuff I can understand a bit I guess hehe).

Best Dj i've seen perform here must have been Natan from Parvati records or the two Rastaliens

[Ov3rdos3]

KAK (afrikaans) = sh1t, crap, excrement, faeces. the result of a bowel movement.

[Guest djnemo]

Dj Anti (Spiral Trax) sure kicked some ass back in the days, I was always nervous to have a morning set after him, because it was kind of hard to beat his teqnique... In my opinion Dino cant mix at all, atleast not when he played back in the old days, maybe hes improved? Any other psy djs that are "famous" I cant speak of, because technicaly they all sucked hehe. However I have to say, that the Swedish djs in general kick ass, as do the danish. Anyone heard of Dj Dash? He sure kicked everyones ass with his 5 hour acid trance sets, which became mor of a psy dj later, and there he also really layed down a couple of mindblowing sets... hes the ONLY dj that I have seen with a Pitchable CASSETTEDRIVE beatmixing tracks in on the fly...

[dasa]

i just wanted to plug Michael Liu from SF Bay Area, CA, USA. spins out some mean sets. while i love goa/psy trance tunes, the djs in the scene usually don't quite measure up to those in housse/prog/techno scenes.

[Ov3rdos3]

i just wanted to plug Michael Liu from SF Bay Area, CA, USA.  spins out some mean sets.  while i love goa/psy trance tunes, the djs in the scene usually don't quite measure up to those in housse/prog/techno scenes.

198977[/snapback]

i disagree completely. firstly house/club/shit music is mixed using 2 turntables and a mixer. psytrance "performers" use much more. and they dont use gimmicky turntable trickery like hardhouse djs would because it doesnt sound right doing that with psytrance. the mixing style is completly different, but mixing psy requires 10x more skill than mixing hardhouse or hard trance or something like that. for instance, even when phil reynolds or lisa lashes or whoever mix their tune in, you can hear when she is brining the new tune in. with psytrance dj's, YOU DO NOT NOTICE THE TRANSITION. that is f**king difficult and that is what a good mix is. psytrance djs are in a whole differnent league to hardhouse djs's. get your facts straight mate.

[Quazzi]

What about hardcore dj's?! I have a hardcore mixed cs called House Party 10, and the guys mix a track almost every 30 seconds! Awesome!!!!!

[Ov3rdos3]

What about hardcore dj's?! I have a hardcore mixed cs called House Party 10, and the guys mix a track almost every 30 seconds! Awesome!!!!!

199010[/snapback]

i would say drum and bass would be the most difficult music to mix.

[Tatsu]

I know a lot of you guys (and galls!!) don't like him but I've heard Yahel two times mixing at parties and it was just great. Very good technique as fas as I can tell and also the tunes he was playing where making the crowd going mad. But both parties where about 2 or 3 years ago, don't know how has it with mixing nowadays.

[krelmatrix]

I was told more than once that Lestat doesn't beatmix.

198758[/snapback]

You were told wrong. I booked him for a party about 3 years ago and he was definitely beatmixing. He wasn't a technical wizard like Dimitri or Tsuyoshi, but his beatmixing was completely solid.

 

(He was actually a hardcore DJ in the early-90s, so he knew the skills before he ever got into psytrance)

[Towelie]

raja ram .. or not

[krelmatrix]

i disagree completely. firstly house/club/shit music is mixed using 2 turntables and a mixer. psytrance "performers" use much more. and they dont use gimmicky turntable trickery like hardhouse djs would because it doesnt sound right doing that with psytrance. the mixing style is completly different, but mixing psy requires 10x more skill than mixing hardhouse or hard trance or something like that. for instance, even when phil reynolds or lisa lashes or whoever mix their tune in, you can hear when she is brining the new tune in. with psytrance dj's, YOU DO NOT NOTICE THE TRANSITION. that is f**king difficult and that is what a good mix is. psytrance djs are in a whole differnent league to hardhouse djs's. get your facts straight mate.

199004[/snapback]

Just wondering - which psytrance DJs are you hearing? Most of them I've heard can barely hold a beatmatched mix cleanly for more than 32 beats, have little idea of EQing, and find accurate phrasing to be a total mystery. Unfortunately, the bar for psytrance DJ is set pretty low, on the technical skills side. It's amazing that you can go to a large festival with thousands of people, and still hear so many trainwrecks.

 

Also, most psytrance DJs stick more or less to straight track-to-track flow, with little use of additional effects processors, beat loops, etc. While I agree with you that I don't think that turntablism would work so well with psytrance, there are many many other skills that DJs can take advantage of - which few psytrance DJs do. Not that I'm complaining about this, but the typical "technical toolbox" for psytrance DJs consists largely of beatmixing - which can be learned in a matter of a couple months (with persistent practice). When you compare to techno DJs - many using 3+ turntables, constantly in the mix, adding percussion layers, etc - there is no comparison. Same for house DJs - many of whom also use additional percussion loops, layered acapellas, etc etc. And so on...

 

Regardless of whether or not these skills would fit with psytrance, there is a lot more work and practice involved in becoming a technically proficient DJ in most other styles of dance music than there is in becoming a technically proficient psytrance DJ. That's why you do see that many of the most skilled psytrance DJs (ie, Tsuyoshi, Dimitri, etc etc) started out or also play other styles of dance music.

[Ov3rdos3]

dude, look at the facts...

 

hardhouse, hard trance, funky house, house etc. all follow a perticular pattern that applies to them all, they are consistant and fairly predictable. psytrance (a lot of it) doesnt always follow a consistant melodic pattern, and a lot of it is fairly unpredictable. you need to have actually listened to the tune before if you plan to beat mix it in. i have been djing for about 6 years now and been thru the hardhouse hard trance scene. your mate will give u a vinyl and ask you to mix it in. p1ss simple because it all follows the same structure. this is completely different with psytrance. you try beatmixing the intro of a psytrance (which usually has no beats)tune into the end of another tune. not too easy.most festivals ive been to the mixing of the songs are seamless. you dont hear it come in, which is GOOD MIXING!!! if you dont notice it, its a good mix. the dj isnt supposed to go all psycho on the decks and bringing in arb sounds and peiced of other tunes or start scratching as that would stick out, and in turn pull you out of your "trance" that you were there to experience in the first place. in my opinion, any idiot can mix a hardhouse set or a hardtrance set. its stupidly simple and easy. to create a 3 hour journey of psychdelic bliss without any transition noticable at all. that my friend takes skill.

 

"Most of them I've heard can barely hold a beatmatched mix cleanly for more than 32 beats, have little idea of EQing"

 

dude, you have been to some sh1t parties then. have you even seen what the EQ setup looks like at a large event compared to a hardhouse party? you need to bloody have a degree in nuclear physics to pull of the equalizing perfection some of these djs do. go and see Silicon Sound, or Hallucinogen, or Infected and watch them mix. then tell me it requires more skill to mix hardhouse or techno. i dont think so mate.

[Tatsu]

I totally agree with you Krelmatix. I guess the point of original goa trance was or is to tell a story with the songs. So the technical side of mixing didn't get much attention. I think in the psy-scene it is still a little bit like that, more about the music, less about the mixing skills. But I think this is a bit a error because nowadays nearly nowbody tries to tell a story with the music. It's more about bringin the latest hits to the crowd. But I have to add, that there are still enough DJs outthere that know what they are doing.

 

And about which style is easier to mix: every style has its own difficulties. I DJ a little at home, just for fun, and also different style. Trance has of course a much easier build up than psy or drum'n'bass. But if you play melodic trance you can beatmatch perfect and still fuck the mix up because the melodies of the track don't fit together. On the other hand psy can be easy to mix because there is so much going on in the songs that people can't hear the beginning of the new song. But of course it can also be a disaster if you try to mix in at the wrong part...

[krelmatrix]

hardhouse, hard trance, funky house, house etc. all follow a perticular pattern that applies to them all, they are consistant and fairly predictable.

as is psy-trance....

 

psytrance (a lot of it) doesnt always follow a consistant melodic pattern, and a lot of it is fairly unpredictable. you need to have actually listened to the tune before if you plan to beat mix it in.

Definitely not - at least to create a good technical transition (this says nothing about actually playing the right track). With any genre of music, you have to know your tracks in order to create a good flow - psytrance, breaks, techno, progressive, house, etc etc. But anyways, knowing the tracks is a different (albeit equally important) thing from the actual technical skills on the decks.

 

you try beatmixing the intro of a psytrance (which usually has no beats)tune into the end of another tune.

that actually doesn't sound at all like beatmixing - more like timing the intro of the next song into the end of the previous song. Perhaps we are talking about 2 drastically different mixing styles? Generally when most people speak of beatmixing, they don't use the intros (except for in a dramatic pause of some sort). There is much much more to mixing than just mixing the intros.

 

the dj isnt supposed to go all psycho on the decks and bringing in arb sounds and peiced of other tunes or start scratching as that would stick out, and in turn pull you out of your "trance" that you were there to experience in the first place.

Well, that would actually be a very unskilled DJ if they do a lot of "psycho" shit that sticks out inappropriately. A skilled DJ would do "extras" that don't stick out but seamlessly add to the set overall. Forget about scratching and other trickery - I'm talking about percussive layering, sampling, use of loops - many things that *can* be utilized by a technically skilled DJ to add to the set, not disrupt it.

 

dude, you have been to some sh1t parties then.

Not really - most of the festivals I'm referring to are larger festivals in Germany. Voov for example. Trainwrecks a'plenty. I gather that you are in South Africa from some of your earlier comments, so perhaps the standard for DJ skills is higher there than in Europe or the US (the 2 continents where I have partied frequently). Just look at Goa Gil - one of the most renowned and booked psytrance DJs, but has the technical skills of a retarded monkey. One doesn't need to have superior technical skills to be respected as a "good" psytrance DJ.

 

have you even seen what the EQ setup looks like at a large event compared to a hardhouse party? you need to bloody have a degree in nuclear physics to pull of the equalizing perfection some of these djs do.

Eh? A DJ setup is usually pretty standard, regardless of genre - a couple CDJs and/or turntables, a mixer, and *occasionally* (actually more frequent for non-psy-gigs) an FX processor. I'm not exactly sure what you are talking about where somebody would need a degree in nuclear physics to figure out (unless you are confusing it with a live PA setup). By "EQ setup" are you referring to the main sound booth (which the DJ has nothing to do with) or the DJ booth?

 

go and see Silicon Sound, or Hallucinogen, or Infected and watch them mix. then tell me it requires more skill to mix hardhouse or techno. i dont think so mate.

199027[/snapback]

Are you referring to live sets or DJ sets?? Hallucinogen, Silicon Sound, and Infected Mushroom perform mostly live sets, not DJ sets - I hope you gather that there is a huge difference between the two.

[dasa]

i disagree completely. firstly house/club/shit music is mixed using 2 turntables and a mixer. psytrance "performers" use much more. and they dont use gimmicky turntable trickery like hardhouse djs would because it doesnt sound right doing that with psytrance. the mixing style is completly different, but mixing psy requires 10x more skill than mixing hardhouse or hard trance or something like that. for instance, even when phil reynolds or lisa lashes or whoever mix their tune in, you can hear when she is brining the new tune in. with psytrance dj's, YOU DO NOT NOTICE THE TRANSITION. that is f**king difficult and that is what a good mix is. psytrance djs are in a whole differnent league to hardhouse djs's. get your facts straight mate.

199004[/snapback]

i, in turn, disagree. perhaps you don't hear transition because it's so short/abrupt - many psy tunes don't have long intro/outro and transition is often usually pretty short. also, like you wrote, psy tunes have much more defined build-up/break-down structure (the melodic ones, anyways) that it's not suitable for quick cut-in-cut-out like techno tunes. if this is gimmick, then whole "djing" is a gimmick - it's basically playing buncha pre-recorded tunes together to make a larger set. and two technics should be good enough to turn out a good set, no matter what genre.

 

if by "performer" you mean these "live acts," then we are comparing apples and oranges. but then, i sometimes see such "live acts" simply being the guy bringing loads of un-released tracks on a laptop (i.e., pre-recorded) and sticking it to pa system to play them. what's so special/live about that? yeah, some others actually bring racks of their gears and do bit of live mixing (mixdown), so that's bit more interesting.

 

i agree that mixing style would be different for psy than others - no mystery there. and, of course, we are not talking about "facts" here.

 

cheers.

[dasa]

...  perhaps you don't hear transition because it's so short/abrupt - many psy tunes don't have long intro/outro and transition is often usually pretty short.  also, like you wrote, psy tunes have much more defined build-up/break-down structure (the melodic ones, anyways) that it's not suitable for quick cut-in-cut-out like techno tunes...

199032[/snapback]

i meant quick cut-in/cut-out in the middle of the tune, that is...