Armin van Buuren: Wii loves trance ..... or else

[ElRhodeo]

radioioRobert said:

ElRhodeo said:

The Ghost of RubangB said:
How could a trance DJ be the best DJ in the world? What can he do that the Beat Junkies can't do? If we're talking about comparing the world's best DJ virtuosos, wouldn't it have to be a turntablist instead of a trance DJ? Who gets to vote on these? Trance fans?

Exactly. Look at that Tiesto video, for example - what is he doing anyway? He's playing a record and pretending to be busy with his mixer and stuff. I hate it when DJs do that. But people actually think that the DJ is "performing" the breakdown, buildup, swooshes, fill ins, whatever. It's all on the records! 

Ah, whatever. I prefer smaller clubs, different music, less pretentious DJs. 

As a DJ who has toured and opened for BT, Sasha, Digweed, Oakenfold, Paul Van Dyk, the Crystal Method, Orbital, Hybrid, Bad Boy Bill, Rabbit-In-The-Moon, Icey, Monk, Sharaz, and hundreds of others, your quote makes me laugh. It truly is performing, and the best DJ's can create an energy that the records themselves could never have. The music is important, but it truly is what you do with it. You would never understand unless you've done it, and I can see that someone who never has done it wouldn't "get it". But I promise you that your thoughts are 100% wrong, there's nothing pretending about that performance. I've spun onstage for 6000 people, and in small venues for 600. Playing records in one thing, manipulating sounds and energy to create the exact reactions and manipulate energy is something else.

You're getting me wrong - I don't deny at all that DJing is an art, and a difficult one (I've done it too, not in front of 6000 ppl though). I know that a good DJ creates something bigger from the tracks he selects and mixes. So, there's nothing bad I wanted to say about DJs in general. I was talking about this one detail, that is very present among those big room / football stadium DJs: Pretending to be "performing the breakdown". It always makes me laugh when they do it... filter goes up, snare roll starts, loop gets shorter, blah blah - and they pretend that they're the ones doing it. You know what I mean?

I'm using NI Traktor and a Kaoss Pad, so I'm aware that nowadays a DJ can actually do crazy FX stuff himself. But I also know when a DJ is just pretending. 

But let's not talk about Tiesto in special, I admit I don't really know anything about his work. I'm sure he is a great DJ, otherwise he wouldn't be that famous. It's just not my taste, as I already said - but that isn't worth arguing about.