dattrax: This mix was a blast to make and received the most 'likes' in Facebook that we've ever gotten when posting mixes in the house music related groups that we've joined. Over 3 dozen 'likes' so far and over 1300 plays/downloads in total (inc. FB visitors), and it's only been up for 3 weeks as of this written post. So happy that others in the world are enjoying our vision of house music, it's very gratifying. Thank you all very much. Please feel free to interact with us in the comment sections of any mix you've enjoyed below.
This mix is representative of our dattrax sound which is aggressively layered & textured house. We play all sorts of types of house tracks mashed into one continuous mix whether it be deep, vocal, tech, funky or anything else that would make us dance when mixed with house. It's always about dancing or at least bopping your head till you have to see a chiropractor, otherwise, it's just boring.
There is something beautiful about hearing different combinations of house tracks and the different transitions that happen automatically when certain combos are placed on top and through each other. Let alone what you can do to change the feel with volume levels, EQs, crossfader, mixing out, tempo, etc. Our joy is in searching for the perfect mix. It never happens but the journey is a blast. We never repeat a combo, unless it hasn't been recorded in a mix yet. Interesting combos refresh and reinvigorate our love of house every single time.
This mix was made on the new Traktor Kontrol S4, but the 'sync' feature was not used. We come from an old-fashion background of playing on crappy DJ & sound equipment and even on turntables with poor pitch control before we got Technics 1200s. We like to always get back to basics for that raw DJ feel.
When you only play two house tracks at a time and you use a computer syncing program, that's not real DJing. DJing house is about beat matching, layering, mixing out properly, transitions, programming and creating an overall house groove.
I'm not discounting 'sync', it's what it is used for that I'm disputing. If you are fusing three or four songs together and need to focus on being creative by making new sounds and textures and by making sure that the 3-4 tracks don't clash, then beat matching has to take a back seat for that to happen. That's a different type of DJing- that's closer to performance art and a new level in live remixing. Above our pay grade.
New DJs that rely on technology to do the work will get burned. Not everyone will get to play in premium clubs with state of the art DJ & sound equipment, so the basics must be solid, so that you can be flexible when you don't have the 'perfect' set-up. Learning the basics and improving on them is what makes good House DJs. I'm not trying to even compare House DJs to Hip-Hop DJs, those guys are scientists, completely next level. Just complaining about lazy, hands in their pockets DJs in the house world.
My DJ partner Jim has the Serato-Rane time-code vinyl set up and I have the Traktor S4 midi controller set up now, but we both prefer playing out on vinyl and cds. I think we had a combined collection of over 60 crates of house records. I only have five crates left because I got rid of 25crates over the years. I still don't trust a laptop to not crash, but with cds, unless I lose my cookies in anger and decide to stomp on them with my boots, we'll be cruising just fine at any gig. And as far as tactile-feel and modern flexibility of playing digital music files, nothing beats the Serato/Traktor time-coded vinyl systems.
BTW... if you enjoy this mix, then why don't you buy us a beer? There's a PayPal DONATE button on the top right side of this website. For Toronto or Global bookings: dattrax@gmail.com