Is anyone else Outraged by this?

[cheeseisamazing]

seriously guys. i was speechless when i heard this. i am not trolling.

So i'm at Plymouth university, and like most uni's every now and again a few acts come down and play on campus . Anyway one of the acts who played last year was Nero. I didn't go to the gig, isn't my thing and had work to do, but I've seen pics obviously.

But the other day, i started talking to one of the sound technicians at the uni...

Here's what he had to set up for Nero

they erected this massive DJ stand a about 10foot tall, with crazy neon lights, added loads of strobes and lasers the works, as for the equipment: State of the Art decks, loads of monitors and DJ equipment that i couldn't name and a massive sound system etc.

But then this is what the Techy said, in the back of the room, where the sound guy sat. There was a 'fairly good' Cd player. With a Cd of all the tracks off Nero's set list in it..

The 2 guys that are Nero, didn't use a single bit of their equipment. they stood for over an hour on this crazy stage pretending to DJ

£10 a ticket too.

apparently this isn't uncommon among Dj artist, can't confirm this though.

What. The. Fuck?

[Martino231]

Fake DJing is the new miming.

[chriseede]

Yeah, having seen a bit of their live show at Glastonbury last year (they came on after Redlight), it is very possible that they mime their set. They just play the tracks exactly as they sound on their album and bring out a female singer to do the vocals over it. Definitely not worth going to see.

[rug568]

Doesn't surprise me at all.

[BTK1609]

If I was into that sort of music (I use the term in the loosest possible sense) then yeah I would be mighty pissed off. As it is I hate it so it doesn't bother me in the slightest!

[lightning1000]

I can believe it. To be honest I had my suspicions about justice in 08. At times it seemed like the cross fader was being used to bring the next track in whilst hands were up in the air onstage.

[lharris92]

I'M SO OUTRAGED BY THIS I'M GOING TO COMPLAIN TO THE FESTIVAL AND BOYCOTT IT!!

[thetime]

If I was into that sort of music (I use the term in the loosest possible sense) then yeah I would be mighty pissed off. As it is I hate it so it doesn't bother me in the slightest!

[the wonderwhy]

Thing is though, at least you know the DJs have spent a reasonable amount of time & effort mixing the stuff beforehand? I mean, its not like all these boy 'bands' who are massively auto-tuned and then continue to mime all their live performances?

My Dad used to be a small time DJ for like private events & stuff, even he found it difficult to do live. I know its a bit of a bummer, but I can't begin to imagine how difficult it would be to mix everything live...

[LondonTom]

Doesn't it depend on there actually set? I think there "dj" sets still have the tower but basically hit a play button...but live they actually..err mix live? Its what I thought anyway

[RichieParf]

I think at the point where I could do it just as well as the guy up there (as the OP describes), then it stops being a performance. I can still admire the skill of mixing beforehand, but don't serve it up as a live gig.

[lightning1000]

The best dj's mix live.

They'll either use the cross fade whilst matching the beats or just cut.

The only skill in dj'ing is mixing. If that's done beforehand on software that practically does it for you you're really not doing much except typing and clicking a mouse in your studio. Then pushing play when you get to the venue.

Edited April 30, 2012 by lightning1000

[Gingo]

I'm pretty sure this is the case for most djs, I know SHM do this as well as a lot of dubstep acts

[lightning1000]

I'm pretty sure this is the case for most djs, I know SHM do this as well as a lot of dubstep acts

[BTK1609]

cant be worse than rhcp live!

[5co77ie]

Fake DJing is the new miming.

[eFestivals]

This is nothing new. One of the biggest dance acts of the last 20 years (if not others too) used to do much the same as this as standard for their first 10 years at least - and people rave about how good they are 'live'.

When the music has to be pre-recorded (as it is with a DJ or an electronic act) then I guess it's always going to be tempting to get on stage and simply press 'play'.

Even the likes of New Order use backing tracks. I remember watching them at Reading '89 and realising that much of the drums weren't being played live - and I've read stuff their drummer has said since which has confirmed this (I've no idea if they used to pretend it was played live or not). Similarly, some of the instruments are pre-recorded too - as admitted in the recent spat between Hooky and the rest of New Order.

You've got to admire OMD for their take on this from the very start of electronic music - who used to put the tape machine clearly visible on stage so that no one was being conned.

[Joe-]

Yeah, this happens a lot.

[cheeseisamazing]

This is nothing new. One of the biggest dance acts of the last 20 years (if not others too) used to do much the same as this as standard for their first 10 years at least - and people rave about how good they are 'live'.

[kev1664]

It's very disappointing, especially when bands do it with pre recorded instruments etc.

Linkin park have all but said they do this, something along the lines of the use of technology to achieve the sound that they are after.

I've also seen local bands doing it, pre recording to give a fuller sound, I just think its a little short changing people. Why not get additional members to play the instruments live?

[jump]

I don't see the difference between this and holograms of Nirvana & Tupac which people on here were going on about how great it would be a few weeks ago.

[LondonTom]

I've also seen local bands doing it, pre recording to give a fuller sound, I just think its a little short changing people. Why not get additional members to play the instruments live?

[Andre91]

Please. please don't tell me its daft punk

[thesecretingredientiscrime]

I assume he means The Prodigy

[Matt - Ed Banger Records]

One of the things that people need to think about is how the sound is being recreated onstage - if for example you go and see Justice Live you will see 2 blokes basically just playing the various layers of a song in a set time frame using a laptop, its not to say that they are simply pressing play on a CD but they will basically just be sequencing live and throwing in the odd sample over the top to provide a certain amount of difference between the album version and the 'live' version. When people talk about DJ's pre-mixing their sets that is really stupid of the DJ's to be honest, if you can't beat match 2 songs and play live for a couple of hours then frankly you don't deserve to be getting paid and performing as a DJ, I know that SHM said that they play a pre-recorded CD to close their sets because they need it to interact with the pyro, having seen each member DJing on their own many years ago I know that they are more than competant DJ's so the should just get a better stage manager. I know that there are many times when DJ's get caught out doing this sort of thing and they are quite rightly get ridiculed for it - but you could argue (I wouldn't btw) that if the average punter doesn't know and has a great time anyway then they have done their job in getting people dancing etc.