Reply to Non synced, non "producer" DJ sets and the human touch

I love good djing and an amazing DJ set. It makes me smile and feel a certain warmth inside that is completely different to the feeling that a produced album or to a completely different extent, a live artist set can achieve. Its different. Its immediate with a element of recognisability. Its almost physically tangible when you can hear through the selection what is going on in a DJs head when they mix in the next record.

And this is why I love to hear amazing non-synced, non programmed DJ set these days. For me, there is an extra element to a set, be it live or listening to it recorded where you hear those human elements in eq-ing, a slightly off beat that is quickly corrected or a rough quick mix that is thrown in because the current tune might be fucking up the chi.

I was listening to an old Danny Howells set, which was over 4 hours mind, in the final set at ARC NYC in 2004 with Danny Tenaglia and it dawned on me what was missing from so much current stuff. This was a time of records and Howells just dominates with an immediacy and mixing prowess that manages to draw you in listening on your ipod some 8 years later. I'm hanging off every selection. There is wild changes of BPM, of genre, and there is "obvious mixing" but its all makes me feel as if I was standing there in 2004, sweating like a sex criminal. The links to the set are here http://www.inthemix.com.au/community /sho...d.php?t=306169 if anyone wants to have a listen.

So, I genuinely believe that automation has removed a human element to DJing that used to be part of a great DJs arsenal. Can a sync based DJ re-find this human element? Am I just an elderly dinosaur of years past that doesnt understand the current state of play?

This is not a "Sync is cheating" discussion. So anyone harping on about that shit can fuck right off. Its more than that. Its about an almost an esoteric element to DJing that may, or may not, have been left by the wayside in the quest to "do more things" as a DJ...