I wish ITF still existed . Long story short: ITF changed hands and turned into IDA, but upon turning to IDA it pulled out of North America... there's only been 1-2 people from the US invited to IDA since it started in 06. So needless to say it's not nearly as strong as it once was... it seems to be gaining a bit of steam lately though since apparently it's very well run, and word on the street is that it might be coming to Canada this year, fingers crossed.

Man picking one routine is sooo so hard, lol.

For DMC I think I have to go Craze 2000. It's such an obvious choice but it's a really great routine... it's one of the few examples of a routine that's stronger as a 6 min than each of its parts. Like his transitions are so smooth/creative to pull it all together and make it even better. It also shows that you can make a really enjoyable routine with tracks barely anyone knows... I think Its Automatic is the only track I've really listened to from that routine. His 1999 routine maybe has better material overall I think but it lacks the composition of 2000.

Honourable mentions to Noize, Sinista, Slyce, P-Trix, Dexta, Klever, Jr. Flo, Kentaro, Dopey, Izoh, Wundrkut, Precision... all personal favs.

Favourite ITF (maybe even tougher, so many guys got a chance to shine in ITF that were overlooked in DMC)... gotta separate juggling and scratching tho.

Juggling - I think Vinroc's Beenie Man juggle... it's outrageously good, and for 1998 it was untouchable (imo). Jr. Flo's juggle with some break that sampled Zapp and Roger is unreal too... both crazy musical/technical/under-rated routines. A-trak's Jigga What and De La juggles were unreal too... god it's so hard to choose but I'm sticking with Vinroc.

Scratching - I-emerge's "hardcore mother Fn scratchin", sliiightly ahead of Spryte 1's "you can suck my...". A-Trak's guitar mimic routine was crazy too (and obviously inspired my busdriver routine), but there's something about the rawness of merge/spryte's cuts that I really like... like they're dissing you with their scratching. It's kinda like the branch between old school scratch routines where it was just raw scratching over dope breaks but with more composition and flow in their cuts... no synthy cheese ball stuff like nowadays.

What about you, what are your fav DMC/ITF routines?

Yeah, because Deadmau5 has not a direct interest in saying that, right? He is not a true dj, like many of those producers that to make money out of their music are nowadays forced to tour the world, so he obviously has to diss the few true djs that are still left in some scenes.

hey vekked maybe you should post gigs you're djing in ontario so we can go check you out? or dj battles around toronto?

The Toronto DMC battle is this Friday, 9 PM at Rivoli (334 Queen West). I'm potentially showcasing but hasn't been confirmed. Should be a good night tho, try to make it out!

Great vids, Vekked.

What equipment/brands would you suggest to someone(me) who wants to take this up as just a hobby?

Basically the most cost efficient way of building a dj set up like this.

Honestly used equipment is almost always the best route. New DJ equipment is so expensive/over-priced a lot of time... I have a really hard time suggesting equipment for people because it's such an expensive hobby to get into, and it's hard to explain that starting out with like a $300 setup is only going to hold you back if you do it any longer than a few months... a lot of stuff that's cheap is just a money grab/made to exploit people who don't know any better.

Ideally a good starting setup is:

-2 used techics 1200s (if you keep an eye on local classifieds it's not unreasonable to find a pair for $500)
-a used 2 channel mixer, probably a Vestax 05, 06, or 07, Rane 54, 56, Stanton SA-5, Ecler 360... there are a lot of options for mixers. Most of these will run anywhere from $100-$500 used, the main thing is finding one in good condition. Technics 1200s can almost always be fixed for cheap if they're in bad shape (as long as nothing's physically smashed), but mixers can have a lot of internal issues, so you have to be careful.

I think $800 should get you a solid used setup easily. If you can't afford that, the best thing you can do is buy 1 technics 1200 to start and learn some scratching while you save up for the 2nd turntable. The other thing is just wait longer and shop around more. If you're looking to get a setup in a week you're not going to get as good of a deal as you'd get if you shopped around for 2 months. I recently bought a backup setup of a technics 1200 and Vestax 06 mixer (value probably $750 used on average) for $200.

Two big things to know are 1) Technics 1200s don't lose their resell value... at all. If you get one for $300, you'll be able to sell it for $300 and sometimes more, so if you're a bit apprehensive of investing too much money at least you know you won't lose anything if you decide to sell. 2) Most people don't know this. A lot of the deals you find are people who bought their 1200s for $800 5 years ago, and decide to sell, and figure that getting half their money is good, so they put them up for $400. They don't realize that they have actually gone up in value over the past 2 years because they were discontinued, lol. It actually wouldn't be a bad plan to make some side money by buying cheap 1200s and re-selling them if someone had the motivation, lol.

Also very soon the best choice for a mixer will easily be:

http://djworx.com/dj-techs-dif1s-scr...ofader-inside/

They say it's going to go for $200 new, and have the best crossfader you can get (which is the most important part of a mixer). When it's available, if it isn't already, this will easily be my suggestions to anyone starting.

Thanks, that's a big help!

Forbes posted an article today (don't quote me it could have been yesterday) where they listed the top earning electronic musicians (DJs). DJ Tiesto came in first with a whopping 22 million. Followed by Skrillex with 15 million. Definitely worth something pursuing now.

Yeaa, that's been posted a few times recently... the emphasis is on electronic musicians, not DJs... those guys are getting paid to play tracks they produced. There are plenty of straight DJs making low 7-figures per year still, but nearly everyone on those top paid lists are getting paid for their production even if they happen to be DJs/DJ at their shows. I remember reading ages ago, like 7-8 years ago, about Fatboy Slim getting like 100,000 pounds for an hour or something absurd. Electronic musicians BEEN gettin paid.

Just finished my routine for the online DMC world finals:

damn that part at 50 seconds is dope as hell

wow dude you killed it! Especially those last 3 minutes.

Cool except for the Skrillex hate - if people respected him and his contributions to music culture... he loves all types of music (plays multi-genre sets - ludacris / jackson 5 / kris kross - among his stellar productions) and his project with A-trak and Diplo (potato will eat you) to educate and bring music television back to better times.

If I'm reading into this too much, sorry. I think people just assume ****tons about him when he is nothing but good to his fans and tries to make music culture better (I forgot to mention helping to launch the careers of a bunch of talented but underappreciated artists)

OP any cliffs on your DJ career ?

Shipped you a vote again this year. GL. Here it is incase others aren't subscribed to your youtube.

Awesome, i subscribed and i'll send it to some of my DJ friends in holland.

Congrats on Runner-up DMC 2013. Sorry have to take runner up 2 years in a row. You will ship the crown soon, keep working bro.

haha just saw that this thread was still active, thanks for the post Regret$! I actually got 6th last year so runner up is a nice improvement .

It's just a battle angle... Skrillex was the most played artist of 2012 in DJ competition and I was basically dissing the other DJs for being uncreative and all using the same stuff. Dissing Skrillex basically hit like 2/3 of the DJs who entered last year, lol.

Super cliffs:
-started DJing in 2004
-basically had no concrete accomplishments up until 2011 (although I had practiced a lot and built a respectable skill set... just spent most of my time in my bedroom so no one knew, lol)
-2011 I won my first competition... local DMC regional
-went on to become the 2011 Canadian DMC champion, chose not to go to worlds
-came back in 2012 and won Canadian title again, went to the UK my first world final and won the DMC World Supremacy title (1st Canadian ever to win it)
-went to my second world final in Poland and won the IDA World Title (1st DJ ever to win DMC and IDA titles in 1 year)
-last week I defended Canada for the 3rd time, to become the first Canadian to win our DMC title 3 times, and I head to the world finals again in 24 hours, lol

(for less of a cliffnotes I have bio/media on vekked.com now /plug)

So basically been running really good in competitions the last 2 years, better than I ever expected considering at the start of 2011 I'd never won a competition in my entire life... I really had no clue how I stacked up next to other DJs, I could have come last that year and not been surprised at all because that's how oblivious I was to how good or bad I was... I just practiced for years and years because I love the art and would still do it even if no one was listening.

mad skills.

Nice cliffs, cool site, awesome tag and wicked skills.

I always hoped the "record burner" would be available to the regular public.
Imagine buying a box of empty of records at the regular pc shop. Then burning any sound/music you want on them with your pc at home.
You also would not have to carry all your records to a gig because you just burn new ones with your laptop and USB record burner. (just brainstorming)

Awesome set.

So true LOL

New to the forums, just checked your DMC 2013 World Finals battle, nice one, takes hella skill and practice to nail turntablism.

Tried myself many moons ago, started out fascinated with scratching and juggling, went at it pretty hard for a year or so, furthest I got was the local DMCs. Still love whipping out the flares when possible. Don't play that style anymore, more eclectic, funk, soul, electronica etc. Still use Technics with a battle mixer, though I've thrown in Serato now, can't see myself ever migrating to CDJs.

Favourite battle is Plus One's Vestax 2000 Finals.