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sad times for house music and dj's in la


deepfunk

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its amazing to me that we've lost so many dance music stores and we're about to lose another. in the last year we've seen the closing of the higher source stores and beat non-stop. higher source was a very important store for the oc scene and their short lived west side store was a weekly shopping spot for me when i worked over there. beat non-stop was an institution. in it's heyday that place was THE destination for dj's every week. you'd always run into local guys, and the out of town dj's would always stop through. the staff was like familiy and they always had tips on hot new tracks. there was real passion for the music and support for the scene. i'd stay for hours. now we're about to lose wax, which had seen brighter days, but was still an incredible store. it's a shame and i wanted to put a few words about it on here because these places will be missed and should be remembered for the important roles they played in bringing great music and great times to the city of la.

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aren't they just closing down the shop due to low turnout or something. aren't they still going to have their website up? what's wrong with ordering online? i know it takes all the fun out of diggin through crates but even that can be a pain in the ass. sucks to see another shop closing. :(

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yeah wax says they are going to continue online, but it's not the same as rolling in there and running into friends, seeing the same staff that's known you for years, having them and friends tip you to the great new stuff that just came in, getting flyers for upcoming events, etc. it's a big part of the dance music community and it's going away. now i wasn't a regular at beat non-stop for the last few years, but i can remember going in there in like '92-'93 and buying records. i was a loyal customer until at least '98-'99 or so and it was a central spot for picking up music, buying mixtapes (rememeber those?) and CDs, meeting new people, etc.

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I have been ordering online for quite sometime now. Makes it easy to come home after work and just listen to downloads... however, I must agree, I do love stopping by the locals and diggin'... We just had a store close out here on Ventura called Green Sector... That used to be my bi-weekly stop to pick up on some great Tech House/ Minimal. Now, I am back to surfing online.

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Slim - the DJ still has to mix the songs together, regardless if the source is a CD or a vinyl record. not sure what you mean about Sasha not doing a lot of mixing.

He was planning on taking a laptop but apparently he didn't get it set up to his liking so he's just spinning with CDs. and you have to realize that DJs love CDs as they take up MUCH less space so they can travel with many more tracks. and you can burn a new track or edit it on your computer and play it that nite - you can't do that with vinyl (unless u are one of the very few with dubplate access).

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well i wasn't there so i can't comment specifically on NY....having said that he killed it on Sat at Giant/Avalon and on Sunday at Ivar tag-teaming with Danny Howells....and he only played CDs...and sunday he just used Danny's Cds to boot - he didn't bother to bring his own stuff as it was a last second invite by Danny for him to swing by and play.

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commenting on the original post - while its sad most of the local record stores are closing - heck i remember going to Street Sounds, Beat Non Stop and that one on Santa Monica Blvd. almost every weekend in the 90s....its just the nature of technology with MP3s and CDs which has caused this to happen. based on what i saw this past weekend, dance music is still going strong and we don't have to worry.

we've got Puff Daddy coming out with his house music album, Morillo trying to take it to a new level of popularity with the average music fan, etc.

i heard, though never seen this actually proven, that turntables and CJDs now outsell guitars....things are looking good IMO - but no doubt a bit of the community feeling is disappearing with the closure of the stores....

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Slim - the DJ still has to mix the songs together, regardless if the source is a CD or a vinyl record. not sure what you mean about Sasha not doing a lot of mixing.

He was planning on taking a laptop but apparently he didn't get it set up to his liking so he's just spinning with CDs. and you have to realize that DJs love CDs as they take up MUCH less space so they can travel with many more tracks. and you can burn a new track or edit it on your computer and play it that nite - you can't do that with vinyl (unless u are one of the very few with dubplate access).

while there are some valid arguments there, i think that djs still need to know the manual part of the craft; what happens when that laptop crashes mid-set?

i do NOT want to see the art of turntablism die.

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i'm assuming that whatever Sasha was planning on doing with the laptop that it was a final scratch type of thing...i can't imagine trying to cue a song and mix with just a mouse....

have u seen the new technics CD player? it spins just like a record does - except that u are playing a CD its almost the same...

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while there are some valid arguments there, i think that djs still need to know the manual part of the craft; what happens when that laptop crashes mid-set?

i do NOT want to see the art of turntablism die.

I agree I have been breaking my ass learning how to mix vinyl while many of my buddies take the easy route using cd-rs and mix-meister, c'mon that crap IS NOT DJing, Granted there r some songs I can't wait for to come out on vinyl, so until they do I drop a couple tracks on cd decks. But hearing that Sasha only uses cd decks actually makes me think a little differently about him. Granted he still has SUPER talent, in my eyes he has turned his back to what has started it all..... :gang:

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choptrop - i used to think the same way as u....but if you look at the biggest DJs in the world - PVD, Josh Wink and John Acquiviva, among others, use Final Scratch now...Deep Dish primarily use only CDs...Erick Morillo uses only CDs.....and you know what? they sound just as good if not better than when they used only records. it takes the exact same amount of skill to mix 2 records or 2 CDs or 2 mp3s via final scratch.

one thing Sasha was doing last nite was looping snippets of the songs he was playing with the CDJ and basically creating a remix on the fly. Morillo does it all the time as well. u can't do that with a record or the sampler built into some mixers....

u gotta learn the craft on the turntables but the new technology allows you to expand what u can accomplish.

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Maybe it's just my imagination, but the bass sounds a lot deeper when it comes out of vinyl grooves. Sorry, I'm a purist about DJing.

As to the stores closing up, it's pretty sad, but I think WAX contributed to its own downfall when it's record selections became so dreadful. I mean every DJ I spoke to in the last 2 years have said the same thing: "are they hiding the good records".

Shopping on line is fine but there's no guarrantee of success there either. Look at what happened to groovetech.com. Plus Ameoba is having its own effect

So please y'all, support the remaining records stores. THIS IS MUSIC is an awesome store, on Melrose of course. :)

best,

Imad.

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Maybe it's just my imagination, but the bass sounds a lot deeper when it comes out of vinyl grooves. Sorry, I'm a purist about DJing...
from what i've been told by super-techies, records simply have more tonal range than cds.
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