Beatmatching Vs Not Beatmatching

I've read quite a few debates on the whole beatmatching thing recently so I thought I'd post up my own opinion seeing as that's what the internet is for, mouthing off about whatever you feel like. :)

Anyhoo' first of all, I've no problem with people using digital systems to DJ with. I buy vinyl myself, and whenever I DJ nowadays I use vinyl on two 1210s and a mixer. I've used Traktor and Ableton on my old iBook (700 Mhz, it just about runs them) and I've had a go on a few of the Pioneer CDJs.

However, in my opinion (the "in my opinion" bit is a very important bit!), I feel that DJ sets where you don't have everything pre-pitched and already beat-matched sound better than DJ sets where you've already got all your track's BPMs aligned up and ready to go. The reason I think this way is because I feel that the effort and energy you put in to matching up the tunes (whether you're using vinyl on decks, Final Scratch, Pioneer CDJs, those new Technics CD decks things etc) comes out somehow in the set that you play.

A popular point I've read on a lot of music forums goes along the lines of "anybody with more than zero arms can beat match two tracks, it's all about the tune selection and the order you play them in!". I disagree. They're right about the beat matching, but I believe that tune selection and the order of play can also be pulled off by anybody. However, to do all three very well takes practice, an ear for music and more practice.

I think nowadays the most popular DJ system where you pre-prepare all the BPMs is Ableton Live. So it's only really Ableton Live that my argument applies to. I wouldn't use it personally. If all the tracks have been aligned up then for me that's half the fun taken out of DJing. Yes, it does open up another world of possibilities where you can have loops from lots of other things placed wherever you want, you can keep looping certain bits over and over and bring in and out multiple tracks that would be very hard if not impossible to do with just vinyl. It's a great system, but I feel like my ears can sense the extra effort put into beat matching records, not just with vinyl on decks, but also with Final Scratch and CD decks etc (this isn't an analogue Vs digital argument after all).

The first few DJ mixes I put up on the internet were all done in Cool Edit Pro where I'd fix the BPM before mixing them together. When I listen back over these I still like them, but I prefer my mixes where I'm mixing the records together, even though I've made quite a few mistakes (hey I'm betting though!). They just sound more energetic or something, it's hard to explain. I can hear my mixing efforts and it makes the mix sound better to me.

That said, I haven't used Ableton in ages, it's gone up around three versions since I first messed with it, maybe people are now mixing "on the fly" with it too? I might have to take a look at the newest version and see.