dattrax: This mix is representative of our dattrax sound: aggressively layered and textured house. We play all sorts of house tracks mashed into one continuous mix, whether deep, vocal, tech, funky, or anything else that makes us dance. It's always about dancing or at least bopping your head until you have to see a chiropractor, otherwise it's just boring.
There's something beautiful about hearing different combinations of house tracks and the transitions that happen when certain combos are placed on top of and through each other.
What you can do with volume, EQs, crossfader, tempo and mixing out just adds to it. Our joy is in searching for the perfect mix. It never happens, but the journey is a blast. We never repeat a combo unless it hasn't been recorded yet. Interesting combos refresh and reinvigorate our love of house every time.
This mix was made on the Traktor Kontrol S4, but sync was not used. We come from an old-fashioned background of playing on crappy equipment and turntables with poor pitch control before we got Technics 1200s. We like getting back to basics for that raw DJ feel.
When you only play two tracks at a time and let a computer sync them, that's not real DJing. House DJing is about beat matching, layering, transitions, programming and creating an overall groove. I'm not dismissing sync entirely.Â
If you're fusing three or four songs and need to focus on texture and making sure they don't clash, beat matching has to take a back seat. That's a different discipline, closer to performance art and live remixing. Above our pay grade.
New DJs who rely on technology to do the work will get burned. Not everyone plays in premium clubs with state of the art equipment, so your basics have to be solid. I'm not comparing house DJs to hip-hop DJs either, those guys are scientists, completely next level. I'm just complaining about lazy, hands-in-pockets DJs in the house world.
Jim runs the Serato-Rane time-code vinyl setup and I have the Traktor S4, but we both prefer playing out on vinyl and CDs. Between us we had over 60 crates of house records. I'm down to five after letting go of 25 over the years.
I still don't trust a laptop not to crash, but with CDs, unless I lose my mind and stomp on them with my boots, we'll be fine at any gig. And for tactile feel and modern flexibility, nothing beats the Serato/Traktor time-coded vinyl systems.
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How do we describe the dattrax sound? Always Fun, Tech-Fused, Funky-Foot Stompin', Carved Deep and Woven & Laced with Sweet Smooth Hands in the Air Vocals... Strictly House Music- always dattrax.
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DJ Bookings for Canada, the US, or Global: [email protected]
Donate/Support: https://buymeacoffee.com/dattrax
Connect on IG: https://www.instagram.com/house_music_by_dattrax/
Connect on FaceCrack: https://www.facebook.com/dat.so.940
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As always - massive thanks to the fantastic vocalists, producers, DJs, and dancers (even in your homes, driving, in the gym or while walking about or walking your doggie) for their incredible advancement of this beautiful musical genre!! It makes us all feel young, vibrant, and extremely happy!!
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"Toronto House DJ Mixes"
Come and listen to the mixes of over 500 of the BEST House Music DJs in Toronto, Ontario, Canada:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/TorontoHOUSEDJMixes
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Updated: June 26th, 2026