Photo: karltryggvason.png
Photo: karltryggvason.png

There’s been lots of back and forth about what makes a good DJ, a real DJ, a just-plain DJ. Ultimately, the answer is pretty obvious. Any DJ who can make a crowd happy is a good DJ. But, I have to also say that a great DJ is one who knows his or her music inside out.

That’s especially true for DJs who love vinyl. Because of its analog format, knowing BPM, key and all kinds of other metadata is completely up to the DJ. You’re the one who has to listen to the record with an ear for all of that. No technology is going to do that for you.

Well, at least there wasn’t any technology that was going to do that for you. Now, there is.

Karl Tryggvason saw a problem and devised a solution. He figured that some DJs shouldn’t get all the benefits of digital while other DJs were left to figure things out all by themselves. Tryggvason devised a product called Disconest that will actually analyze all that information for you. The only catch is that “Disconest uses The Echonest music database to find this information about records and cds registered on Discogs” (disconest.com).

I guess if you’ve got some lesser known vinyl, you might be out of luck. But, if that’s the case, you already have quite the ear, and this digital technology will serve you as a kind of shortcut that will just make you a better DJ.