Bobby Digital vs. Robby Analog

There is a silent war waging between digital deejays and vinyl deejays.

If vinyl deejays are like Jedi Knights, then CD jocks are the cloned stormtroopers, with cookie cutter set lists and cut-and-paste mixes.

Vinyl purists say digital jocks are monkeys pushing buttons and sellouts, but wax deejays haven’t seemed to master one thing that digital deejays know too well – making money.

“Deejays who do vinyl are true artists who do it for the sake of the music. They’re not doing it for the crowd,” said Ramsin Amerkhas, who books vinyl deejays at his club, the Twilight Room, 112 S. Monroe St., and pays them with money he earns as a digital deejay who spins at the Big Easy Concert House, Fizzie Mulligans, 331 W. Hastings Road, Pepperdine Sports Bar and Grill, 2911 E. 57th Ave., and on KXLY cruises.

“We can ignite the dance floor immediately. If funk isn’t working, we can drop it immediately instead of moving from track to track to get there. We never claimed to be artists; we’re making money.”

Amerkhas started as a vinyl deejay but switched to CDs in 1992. He says he’ll never go back.

“I can do miracles with a box of CDs,” Amerkhas said. “If I’m doing a special event like a wedding, I can dump everything I need from my computer and put it on one CD.”

Records, on the other hand, take up a lot more space and are generally more expensive and harder to acquire.

But that’s the point, said local DJ Supervillain, aka Ben Cater, owner of The B-Side, one of the first clubs in town to open its doors to vinyl hip-hop deejays.

“Playing records is more of an interactive and intimate experience. I see the technological advancements of CD players and mp3 players in some ways as a de-evolution of the musical experience,” Supervillain said.

Amerkhas is willing to compromise his art in order to please the crowd – for a fee.

“I’m an entertainer, I work the room and CDs are my tools. People aren’t there to see how I mix music; they are there to have a good time. And that’s what bar owners and nightclub owners hire me for. All the vinyl deejays I know have day jobs,” Amerkhas said. “I’m 36 years old. My dad keeps asking me when I’m going to get a real job. I say ‘Never.’”