Good post

We had James Ruskin down at BlackBox last night, and he was ****ign unreal
3 decks and about 8 channels on ableton, some channels loops, some whole tracks
The end result is just formidable, and really unique to his style of performance.

I've found since matching things I can whack in loads of sampled loops, add 3 or 4 decks into the equation and be loads more creative because I don't have to worry about keeping 4 or more inputs in time each with variable speed controls.

You're right though. Digital just hides mediocrity behind beatmatching.