What do you do when you’re travelling? Watch dodgy movies and read about women’s perfumes in the seat-back mags, or take the time to get stuck into some serious DJ work in your headphones? Pic: DJ Sound Plane
One of the great things about digital DJing is that you can work on your music anywhere. And one of the most obvious places is when you’re travelling – especially on long-haul flights (as we are today, returning from this year’s NAMM Show).
Why? Well, on most flights there’s still no internet to distract you, for a start. And even better, you’re also cut off from practically everything else that could otherwise make claims on your time. And while I know globetrotting DJs who use this downtime to simply watch film after film, I prefer to get stuck in to some music tasks. Here’s my list of suggestions:
My 5 music ideas for DJs on the move
- Work on cue-points and beatgridding. Easy enough stuff to do in your headphones, and saves time you’d otherwise be wasting reading and re-reading catalogues of cheap watches, perfume and overpriced food and drink…
- Make mash-ups or re-edits for your DJ sets. Using Mixed In Key Mashup, Ableton Live or your DAW of choice, flight time can be constructively spent coming up with exclusive remixes or re-edits to use in your sets. Nothing like dropping something nobody’s heard before at your gig in another city or country!
- Listen to lots of music you wouldn’t normally hear. Travel detaches you from your usual world, so why not uncouple from the music you normally listen to as well, and take the time to listen to something new? I like to grab a load of albums in advance by artists I’m vaguely interested in on Spotify, then hit the “listen offline” feature (obviously, so I don’t need an internet connection on the flight), so I’ve got loads of new stuff to while away the hours on my headphones
- Listen to the in-flight radio. Plug your flashy noise-cancelling headphones into the arm of your seat and surf through those in-flight radio channels. You’re bound to find a tune or two, or even a channel, that interests you. Bonus marks if you remember to pack an airline-to-normal headphones adaptor…
- Practise your mixing. Whether you work on mixes using your keyboard shortcuts, or whether you travel with your controller, it’s perfectly possible to work on your actual DJ mixes when travelling. I recently sat in a German airport, delayed, rehearsing a complete run-through of mix, using a Novation Twitch and my laptop. I was getting funny looks from some of the businessmen sipping coffee in the departures lounge (it’s hard not to start waving your arms around in breakdowns, even though it’s only you hearing the music on your headphones!) – but that actually added to the fun for me…
PS – Thanks for following our NAMM content…
It’s been great fun reporting from this year’s NAMM for you. We’ll put together a round-up post of a handful of things we’ve not covered yet just as soon as we’re back in the office tomorrow, and then that’ll be it for another year. Next show is Musikmesse in April, where as usual we’ll be on the floor to bring you words, pictures and videos of all the new gear.
What are your tips for enjoying music when travelling? Do you have a favourite bit of gear, pair of headphones, music site, or task you like to do when you’re on a flight or otherwise in transit? Let us know below!
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Tags: djing on the move
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Its also a great time to organize your music library and ID3 tags.
[ link ]Another good one is organising tunes into that file system you’ve been thinking of doing for ages, or adding those genre/mood/energy level tags you’ve been meaning to get round to for years!
[ link ]Good additions but one should never allow such stuff in the first place. Poorly named files, incomplete ID3s, unsorted dir structure is no way to run your business. That said, I do have 4-tier system and right now 200-300 tracks waiting just to get into the collection. Just after that it gets to beatgridding and filling in energy/style tags. sigh
[ link ]Great tips! I cue point and tag a lot on the plane and travel with my Twitch for doing some basic song compatibility tests in my hotel room at night times. Bought it just for that and it works great!
[ link ]Yeh all thats good provided the laptop battery lasted long enough :-/. i just fill up my mp3 player with songs i dont know well and want to listen to. maybe it’s time to get a new battery/new laptop or maybe an ipad? how well do ipads get along with pcs? and what about the new windows 8 tablets?
[ link ]Nice tips.. When i travel during inflight generally like to load up the iphone with DJ mixes from which i can get ideas and inspirations from.
I find besides jogging…this is one of the few times i listen to mixes from start to finish without distraction.
[ link ]Nice tips as usual. It’s funny you should say this cos I have made some fantastic mixes aboard flights using just my laptop. Yep, I agree you get the stares which usually strike up conversations. I have also done mixes in other strange places like in my car while killing time waiting for someone or in a coffee shop while waiting for the other half to finish shopping. Sometimes, I use that time to set up my cue points while at the same time using the cue points to mix as I go along.
[ link ]Also standing up in the aisle and practicing your jesus pose.
[ link ]Ha ha! I guess you’re a bit closer to God up there!
[ link ]There are times in all of our lives that we just have to “DEAL WITH IT”… this is also a great time to meditate and become more centered. As people, we used to have a lot of time to center ourselves and ground our thoughts… to take time to reflect. Why not do this when you are flying?
[ link ]Now i travel with an iPad because i hve recently picked up aniDJ Pro. But before that as mylaptop battery sucked i used (and still do on occasion) a pacemaker its a great piece of kit and these days quite cheap it’s great to get a physical handle on the music and its got a good battery on it as well with all the effects you need to keep you going I enjoyed it.
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