DJ Culture | Page 3 of 14 | Digital DJ Tips

May 25th, 2011 DJ Culture

7 Big Mistakes I Made At My First DJ Gig (And Why It Was Still Great Fun)

by Tim Lorcas

Don't let drunk colleagues distract you, especially when it's your first ever gig... Pic: Sodahead

So I did it. I got and played my first gig. Many people will say that you never forget your first time. With everything that went wrong in my first gig, I can certainly say that’s a true statement!

So here, for the sake of helping others, are what I consider to be my seven big mistakes. I admit them here in the hope that bedroom DJs can learn from them, to hopefully make their first gigs a little kinder and gentler! At the end of the piece, I reveal how the gig turned out…

51 Comments »

May 21st, 2011 DJ Culture

Your Questions: Is Beatmatching By Ear Still Important?

by Phil Morse

4-deck waveriding in Serato ITCH... but is it DJing?

Reader DJ Jet writes: “I’m just getting into DJing and while I’m building up my skills of beat matching by ear, I currently mostly use either the waveforms on the screen of my DJ software (Virtual DJ) or just the sync button.

“Many people say that DJs who work like this are not proper DJs as they aren’t mixing by ear as the old vinyl DJs had to… what is your view on this? Is beatmatching by ear still important to being a ‘proper’ DJ?”

28 Comments »

May 20th, 2011 DJ Culture

Beginners’ Guide To Keylocking

by Phil Morse

The yellow musical note in Traktor Pro 2 that tells you your track is "keylocked" - but what are the dos and don'ts of keylocking?

Several readers have asked about keylocking recently. This is typical, from Max in Serbia/Montenegro: “I know what keylock does and how it works but I (and a lot of other DJs) have no idea when I am supposed to use it. If there are certain guidelines or ‘rules’, it would be awesome if you helped us get educated about that because there isn’t much info about it on the net.”

If you’re one of those DJs who always looks at that little “keylock” button but feels unsure about how or when to use it, this is for you:

26 Comments »

May 19th, 2011 DJ Culture

How to Succeed At DJing, Part 9: Get A Demo & Press Kit

by D-Jam

Your press kit is your public face: It should be consistent with your marketing and brand. Pic: djpresskits.com

No matter how good you might think you sound in your bedroom; or even how many friends, colleagues and fans say you sound amazing: A DJ’s prime marketing tool is his demo. From cassettes to CDs to digital, giving samples of your work is how you show your skill.

Today we’re going to go right into best practices I’ve seen in making demos, and why you might want to think about these when you go to make your promotional mixes. Small mistakes beyond the actual mix could cost you the gig and help your competition beat you.

25 Comments »

May 18th, 2011 DJ Culture

New UK Copyright Law May Kill Unpopular Digital DJ Licence

by Phil Morse

The ProDub licence: not surprisingly, not a major hit among digital DJs.

Did you know that as a consumer in the United Kingdom, it is currently illegal to put copies of your own purchased vinyl or CDs onto your computer or iPod?

If you’re blinking in astonishment at this fact (there’s apparently only the UK, Ireland and Malta left in the world with a similar law), then you may also be equally astonished to learn that if a UK DJ wishes to do the same thing in order to play their purchased vinyl or CDs with digital DJ equipment, they need to purchase a special annual license in order to do so.

16 Comments »

May 18th, 2011 DJ Culture

The Mashup Artists Who Inspired Me

by Fred Dancekowski

Digital DJ Tips's mashup expert Fred spills the beans about the mashup artists who inspired him.

For a final bonus part to the last month’s making mashups series, today I’m going to share just some of the artists and music that inspired me to move to making and performing sample-based mashups for myself.

A lot of tricks can be learned from these mixes and compilations. I hope this music also inspires you to go beyond traditional mixing, and also helps you finding your way onto this “new DJing order” that is appearing. You can hear a live mix of mine on my SoundCloud as well, and see how I’m doing it for myself.

21 Comments »

May 16th, 2011 DJ Culture

10 DJ Tactics For When People Won’t Dance

by Matt Challands

For good DJs, an empty dancefloor is not a problem, it's an enjoyable challenge of DJing.

Any experienced DJ, no matter how good or professional, has encountered dancefloors that just refuse to react as expected.

Sometimes, you’re confronted with a crowd that it seems just won’t dance, no matter how hard you try. It can be confusing to you how one night girls can be dancing on top of the bar gyrating to your tunes and giving you flirty smiles when the next week you seem to have weird, serious looking people and zero energy on the dancefloor, no matter what music you play.

42 Comments »

May 16th, 2011 DJ Culture

Beatler Draw Winners Announced

by Staff Writer

Umberto Lumber Beviglia, from Milan, Italy: One of our winners.

Beatler, the Mac OSX app that gives you an iTunes-esque interface for power shopping at leading DJ digital download site Beatport, has just hit version 1.5, and to help its developer, Cancel Monday, to celebrate this, last week we launched a free prize drawn to win one of five copies.

The winners drawn at random from the thread over on Digital DJ Tips’s Facebook Page are Pedro Gonzalez from Tampa, USA; Umberto Lumber Beviglia from Italy; Rainier Dipasupil from the Philippines; Matt Lull from Colorado, USA; and Dylan Syben from New Zealand. Check your Facebook message inboxes for your free codes everyone, and commiserations if you weren’t successful this time. Thanks to everyone for taking part! If you want to check out Beatler, you can head over to their website at Cancel Monday. Meanwhile, watch out for more prize draws on Digital DJ Tips soon.

Comments Off

May 15th, 2011 DJ Culture

Over To You: Will My Distinctive Style Of DJing Work?

by Phil Morse

Our reader wants to know whether his practised mixes and cross-genre style is going to rock or bomb when he plays it in front of a crowd.

Reader Diogo Ferreira writes: “I’m just starting in DJing, but some doubts are starting to annoy me. I’ve got no problem with mixing techniques, and no problem with harmonic mixing, which I love and with which everything sounds perfect (at home, at least).

“But my problem relates to this: I’m taking DJing seriously, and I want to get recognised for my own style. My concept is to play highly melodic electronic music (mostly lesser known but great tunes, the kind of tunes I would love to dance to) in many different styles: techno, IDM, tech house, experimental, minimal…

22 Comments »

May 14th, 2011 DJ Culture

Your Questions: How Do I DJ With No Booth Out Or VU Meters?

by Phil Morse

The Pioneer DDJ-T1 has no booth monitor output or VU meters.

Reader DJ Kai asks: “As you probably already know, the Pioneer DDJ-T1 lacks booth monitor controls. What do you recommend I purchase to enable this functionality? A lot of DJs are content with just in-ear monitoring, but I prefer utilising the speaker at gigs.

“My second question is about clipping. Another feature that the DDJ-T1 lacks is volume meter control. When I go gigging, I just use the mixer that’s already present in the booth (usually a DJM 900) to see if I’m clipping or not. Do you recommend anything that I could purchase for usage outside of the club such as house parties and what not, so I can get a visual on the volume levels? Preferably something that won’t break my wallet.”

15 Comments »

May 13th, 2011 DJ Culture

Why It’s Not A Crime To Touch Your Laptop When Digital DJing

by Phil Morse

Putting your laptop on a stand to one side of the DJ booth can stop you stooping and move it from the space between you and the crowd: It would certainly help the DJ pictured here. Pic: Beats Media.

Laptop DJs often get accused of screengazing and spending more time tapping at the computer than variously watching their crowds, getting into the music, or doing real “DJing” (whatever that means, presumably riding faders and tweaking EQs).

In an attempt to break from this image, digital DJs have looked to modern DJ controllers to release them from their dependence on the laptop’s controls, with today’s DJ controllers increasingly offering the ability to do more and more of what early laptop DJs did on the keyboard or with the mouse.

22 Comments »

May 12th, 2011 DJ Culture

How To Succeed At DJing, Pt 8: “You Only Get What You Give”

by D-Jam

In the DJ world, networking can be the best way to make friends and get the gigs you're looking for.

Way back in the 90s, when I decided I wanted to take a crack at playing in clubs and events, the most valuable piece of advice I was given was: Network your butt off. That’s been the major rule for a DJ of any bucket to get those gigs. Yet networking sometimes has an image of sleazy wannabe businessmen pressing their cards into each others’ hands at breakfast meetings.

The truth is that proper networking is an art form, and while many of us can get decent at it, only a few can truly network with the same level of talent that Michelangelo could paint. But from my own experiences both in the DJ realm and even in the “business professional” realm, it’s way more than just shoving marketing items into people’s hands with a smile.

17 Comments »

May 11th, 2011 DJ Culture

Making Mashups, Part 4: Setting Up Your Sample-Based Performance

by Fred Dancekowski

Girl Talk doing what all this is leading to: Performing a sample-based mashup set live.

If you’ve been following along with this tutorial series for the past three weeks, you’re pretty much set to making your own sample-based mashups. There’s one final important thing though: turning all the samples you’ve collected and mixed into a sample-based performance.

There are many different ways to go about this, and you can definitely come up with your own interesting ways to play live. Virtually endless combinations of setups and equipment can be assembled for this purpose. Feel free to experiment for yourself and find out what you’re most comfortable with!

1 Comment »

May 9th, 2011 DJ Culture

Is Carl Craig Too Old For DJing? How Old Is Too Old?

by Phil Morse

Carl Craig has done so much for Detroit and for electronic music. Should he be expected to maintain his creativity at his early levels for all his life, or otherwise turn his back on DJing? Pic: Sexy Fitsum

Over on music blog InfiniteStateMachine.com, writer Aidan O’Doherty has cause a bit of a stir by musing that 41-year-old second-wave Detroit techno luminary Carl Craig “is living off his name and past achievements while melding into the commercial end of dance music”.

The blog has singled out Carl Craig because he happened to have played in Dublin, where the writer lives, just recently. It goes on: “It must be so hard to maintain your ‘A game’, remaining cutting edge and still retain your love for the music, especially when the gap between you and your audience becomes bigger and bigger in terms of age and outlook.”

77 Comments »

May 8th, 2011 DJ Culture

Over To You: Is It Legal To DJ With Unofficial Mashups and Remixes?

by Phil Morse

Software like Hit 'n' Mix makes it easier to make your own re-edits than ever before. But is it legal to DJ with them?

Reader Deejay Resistor writes: “I just wanted to know if websites like Crooklyn Clan and Crack4DJs are legal sites to buy remixes. I recently heard unless you get special permission from the artist, it is illegal to download remixes made by DJs and non-pro producers. I found a website that has legal remixes for purchase on CD and vinyl but most of the time the best club music remixes are those made by my friends and also other DJs that they post to download for free.

Are these types of free remixes legal to download and play while I’m DJing? Can I make my own remixes and save them to play later? Please help as I am very confused on what is and isn’t legal as far as remixes and mashups go.”

30 Comments »

May 7th, 2011 DJ Culture

Your Questions: How Can I Get People To Dance?

by Phil Morse

Be patient, structure your set well and you'll eventually got people dancing. Pic: Queens Ice & Bowl

Reader Dan Wiliams writes: “I’m 18 and have been DJing for around six months now (I have a Mixtrack and an X1), and a friend of a friend has asked me to DJ at a party they are holding to raise money for Japan. I haven’t played anywhere before.

“It’s in a farmhouse-style venue that holds 300, although I expect less people than that, and it won’t go on past midnight (lame, I know!).

54 Comments »

May 6th, 2011 DJ Culture

The 7 Dirty Secrets Of Digital DJing

by Phil Morse

Like it or not, digital DJing has put some awesome tools into the hands of today's generation of DJs. No surprise the old school get up in arms about some of them.

Digital DJing has put the once expensive, elitist art of DJing right into the grubby hands of the masses. Now anyone with a laptop and a free copy of Virtual DJ Home can spin in their bedrooms, at parties, and even at “proper” gigs.

But while the new tools of digital DJing give true music fans the chance to spin great DJ sets when otherwise they probably wouldn’t even have tried, the same tools in the wrong hands can wreak havok in the DJ box.

57 Comments »

May 5th, 2011 DJ Culture

How To Succeed At DJing Part 7: Market Yourself Like A Pro

by D-Jam

Armin van Buuren: Nothing about his image is left to chance. His brand is a product of careful marketing, advertising and promotion.

Over the course of the last six articles in this series, I’ve pretty much hit you with the harsh reality of working in this industry, and some of those sociological and time management “musts” one has to accept in order to succeed as a DJ.

Now we’re changing gears from the “hard truths” and going deep into building your business empire, regardless of which bucket or buckets of DJing you consider yourself to be in. We’re going to learn what real marketing is and how you can and should use this information to promote your DJ enterprise.

10 Comments »

Digital DJ Tips1>

Learn How To DJ With Digital DJ Gear

7 Big Mistakes I Made At My First DJ Gig (And Why It Was Still Great Fun)

by Tim Lorcas

Your Questions: Is Beatmatching By Ear Still Important?

by Phil Morse

Beginners’ Guide To Keylocking

by Phil Morse

How to Succeed At DJing, Part 9: Get A Demo & Press Kit

by D-Jam

New UK Copyright Law May Kill Unpopular Digital DJ Licence

by Phil Morse

The Mashup Artists Who Inspired Me

by Fred Dancekowski

10 DJ Tactics For When People Won’t Dance

by Matt Challands

Beatler Draw Winners Announced

by Staff Writer

Over To You: Will My Distinctive Style Of DJing Work?

by Phil Morse

Your Questions: How Do I DJ With No Booth Out Or VU Meters?

by Phil Morse

Why It’s Not A Crime To Touch Your Laptop When Digital DJing

by Phil Morse

How To Succeed At DJing, Pt 8: “You Only Get What You Give”

by D-Jam

Making Mashups, Part 4: Setting Up Your Sample-Based Performance

by Fred Dancekowski

Is Carl Craig Too Old For DJing? How Old Is Too Old?

by Phil Morse

Over To You: Is It Legal To DJ With Unofficial Mashups and Remixes?

by Phil Morse

Your Questions: How Can I Get People To Dance?

by Phil Morse

The 7 Dirty Secrets Of Digital DJing

by Phil Morse

How To Succeed At DJing Part 7: Market Yourself Like A Pro

by D-Jam

GET SOCIAL

Recent Comments