When you’re planning a set, it’s tempting to jump straight into mixing – which tracks blend well together and how. But what actually shapes a great DJ set happens much earlier than that, and it all starts with the music you choose.
In this free lesson from Ferry Corsten’s Trance DJing Masterclass, Ferry walks through an inspiration mix he put together for the course and explains his thought process behind every single selection – why certain tracks made the cut, what role each one plays, and how he thinks about the bigger picture before he even touches DJ software.
Start with the numbers
Ferry’s first question isn’t “which tracks?” – it’s “how long am I playing?” Knowing your set length determines how many tracks you can actually fit in, and that shapes everything else. Typically, a one-hour set tends to be around 13-14 tracks for Ferry. When asked to prepare something in the 60-90 minute range for this course, he dug through his catalogue and landed on 19.
The numbers matter for performance reasons, too. Ferry talks about building towards a big euphoric ending, and the last thing you want is the stage manager cutting you off right when the crowd expects that final moment. Know your track count, and your set ends on your terms.
Build the selection around a story
For this mix, Ferry knew his audience – trance fans who want the real thing – so his own productions were the natural starting point. But there’s more to it than that. It’s not just about picking good tracks; it’s about how they sit together, what role each one plays, and whether the whole thing tells a story. Here’s what that looks like in practice:
- Tracks you know inside out – For this course, Ferry leant heavily on his own productions – partly so students can clearly hear the structure and mixing points, but also because familiarity helps. In his regular sets as Ferry Corsten, that’s around 70% his own material. Play music you know well, and you’ll mix it better
- Mashups and pairs – Ferry keeps an eye out for tracks with a natural connection – a mashup that teases another tune before leading into it, or two tracks whose elements just belong together. Sometimes those pairings happen by accident, mid-mix, and you realise something new is taking shape. When that happens, it can become a fixture in your sets for a long time
- Vocal spacing – Trance is largely instrumental, but vocals are powerful when they land in the right place. The mistake is clustering them together. Space them out – a couple of instrumentals, a vocal, a couple more instrumentals – and each one becomes a moment. Let the crowd sing along, then give them room to breathe before the next one
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Don’t overthink old versus new
Ferry doesn’t agonise over whether a track is too old to play – if it fits the journey, it goes in. There’s actually something that happens when you drop a classic next to a brand-new release – the crowd gets that rush of recognition, and the old track proves it stood the test of time next to something current.
Read this next: The Lost Art of Long Tracks – Why It’s Good To Let Music Breathe
The local crowd gets factored in too (when it makes sense), but Ferry isn’t overhauling his set for every venue. For him, staying true to who you are as a DJ matters more than pandering – but give the crowd a little something extra where you can.
Next Steps
The point Ferry keeps coming back to is this: choose tracks for the story they’ll tell, then worry about how you’ll mix them. Get that right, and the rest follows.
Ferry Corsten’s Trance DJing Masterclass covers the full journey – from gear and music selection to mixing, performing, and beyond. The course is available standalone or as part of an All-Access Pass membership – lifetime access to every course we make, now and in the future.
Do you plan your track selection before thinking about mixing, or does it all happen in the moment? How do you decide which tracks make the cut for a set? Let us know your thoughts below.
Phil Morse
