Peter Lindqvist
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Peter LindqvistParticipant
…also make sure your computer runs at full speed. Not balanced. Make sure at least the CPU runs att full speed, and that nothing can go in to sleep mode, for any reason.
Peter LindqvistParticipantHello. There’s a lot to shut down in win 10 to make the system fast and stable. Mos of it is account dependable, so you need to do it in all your profiles. First, make sure you have an Antivirusprogram that you can disable. If you use the windows antivirus, it’s difficult to close down. AVG is a free AV that you can choose to close down for playing sessions. Make sure you don’t have any other unnecessary program running in the background. Install CCleaner and use it to first clean out all junk, and then you go in to the settings and close down everything that starts automatically. Also don’t forget to close down CCleaner from autostart.
Go in to Windows settings and find ”Background apps”. There’s about 20-30 apps running as standard in Win 10. Close them all. Also make sure you close down all ”sending info to Microsoft’ and make sure your computer ONLY get updates from internet. Standard settings is sharing updates with everyone else on the internet. Saving bandwidth for MS, taking yours instead.
Make sure Windows update is closed down when you use your computer to DJ. You need to get into Services and double tap on ”windows update” and set it to disabled.
If you have upgraded from Win 7/8, you will have to use the build in disc cleaner to get rid of all the junk that comes with the installation. More than 20GB of junk can be erased if you haven’t erased any yet.
If you have a normal spinning hdd, opposite to SSD, it’s a good idea to run a defragmentation program after cleaning out all the junk. Defraggler is a good free option, same company that does CCleaner. If you have a SSD drive, do not use defraggler. SSD=Drive with no moving parts, like a flash memory. Draws less power and creates less heat. Best option for laptops on the move and in shaky environments.
Good luck!
Peter LindqvistParticipantTerry_42, I don’t agree with you on either iTunes or organizing the music in the file system. They go hand in hand of course, as I definitely do not use I-tunes and never will. I waited to use any software until I’d seen where potential disasters could happen, and with I-tunes I saw a lot over a couple of years.
When something goes wrong, and people don’t even know where the music is stored in the file system, or how the files are named, makes a hdd recovery very difficult, and every playlist is just gone and all the work that went into them. I’m sure there are ways to protect you from that to happen, but it’s obviously not known to every user. I prefer my organized music in the file structure as it is very simple to maintain and very easy to keep a few copies of all my music on several hdd’s/computers. If one goes down, I just drag my folders to Rekordbox and a few hours later, all my music will be analyzed an ready to go. Every folder equals a playlist so I don’t lose them either. What I can’t save doing this, is stored cue points/hot cues/hot loops etc. Not a big problem for me as I mostly set them on the fly or not at all, but is to consider if my way sounds good to someone. Pros and cons…
I’m a Rekordbox/USB DJ but when I got a Rane SL1/Serato box a while ago, to use with my still going CDJ-1000Mk3’s, I just copied my whole music structure on to my laptop and dragged the folders in to Serato, and voila, in minutes I had all my music available to play with there as well and very familiar.
Yes, agree, I am a bit of a nerd, and I also delete all my mp3 tag info, except for cover art. The info I need, I keep in the file name. Everything in the filename is searchable in Pioneers players so I can still quickly find a track when memory fails 🙂 . All my tracks looks like this, 01A 122 The Deepshakerz – What can I do (Orig)_pn.mp3/wav, except for some genres i don’t use tonality, just BPM. This also means that my mp3’s and wav’s has the same info, and will show up the same wherever I use them. Mp3Tag can store cover art in wav’s now.
I’m still doing 2-3 nights a week and i am an open format DJ, so I need to have a lot of music organized. I can be booked for an 80’s night and when arriving be asked to take another floor and play house instead. I need to have my music in check for that. Doing this for 30+ years, of course I bring habits from other formats in to my thinking, but I’m prepared to put some extra time into something that makes my DJ life as easy and secure as possible.
Peter LindqvistParticipantYes, and no. For the hole 40 000 tracks to be cleared it will take a long time. I have used several ”find duplicate programs” and haven’t found one yet that does the job well without the users interaction. You can filter your searches in several ways: size, name, tag and so on, but you will still have to confirm every delete unless you are prepared to loose a few tracks here and there. I ended up doing it manually, over a couple of years. It took me a couple of weeks to sort out 95% of what i use every week, and the rest I sorted out as i needed them. Now, I don’t regret doing it careful and really well, because now I have a collection of about 11 000 tracks that i can relate to, every single one. I do everything from Rockabilly events to soul/fun/disco and house/EDM nights. Sometimes I dig in to my collection and pick out a couple of tracks and add to Rekordbox. Every track I’ve picked is based on my 30+ years behind the deck, so if a track is not in Rekordbox, it’s because I haven’t had any use for it during this time.
Peter LindqvistParticipantHey! I’m pretty sure that the manual way to go is the right one. You probably have your music sorted in some way and I think you should start creating a smaller sorted collection with the tracks you use the most. Leave the rest in the just-in-case-bucket. Personally I have a system that most DJ’s shake their heads at, because it does take som time to add new music. On the upper hand I always know which songs I have, or if I get a request and I need to get it quick, I can still use search.
1. I process my selected tracks through Mixed-in-Key and Platinum Notes
2. I name every track to a standard. Tonality/BPM or just BPM, Artist – Track name (Rmx)
3. I strip away the tag except for the cover art using Mp3 Tag.
4. I place the tracks in the right folder on my computer
5. I duplicate everything to my backups
6. I import and update my folders to Rekordbox and then I update my playlists in Rekordbox.I use folders on my hdd that i create playlist from. Should anything happen to Rekordbox or my computer for that matter, I can just import my folders again, and create new playlists.
If you make a copy of your collection with which you can start sorting, you can continue to use what you have now. When you think your new organized crates are getting ready to use live, do the switch. In the process, you’ll probably discover a huge number of tracks you haven’t played for a decade, and can be put to rest, at least until you think it’s time to take them for a spin again 🙂 . The benefit of doing this is that you will re-discover tracks you’ve forgotten you ever had. Good Luck!
Peter LindqvistParticipantI think Grant may on to something 🙂 . I just got a used Rane SL1 to see if could use my laptop/CDJ-1000Kk3’s as a backup for my 2000 nexuses in case of an accident. Burning CD’s really doesn’t work in a crisis situation. I experienced just the same and it was like a fluent feeling, responsive but not, like I did the right adjustment to discover moments later it wasn’t enough or to much. Of course I had Master Tempo on and really didn’t think that could have an impact like that. Thanks for the tip, Grant. I’ll turn the Master Tempo off during adjustments and see what happens 🙂 .
Peter LindqvistParticipantAbout second hand windows laptops. I see the chance to actually buy a very good consumer/business PC for a very little sum of money. BUT, always a BUT 🙂 . If you don’t know how open and fix things internally, or know someone who can help you, stop reading.
First thing. Check the outside condition. That will tell you how it’s been handled. Lot’s of wear ‘n’ tear, Nope.
Second: Look for one with reinforced frame, like the HP Pro Books. Then it won’t go to pieces for a little bump.
When you find one, then you need to do a couple of things. Open it up and clean out all the dust gathered and get rid of the Hard-drive inside and replace it with a SSD. Preferable a Samsung Pro, or if economy prohibit that, a Samsung EVO (half the price, just as fast). There are other brands that are OK, but not as proven as the Samsungs who give you a 10 year warranty on the PRO and 5 year on the EVO. Also Check the FAN. It should run at full speed with no vibrations or added noise. Finally, do a clean install and only install what you actually need. Don’t forget to turn off all useless start objects and services that could set an unwanted update in progress when you least want it.In Sweden I can get a third gen. i7 M model 2.2-2.4 Ghz (4 cores/8 threads) & 8 Gb Ram, with the upgrades, for about 500-600£ and a few hours of work. Price for a new one would be around 1100-1500£. If you’re not going to use video, try to get one without a second graphics card. It will only increase the temp inside. If it’s got extra graphics, make sure the temps stay under 55-60 degrees C under full load, because you want it to run for hours without any problems.
Peter LindqvistParticipantThere are a lot of choices to post mixes, and in my opinion MixCloud is the worst one, at least if you want some listeners. I’ve posted this not long ago but it’s apparently worth repeating. My preferred choices for uploading mixes are:
1. http://www.house-mixes.com/
2. http://www.mix.dj/
3. http://promodj.com/
They are in no particular order, they all have their pros and very few cons. I prefer them because of: Friendly environment, Lots of listeners & not only other uploaders, Downloadable, At least 1 GB free upload space (house-mixes unlimited) and you can upgrade for more professional functions if needed. B.t.w, they all have easy linking to most social media so you can get your mix out fast to your fans and friends. On house-mixes, if you wanna keep your MC-account updated, you can tic a box and your mixes will automatically be uploaded there as well.- This reply was modified 7 years, 9 months ago by Peter Lindqvist. Reason: Spelling correction
Peter LindqvistParticipantStill has to point out who’s responsibility it is when you bring your own gear into a Club. Very little talk about it and perhaps not too funny of a subject. Imagine connecting your stuff to a high end PA and something bad happens, or for that matter nothing happens. Are you prepared to pay the prize? The benefit of having a pre installed DJ-kit in a club is that all the responsibilities, except for the music and a pair of head phones, are with the club. If the mixer doesn’t work, you can sit down your ass and wait ’till it’s fixed. If your gear f***s the night up, you could be liable, not only to pay for physical damages, but also loss of sales for that and future events. Make sure you know exactly what the managers/owners view on this is, because sometime, something bad will happen. We have talked about the importance of backup gear before, but new DJs may not have gotten that far yet when they start playing on events. Let’s say that you get the warmup set for your local club, and for some reason, when you connect your cables, you shorten the installed club mixer. You quickly put the balanced cables in to your controller and do your set, but the next three guys in the booth will play from the CDJs, and the mixer is dead. Now you have a dead £2000 mixer to fix and a night to save. Prepared for that?
It’s up to us old dogs to point out not only the benefits and positive parts, but also the risks involved. These are often learned along the way and it could end up in a very expensive life experience and may also ruin your future as a DJ. I know several guys that this has happen to so it’s definitely something real to be taken serious.
Peter LindqvistParticipantHmmm, not sure what you’re after. If you have an external CD/DVD player connected, and put media in to it with mp3/audio-files burnt as DATA, it should work as the computer will consider the drive as any other drive. Could be useful as backup, or if your hdd i full and you need to get your latest music with you until you have fixed your hdd issues. A USB stick would be to prefer and easier to use, but if an empty CD/DVD is all you have… use it 😉 .
If you want to play CD’s and are using software to control your CDJ’s, you will have to switch on to CD on the CDJ and let the CDJ do the playing as it’s supposed to do. If you don’t have CDJ’s you will have to rip your CD’s or get yourself a couple of CDJ’s to play CD’s.
You have a lot of options. Just pick the ones that fits your needs 🙂 .
Peter LindqvistParticipantHey! This is a normal concern and for myself, I have made some prioritizing. Nr1. Always, choose the right track for the moment Nr2. Choose the right transition (where do I set the cue and for how long will I play the track. Cut, short, long mix?) Nr3. Play the next track in Key? (Bar/Party=Not important, Club=More important, House tech, deep…= Always) Nr4. Using effects? Bar=No, Club=Build ups coloring loops (to get more energy), House Tech Deep=Nice ‘n’ smooth coloring of transitions and lesser parts.
This is not cut in stone, but makes it easy to choose the right gear and what I need to focus on. In a bar, you need to be more people oriented and perhaps chat a little with the customers in between tracks. To choose not to use effects and easy short transitions will give you that time and people will see you as a relaxed and friendly DJ 🙂 . Stress is always around the corner, so giving yourself the time to choose the next track and have time to spare will give you a nice experience in the Booth.
Keeping the key/tempo and making perfect transitions may sound impressive in a mix you make for listening to, but in a live situation, especially in bar or private event, that’s usually not the way to go. Changing tempo and genres is usually what gives the best reactions. Don’t be afraid to take some risks, and just make sure the next track starts with something highly recognizable, and you and the guests will have a good time.
Peter LindqvistParticipantIf you have a powerful enough computer, clean from garbage and optimized for DJ use, you shouldn’t be able to feel any difference at all. To get there it’s important that you make sure everything is set up correctly. A Denon or Pioneer CDJ/DJM has a dedicated built in processor that does all of the work for each unit. When you use software, your computer needs to be able to handle as many tracks you intend to use (think tracks, loops, samples) and with the mixer, all of the effects you intend to use. The more you use at the same time, the faster CPU, and hard drive you’ll need, preferably a fast SSD. If you have a PC, you will also need to install an ASIO driver to get the latency down to a minimal. In Mac that’s not necessary. The mixer in the MC6000mk2, is working as a standalone hardware mixer, so it’s not dependent on the computer to work. You can bring your HC4500 and connect it to 2 channels and use it for backup and as a complement until you have fully converted to be a controllerist 🙂 . If you don’t have any experience or interest in computers, now it’s a good time to dig a little deeper in to that world. Your computer will be the difference between a happy and joyful experience and a nightmare. I’m sure someone here on the forum can recommend the basics to get things going the right way. At least, if you have a PC, Windows 10 comes to mind. Make sure you shut the windows update service down. Also shut down LAN, BT, WIFI and with that pause your AV program until next restart. With a clean computer, those are the services/functions that most likely will disturb you when playing. If you can afford it, the new Denon MCX8000 will give you the best from booth software and hardware as it can be used with USB media and Serato at the same time, or apart. With the USB you don’t need a computer connected to play. Pioneer has a similar unit but with a little different approach and higher price, the XDJ-RX. You can find Reviews of them here at digital dj tips. Good luck with your new gear.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by Peter Lindqvist.
Peter LindqvistParticipantHey Mr. Vintage!
Always read your posts, wise words of experience. Thanks for your response. As you probably have guessed, I’m not really new to this and I’m still in the game. I thought this would make interesting reading, especially for all aspiring DJ’s who may think about ”what if…”.
A couple of notes, reality of being a DJ in Sweden.
1.
There is no way you can insure DJ gear in Sweden anymore. There is one way i can think of, which will cost as much as a
new setup every year. There used to be, but not since more than 10 years. The ONLY way is to get the person responsible,
accident or not, to pay for the damage. Since a year, there is a precedential ruling on who is responsible when things
like this happens in a DJ booth. It says that unless someone else has caused the accident, the one causing the damage will
have to pay for it. That’s what caused me to react the way I did towards the guard. Also the club owner could claim
compensation for the consequences of the damage, both direct and future.2.
Where I’m directly involved with the DJ’s, either responsible for, or as a resident, things like this are not likely to
happen, as we build protection around our valuable gear. Goes for the permanent installed and whatever we bring ourselves.
The problem always occurs when getting booked through an agency with no or very limited contact with the club owners.
Sometimes the DJ booth is better than best, sometimes not so… As for gear, 90% of the times the club has rekordbox
friendly players and where I play it’s very rare that anyone have computer connected. It’s usually guest DJs who bring
that. I still do about 100 gigs/year and a third is via a DJ agency. No fancy stuff, just ”go there” ”play that” but
usually fun gigs.Unfortunately, at least in Sweden, some club owners are using the fact that more and more DJ’s bring
their own equipment, to avoid updating their own. The Numark all in one is a typical example of that. It’s their
equivalence to the Pioneer XDJ-R1. It forces us to bring CD’s to use it and I more or less stopped using mine 2009. I
have a complete new system for how I organize my music today that goes very well with Rekordbox and burning CD’s for all
my gigs won’t happen. If the club don’t provide adequate equipment for me to play on, I certainly will not take
responsibility for that unless i get very well paid for it. It’s a hole other game when i do mobile gigs, but then, I do
get well paid 🙂 . This time, I told the owner that if I had used his Numark, the night night would have been over with
three hours to go. I also told the agency and hopefully, next time there will be a protective plexi and players that read
Rekordboxed usb’s.3.
Today, if you play in a club, the unspoken rule is that the club provides the gear to be used and you as a DJ provide a
pair of head phones, music and the skill and knowledge how to use it. That makes it easy to know who will have to fix
whatever is not working. Most DJ’s will sit their ass down and wait for ”good to go”. If you bring anything in to the
booth, the responsibility automatically becomes yours. With what I’ve said before, that could get you into a tricky
situation you’d rather not be into, if something bad happens. In a couple of clubs we have solved it by dividing the
responsibility between the Booth and the PA. We get paid to bring whatever we wanna play on, and as long as the guide-
lines for how to connect our gear is followed, the responsibility stays in the Booth.4.
For mobile gigs i have all the backup I could possibly need, no computer thought 🙂 . I have my XDJ-R1, CDJ-1000s and
several mixers. Still have all my CDs and one emergency party-case with about 3000 party tracks and I still burn a
couple of emergency CD’s with new party tracks every year. I’ve had my Nexuses for three years now and have already
ordered my Nexus 2 setup. Hopefully that can stay home for a couple of years while I continue to use my existing gear.
Not getting any younger but i think i can bring it for a few more years in the clubs. Then, I’ll retire to mobile gigs
and start making money 🙂 , and most of what you say about controllers will probably be my opinion as well.For the part ”stuff fail on me left right and center”, I really don’t have that much experience of that. I get extremely frustrated when all my work and expectations goes out the window because of technical failures, so during the years, I’ve written off everything that has ever created problems for me in the Booth. That includes a number of Denon and Numark players
and as i work with computers… well, I use them for preparations and keep my music on them 🙂 . This has made me bring my own gear since 1994 when almost all the clubs in Sweden transferred over to Denon dual CD-players. The Denons ruled every Booth until about 2006-07 when Pioneer took over, finally. I bought my first Pioneer setup 94/95, the 500’s, upgrading about every 5th year, and in all those years, they’ve never ever even skipped a beat, until this accident happened. But that’s not really anything to blame Pioneer for… The fact that a few hours of cleaning and drying was enough to get it up and running again, makes it even more unlikely that i switch over to something else. Not as long as It’s an investment and not a cost. I have a boss at home i need to explain my expenses to every time, so please don’t give her any ideas 😉 . I started out with a double cassette deck and a belt driven turntable, so after more than 30 years in the job I think I’ve earned the right to use the top-of-the-line gear of my choice 🙂 . I still use my old gear now and then, and I’ll do fine as long as i have cue, play and two channels to mix with. My take on every job is to do the best of my ability, and that sometimes requires my nexuses and a decent mixer to do.This will make me do some adjustments to my preparations and hopefully this can be of use to some else, before any accident happens. To be able to see the night through was important, not only for the club, but for me personally. As the saying goes: It’s not the problem you have that defines you, it’s how you tackle them that does.
- This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by Peter Lindqvist.
Peter LindqvistParticipantI made a reply a couple of weeks ago that fits just as well here. That time it was about what kind of music is most suitable, but I made a short video showing a practice run, and with a few words spoken in the intro and some explaining text in the outro. I’m not using headphones as I do everything both faders up and i’m holding my mobile phone in one hand, so it’s a one hand operation. I do recommend using both hands and head phones… 🙂 . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ7jTTeU8H4
Peter LindqvistParticipantPrepare for a 3 step gig. I think Deep Nu Indie is a better choice as it involves a lot of classic 80’s and 90’s hit, but in a modern mellow deepish style. It’s also easy to mix it up with modern Vocal Deep from today’s charts. It usually works very well on people 40+. As the party goes on you will probably need the originals as already stated above. Everything from Pointer Sisters and Bon Jovi, to Spice Girls and Culture Beat. Don’t forget a bunch of Ballads… they were usually played once or twice every hour in the 80’s.
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