backtothefront

D-Jam, post: 31124, member: 3 wrote: Amr, your spiel is part of why I stopped gigging and went more into a hobby/blogging kind of logic. Not to mention I’m almost 40 and rather enjoy going to bed earlier now and waking up in the mornings on weekends.

If you want to play the “cool music” and not have to pander to the mainstream, then you have to work your tail off to get there…

1. Do some kind of online show or a podcast. Stick to it and push it so you gain a loyal following.
2. Network your butt off with the underground promoters and the rave promoters. Even try to work your way in to helping them plan and promote events. Underground folk always have to build a scene…not convert one.
3. Look into production, but don’t stop DJing. Yes, if you want to be the big headliner playing the music you love, then you need to churn out music so people buy it, know your name, and the industry thinks you’re bigger because your name shows up on the playlists of other DJs.
4. BE PATIENT!!!!! Guys like Deadmau5 got lucky. Most of the major headliners are in their 30s and 40s. I’ve seen some of these guys playing when I was a teenager. It took them decades of dedication to become the big names. Even superstars of the now like Guetta have been playing for many many years. It doesn’t come overnight. Not unless you sell out and become more fluff over substance.

Spot on, totally agree. Becoming an established DJ takes time and the best way to get in to the underground side is to go and support the nights, become friendly with the DJs/Promoters, don’t act ‘the big I am’ either – sure fire way to put off most underground dance night organisers. There is still much of the old school rave collective spirit in the underground music scene in my opinion, so intergrate with it.

Coltrane09, post: 30524, member: 2800 wrote: Hey guys. When you first started out doing gigs did you have your back up gear set up on the table? Maybe you were using an iPod as your back up? How about using a smaller CD/MP3 mixer? Did you go ahead and set it up on the table so you can easily switch to it?

I’m wondering because it appears that 99.9% of the gig logs I’ve viewed on Youtube (including videos uploaded by popular and professional DJs, etc.) do not have their back up gear on the table, turned on and ready to go. I thought maybe they were using an iPod/iPad for that particular gig.

I define back up gear as having a CD/MP3 player or mixer that can work on its own without a PC, OR using the inputs on a stand alone midi controller and running CDJ’s, an iPod etc.

What is your practice? I think we can agree that having a second mixer, pc, etc. turned on and ready to go is best way, but does everyone practice that or have you found more efficient ways of having your back up gear ready to go?

Thanks.

I always carry a bag of 12″s, thankfully I’ve never known 1210’s/mixer go down.

Hardly a Riot, post: 30186, member: 4223 wrote: More of the latter.
I’ve got a decent vinyl collection, and I like to run my turntable (basically a technics 1200 rip-off) through my controller’s aux in, and assign it to the right side of the crossfader.
I can just never get my mixes quite as tight as I can with software/cdjs.
Any suggestions on possibly approaching it differently?

With TT’s, it’s all about practice and plenty of it. The techniques above are the ones I use, also with a 33 track, you can temporarily speed up the slower record by holding 33 and tapping the 45 button momentarily (on Technics this is).

I started with a pair of Soundlab DLP1 (belt drive) TTs then bought a set of 1210s in the early 90’s, I reckon it took me probably many months to get to a reasonable standard of manual beatmatching, now when I hop on to the TTs, it’s like riding a bike and just don’t think about it, it becomes 2nd nature.

When I moved to digital I found CDJs/Controllers very easy to manually beatmatch as once the tempo is matched, both tracks will remain synced (unless the track BPM itself varies of course) however with vinyl you will require adjustment in the mix but the aim is for this to be as minimal as possible, vvv small tweaks of the pitch IMHO, so you avoid the audible adjustment. This is think is what people find difficult – the constant attention required alongside the usual eq and fader work required in the mix.

IMHO, no matter what people say, manual beatmatching with vinyl on turntables is a skill. Throw a 3rd deck in to the mix and it makes it even more interesting but very satisfying when you pull it off.

DrBlue, post: 29907, member: 1831 wrote: When u say lossless (you men like not compressed or whatever).. can u get that on beatport or any similar sites? and the Mp3 formats on beatport, are those 320kps? larger, smaller?

As the chaps above have said, AIFF/WAV are 2 lossless formats, so will sound pretty much as the producer intended with no audio compression. They are larger and generally more expensive to buy (still cheaper than vinyl! 😉 ), but ultimately the best choice. I mainly use 320kbps MP3s for playing out in bars/clubs/radio show and not had an issue to date. As internet speeds and affordable storage continue to increase, lossless will be the staple choice I believe and really this is the way we should be heading. Compressed audio, one could argue, is a regression from vinyl and CD, so it will be good to see the world come out the other side of a decade (and a bit) of mainstream compressed audio consumption.

Of all the years playing out in a club, only once, we all went out beforehand for a good ruby and few pints, mixing was a bit scrappy but remember dropping LabRats ‘Music is my way of life’ as the opener, so must’ve been late 90s. House parties though, yep many times, but all good fun! On my gigs and my new radio show, no, would not do it, couple of beers, but that’s it, save it for afterwards. 🙂

reason808, post: 29228, member: 831 wrote: Organizing your music collection is a HUGE issue, especially for digital DJs. I’ve wanted to write about it in more detail but I’m still sorting it out myself.

Since you mention that you’re new to this, I think you should really practice mixing more before you come up with a master scheme to organize a big collection. Ultimately you want to organize your collection around the way you mix. It sounds like you’re still working out your mixing style.

I hope I don’t sound condescending, I also had a lot of similar questions when I was starting out. Once I got comfortable with my mixing skills, my concern with the music structure of track mattered less and less. You get to a point where you generally know what spots to move in and out of in a track, and what type of tracks will work together. Then you can organize around those ideas of “melody color” and “vocals” you mention (sounds interesting, BTW).

Ultimately, if the emotional connections between the songs are right, the structure of the baseline, tempo, etc. won’t matter as much, if at all. A simple slam mix between two hit songs the crowd is dying to hear usually gets huge cheers from the crowd – even when going from radically different genres like rock to hip-hop.

To answer your other question, I make a both a rough plan, but also allow for flow. Most Djs have grouplets of tracks that work well together for about 20mins and then they shift accordingly. Just about every gig I’ve ever had, I had to change my plans to match the crowd’s mood and keep things flowing. Even when the crowd wanted highly predictable and formulaic hits, the peak of the night would always change, so I had to plan my buildups accordingly.

So again, I think it comes back to being comfortable enough with your mixing to adjust to situations that come up. But the situations that come up can also be that little idea that suddenly pops into your head during the outro. Sometimes they can be the best mixes – a little risky in front of a live crowd, though.

I agree, this is a very well put, balanced bit of advice.

Stazbumpa, post: 29044, member: 1739 wrote:
Multi genre dance music is an absolute must in my opinion, keep it eclectic unless the guy that is paying you has expressly said otherwise. Don’t pidgeon hole yourself into only one style because, given the massive variety within dance music, to do so is frankly boring..

Not totally accurate; depending where you’re playing, a top40/mainstream bar/club, yes then mix it up by all means but an underground club night where a style of dance music is known for and expected, most definitely not! Try playing this current craze of commercial EDM in Fabric, London for example would not go down well!!!!