D-Jam

I dabbled with producing, but I never liked my results nor had the patience to sit there coming up with it all. I enjoy DJing more.

I did make a decent breaks remix of Orbital’s “Chime” and used it on a recent mix under the name Hedlytez.

I went to college…does that count?

Got my Bachelors in the late 90s and my Masters a few years ago.

DePaul University, Chicago.

I listened to the set Emma…it’s perfect as is. I didn’t catch that 2 seconds you talked of. I know we’re our own worst critics…but it’s a solid set.

Start with this:

• What DJing With Just A Laptop Taught Me

Then read all 13 parts starting with:

• How To Succeed At DJing, Part 1: What Type Of DJ Do You Want To Be?

I honestly think if I listened to your sets I wouldn’t catch any of the “imperfections” unless I listen to them several times over.

Frankly, I agree that you’re coming down too hard on yourself for only two months. You’re doing way better than I did in 2 months. Granted I was on old belt-drive tables.

Beat matching you’re getting down. Yeah I can hear some slipping, but 2 months in you’re ahead of many. Keep it up and you’ll get tighter.

Also learn how to use those EQs to help in blending. My way is generally to turn the bass all the way down on the incoming track, then slowly bring it in, then gradually increase the bass to normal while lowering it on the other, as well as lowering the volume on the older track to start bringing it out. This is to help keep the sounds from fighting one another in many cases. Sometimes you might have to play with the mid and treble if you see there’s hi-hats or something that’s coming in very strong.

I think the one big thing you can work on is TIMING. I hear a lot of transitions where it seems like there are melodies fighting one another. The trick is to more find a “break”, a point in the song where things are coming down do you can bring in the new tune. Sometimes these pop tunes don’t give you much, which is why some DJs make their own edits of the tunes, or use the looping and EQs to extend things.

To me the best way of doing transitions is to try to make it sound like the songs work together, and thus give the illusion that it’s somehow the same tune, but it changed. It’s probably why I get steamed at requests that destroy the set and thus I have to suddenly change everything. In any case, programming is a big one, and you should explore your tunes to find the ideal spots to get in an get out. If you think tunes play too long while you wait for a break, then try remixing the tune or use hot cues and such to shorten.

I dunno what it is…but I still think European media in general is better. The news isn’t so messed up as it is here in the US, and the programming choices have more variety. I even think radio is better over there since they’ll play a true “shuffle” and not just recycle the same 20 songs every hour.

Maybe I just have a bias.

From where I stand, I see a lot more female DJs out there now, and they can land gigs even more easily than men in many cases. Lord knows how many promoters and club owners have personally told me how they long for a hot looking female resident DJ who can play well…so they have the eye candy in the booth.

Plus women can hold “all girl DJ” nights and not be called sexist…unlike if men do .

The reality is that in the past, DJing was not totally seen as a glamorous thing, but more a “geek” thing. The A/V club guy who decided to spin records, etc. Yes we see visions of the guy in the booth being worshiped, but I really didn’t see this get “mainstream” until the mid-90s. Before that, many DJs in the clubs more seemed like rock band roadies who quit the biz or are on a break from touring. Yes, since the explosion of house music we saw this stereotype broken, but only in the party scene and the smaller scene. I do recall that up into the mid-90s, the DJ industry wasn’t yet overrun with the music industry mentality of marketing.

I agree with Emma in that many girls simply don’t bother with DJing because they might prioritize career or even just “looking hot” and “finding a rich boyfriend”. Lord knows most of the women I’ve encountered in the club scene generally valued how they looked and how many men wanted them over anything else. Even the more “popular” guys more cared about making big money and buying VIP services to thus impress women into sleeping with them. DJs were more the high school nerds who had plenty of free time and were into technology. Even the most hardened DJs from the ghetto I’ve met were very geeky in nature.

Now we have a lot of female DJs and I notice they can get bigger much easier because of the scarcity and marketability of a female DJ. Why I think the top headliners are mainly men is more in how much the industry is holding on to the past. You look at the DJ Mag Top 20 and it’s many guys who are much older and have been in those top spots for a while…so there isn’t much new blood breaking into that.

I wouldn’t be surprised when I hit my 50s or 60s that we’ll see even more female DJs and even at least one in the top 10.