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Rob S

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Viewing 15 posts - 31 through 45 (of 47 total)
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  • November 5, 2016 at 12:05 am in reply to: Moving to the UK as a mobile DJ #2462591
    Rob S
    Participant

    Quite subjective, as I would hate to hear just generic Now albums at my wedding, or even worse, 90s-00s pop, but it’s certainly a good place to start.

    Personally if I was looking in and around the 80s I’d start with Shalamar, George Benson, Morrisey, perhaps Phil Collins, Luther Vandross, Alexander O’Neal, Lionel Richie, Kool & The Gang, Queen, Flock of Seaguls, The Temptations, Gloria Estefan for when you want to get the kids up. Maybe look at a bit of Motown if going back a bit further.

    (Someone will probably point out that a lot of that has been on Now albums, but I’m trying to sway away from the predictable Jon Bon Jovi / Michael Jackson / ABBA / George Michael / Rick Astley type songs you get everywhere.

    Also this is one of my all-time absolute favourite records and should be played at every wedding ever:

    And what about this wildcard, classic!

    • This reply was modified 7 years, 6 months ago by Rob S.
    November 4, 2016 at 11:51 pm in reply to: DJ Names #2462581
    Rob S
    Participant

    I’ve toyed with a few, I used a pseudonym for a while which was a bit of a joke name I had for a persona I had created for myself when I moved to a new area a few years ago, which sounds weirder than it was!

    Played with a few one-work ideas but struggled to find anything that would stick.

    For now I use my real name and if some point in the future a direction causes me to want to change it, I will consider it.

    October 19, 2016 at 8:59 pm in reply to: Profunda Podcast #2456741
    Rob S
    Participant

    Two more 🙂

    October 19, 2016 at 8:57 pm in reply to: Adding an image/avatar to my Posts on DDJT Forums… #2456731
    Rob S
    Participant

    Gents, how do I set a profile picture for myself? I’ve looked all over the My Profile section and can’t see it?!

    September 22, 2016 at 1:46 pm in reply to: Does the Xone 23C work with Traktor #2449411
    Rob S
    Participant

    Lovely, thanks, saved me £300!

    July 4, 2016 at 9:37 pm in reply to: Starting a small night… #2415341
    Rob S
    Participant

    I’ve also got a few feelers out. A colleague used to DJ on a pirate radio station back in the day which has since become a legitimate one and is putting me in touch to do a weekly, weekend show on that. I’m meeting with a couple of venues in Islington next week with a view to throwing my own night. My biggest regret is not getting into producing years ago. I tried and found it overwhelming but I gave it a more concerted go the back end of last year and finally starting to understand the work involved. I’ve got a couple of mentors, albeit not local nor into the same genre, but very handy for their technical expertise.

    July 4, 2016 at 9:34 pm in reply to: Starting a small night… #2415331
    Rob S
    Participant

    My suggestion is to consider production, or get into podcasting, or something where you’ll consistently make new content and post it online. Learn how to utilize Social Media the right way, and thus slowly gain people to lock on to your sound…rather than you begging people to like you. Eventually when you can get 50 people out to hear you, promoter will notice.

    Already doing that 🙂 I do a monthly mix on Soundcloud/Mixcloud, and I’m learning to produce. I have Twitter/Facebook accounts, a website, all the basic foundations, albeit I don’t quite have the self-promotion down great yet (I’m a big believer in that constantly barraging people with nonsense just for presence actually works against you a bit. I know I simply disregard so much on Facebook because it’s constant, whereas artists who post sporadically I find I’m more interest in as it isn’t so diluted).

    June 27, 2016 at 7:25 pm in reply to: Starting a small night… #2412761
    Rob S
    Participant

    ^ nice!

    I will give that a go as well. I suspected most people get bombarded with people nagging them to DJ but always worth a go.

    June 26, 2016 at 8:30 pm in reply to: Starting a small night… #2412431
    Rob S
    Participant

    Good advice, thanks. I’m “lucky” in that I’m handy with the computer and can knock out websites and graphics easily. I think the key really is to take a chance and keep trying and be prepared to fail?

    You’d have to set up a night with a scope that is broad enough to encompass your genre/style but also to be able to find one or two (local) name DJs that will bring in the crowd.

    One idea I did have was to start the night with a DJ competition of sorts, where 3-5 local DJs get an hour each perhaps, something like that. Then it is in their interest to bring lots of friends, who hopefully are having such a good time they hang around until the early hours listening to me…

    Food for thought, and ultimately if it’s something I want to do I’m going to have to try it!

    June 26, 2016 at 2:29 pm in reply to: Best transition effects #2412361
    Rob S
    Participant

    Everyone loves a good spiral and a high-pass filter!

    The best effects compliment the song and vibe though. Decay and reverb are used extensively in house/tech/techno production so exaggerating them on the mixer can be good if not used too liberally and match the pace/vibe.

    June 26, 2016 at 2:27 pm in reply to: Finding Music #2412351
    Rob S
    Participant

    The trick to finding music on Soundcloud is that it takes a while… you build up the folks you follow, then you spend an hour or so each day slogging through your stream for the new stuff that’s worth listening to

    ^ This

    Also, the tags on Beatport et al., can be misleading and many people box things in slightly different ways, so avoid paying too much attention to them.

    Shazam can be a blessing too, listen to extended mixes of DJs you like, Shazam them to death and follow the avenues they take you down (ie, different songs by same artists, suggestions based on currently listening, etc).

    June 26, 2016 at 2:24 pm in reply to: Am I Too Linear? #2412341
    Rob S
    Participant

    I could be on my own here, but one thing I hate in mainstream places is they way DJ’s play one verse, one chorus then fly into a different tune. Every 90 seconds is a new song. So I’d say avoid that!

    June 26, 2016 at 2:17 pm in reply to: Mixing Different Tempos #2412331
    Rob S
    Participant

    Stick with themes for a while, and try to transition on something without percussion (a breakdown or non-percussive outro) or if you’re really fancy, have some handy short musical bits to act as a short bridge between records. Bouncing around genres with different tempos can ruin the flow but if you kinda do almost mini-mixes of a similar theme, that might work.

    June 26, 2016 at 2:15 pm in reply to: First gig #2412321
    Rob S
    Participant

    80’s pop is usually a safe bet. I did a very intimate NYE party with an adult crowd accustomed to top 40 rubbish and what I call “Radio 1 indie” music. I played mostly 80’s pop, mixed/transitioned quite neatly considering, before moving onto some more mainroom piano housey kinda tracks and seeing it out with the music I actually love to DJ. Worked well in the end as most people (including me) were too pissed to realise they were raving away to Tale Of Us. I couldn’t bring myself to play any top 40 crap as the sheer dislike of it on my part would kill my vibe and probably translate to the floor.

    June 26, 2016 at 2:11 pm in reply to: Getting in the DJ's face #2412311
    Rob S
    Participant

    The camera guys are really annoying (from a clubber’s perspective) when you’re trying to rave at the front of the crowd/booth. Especially as the set is closing and you’re peaking! I get it, they need the promo pics, but shoving the biggest fans out the way at the close is just rude.

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