Ricky Figueroa

@MUR here’s some initial help:

(1) A “Radio Edit” is usually a version that is around three and a half minutes, which is the usual sweet spot for playing on regular radio shows, meaning not those shows in which the DJ is mixing songs as if it was a performance in a club. For the latter scenario, some labels and record pools release so-called “Mixshow” edits.

(2) In addition to the above, “Radio Edits” could also be songs that have been censored to eliminate swearing, due to restrictions imposed by radio communications agencies (in the US, the FCC has long had a list of such words; you can check a terrific comedy routine on this that George Carlin did decades ago).

(3) Meanwhile, record pools also offer a variety of shorter versions, edited by contributors to the pool. These include, for example, so-called “Cutdown” versions, which reduce the length to within a range of three and a half to four minutes; “Short Edits,” which can be anywhere between about two and a half minutes to close three minutes long; and then there’re also “Super Short Edits,” which can range from about a minute and a half and just over two minutes, although I’ve found them as short as one minute. These edits are especially useful for mobile DJs who want to satisfy the dancers with a bit of a famous song, or a song that would be a good transition.

(4) Clean Intros, variously called “Clean DJ Intro” or “DJ Intro Clean,” are edits of usually mainstream songs that when the single, album version, or Radio Edit was\were released, didn’t contain at least an 8-bar long Intro that a DJ would use to beat match and transition from one song to another in a far easier way than otherwise. These versions have also been censored. However, some pools offer Clean DJ Intros where the Intro is 16 bars long. Usually, the song will also have either an 8 or a 16 bar intro.

(5) Dirty Intros are similar to #4 above, except that the original use of swearing language has not been censored.

In the original version of this response I had included some tips for creating your own edits and more, but this message is already very long.

Hope this helps. 😉

This thread is old and DJ Vintage covered every scenario, but here’s another tip I read somewhere: I created a sample from the movie Apollo 13, specifically from the famous “Houston, we have a problem”. I put this at the beginning of two generic mixes of about 15 and 30 minutes, in case I can’t fix the problem right away. I have burned them to CDs, loaded to the back up hard drive, iPad and iPhone (I use an old iPhone, so I don’t lose the ability to use my phone).

However, for particular kinds of events (I’m a mobile DJ), such as a wedding, etc., for which the client requested certain songs or genres, I create specifically-tailored back up mixes so I don’t get in trouble playing inappropriate music for that gig.

Great tips and topic, D-Jam. Thanks!

I would add that it’s important to keep in mind the differences between the horizontal “cover” image as displayed in Facebook personal or DJ pages vs. the event pages. I imagine the one you posted is for an event page.

As you guys know, on pages we have to consider the presence of the “profile” picture on the lower right corner, while on event pages we have to consider the presence of the smaller thumbnail image displaying the event date.

Two other issues are how these pages are displayed on mobile phones vs. computers, and how event cover images will show up on the Facebook Events List and on Facebook adverts (I’ve used paid Facebook ads to promote events with very positive results).

So we should always review these two sets of Facebook guidelines before designing our cover images:

Facebook PAGES => https://www.facebook.com/help/125379114252045

Facebook EVENTS => https://www.facebook.com/events/336235416488540

The Focusrite 2i2 is a very popular, entry-level audio interface:

http://us.focusrite.com/usb-audio-interfaces/scarlett-2i2

There’re many options above this level.

Good luck.

Terrific story. I’m jealous but, like others said, it shows that crate digging and track selection on the spot are, by far, the most important skills.

And, of course, having a phone (or iPad) with a ton of GBs of music. 😉

Traxsource, Beatport, iTunes, and Juno Download.

Hi Pascale,

First of all, let me clarify a typo at the beginning of my first response last night: I do <not> profess great expertise in music theory. For some reason that <not> didn’t show up, which I’m afraid might have made my statement sound very arrogant.

Anyway, based on the specs I found for the various MacBook Pro 2012 models, I doubt your problem has to do with the CPU or RAM.

You actually pointed out a huge problem: your hard drive is way too full! This usually affects performance because the operating system doesn’t have enough hard drive space to create and manage virtual memory allocations, where it places and fetches data and computational processes in and out in tandem with RAM memory. Ideally you should never let a drive be more than about 80 percent full, especially in the case of 500GB drives.

So, I would recommend that you consider buying two external USB 3 hard drives to manage your photo collection, one to serve as your main external drive for that, and the other one to serve as a backup clone. I do this regularly to keep two backup clones of my main iTunes\Serato external hard drive, using the Carbon Copy Cloner app (CCC).

Essentially, the first time you clone external drive 1 to external drive 2 with CCC it will copy everything, but in subsequent cloning operations it just update the backup drive by copying only the files that have changed, or new files you’ve created, since the last time you ran the cloning operation.

Now, regarding your other mixing in key questions, I would just this to what bob6397 said (great chart btw):

(1) Harmonic mixing can add something special in most situations, but you should not feel trapped by it. You should not think that you can only mix in a new song if it’s harmonically compatible with the current one, just like you shouldn’t fall into the trap of beatmatching two songs at, say, 126 and then continue to play all your next songs at 126. This is where creativity, free flow, and improvisation comes in a DJ set or mixed-tape. Practice different strategies to make your mixes flow up and down in tempo, vibe, energy, and harmonic key, etc., but also try things out in front of people in response to the vibe you develop with them.

(2) Ideally, I would strongly recommend that you take Phil’s “Master Class” comprehensive course, but DJ Vintage said in another thread that this year’s edition is now closed. So, instead, consider subscribing to the “How To Master Key Mixing” course, which you can do by watching first an introduction video and then clicking on the green button that will appear below the video screen at the end.

Based on multiple experiences, I’m a strong believer in the effectiveness of Digital DJ Tips courses.

Good luck!