yournamehere

Have you actually talked to the bar people to see if you got bumped for the other two guys? I’ll tell you that from personal experience, sometimes the person updating the FB page isn’t always up to speed. I’ve been booked for things that FB guy didn’t know about (and touted their Saturday DJ for my Wednesday show, only to retract it later on in the week).

How much money did you burn on promotion, if you don’t mind my asking? That’s bogus behavior on their end, sorry if you got burned like that.

Ha! Gotcha. The lesson I learned was get paid before you start playing most of the time. That’s obviously a bit more difficult working one-off shows in clubs and bars (a place where you’re working regularly will pay you so you’ll keep working), but even then I always tried to have my money in hand within the first hour or two before whoever does the math got too throwed to pay attention or too greedy on the gate.

On what planet is it necessary to get a beating from a promoter to become a DJ? I’ve been ripped off once, but I don’t pick fights.

Nobody has ever made me look like trash on my own equipment. If you’re letting someone work at your show, you are already messing up. Is that the due-paying? Learning to do your own shows? I got paid to work, so I worked. If the other guy wanted to get on some decks, he had to get his own night. The only people I ever traded off with were people I knew and trusted, and truth be told – I have been the guy who put the hurt on someone else’s party.

The best way to find out how to mix (or how not to mix) is to roll out to wherever you’re trying to work a show. Or if you’re just getting started, still go to a spot and see how the crowd reacts to what the DJ does.

Dancehall spots have completely different rules from most any other DJ show I’ve seen or worked in my life. It’s much faster, less focused on DJ tricks like blends/scratching. They burn through songs FAST (which is helped by the aforementioned riddim thing – a dozen guys might have a verse or two on the same beat) and music selection is going to be your most important skill set. They may run back the song a few times, they may trainwreck it into another one by simply hitting the airhorn/laser and yelling for a second. You have to be literate in music that’s popular with various islands, various sub-genres of reggae/dancehall/soca, and also modern rap and dance music. Knowing when to drop a particular song into your set will be the key here.

And every guy I’ve ever talked to or been told about in the dancehall DJ world had to find all that out the hard way. Going to watch several other people do their thing will at least give you an idea. I’d suggest putting Shazam on your phone and keeping it close.

A good 1/3 of my holiday season is corporate events. You want whatever the 98 Cool oldies station plays. You want whatever the Soccer Mom 100.something station plays. You want to take it easy on the rap. I wouldn’t play any electronica unless someone specifically asks you for it. In my experience, stuff like “Sweet Home Alabama” or Tom Petty “Free Fallin'” are good fallbacks/starters if you’re trying to feel out the crowd. Beatles & Stones. “D’yer Maker” is also money. Hopefully by the time you’re a few songs in someone might come up to ask if you have ________. The broader your musical selection, the easier your job becomes.

When we book corporate stuff, one question we always ask is, “What type of music are y’all looking for/do you want us to avoid?”

Take requests, but exercise discretion. Clean edits for sure. Keep a notepad or text yourself any request you don’t already have so you can get it later. If you use a notepad for requests, that’ll give you a good sense of what the crowd that night wanted.

domski, post: 4964 wrote: Why on earth would you not want to use something that makes your life easy?
Why would anybody question a tool that enhances and improves a DJs performance

Because I don’t DJ with a computer all the time? And the times I do, the software doesn’t have a sync option? Even if it did/does, I doubt I’ll ever use it exclusively. I love doing things with my hands. I have two CD players and a controller that’s got two slightly larger wheels than the CDNs. It is the system with which I’m most comfortable and there you go. I get crunk with what I’ve got, I like the team I picked. People come talk to me to try and mess me up, and it’s fun to fix things when they start falling out and the person thinks they’ve done it. I can hold a conversation and mix while telling the person asking me for Beat King that I can have “Crush” on in however many songs. If I’m trying to show off, I can do it while I’m talking to the person and they may not realize it until they’re leaving or trying to make a rapport to get their request faster. Or perhaps they’re actually just talking to me, that happens sometimes, too. My CDNs have a sync now button I haven’t used in years. Listening to some of the music I recorded when I relied on it almost exclusively, I can hear where it falls out and I remember being so frustrated with it.

I never thought to do it by hand until I was on players with out it, and learning how to do it myself means I never have to rely on a computer. I am happy to abuse pitchlock technologies and BPM counters when they’re there. The computers we have use Cue (so a slightly nerfed Virtual DJ) and it’s got sync, but it’s not always right. I tap out the beat and sometimes it doesn’t sync right. If you give me the option of fixing an error like that with one mouse responsible for two decks versus having two things I can control a lot easier on the fly? I will always choose the latter. I love using the computer rigs for a litany of reasons, but that right there is the reason that counts to me.

The bottom line is this:

Are they dancing?

MP3, WAV, AIFF, vinyl, acetate, DAT[COLOR=#000000], shellac disc, wax cylinder. sync’ed, unsynced.[/COLOR]

it really, really doesn’t matter.

[COLOR=#000000]Because they don’t care. they just want to release the tension from their 9 to 5…[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#000000]So just do your job and entertain and excite the people with drama, energy and fun.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#000000]Peace.[/COLOR]

I agree with that mostly. Definitely as far as file format – I’ve used mp3s of apparently dodgy quality according to the internet, but that issue doesn’t come up in a room full of people throwing down as long as you don’t get music that sounds egregiously on computer speakers. But the question I ask myself always is, “Are they enjoying themselves?” Hopefully, yes they are dancing. Sometimes I’m background noise. I get paid to do what I do at my house when people are around and I get bored. Start playing music that hopefully they like, gauge response and context, and change on the fly.

Last night, I worked a class reunion and there wasn’t a lot of dancing. But I was also there playing music while they ate dinner, drank and shot the breeze for 2 and a half hours. They had the 20 year awards, we had a gag Mr. and Mrs. Class of 91 dance that was pretty hilarious. Nobody really wanted to dance, though. Some girls asked for the Cupid Shuffle, which I obliged and got about a dozen out of a hundred. Tried the Electric Slide since that would’ve been huge while they were in college, but no dice. One requested two-step country song got a few couples slow-dancing. The women who paid me wanted to dance, so I threw on “Push It” – which they loved but nobody really felt like dancing. It was pretty funny, though and the people who didn’t hit the floor thought so as well. Mrs. 91 came by with his wife after I’d turned off and said that nobody danced at the 10 year either.

I got paid well over what I charged because they enjoyed themselves. My job’s pretty freaking sweet.

I started DJing through a service. Before that, the only interaction I’d had with people were randoms at our house parties and they were all truthfully nerds. My boss had me and my roommate come along to a couple frat parties to see how they go before we started on our own. I spent much of that time asking not only “What song is this?” but “Would this also work?” There was a co-worker who basically took me under his wing because we clicked on liking weird, inappropriate music. Thing is, I didn’t really learn how to talk on a mic (aside from last call or occasional drink specials/announcements) until I started doing karaoke shows a couple years later. That same guy let me shadow him on a weekly show for about 6 months. It was a whole different scenario and a lot more improvisational talking than I’d ever done. People heckling. Bob’s too drunk to sing, let’s find Replacement Bob. And now I’ve worked hybrid music/karaoke shows for years, but I still get self-conscious about talking.

Nobody showed me how to beatmatch in person, but I’d already spent years listening to DJ mixes online so some things like phrasing and tempo escalation sort of stick out once you start playing around with the music yourself. Listening to the widest possible range of music is one of the easiest ways for you to become a better DJ. I rotate the music on my iphone, when I had my beat-up old Crown Vic I’d drive around to CDs and I pay attention to what other people are listening to in passing.

>Unfortunately, you will not be penalized for playing dubstep<

Bahahahahahahahahahahahhahaha