yournamehere
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yournamehere
MemberMy top 5 songs in life are not the same as the 5 songs I won’t work a show without having in arm’s reach (whether or not I play it.)
1) Mariah Carey (f. ODB) – Fantasy (remix)
2) Ginuwine – Pony
3) Lynyrd Skynyrd – Sweet Home Alabama
4) Led Zeppelin – D’yer Maker
5) Brooks & Dunn – Neon MoonTop 5 songs I couldn’t live without in my skull?
Geto Boys – Mind Playin Tricks On Me
Jimi Hendrix – Voodoo Child
Aphex Twin – Bucephalus Bouncing Ball
White Zombie – Welcome To Planet Motherf-er/Psychoholic Slag
Holst – JupiterMemberAt that same rock bar, the management decided at one point to try bringing in college kids and country bar cougars with cheap drinks and the promise of LIVE DJ SPINNING WHATEVER YOU WANT TO HEAR!
One of the first things I did was have a block around 1AM where I’d let anyone bring me anything on CD they wanted to hear. Didn’t guarantee I’d play the exact song since sometimes the pick was terrible, but a lot of the time we’d compromise on some other song. It worked out great at first with that eventually being a big reason *anyone* stayed in the bar whether they were RAWR GUITARS or looking for Shakira. I loved and hated it. Had to phase it out because I wasn’t the only person working that show later and the other guys didn’t negotiate with terrorists. They were fair despots, though – replaced it with the 20 minute Greetings From Hell block for which they fielded requests.
MemberHaroon K, post: 4370 wrote: I think the reason that serato doesn’t have sync is that its that the timing is dependent on the timecode being picked up by the turntables, it will even at zero pitch lock drift off slightly as its not perfect timing. The same thing happens when using traktor scratch in DVS, you only get syncing working when using midi.
The same thing happened on CD players since they were just CD-R drives impersonating a vinyl experience. Numark Cue seems to have a better handle on it. The 45 minutes I spent with Serato convinced me it was awesome, but I’m not on the laptop bus yet.
MemberI learned how to DJ on Numark CDN88 players that had a SYNC NOW button. For a long time, I was frustrated because things I’d always wanted to put together would fit only to fall apart 4-8 bars later (or faster). Part of the problem was they have a weird automatic feature that sometimes made its own decisions about how to read BPM even if you’d tapped it in. Until I started working shows for real on mobile rigs and at a club, I had no concept of manually beatmatching things. All our mobile rigs had CDN 25 players without any effects whatsoever. The Wild West room I worked had two different CD players: one had a good pitch lock but a terrible wheel and the other had a great wheel but no pitchlock. The year and a half I spent basically practicing in a mostly-empty side room was the best thing that ever happened to me – otherwise I don’t know when I’d have broken the beatmatch addiction. It was like someone throwing you in a pool without those floaties you think you need.
The rig I have has a pair of CDN 90s with a sync button I haven’t used in years. It’s got the same auto feature issue that I don’t even remember how to turn off. The D2 DDS controller I have works exactly like a pair of Numark CD players. There’s a BPM tapper on both sides and the software will use a combination of its librarian index (the Librarian makes BPM tables) and user input, but there’s no sync option.
My stance is that beatmatching will make you a better person :D. Quitting SYNC NOW was like dropping a smoking habit.
MemberAmpero, post: 2733 wrote: I get the DJ’s are jiggalos bit alot :/
I’ve been doing this wrong for 7 years. Playing music has never made a woman want to pay me for sex.
MemberOLD: Frantically trying to find That Song in the middle of 2-3 binders of CDs, some of them poorly-marked (CRAP 1, BAR ISH 14) and some others being compilations. No liner notes. Bonus points for pulling it off in the last :30 of whatever’s playing.
NEW: Frantically trying to type (or remember how to spell (or misspell)) That Song in poorly-organized folders inside folders inside folders. Bonus points for realizing there’s an umlaut in the last :30 of whatever’s playing. I hate you, Blue Oyster Cult.OLD: Stacks of CDs that resemble the Leaning Tower of Pisa or Stonehenge, depending on the allotted space. New ones forming as ideas happen but may or may not come to fruition.
NEW: Queue lists of songs just in case. Constantly dropping songs and trying to keep things to mix or follow up together as ideas happen. (Best thing here is unlike CD stacking, this won’t screw up your media.)Memberhttp://soundcloud.com/yournamehere-1/and-then-your-analog-wormed
Mr. Oizo – “Analog Worms Attack” under Young Jeezy – “And Then What?” Did this about 20 minutes ago on my DDS, just played them out. Started out as an accident and I figured I’d run with it.
MemberDJ Stone Crazy, post: 3929 wrote: True enough, diversity is the key. Still, calling it “ghetto music” was uncalled for. I was also playing house music.
*shrug* I live in Texas. “Ghetto music” is in the polite spectrum of what I’ve heard from drunks, even when they mean well. (Not to mention club/bar management or private party throwers.)
The only time someone got in my face about rap and dropped n-bombs, I was in my first regular bar show (in a dive rock crowd) back when we were strictly using CDs.
“Hey, do you have NIN’s ‘Closer’?”
“Not on me right now. The only one I’ve got is the 50 Cent remix (this was in the yonder days before mash-ups, ha).”
“Eww, no, I don’t want that (n-bomb) $#!+. My daughter and I want the original.”
“Sorry, I don’t have it.”20 minutes later, the same woman came up with her not-so-attractive daughter.
“So, do you still not have ‘Closer’?”
“I haven’t gone anywhere and nobody brought it to me, so I’ve still got the same one I told you about earlier.”
“All you have is (f-ing)(n-bomb) trash in a rock bar. What the (f) is wrong with you? Play ‘Closer’ for me and my mom!”
“Fine, (cued up the mash-up and faded it in) all the ‘Closer’ you can stomach.”They were thrilled until GO GO GO SHORTY IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY started. We swapped middle fingers and I went about my business.
The only other time I’ve had direct racism my way, it was from people who were leaving because I showed up with equipment and they were talking trash as they walked out the door. My bottom line has always been to brush off stupid ish as long as I’m getting paid enough. Or work where they have bouncers and I don’t have to eat stupid remarks from morons.
MemberDJ Stone Crazy, post: 3882 wrote: I agree. Still, some folks are asking for a stomping when it comes to request. Last Sunday, some dude told me to stop playing “Ghetto Music” and play the Cure. Heads were nodding and he tells me to change my music. I’m still holding on to my belief that rock music lovers are the biggest douches.
I’ve had rock contingents every bar show I’ve ever worked, some more hostile than others. I started beatmatching/blending across genres to keep myself sane, but it ended up being a useful skill that can keep a room of disparate interests happy enough to drink for several hours. What were you playing besides “Make It Rain” at the time? I’m curious. Sounds like Cure douche was the dude trying to be a rapport leech for requests he couldn’t get in outside his car or house. There’s nothing wrong with not playing every request, to be sure.
My all-time favorite THIS SHOULD NOT HAVE WORKED moment was at a frat party when the social came up (absolutely hammered) and insisted I throw on the chicken dance in the middle of a banging club rap set. It so totally worked.
Memberhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJR8OYcfOv8
I’ve been throwing this in early at one of my bar shows when nothing but staff’s around, it’s gotten good reactions. A bit too chill for a club rap crowd, but so is Frank Ocean – “Novacane” and I’ve been getting requests for that around 1am.MemberThe other way I look at opening a crowd is almost like Marco Polo. Or dynamite fishing, depending on how well of a read I can get on the room before I start playing. You may not kick off with a home run every time, but you may trigger that, “Hey, I wonder if he has _____” response that will bring your crowd to you. And depending on how well you can react to *that* can determine whether or not you win them over. This isn’t to say, “Requests are king.” Sometimes people are going to ask you for stuff you shouldn’t play until the room’s got more bodies, but you may be able to throw something similar on to appease those requests. “I’ll have it on in a little while” is a phrase that pays. It also depends on how your room cycles. If I’m working a crowd that’ll be there for my whole set, I may not be as willing to throw something on twice as I am if it’s a bar or a club where the population is changing on the hour.
MemberI wouldn’t use that Rollercoaster song for an opener unless the person paying me to be there asked or I was DJing a massage parlor without happy endings. Maybe an art show. The song has no drums. A reggae crowd in the bars/clubs I’ve gone to in Dallas would throw bottles at you and demand something else. That said, I’ve never been in those places when the DJ starts (because my family rolls into places after the party’s jumping). “Let Me Clear My Throat” is ok for an opener with a rap crowd, but it’s one I keep in my back pocket for when I run out of ideas or need to do a hard reboot on what I’m playing. Dunno how well it’d play with the crowd in question?
I’m also guessing you have been in and around the venue when other people are working? You know what the crowd usually goes bonkers with? Maybe grab one of those songs and use it to kick off your set (but be careful you’re not burning stuff that’s way more valuable later.)
Reggae/Soca crowds are completely different than any other group I’ve ever witnessed in person – the DJs will run stuff back and cut the audio to get the crowd singing, they will slam from one song into another at will, and it’s a method I’ve never had a chance to analyze for more than a couple hours at a time.
July 14, 2011 at 10:25 pm in reply to: That thead everybody's seen – Beatmatching for beginners. #3819MemberUp front, I’ll tell you the only time I mess with pitch is A) if something’s wrong with the pitchlock or B) if I’m screwing and/or chopping. When I do shows, I generally leave the pitchlock on. Mixing in key is something I’ve yet to explore.
If you haven’t already, get into the habit of listening for phrases. They’re usually 4 (at minimum, often hip-hop and rock songs will only have a 4 bar chorus or break, for example) or 8 bars/beats/counts. Training yourself to listen to music in 4/4 time is a big part of understanding phrasing, breaks, and how they all fit together to blend two or more songs. Most music anyone would ever mess with is in 4/4 time unless it’s not. (Shuffle beat is cool, but even that shakes out to a multiple of 4/4 time – it’s harder to mess with but once you figure out how what you’re using plays out, it’s easy.) 4/4 is the basic time signature, that’s the easiest way to learn how to beatmatch/blend/segue from one song to another. Each turntable is an instrument like in a band, and you can interact both with varying degrees the more you practice.
Most of the time, I find it easiest to zero in on some sound that repeats often enough (snares/bass/kick drum) and figure out where what I’m bringing in fits with what I’m playing on a 4 or 8 bar interval. Some songs have weird spots where they either change the time signature or
First things first, you want to calibrate your pitch arms. I’d assume this is even more important if you’re mixing in key, but it also comes up in screwing/chopping because it’ll mess up your chops/blends if you’re not paying attention. My players have never been perfect precise, but I have wheels and my ears to fix that. When I set both sides of my CD player or mass-media player to -25%, it isn’t always a perfect 25% even if the beat-counter says it is. The difference isn’t always something you notice with your ears, but when you’re trying to keep one faster at a consistent interval it’s an issue for which you’ll either adjust or it will become evident at some point. The easiest way to find it out is to set them both at an arbitrary nonzero speed, press play at the same time, then wait 8 measures to see if they start falling out of synch. With practice, you can make up for it by adjusting with your wheels/mouse/whatever.
One basic goal is to find a part of one song where somebody’s not talking and match it with part of the other song where someone is. In person, the easiest way I’ve found to demonstrate this is bringing Pimp C’s “I’m Free” in during the last chorus of its source sample, Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin'”. If you speed Petty up about 1% and start Pimp on the first beat of the first chorus, the sampled hook lines up with the original hook. When Petty hits that guitar bridge, Pimp C starts his first verse and you can now ride the rest of Petty out, treating him like your own sample since they’re repeating “free fallin now I’m free fallin” over and over until the song ends. If you get it set up fast enough, you can sort of sneak the Pimp C chorus during the Petty choruses to prime your listener and make them wonder why this song sounds like a rap remix before you commit to the shift. You can also cut out of the Petty early during the quick break after the 2nd chorus.
Sometimes, you can put rapping or talking with singing. Sometimes you can have people talking to one another because they’re running on different cadences. Things like The Cult’s “Fire Woman” and Megadeth’s “Symphony Of Destruction” will sort of talk to eachother in the breaks.
My personal rig contains two CD players and one mass-media player (Numark’s DDS, same as the old Director), but at work I use PCs just as often. The only computer programs I’ve had much experience with are PCDJ, a few nights with some Mac software they had at a Midnight Rodeo, and we’ve recently Numark’s Cue software (which uses Virtual DJ). I do not like working with a mouse because it cuts down on what I can do on the fly. That said, PCDJ and Cue aren’t terrible and I’ve figured out tricks to beatmatch with some success. It’s also easier since my crowds are just as often drunks who may not even give a rip about what I’m playing and would rather be singing their sad sack country jam or grinding to the newest butt-to-crotch rap single. The biggest problem with mouse DJing is it takes something that’s inherently easier with two hands (manipulating two decks) and forces you to control both with one mouse.
Pitch lock is vital for plain beatmatching on a computer. What I usually do is figure out what percentage I need to move whatever’s not playing to meet up with whatever is playing. A good program will let you set at least one cue point (PCDJ allows for four, Cue has 3 I believe), I’ll set at least one on the first beat I’m going to bring in and then find whatever the cue-play button (because sometimes they’re different, it is on PCDJ) and use it. PCDJ will eat up processor speed and crash itself if I keep using the cue and play buttons instead of its reloop button. Cue only does on the rare occasion, and these issues may well clear up with better processors. We also run karaoke off the same rigs (and at the same time) so that may be another thing you don’t have to worry about.
So you’ve got the songs lined up as well as you can. I’ve noticed PC programs are more precise about both players staying on speed, so once you figure out how the percent-to-BPM ratio works for songs, make a mental note of some landmarks. 85bpm is magic. Pour Some Sugar On Me, Big Poppa, and NIN Closer all hover around 85, and you can put those together with rap, country, rock, whatever. (I’m not even sure if it’s different anymore or if they’ve decided to be uniform, some CD players were weird about that.) When you start mixing, your software may have better toys than mine – PCDJ is like winamp with a log and a few DJ perks but not many. If I notice it’s falling out of synch, if it’s not too bad I can usually adjust the percentages on both sides enough to line it back up. Sometimes one song will crap on itself, sometimes the player will do the same, and it falls out in a hurry. In those instances, I kinda shotgun it, dropping or speeding up the one I can keep up with the easiest by larger percentages than I need (meaning if A is 4% off, but I didn’t line it up right, I can speed/slow it by 5% one way or the other until I get it at least close enough.)
And if it falls apart, you can always abort by fading one out. It’s better to fade out before someone notices you messed up than to spend a minute in arrears and only get the last 8 bars lined up. Make sure you’re fading into the one you’re playing next, though.
Using a PC to DJ isn’t impossible, but it’s often really aggravating for me. Then again, I get shuffle and playlist options that allow me to take a bathroom break, get food, fix technical issues or flirt. Gotta have wheels, though.
MemberThe better question is “What crowd are you working?”
Memberhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSmMoVf1j_8
Not the best video of what he did, but yeah. DJ Screw is my Favoritest DJ Ever.
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