On Djing...

I am a rock guy that came to the DJ game pretty late. It's a fucking blast getting to play my records for other people.

Here's a few quick tips:

1) unless you are going to do dance nights, you don't need to learn to beat match, scratch, or show off any other "skills"

2) FLOW is the single most important thing you can provide. Don't fuck with the audience repeatedly, even if you're playing adventurous music. At least use the "punishment/reward" concept if you must satisfy yourself

3) Don't be embarrassed to pick up a really cheap and useful book called "How do Dj Right". I read great reviews of it, and was blown away at how simple and correct its methodology is.

***

Other than that, yeah--don't use mp3s if you can help it. That's gay.

BTW, you don't need to own turntables unless you're going to do a lot of gigs at places that don't already have them. I do recommend investing in your own cartridges though. That will run you around $60 and will save your records from harsh needles on public decks.

Also, in case you didn't get it, my mp3 comment was a joke. I rely heavily on my vinyl collection because I don't beat match or whatever. So I fall back on two things: my great record collection and my immaculate flow.

:)

Oh yeah, one more thing I've learned: the more drunk the crowd, the less adventurous music the probably want to hear. If you're playing at some club centred around certain genre(s) it might be different, but in general clubs people just want to have a bit of fun and not expand their musical horizons too much.

i've got good flow, thanks. gr8080, no laptop :(. do you think a cheap-ish notebook/laptop w/ traktor or whatever is a better investment for all-purpose dance-ish semi-weirdo dj-ing than a turntable in the future?

tuomas, i'm not gonna be too weird. if anything i'm too sensitive to crowd moods--that is, if i take advice from upthread and don't do it drunk.

And Nate is correct about not needing specialized DJ skills: if it's not a dance or hip-hop club, people probably don't care shit about such tricks. Basically you just need to learn to use the crossfader and try not to follow one tune with another one in completely different tempo (no slow r'n'b jams immediately after a fast house tune). The only things people will notice are blatant fuck-ups, like accidentally pressing the pause button. Which leads to one more piece of advice - don't get drunk, even if your drinks are on the house. A few drinks might be good to ease the tension, but if you get too drunk the potentiality of such fuck-ups is very high.

(x-post)

thx tuomas, good advice.

p.s. manager told me cds were the operating media here so i guess that would be best (though i think i can get away w/ an ipod since the mixing "booth" is like above and hidden from anyone and i could probably find a stereo in and bring some jacks). what i really need to do is check out the set-up tomorrow and see how they're mixing em.

i'd stay away from using your ipod and use cds if you can. burn your best sounding files to cd at least.

ok thx

if you're unfamiliar w/ the basics of using a dj mixer (or even if you are familiar but haven't used the specific type the bar has) see if you can drop in before they open and mess around for half an hour or so, so you can get comfortable with the basics of going from one cd deck to the next.

even if you don't plan on beat matching, the more comfortable you can get with compensating for volume variances between different tracks, minimizing dead air between tracks, perfecting your general flow, etc.

also, bring your own headphones if you have a pair with a 1/4" jack.

also, nate otm. at least stop by the book store and spend half an hour thumbing through "how to dj right".

ok. i'm not a total mixer n00b but i'm unfamiliar with dual cd mixers if that's really what they have. this is great advice + making me think about what i haven't actually thought about yet because i'm too self-deluded and arrogant. i'll check out the set-up tomorrow if i can and report back for everyone's reading enjoyment. and i've got to grab that book; it looks really really helpful. thx nate!

dont forget to have fun, too.

dont get too caught up in pre-arranging your music ("i'll play this track and then this track and then this track...") the best part of deejaying, even at a bar w/o a dancefloor, is connecting with the room and seeing where they're at with regard to what you're playing and how that influences your next selection.

if someone makes a request and you have it, play it. if you don't have it, be honest, but use their request as a springboard to a different topic, musical or otherwise. if people are super annoying and complaining about what you're playing or making vague and non-specific requests, tell them that the next deejay plays the kind of stuff they're into and he goes on in an hour.

also don't listen to tuomas; if you get to drink for free take advantage of that shit! its a bar, not a dance club, right?

always play 'you make me feel mighty real' by sylvester.

haha yes! sylvester will not be MIA

yeah gr8080 i just need to check their set-up and make that work w/ what i have +++++ the flexibility axis. this place is definitely NOT a dance place. people are drinking, eyeing other men and occasionally playing pool. some nights the bar just plays an xm radio station. monday is 'oldies' night but god knows what that means (general '70s/'80s). if anything i need to educate myself on some mainstream (gay) shit from that era to keep the crowd alive. and i am NEVER one to turn down a free drink.

I didn't mean you should take any free drinks, just that you shouldn't get too drunk, if you want avoid errors. But if it's just a bar night I guess it doesn't really matter that much.

I think it's always good to know the general age of your audience, because people usually tend to love the music of their youth the most, so you'll know what songs will be guaranteed floorfillers. For example, I usually DJ in student parties where people are in their early twenties, and I've noticed I shouldn't play too many eighties and early nineties tunes, because those youngsters might not be familiar with them at all. One time I was playing "Informer" by Snow, and two girls actually came to ask me what song it is, they'd never heard it before.

x-post haha i'd like fuck you if you played informer.

nah it really does since i won't be familiar with the setup. but you know, i know my alcohol limit for basic motor/mental control etc. this is all riding on future knowledge at this point though so.....

thanks everyone for yore knowledge and responses. i really needed the feedback, if only to get my own juices going for the whole thing. do you ever have something stewing in the back of yr mind for way too long but you just don't have the guts to bring it into a frontal lobe until you mention it to other people? that's me on this thread. thanks bye

I had weekly DJ gig at a Irish pub in Sunnyvale for a couple of months but ended up quitting over some (admittedly) mild drama. The owner wanted Thursday to become a "Rockin' College Party Night" but we ran into a few problems:

1. The bar was totally dead almost every Thursday, not very rockin'
2. When remotely college-aged people showed up they wanted to hear hip-hop
3. Barflys would bitch and moan when I went off the classic rock playbook and tried to play something edgy like The Clash or Talking Heads.

All of this would have been much more tolerable if they ever gave me A DRINK TICKET OR TWO. I stuck it out for a couple months because the pay was decent, which is never a good reason to keep do something you otherwise love. But after some drama with being replaced without notice for a couple weeks by Ronnie the Karaoke DJ I decided to quit.

I've gone back to mobile DJing and private parties and am much, much happier.

anyway.. strongo break a legski!

haha that's not strongo.

the best part of deejaying, even at a bar w/o a dancefloor, is connecting with the room and seeing where they're at with regard to what you're playing and how that influences your next selection.

this is great advice.

strgn u know u better announce ur first gig we'll be there. i don't know shit about djing so carry on.

if you ever want to play vinyl, needles are essential, as not all clubs even have a house pair and you're expected to bring your own...and if they do have a house pair they're usually crap.

Depending on the quality of the dual CD players, you'll likely find it much easier to use than mixing with your ipod, though having the ipod as back-up won't hurt.

If you're going to burn a set of CDs, make 2 copies of each, that way you can mix from one song two another on the same comp.

Use a short fade or do a quick fade on the first song and fade in or even just start the second song from zero. For instance, when you're cueing the second CD you'll start getting used to finding the beat and even when not beatmixing, you can still make for a smoother transaction by starting on beat. You'll also find yourself getting really bored back there and you'll play around with beatmatching in your headphones because there's nothing else to do. That's how I learned to DJ at least.

ok that makes more sense now that i've finally checked out the two-cd deck. the guy who drops it there monday evening (6-9) is gonna school me on the decks next week (hopefully). and in any case i think i've got a night, or something. thanks everyone for the info and encouragement.

p.s. what sounds as good as "inspiration information" by shuggie otis?

eddie kendricks - 'date with the rain' y/n

definitely practice a bit beforehand. it's actually quite scary, even in a bar or something, suddenly being in control of the music that's playing. stuff like volume levels is actually really important too especially if you're using music that's come from bought cds and mp3s etc, just make sure you stay with the lights at the same level on the individual channels and use the gains to help you with this.

it can be sort of embarassing if you are not beatmatching and the track you mix in is way too loud (or way too quiet)

I wouldn't bother using the crossfader, just volumes up and down, it's more logical when you start off.

if you can practice on the soundsystem even for 45 mins or an hour beforehand that's pretty good too. I know it's a bar but some records sound much more manic and loud when you play them on a bigger system: you may have stuff you planned to play early on that is like this and you'll think "oops" when you play it.

if nobody is dancing, don't be afraid to make things more mellow rather than more intense.

i had a recurring and cliched dream where the track is about to finish and for some reason you haven't and can't get the next one going.

we talk about that a lot on a DJ mailing list I'm on. I don't know if it's specifically anxiety about DJing, or just your mind using that as a way to express anxiety in general. I've been DJing for well over 10 years and in every situation possible, and while I still can get a little nervous, I'm pretty comfortable DJing, yet I'm constantly having these dreams where the song is about to end and I don't have my records with me or I have records but they're all the wrong ones or the equipment is working...

i have been teed up to play a party tonight. i'm not actually a dj and i'm out of practice!! is this going to be a disaster???

the party is a 'P'-themed party. i am going to fudge it with paradise garage-y records, ie: the disco and house in my collection

my first thought:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYTEQjwxXzU

So, I'm thinking about buying a CDJ, as I don't intend to stop buying CD's, and as I have/buy a lot of straight up dance albums, which have many a track that it would be nice to be able to mix.

This all makes me nervous, though, since I've always been rubbed the wrong way by CDJ's, and I can't help feel it'll be an affront to my vinyl (I would really hate to start neglecting it as a neglect). Keep in mind I have no intention to, and don't really want to, use this to play burned CD's.

These aren't cheap, even on craigslist, so I have no idea if it'll be worth it?

must admit i've toyed with this idea in the past - and never followed it up due to a) not being a working DJ, b) the cost.

(party refernced upthread was excellent - tho i finished up lost in a k-hole somewhere - then i played another party a couple months later and it was terrible. never again.)

Hmmn. Well I might able to get a good pioneer one for as little as $400 on craigslist, but even still, $400 doesn't just come out of nowhere.

i guess if you already have enough cds with enough music unavailable to you on vinyl then it is definitely worth it

i think once you've made the leap though, it might be difficult to resist the temptation of buying mp3s and burning them to cd-r, and in that case you'd probably be better off with a copy of serato or whatever

Yeah, I'm kind of afraid of that, but I'm kind of weird in my resistance to burning mp3's (see: "lol teenage guilt over stealing music"), most notably in the fact that a week ago I deleted all the mp3's off my computer (backed up of course) to focus on listening to my acquired music more.

It seems like there's all sorts of pressures to move away from vinyl, and I hope this wouldn't be a push in the wrong direction (though having only one would prevent that).

i think once you've made the leap though, it might be difficult to resist the temptation of buying mp3s and burning them to cd-r, and in that case you'd probably be better off with a copy of serato or whatever

This is exactly where I am at right now.

Hmmmn. I see a pioneer CDJ 800 mk1 for $400. The inadvertently nice thing about the mk1 is that it can't play Mp3's (I guess you have to convert tracks to wav's first), which would be an extra barrier against the potential temptation to play mp3's.

To those out there who DJ...do you enjoy having a sparring partner in the booth? Is it a hindrance?

depends on the person. mostly a hindrance imo. i only ever had one setup where i used to come back to dublin once a month and dj with a mate and we did 3 and 3 the first night and it went great so we continued doing that.

it's very hard to find someone whose music complements your own even if you think you have similar tastes, imo.

I love doing it, but it can be a frustrating if with the wrong person.

so i think i'm gonna go full mobile dj in 2021. i know it's early and my hopes are probably high wrt vaccination but still feel like it's looking likely that "events" are back online within a year.

the only thing is i'm gonna have to get some kind of small business loan together for equipment, 5k or so. i can't stop thinking about it. has anyone in the us done this?

You mean, including a PA? Because a controller and a laptop are cheap if you're going that route.

yep, speakers.

and i want to switch from traktor to pioneer, get the xdj-rr or xdj-rx2. though i still haven't totally decided on that yet, it would be a lot cheaper to stick with traktor and upgrade to an s3 or s4. also it might be preferable to bring the laptop to gigs anyway for requests and such.

Ah ok. Last summer I DJed a friend's wedding a borrowed a PA from a lawyer, two Yamaha mains and a sub, and it worked out great. He offered to sell me the whole system + a Mackie powered mixer for $700, so he could upgrade to some Bose tower speakers. Idk, that's all I know about the PA part.

I have these powered PA speakers and love them, but you might need something a little bigger:

https://products.electrovoice.com/ap/en/zlx-12p/

woah nice. i'm looking at new but it's probably smarter just to piece it out from classifieds. i don't really know how hard it is to get a loan for something like this, it's a side gig but i'm somewhat confident i could make it pay $200-$400 a month. sweetwater (i know they're trumpies yuck) sell this mobile dj rig that includes a nice scrim and carrying wagon + qsc mains and subs and pionner xdj-rx2 controller for 4.7k. i'm poor though so maybe i should get the bare minimum used (a sub and some speakers) and go from there.

the tower speaker thingies look nice, ev makes one (evolve 50) that gets very good reviews. i could probably get away with just one of those but it's 1.7k.

xp

love the evs sleeve, 12 is perfect actually

Yes the wagon is the most important part of the PA, this saved my back & my night:
https://www.amazon.com/OnStage-UTC2200-On-Stage-Utility-Cart/dp/B01KQ0X3OS/ref=psdc_490895011_t2_B002TITK8O

nice!

man, I wish I had one of those for record shows

I edited down our most recent italo-disco (and other 80s) Flex night in Brighton down to fit into a 2 hour radio show which went out recently and it’s available to listen again here. Features about 40 minutes of me and 3 other resident DJs.

https://soundcloud.com/1btn/inter-mission-111024

needle droppin' lots of faves. you got a tracklist?

oooh Love on Video. My favorite. I just edited that to extend the intro bits.

https://s.disco.ac/mcbgbjuujgic

fab mix chewshabadoo! "shame (you were the big sensation)" is a big fave

thank you very much for the advice yesterday troops <3 "enjoy what you do" is generally good advice and a principle to live by but sometimes I need reminding of that, and now the day is here I actually feel quite happy and prepared and confident!

It's weird, I'm still not sure this kind of thing is what I should or want to be doing, but I think any gig that gets me confidence and experience is not to be turned down.

Looking forward to spending some time with this Italo mix as well!

weirdly i was listening to a few nts shows last night in the afternoon and then later while cooking dinner, on mixcloud, and i can genuinely say i was thinking 'this mix is really great' and when i checked it had moved on to a set by dan s who i see in this thread. from 'the lot'.

xp I’ll give some contradicting advice: use this as an opportunity to explore new music! It’s never too late to become a Fletcher fan.

oh cool, any idea which one? I think I have 10 Lot shows up on soundcloud/mixcloud. They're all posted by The Lot but I try to repost and playlist them.

Loving chewshabadoo and mike’s mixes upthread. Keep em coming please these are great!

Glad you enjoyed the show! It’s not just me, there’s 3 other DJs in there, but I’ll try to find time to write one up.

My part is from Koto up until Love on Video.

my Saturday night went really well! I mean, it's not rocket science - playing pop hits to people who want to hear pop hits isn't difficult - but I feel like I put my own personal stamp on it and played a set that was very crowd-pleasing without being too obvious. We had about 350 people in, and it was as busy at 11.30pm as it was when the lights came on at the end. A girl I used to work with came with her pals and was texting me from the dancefloor to say that the energy around them was great. Two of my best pals came down a bit later on in the night and couldn't believe how well it was going. It's a buzz. A few folk came out their way to tell me they thought it was excellent, and one girl told me she thought I was "really talented" which was lovely to hear, even though I'm aware that the skillset to do this well isn't exactly what I would consider good DJing. The "assignment" (if you think of it that way) was to give them what they wanted, and I did for four hours, and there's nothing more deep or substantial to it than that.

Lots of odd requests though. "Are you going to play Chappell Roan? - Yes, the event is literally named after her song, I think I might." The hardest bit for me is dealing with people who see a packed dancefloor and people jumping about with drinks in their hands and think this is the time to ask for a Lana Del Rey deep-cut ballad.

Got a Special Treatment prerecord playing live now on NTS 2 as part of the Optimo show :)

Nice!! Link?

Here it is :)

It was by far the longest I’ve spent on a radio show. We wanted to get it right and spent some time on it almost like it was a commercial CD mix in terms of really thrashing out what tunes we all wanted on it. The final 35 mnutes was a very pre-planned mix we did, and we made the first 25 mins a looser afair with more variation and personal choices.

Somehow despite all this planning when recording the very last tunes on to fill out the hour I managed to record the wrong side of a record, and we only realised after we had sent it over. Sorry Nick B!

https://www.nts.live/shows/optimo/episodes/optimo-1st-november-2024