T/S More important for mixes: a great tracklist or great technique?

(er, is that the question?)

also I've definitely had nights out where I thought this, and other nights out where I didn't recognize anything and was bored to deth ... just depends

just asking for opinions which is more important, to you or in general

by technique i mean:
beatmatching
pitchmatching
variety
energy
listenability
etc

by no technique I meant no beatmatching, not actively working to make good songs sound bad

xpost

a great tracklist would be:
familiar tracks, but not too familar.
unless they are really good
but not so really good everyone's playing them out of obligation.
or familiar tracks that are remixed, VIP, whitelabel testpressed with porno samples, or mashed up with something you remember hearing on TV during the late 1970s or early 1980s.
obscure-but-excellent tunes that you have never heard, but really dig on, anyway.
classic show-stopper tunes on now defunct labels, never reissued on any format and not findable on slsk, if possible.

all packaged together into a 3-part story arc that takes your mind (and ass) on a journey to the center of planet funk and back out again. yeah.

also:
vaguely familar tunes that you can't remember the names of, forcing you to become what you hate: those guys that stare down at the tables trying to read the vinyl labels as they spin around.

Maybe there's a difference between what different people think the DJs for: when I go out I want to hear a (techno / house / hip hop) DJ play stuff I've heard very little of (hey, I buy CDs / listen to mp3s - that DJ should be a year ahead of me...) and I want to be able to dance, without stopping or wincing, for hours on end.

If you want to get drinks / shout at friends / have a familiar time with familiar music, then I'm sure the subjective version (great tracklist - ie tracks *you* like - not tracks the DJ likes) is more important.

perfect beatmatching is a given these days now that every dj in town seems to favor using software over vinyl. like i've said before, sometimes there's nothing more dull than watching someone do a perfectly mixed set of all newish minimal techno/house tracks, done in ableton.

and if there is velvet rope attitude at the door, forget it. treating yr crowd like cattle or with contempt gains you a 'never again' in my book. i've been to enough venues now, in enough countries, to just say no when it comes to attitude at the door. it doesn't matter how great the dj is.

i wish this were true around here. :(

maybe i'm not drinking enough pbr/sparks/pinot.

-- fez (pom.po...), April 4th, 2006.

yep. But I would say that....

a lot of djs seem to be going the ipod/burned cds route, was just curious what they do up there.

be sure to look up every 128 or so bars and do a "raise the roof" motion

the absolute worst thing you can do is pretend you are actually mixing a pre recorded set live. i once went to a party and this guy was freaking out behind the decks pretending to mix records which all sounded very familiar. after about ten minutes i realised he was actually playing a mix i had done.

DJs who have "no technique" but are still really good are always very skilled at working out which record to play next.

i don't think i can separate tracklist or sequencing from technique. it's all part of the package even at the club.

it is hard to underestimate the feeling of experiencing really good dj and crowd synchrony and feedback. being close to god?

Mixing is also very important. I've noticed a lot of DJ's' completely overlook beatmatching these days and nobody seems to mind... Sometimes it's like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.

you must have some hi fi!

i'm probably not qualified to comment as (bar going to hear mancuso in nyc) i don't think i've been out specifically to hear a dj play in about 8 years (i'm not jaded, honest, i just spend too much of my life in nightclubs to actually enjoy the experience of clubbing very much anymore). but when i used to do it incessantly, i would definitely prefer hearing mostly music i'd never heard before. but, that can also be incredibly frustrating as i'd want to know what all these great tracks were. i'm still trying to find out what a track i heard derrick may play in '91 was.

I've noticed a lot of DJ's' completely overlook beatmatching these days and nobody seems to

weird! everyone here seems to beatmatch although quite a few of them probably shouldn't. trainwreck mixing is torture to my ears.

also, as mr. finney ponts out, how a set is sequened is vital too.

So both are needed in my opinion

www.eclex.bravehost.com

Haha! I've often wished that DJs had some sort of "now playing" LED display, as trying to remember what that great track sounds like so I can track it down often distracts me from the rest of a set... And if there's a lot of great stuff, forget it. I end up taking notes instead of dancing.

we bought one of these for our club for that very purpose but it was too much effort to keep typing in what every track was. so instead, our lighting guy spends half his night teliing people what tracks are when they ask (which they do, constantly).

so do any of your opinions change for buying or downloading mixes?

it seems like technique would have the edge again, since you can read the tracklist and possibly know the quality of the dj ahead of time.

i hate bugging the DJ when he's busy but occasionally I just have to know what the track is and so I'll ask. All of them have been nice and obliging. In fact the only DJ who refused to tell me what a track was was a friend of a friend DJing at a private party.

So any thoughts on the opening track? Should it be bold and get everyone on the floor or should it be an ambient thing which you can build on?

or: hated a track by itself but loved it in a mix?

also, when you're juggling riddims, its important to know the big tunes. if you're playing the sweet sop, for instance (big riddim right now) and you play the nanko first, you're screwed. you can't play the other versions after that--though you might be able to get away with the response tune...point is, the crowd has to know that its coming, and they'll give forwards to other versions, but if i don't (or if i don't) get to hear the tune i'm waiting for, i get all dissappointed. boo.

Grooverider was/is great at this: taking obvious, mediocre dnb anthems and blasting them in at the just perfect time during a set. He dropped this old B.C. overplayed tune planet dust at a party a few years ago and that was the only time I have ever liked it.