ska invita
back on the other side
Thats a great skill to have...Its my idea of hell...I cant do it for the life of me
Digital DJs of urban…
- Thread starter beesonthewhatnow
- Start date
editor
hiraethified
I'm still utterly rubbish technically, but I'm pretty good at reading a crowd and it helps that I really like a lot of modern-ish pop music. I played something like 75 shows last year so I guess I must be learning something on the way.
Plus, I've never heard a pop song improved by it being beatmatched over another or - heaven forbid - reduced to chorus snippets played over a never ending, never changing beat. Play the song as the band/producer intended, say I!
ska invita
back on the other side
for sure - each type of djing is its own skill - i think of it as the differences in martial arts - weddings and crowd-pleasing fills me with dread - nothing but respect for those who can do it
beesonthewhatnow
going deaf for a living
Never planned in advance, I’ve never understood that. Like you say, you need to respond to the crowd!
beesonthewhatnow
going deaf for a living
Years of doing corporate parties has honed my skills
ska invita
back on the other side
it does show artwork, and adding it is drag and drop off discogs image
but it is small and not the same
im used to just text now
and no need to rip, can download near enough everything you have
best pic I could find online with artwork displayed as a little square
RevolutionSound
Well-Known Member
Reading the crowd is a really important skill, probably more so than technical skills.
beesonthewhatnow
going deaf for a living
I think it’s partly down to genre - I’d quickly get annoyed at a techno set that wasn’t at least competently beatmatched, even if it was a great selection. For other styles a simple fade up/down is pretty much all that’s needed if the tunes are good.
RevolutionSound
Well-Known Member
True. However, if the tunes and vibes are good, I can forgive sloppy mixing. Last House of God I went to in November, in the Wonky Disco room, there was a bit of sloppy mixing later in the night, about 4am. No one minded as the tunes and vibes were so good. I'd rather hear a badly mixed set of good tunes than a perfectly mixed set of dull ones.
editor
hiraethified
Weddings are awful and incredibly stressful. I've only ever played them as a sort of wedding gift for couples I know.
editor
hiraethified
Well yes. Techno and house music etc need to have a flow., but when DJs start fucking about with great songs to fit their 'mix' they can GTFO.
editor
hiraethified
Corporate gigs are my kind of nightmare too!Years of doing corporate parties has honed my skills
beesonthewhatnow
going deaf for a living
Worst bit about doing weddings is when the couple give you a huge list of tracks they love and want played, but you know will absolutely clear the dancefloor
ska invita
back on the other side
ON PLANNING SETS (bear with me)
When DJing took off in Britain in the late 80s and ealry 90s hip hop was the culture that brought it. Yes of course the club/house/rave scene kicked off and thats what made lots of people get into it, but hip hop cultures influence was a high benchmark. Lots of early rave DJs could or would want to be able to scratch. integrating hiphop tricks (playing doubles to flange + drop back a half beat, even cutting backwards and forward between two tracks rather than a quick blend, spinbacks, dropping a track in not from the start etc etc) all came from hiphop and the DMC championships were of interest to many non hiphop DJs.
Planning a set, or to use the comedy analogy having some bits you could string together, was central to the best hip hop DJs. If you want to make your mixing into an artform you cant trust to luck, you have to work out some mixes and prepare and practice them. This remains the case for dance music mixing.
That era was also the era of the tape and limited access to music. Tapes would get played over and over and over. And a great mix between two records would really stand out and take on value. Well thats true for those who care about the art of djing, many people dont have a clue what a DJ is doing, leading to "pointless knob twiddling" comments etc. (yes there are fakers out there pretending to do something)
Playing spontaneously and seeing what happens is fine of course and can throw up some great mixes if you are lucky. But personally I find the vast majority of Djs, famous and not very, pretty pedestrian <absolutely fine, no problem with that at all. But when someone has actually put the work craft and art into it it elevates it - if you appreciate DJing that is, and hopefully even to a baffled listener. And that is so much easier now with digital than it is with vinyl: creative possibilities are huge now...its why I love digital DJing so much more than vinyl.
So yeah, nothing wrong with preparing sets, in fact great, perhaps the equivalent of a well rehearsed band at the top of their game compared to jam session.
When DJing took off in Britain in the late 80s and ealry 90s hip hop was the culture that brought it. Yes of course the club/house/rave scene kicked off and thats what made lots of people get into it, but hip hop cultures influence was a high benchmark. Lots of early rave DJs could or would want to be able to scratch. integrating hiphop tricks (playing doubles to flange + drop back a half beat, even cutting backwards and forward between two tracks rather than a quick blend, spinbacks, dropping a track in not from the start etc etc) all came from hiphop and the DMC championships were of interest to many non hiphop DJs.
Planning a set, or to use the comedy analogy having some bits you could string together, was central to the best hip hop DJs. If you want to make your mixing into an artform you cant trust to luck, you have to work out some mixes and prepare and practice them. This remains the case for dance music mixing.
That era was also the era of the tape and limited access to music. Tapes would get played over and over and over. And a great mix between two records would really stand out and take on value. Well thats true for those who care about the art of djing, many people dont have a clue what a DJ is doing, leading to "pointless knob twiddling" comments etc. (yes there are fakers out there pretending to do something)
Playing spontaneously and seeing what happens is fine of course and can throw up some great mixes if you are lucky. But personally I find the vast majority of Djs, famous and not very, pretty pedestrian <absolutely fine, no problem with that at all. But when someone has actually put the work craft and art into it it elevates it - if you appreciate DJing that is, and hopefully even to a baffled listener. And that is so much easier now with digital than it is with vinyl: creative possibilities are huge now...its why I love digital DJing so much more than vinyl.
So yeah, nothing wrong with preparing sets, in fact great, perhaps the equivalent of a well rehearsed band at the top of their game compared to jam session.
ska invita
back on the other side
Latest Serato has stems mode which can either cut out all vocals or make any track an acapella - presumably this is already there or coming to all similiar software. It sounds okay - not perfect - sometimes great, sometimes a bit robotish.
The one regular use I've found for it is if there's a good track with a crap vocal hook (a common problem in DNB I find) I run a wav of it through, kill the vocal, and bounce it back as an instrumental, recorded as a new file. Very useful. Dont know what it is with DnB but in the desperation to have a vocal hook theres some terrible samples used!
The one regular use I've found for it is if there's a good track with a crap vocal hook (a common problem in DNB I find) I run a wav of it through, kill the vocal, and bounce it back as an instrumental, recorded as a new file. Very useful. Dont know what it is with DnB but in the desperation to have a vocal hook theres some terrible samples used!
editor
hiraethified
There's no shortage of celebrity DJs with sets so well planned, they only have to press play and then pretend to adjust sliders and knobs for the subsequent hour!
But it's horses for courses and very much depends on the venue and the crowd. If I stuck to a prepared setlist at most most places I play, I'd run the very real risk of a deserted dancefloor because the crowd can vary so much.
RevolutionSound
Well-Known Member
It's good to know a few tunes that go well together, and practice that, but I wouldn't pre prepare a whole set. Might as well just have an automated playlist if you're going to do that!
editor
hiraethified
Some DJ software will suggest the next song based on what other DJs have played next. Throw in a bit of AI to put together a full playlist with some mixing and you can put your feet up!
There was one agency DJ working in Brixton who literally played the same set everywhere he went. It was all bangers so he got away with it, but fuck that.
AI doesn't bother me yet because my DJ sets are quite, err, erratic and very much based on the crowd response, but it's probably only a matter of time until some wanker invents an AI monitor that studies the crowd and gauges reactions to each song to create a human crushing DJ set.
Private Storm
Smell The Glove
I will have to respectfully disagree - some of the mixes on this page are sublime, but I do agree it has to be REALLY good to be good, otherwise it's just a bit "meh".
Acapella mixes
editor
hiraethified
I can admire the skill, but I really hate that kind of stuff. Even more so when it's all being underpinned by some relentless, never-changing dull house beat.
ska invita
back on the other side
How does prepping a set mean not doing anything?
For me its the other way around, when ones prepped its full of extra shit to do, loops to trigger, cue points to hit on time etc.
editor
hiraethified
That really wasn't the point I was making!
But we're in different worlds anyway. I'm not interested in triggering loops, beatmatching or any of that stuff, although I understand that it's an important part of DJing some genres of music.
Ted Striker
Foot's on the other hand
As a former/recovering funky houser, knowing there is a tool that can extract Acapellas is like discovering pornhub.
I'm forcing myself not to use it, or else it opens a genie I don't think I'll be able to put back until it takes over my life (acapellas, that is, too late for pawn, that ship has sailed )
I'm forcing myself not to use it, or else it opens a genie I don't think I'll be able to put back until it takes over my life (acapellas, that is, too late for pawn, that ship has sailed
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