Great, Chris! Glad to have you.

This may be a bit testy to change the rules after the challenge has already started, but I was thinking it might be best to re-define the term "marathon". Currently the rule is 3-6 hours, but I'm unsure of the heart of the challenge.

The term marathon implies a massive undertaking, and a 3 hour mix seems short. That's a nice long slot in a club, but is it a marathon? To me I am wondering if we shouldn't redefine the challenge to be 4+ Hour Marathon mix. The original idea from Jack implied that you are playing from the opening to closing of an establishment, venue, or party, and 3 hours seems too short for that. Also this way we're encouraging 6-8 hour and beyond mixes, if that should suit the DJ.

We can easily just leave it the same, but I am wondering if anyone else agrees with me. At least 4 hours?

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Set Archive | TA DJ Challenge

Last edited by ziptnf on Jul-27-2018 at 17:23

I think it's going to be hard to nail the concept of the challenge with a 3 hour set, because I can't think of many contexts where a DJ would play for 3 hours and that be the entire night. I can only imagine a few bars or terraces where that might be the case. But I don't want to arbitrarily restrict it. Someone might come up with a sublime 3 hour Balearic sunset mix with an Ibiza beach bar in their imagination.

If someone takes this as just an opportunity to play 3 hours of music with no effort to link it to the challenge then I will judge that as a failure, even if the mix itself turns out to be enjoyable. I think we've seen instances in the past where someone's rushed a set out within a week of the theme being finalised, and it's clearly been a thinly disguised attempt to get people to listen to a mix they've made, with little engagement with the concept. If I get that vibe from a set, I'll turn it off.

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Mixes:
> Back To Deep [Deep Trippy House]
> Terra Nova [Modern Progressive Trance]
> Rough & Ready [Modern Trance]
>A Different Energy [Good Modern Trance]
> The Edale Mix [Panoramic Beats]

quote:

Originally posted by ziptnf But if you'd like a due date, I think December 31st is good enough. I'm going to try to get mine out in the next month or so.

Cool, thanks for that.

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Started a recording today and that thing with ableton that stops recording after two hours happened, all going in the trash. Two hours of trainwrecking fire you are all never gonna hear. Trashed. Till next time.

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201

I contemplated what direction should I take with this one for a while now. I hope that there wont be similar mixes

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"Well son, a funny thing about regret is:
It's better to regret something you have done rather than something you didn't"

I'm going to have a stab at recording mine tonight. Finding six free hours is hard enough, spending them stooped over a mixer is even worse. I wonder if these middle aged DJs playing marathon sets ever have a sit down mid-set to give their back a rest.

___________________
Mixes:
> Back To Deep [Deep Trippy House]
> Terra Nova [Modern Progressive Trance]
> Rough & Ready [Modern Trance]
>A Different Energy [Good Modern Trance]
> The Edale Mix [Panoramic Beats]

Right, managed to get mine done. Since I suggested the concept, seems only fair I should be the first into battle. Other people may decide to do terraces or forest raves. I've gone for a straight up underground club: low ceiling, DJ at eye level, 300 capacity crowd. While I was mixing, I had in my imagination places like the Soup Kitchen in Manchester - which is the shown in the artwork - Headrow House in Leeds or The Williamson Tunnels in Liverpool, where I've had the pleasure of seeing DJs like Andrew Weatheral play open-to-close sets many times over the last few years. These smaller city centre clubs are increasingly pinched by licensing laws and sound restrictions, so 10am - 4pm or even 9pm - 3am opening hours are quite common in these smaller venues, rather than 6am or 8am finishes you get in former industrial spaces. I associate the six hour set length with those kind of venues and those kind of nights, getting in the club as soon as it opens and watching someone like Weatherall steadily build the vibe.

Of course, there is an element of fantasy in all of this, because this was recorded in my living room with no crowd in front of me. I've found when a big name DJ does warm up for themselves, the club tends to be fill up a lot quicker than if a local resident is warming up, and I imagined the same privilege for myself. Even so, the club will rarely fill up fully before midnight, and so I tried to keep things realistic. For the first fifteen or twenty minutes I was imagining a club with maybe 10 or 20 people in, most of them still circulating between the bar, the cloakroom and the toilets, others nodding their heads in the middle of the floor and feeling out the sound system. The biggest challenge was keeping a lid on things in these early stages of the set. I've seen some big DJs play this kind of set and take the energy up too quickly - sometimes getting pretty banging after just an hour or so. I tried to hold things back as much as possible before the 2 hour mark when the clock would be hitting midnight and the vibe was ready to shift up a notch.

I had a pretty clear plan of the set beforehand, especially the opening, but once I was in the flow I did change things in a few places, going with my gut over a pre-planned tracklist. I haven't put out a recorded mix for about six months, so most of these tracks have been regulars in my sets for most of the year, and it was quite easy to keep things going. The early part of the set is very much deep, melodic and spacey prog. Getting into peak time there's some tougher tech house, quite a liberal sprinkling of acid and some big euphoric anthems, hopefully all in the right places. The end of the set is more feel-good, for those dancers who survived right to the end. You might say this is business as usual from me, with no big stylistic surprises. I deliberately didn't want to get showy, mixing all sorts of eclectic stuff I'd never normally play. This is how I'd really do it.

The set was recorded in one take in Traktor, on the evening I made the previous post. I just hit Record and had a go. I was conscious quite early on that things were flowing very nicely and I could nail it in the first go. It got to about 2 hours in and it occurred to me I had to keep this up for another four hours. It was a mixture of elation and sheer terror I remember well from when I ran a real marathon: "Shit, this is going really well, but I've still got so far to go." Luckily I managed to get to the end without fucking anything up badly enough to scratch off the recording. I've split it into three parts for ease of digestion, but other than that the recording is exactly how it came out of Traktor.





All Night Long: 2018

PART 1:
01. James Monro - Modular (Hot Tuneik Remix) [Yin]
02. Desyfer - Fourteen 45 [Tactal Hots]
03. Hot Tuneik - Close Encounters [Dopamine]
04. Navar - Exposeur [Sudbeat]
05. Armen Miran - Nani Jan [Sol Selectas]
06. Some Little Things - Allegra [Sudbeat]
07. Padai - Colada [Hydrogen]
08. Kostya Outta - Audio Mix 2 Final 2 [Balkan Connection]
09. Navar - You Find (Dmitry Molosh Remix) [Replug]
10. Lanvary - Akyoomen [Particles]
11. Daniel Glover - A Different Kind Of Space (Dmitry Molosh Remix) [Emotional Content]
12. Matter - Pronoia [Balkan Connection]
13. Kris Davis & Yost - Relentless (Martin Roth Remix) [Constant Circles]
14. Gabriel Ananda - Schnee (Stefano Richetta Remix) [Click]
15. Nicholas Rada - Tempelhof (Dmitry Molosh Remix) [Sound Avenue]
16. Audiojack - Reverie [Crosstown Rebels]
17. Antrim & Analog Jungs - Time To Words [Sound Avenue]
18. Sam Paganini - Survive [JAM]
PART 2:
19. Karmon - Acido [Diynamic]
20. Interaxxis - Thor [Movement]
21. Danny Serrano & Forrest - Transitions (Ramon Tapia Remix) [My Favourite Freaks]
22. Dave Seaman - Voodoo Disarray [Selador]
23. Dee Montero - Fugazi [Selador]
24. Dave Seaman - Hired State Of Unconsciousness [Selador]
25. Damon Jee & Snem K - Dear Humans (DEMIAN Remix) [Rotten City Files]
26. Oliver Schories - Ohm (Ramon Tapia Remix) [SOSO]
27. F.E.M - White Knight [Brique Rouge]
28. Andrea Bertolini - Foliage 1 (Magitman Remix) [Beat Boutique]
29. Cid Inc - Shifter (Orsen Remix) [Soundcloud]
30. Dance 2 Trance - Hello San Francisco (Cid Inc Remix) [Soundcloud]
31. DEF Mike - Kenzo [Moodmusic]
32. Groove Armada Feat Will Young - History (Still Going Remix) [Ministry Of Pies]
33. Hardfloor - Analogue Bubbletea [Hardfloor]
34. Ambitus - Aconite (Hardfloor Remix) [MzZ]
35. Henry Saiz - White Rhythmic Mirror (Marc Marzenit Remix) [Natura Sonoris]
36. Diamond Dealer - Hungry Little Monster [Bedrock]
37. Steve Parry - 303 V [Selador]
38. Hidden Identity - Red Sun [KMS]
39. Maceo Plex & Maars - Mutant DX [Correspondant]
40. Subandrio - Fugue State Of Mind [Sudbeat]
41. Gaston Ponte - Cube (Analog Jungs Remix) [Clinique]
42. Maydan - White Gold [Sudbeat]
PART 3:
43. Noir - Bataille [Tronic]
44. Revolt - Dive Into The Deep [Choo Choo]
45. Mohey - Due East [Besworx]
46. Cristoph Feat Jem Cooke - Feel [Pryda]
47. Rick Pier O'Neil - Feel The Beat (Subconscious Tales Remix) [Suffused]
48. Simon Berry & Luke Brancaccio Feat JDD - Close Your Eyes [Bedrock]
49. Thomas Schumacher - Wake Up [Electric Ballroom]
50. Maya Jane Coles - Won't Let You Down (Paride Saraceni Remix) [I/AM/ME]
51. Cid Inc - Abyss [Replug]
52. Vince Watson & Kirk DeGiorgio - Rise [Suara]
53. Paride Saraceni Feat Monce - Burning [TRUESOUL]
54. Hot Since 82 Feat Jem Cooke - Buggin' [Knee Deep In Sound]
55. 16 Bit Lolitas & Glowfield - 6 O'Clock (Davi Remix) [Bits And Pieces]
56. Schiller - Das Glockenspiel (Humate Remix) [Data]
57. Quivver & Cristoph - In Name Only [Selador]
58. Danny Howells - Isolar [8Bit]
59. The Disco Evangelists - De Niro (Agoria Remix) [Positiva]
60. Nikko.Z - Sungazing (Blood Groove & Kikis Remix) [Particles]
61. Karim Sahraoui - White Horse [Compost]
62. Size Pier - On Stage (F.E.M Remix) [Bluelephant]

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Mixes:
> Back To Deep [Deep Trippy House]
> Terra Nova [Modern Progressive Trance]
> Rough & Ready [Modern Trance]
>A Different Energy [Good Modern Trance]
> The Edale Mix [Panoramic Beats]

Good call splitting it into sections. I've just grabbed all 3. Looking forward to giving this a whirl.

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Great job mate! I'll try to listen it tomorrow at work. Looking forward!

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"Well son, a funny thing about regret is:
It's better to regret something you have done rather than something you didn't"

Cheers! I'm naturally expecting quite a long wait for feedback on this one.

To go back to my earlier post about back ache while DJing, I recently read an interview with Hernan Cattaneo, and he mentions he has a doctor who comes with him when he plays marathon sets at Stereo in Montreal to give him special stretching exercises mid-set for that exact reason. A luxury outside my pay grade, sadly.

___________________
Mixes:
> Back To Deep [Deep Trippy House]
> Terra Nova [Modern Progressive Trance]
> Rough & Ready [Modern Trance]
>A Different Energy [Good Modern Trance]
> The Edale Mix [Panoramic Beats]

Nah, no need to wait. I've already listened.

My company lets me work from home at my leisure since I have no directly reporting manager in my office. So I sat down and put this on my speakers as the soundtrack to a full work day in my home office. Your sounds were competing with a crying baby and his stressed out mother and sing-along songs from the living room. I treated it mostly as a club patron would, enjoying large bulks of it and also stepping away for short periods. I still caught a vast majority of it though.

This is pretty much exactly what I was envisioning your set to be like. High quality treats stretched over a 6 hour block, complete with outstanding programming and mixing. I didn't mark down any timestamps but there were several points where I was like "okay he's letting people take a breather and get some drinks/smokes" and then later "alright he's smashing again". This process would flow repeatedly and interchangeably throughout the marathon. Most importantly I felt like your timing was precise enough to note exactly when people would probably need to stop dancing for a short period so they could gather themselves and survive the night.

I know the feeling of being hyperaware of your exact position within a marathon or other such event, and it sucks. You have expended a lot of energy and it's not easy to keep it going. This didn't rattle you at all and you kept on throughout the whole gig.

I have a bit of a different thought in my approach to this mix, and I'm nowhere near ready. Still, you have set the gold standard and I'm thrilled to see that the first entry was executed so nicely. Let's hope we get a decent completion rate and create some more memories for our TA DJ's. Thanks for the idea and the mix, mate.

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Set Archive | TA DJ Challenge

Cheers Nick. I think dipping in and out at certain points is not only inevitable, but it's more realistic. Even the most steel-bladdered of clubbers will struggle to spend six full hours rooted to the dancefloor.

I did try to ease off and have slightly more mellow moments in there to add a bit of contrast. I wasn't sure how successfully that came across in the finished mix, so I'm glad you've highlighted it.

___________________
Mixes:
> Back To Deep [Deep Trippy House]
> Terra Nova [Modern Progressive Trance]
> Rough & Ready [Modern Trance]
>A Different Energy [Good Modern Trance]
> The Edale Mix [Panoramic Beats]