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if you would get to spin with a famous dj...

how you would have to make your set?
for example lets say that u are playing in a club and that club invites armin....and u are the warm up dj...what do u have to spin?
i dont think that spinning anthems would be allowed right?

you spin what you want!!!!!!!!! who care if armin is there after you... you can try to beat him and play all the newest best traxx before his set!! :P

quote:

Originally posted by jeremie you spin what you want!!!!!!!!! who care if armin is there after you... you can try to beat him and play all the newest best traxx before his set!! :P

yeah show your dark side and own

When i'm spinning, armin does the warmup

*wake up call*

Nah i would have no idea, i'd play what i usually play i guess...

quote:

Originally posted by jeremie you spin what you want!!!!!!!!! who care if armin is there after you... you can try to beat him and play all the newest best traxx before his set!! :P

if your warming up for a DJ then you dont try and outdo the DJ, the warm up spot is for getting the crowd ready, making them dance

you dont need to play anthems to outdo a big name DJ you can do that by mixing better, playing unheard/new records that arent widely available even to the big DJs and generally reading the crowd better

djs who wheel out all the big anthems one after another usually cant read the crowd too well IMO unless the crowd wants an anthems night

quote:

Originally posted by jeremie you spin what you want!!!!!!!!!

damn straight.

quote:

Originally posted by jeremie you spin what you want!!!!!!!!! who care if armin is there after you... you can try to beat him and play all the newest best traxx before his set!! :P

this is quite possibly one of the dumbest things i've seen someone say on TA

i suggest you go read the article john fleming wrote on 'resident djs' on his website

http://www.john00fleming.com/


o c t o b e r 2 0 0 3


w h e r e a r e a l l t h e r e s i d e n t D J s ? ?

It occurred to me the other day that we're losing our breed of decent resident DJ's. Don't get me wrong, there are still some awesome resident DJ's all across the World, but they are starting to become very rare. If you're currently a budding DJ then read on, you'll get the best advice that you've ever had in your life ...

The true job of a resident DJ is to warm the night up in preparation for the guest DJ. I think that this is one of the most skilled jobs of a DJ. I've been to far too many gigs where the resident DJ on before me is playing at 100 mph and playing all the big hits?? I've had many of my sets ruined because of this. I have to re-start the night and get people back into the groove of the music, and by the time I've done that half of my set has gone. I've even had DJ's playing all my remixes and productions just before I went on??? Not only does the resident DJ have to warm up the night but they have to do their research into who they are warming up for. It pointless playing Hard House before Paul Oakenfold for example? In this day and age it's easy to research DJ's sets on the internet. Look at what tracks they generally start their sets with. Find out the BPM of those tracks and keep your BPM lower than the guests. Don't play any big anthems. Play some tracks that will lift the crowd enough to get them on the dancefloor. It is a real art form to be able to read a dancefloor and know when to get people going. It is an even more skilled job to get the crowd moving without the use of BIG records. This is a skill that takes years to learn.

Some have this thought that if they out perform the guest DJ that they will be able to blagg that they rocked the night and outdone the guest. 'I played much better than bla bla'. This heavily back fires on them. Not only do they look stupid playing a full-on set at 10pm as the club is filling up, but they piss-off the guest DJ. The next time that guest DJ plays at that club he will request that the club find another DJ to play before him/her. However if the resident DJ does a good job, we WILL request the same resident DJ again and in many cases request him/her again for other gigs in the surrounding area. I have done this along with many of my colleagues.

Yes you will get frustrated that you keep playing warm up sets. It's like any job; you have to work your apprenticeship until you get promoted. But as you get yourself established, especially with big name DJ's requesting for you to play before them, the promoter will eventually give you a later slot. This will eventually happen naturally when DJ's turn up late or have to cancel at the last minute you will be given a main time slot to fill the gap. Eventually you will have the change to prove yourself as a prime time DJ, again something that takes skill. From there on you'll start to get guest appearances at surrounding clubs playing prime-time slots�.then you too will realise what make a good resident DJ!!!

Main examples that stand out for me are Gatecrasher's Matt Hardwick. One of the best residents that this country has ever seen. For years he simply warmed up for guest DJ's, but the respect he got for doing such a professional job was rewarding. Just look at where he is today. Jon O'bir is another DJ that is currently proving himself at Gods Kitchen. Again being professional at the job in hand, he has become a firm favourite with us guest DJ's that visit the club. Jon will certainly go places.

I hope that has opened your eyes to the tuff job of a resident DJ. Myself along with my colleagues have all been residents. This is the core of how you will learn to be a good DJ. This is the best way that you learn how to read and control a dance floor. Good luck

i choose my set based on my time slot, not on who's playing before or after me.

quote:

Originally posted by 24K http://www.john00fleming.com/ o c t o b e r 2 0 0 3 w h e r e a r e a l l t h e r e s i d e n t D J s ? ?

Great advice from Fleming. It's always good to hear opinions on things like this from the DJs that the huge masses of people mostly go to see. Seems like a huge issue in terms of courtesy and professionalism.

Thanks for posting that, I've kind of wondered about that myself before.

imo a residency is the most vital part of an aspiring dj's career in the sense that it provides many 'turning-point' opportunities.

In response to the post however.. i'd love to open for sasha but that would require me to play something not too upbeat which is not me..
would also love to open for pvd.. but what i would like to play is alot like what pvd plays, as in track selection.. so our styles may clash??

quote:

Originally posted by jeremie you can try to beat him and play all the newest best traxx before his set!! :P

quote:

When i'm spinning, armin does the warmup

You guys have just made my week !
LMFAO

Mark 00's words as they are about the best advice I have seen on this forum.
I have warmed up for him in the past and a friend of mine did this just recently.

Ignore all this stuff about play your own shit and out do the guest. That simply is a good way to give yourself a really bad rep and eventually get yourself fired.
I sometimes get to headline and I can tell you that there is nothing worse than having some prick with an ego wrecking the night for you. Especially as even most guests like to start of low key and work the place into a frenzy.

If you are a warm up DJ that is strictly what you are. There is no shame in it, hell I still have to warm up from time to time. And as John Flemming says, name DJs will request you if you do a good job. That is also great for future reference as people will remember you and in some cases even become friends with you.

If you are warming up, make it tight and make it relevant. Give the guest something to work with. I even ask them if they have a preffered key they want to start in.

It can however be frustrating if you are warming up for a DJ who you know is not as good as you, but you still have to respect that he is guest and you are the warm up. There is nothing better than having the guest looking a little sheepish when you are mixing. But that's all skill related and not music choice. And at the end of the day the only people who will notice that (unless he is really bad) are DJs.

Something that really gets on my nerves is when people disrespect residents as they are very often the heart and soul of the club.
Besides, there is an upside to being a resident. Steady work for one, something that is getting harder in the DJ business as there are so many of us now.

Not so sure there is anyone I would like to open up for but I would definately enjoy a four deck battle with Eddie Haliwell.

Cheers
Nem

Yeh same here, Eddie Halliwell. He's the DJ I have the most respect for, I think I can spend all my life trying to reproduce his Essential Mix @ Good Greef, it's impossible. That mix is art for me

James Zabiela... because he owns, no way how hard anyone tries,
you cant outdo him. not to mention, he needs someone to properly
open for him, last 2 times its been a shitty resident that couldnt
tell left from righ. first time he was here though, Steve Porter
spun before him, that is what i call a CLASS night...

quote:

Originally posted by jeremie you spin what you want!!!!!!!!! who care if armin is there after you... you can try to beat him and play all the newest best traxx before his set!! :P

to me, mixing has never been about beating some else. it's not a race. you play your records the way you would normally play and they play their records. if you can get the crowd dancing and screaming then you've done your job. if not, then you prob. tried too hard. you're a good dj or you wouldn't be a resident, or at that, an opener for a big dj.

I SO agree with those words about warm-up...

Even though I never spun out (yet?) I can imagine bigger DJs would be quite f**ked-up if you screw up the warming-up.

Unfortunately, most people are only spinning in their bedrooms with some 2-hour peak time set in their mind.. Not bad, but the first opportunity you will get is probably a warm-up one.. Warming-up is way harder than just blasting away tune after tune.. It's a certain form of art, even. An art that not too many understand.

Personally, I'd love to warm up for Adam Beyer.. I play a little slower, a little more melodic, but I can finish with a few stormers to hype up for him

** dreams on **

I think at the moment i could do a nice prog / melodic warm up for a G&D set.

(actually prolly more suited to a house party where the line up is Misty, Dstrukt and Kr00t0n, although if i play my favourite feeling tunes i'd be after dstrukt but the parties normally at his place and he likes to end *coughhogsthedeckscough )

From my own experiences, I've always been in the trenches. I think I enjoy warming up, 'cuz in a way it feels like the DJ is riding your vibe.

You manipulate the crowd into a trance and from there on out the guest DJ takes over and takes them for a journey.

I play epic/progresive trance sets, so I usually try to see who the guest DJ is. If he or she is a big progressive or epic trance headliner, I have a breaks set ready to go to warm up the crowd. If he or she is a cheesy trance DJ, I pound away on my epic/progressive set.

cheesy trance

quote:

Originally posted by jeremie you spin what you want!!!!!!!!! who care if armin is there after you... you can try to beat him and play all the newest best traxx before his set!! :P

Damn right. If Tiesto was after me, I'd be damned if I wouldn't drop Flight 643 among others. That's my time on the decks. I'm in control. I guess he'd just have to set those records aside that I played.

Or, he could spin them again, but I doubt it would go over very well with the crowd.

Besides, those guys have an endless selection of tracks to pick from between their boxes of records and stacks of cds. I doubt they would care either way.

It would still be cool to drop a Djs signature track right before that Dj got on the decks.

This is not aimed at anyone in particular in a bad way. Just a few harshly put statements that happen to be true.

I can appreciate that you have your style and that you would like to play what you want, but you are forgetting that it's not just the guest DJ to take into consideration. Hit a dance floor with the type of stuff you are talking about that early and you are also going to make it a pretty shit night for the crowd.

Whether or not they have a stack of other tunes in their boxes is beside the point. You are there to help them get the best out of the crowd and ultimately give the crowd the best possible experience you can.

There are a load of dancefloor dynamics to take into consideration. The main one being that the majority of people (In Europe atleast) are high on E. Why is this an important factor? Well, because people drop their E's so that they start comming up about the same time as the headliner starts getting his set into full swing.
With that in mind, you spinning major tunes early on when people are not as up for it is going to make you look like a prick and will piss people off. Especially if the headliner has to come in and rebuild the mood from scratch.

Number two. People on E just are not able to handle four hours of wall to wall anthems. It will drive them to a point where they just don't have a f*cking clue what's happening (That happens to some people anyways but that's all part of the deal).

If you have a warm up slot you will have atleast two other DJs behind you. It's good to keep them sweet because if you don't, your oportunities to work will get pretty slim. Word travels fast in this business and no one wants to play after a warm up DJ like that. Some people even make a point of making sure you can't work in other places.

DJing is all about respect. You earn your way to the top either through solid DJ performances or producing. Neither path has any guarantees or makes any promises. It's all about who respects you and who wants to work with you.

If you get the chance to warm up at a club, do it well and don't showboat because the breaks in this business are becomming less and less due to the amount of us doing it now. It's your chance to do the best job on the planet, so don't blow it.

If one day you are in a position where all the promoters want you and you get to headline a major event then all you have to do is worry about the warm up DJ wrecking your set.

This isn't a flame to anyone, I am just telling you they way it is. What you do with this information is up to you.
Just so you know, I am a professional freelance DJ and see a lot of this stuff going on all the time. It's from experience speak not what I have read in a magazine or on a website. But it's also something I feel strongly about.

Cheers
Nem

I have in the past warned a warm up dj he was playing too hard too early- he refused to change- he doesnt warm up anymore..

quote:

Originally posted by Dj SHO Damn right. If Tiesto was after me, I'd be damned if I wouldn't drop Flight 643 among others. That's my time on the decks. I'm in control. I guess he'd just have to set those records aside that I played. Or, he could spin them again, but I doubt it would go over very well with the crowd. Besides, those guys have an endless selection of tracks to pick from between their boxes of records and stacks of cds. I doubt they would care either way. It would still be cool to drop a Djs signature track right before that Dj got on the decks.

I think it would be EXTREMELY stupid to play a mix or remix by whoever you were opening for. You would be so pissed if you were playing an event and the DJ before you played your remixes.

You're right though. They prob. wouldn't care. I just consider it the right thing to do.

It's really simple.. Warming up is an art in itself.. Play anthems too early, and you'll be likely to see the consequences Nem stated before (those were wise words).

What would you do if you were the headliner and the warm-up DJ played all the anthems you brought yourself too? Wouldn't you be pissed?

Dj SHO, not to be harsh, but that kind of attitude just doesn't appeal to me.

quote:

Originally posted by Nemesis44 This is not aimed at anyone in particular in a bad way. Just a few harshly put statements that happen to be true. I can appreciate that you have your style and that you would like to play what you want, but you are forgetting that it's not just the guest DJ to take into consideration. Hit a dance floor with the type of stuff you are talking about that early and you are also going to make it a pretty shit night for the crowd. Whether or not they have a stack of other tunes in their boxes is beside the point. You are there to help them get the best out of the crowd and ultimately give the crowd the best possible experience you can. There are a load of dancefloor dynamics to take into consideration. The main one being that the majority of people (In Europe atleast) are high on E. Why is this an important factor? Well, because people drop their E's so that they start comming up about the same time as the headliner starts getting his set into full swing. With that in mind, you spinning major tunes early on when people are not as up for it is going to make you look like a prick and will piss people off. Especially if the headliner has to come in and rebuild the mood from scratch. Number two. People on E just are not able to handle four hours of wall to wall anthems. It will drive them to a point where they just don't have a f*cking clue what's happening (That happens to some people anyways but that's all part of the deal). If you have a warm up slot you will have atleast two other DJs behind you. It's good to keep them sweet because if you don't, your oportunities to work will get pretty slim. Word travels fast in this business and no one wants to play after a warm up DJ like that. Some people even make a point of making sure you can't work in other places. DJing is all about respect. You earn your way to the top either through solid DJ performances or producing. Neither path has any guarantees or makes any promises. It's all about who respects you and who wants to work with you. If you get the chance to warm up at a club, do it well and don't showboat because the breaks in this business are becomming less and less due to the amount of us doing it now. It's your chance to do the best job on the planet, so don't blow it. If one day you are in a position where all the promoters want you and you get to headline a major event then all you have to do is worry about the warm up DJ wrecking your set. This isn't a flame to anyone, I am just telling you they way it is. What you do with this information is up to you. Just so you know, I am a professional freelance DJ and see a lot of this stuff going on all the time. It's from experience speak not what I have read in a magazine or on a website. But it's also something I feel strongly about. Cheers Nem

Yeah, I feel ya on this man. But this is how I look at Djing. What you spin and produce is what makes you who you are as a Dj. It's how people recognize you and how you distinguish yourself from other Djs. Even though you and another Dj may spin progressive trance, the way each of you put together your sets and what records you choose makes you totally different, except that you both spin the same style of music. You may both play alot of the same tracks, but each of you will have those key tracks that the other doesn't that will set you apart from eachother.

If I do a gig, I spin my stuff. I'm not concerned with what the headliner is gonna spin after me or what the Dj before me spins. If he spins some records that I was planning on spinning, I wouldn't necessarily be mad at him, I would just have to make different selections so there wouldn't be any repeats.

There's no point in playing a set to satisfy the headliners track choices or to get the crowd warmed up if it's not you. Why even bother Djing??? Now, there is a way to earn your respect and still be able to play your tracks, and at the same time have respect for the headliner, crowd and the club it's self, making sure you give them a good set and a good time.

Now, as far as if I ever opened for Tiesto or AVB, I'm sure I would discuss with them what tracks I was planning on spinning because I've got tons of records that they play as well. Obviously if it came down to a new release that they had just done, I wouldn't dare spin that. It's their track outright, and while it's new, they should be the one to spin it at their gigs. But I would never totally bow down and change my style or tracks to satisfy them. I have to be me behind the decks, and I'm sure this is true for alot of other Djs.

But as many tracks as there are to spin, I doubt it would ever be a serious issue, unless you were pulling records from their box...LOL.

Anyway, good points. I guess it's just up to the individual Djs at the gigs. But I think usually the clubs set it up so there's a house Dj and then a trance Dj, or breaks and then trance. That way there's no clashing and it changes things up for the crowd and gives them a different flavor and sound. I did go to one show where a progressive trance Dj opened for Armin Van Buuren, but he spun alot of classics from 1998 - 2001, and even though they both spun progressive trance, the openers style and track selection was totally different from Armins.

Alright, I'm gonna shut up now.

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