Deciding which track to play next

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Posted by Wildfir3 on Apr-15-2004 12:51:

Deciding which track to play next

When watching the tiesto in concert dvd i felt a question coming up:

how do "most dj's" choose which track they'll play next... do they decide this when they're going through their records or do they know from long before?

I was just wondering...

Posted by TwoPlow on Apr-15-2004 13:48:

Both. I generally have something in mind, but if I find something better while I'm digging through to pull it out, I'll use that.

Posted by Scottaculous on Apr-15-2004 15:49:

DJ skill of reading the crowd. It's psychological. Look at the crowd's reaction to tracks by playing different styles of music. Tiesto mentioned in a recent article he technique for gauging what the crowd wants to hear. He drops he tracks (tech-trance, epic eurotrance, prog trance) and then that gives him an idea what the crowd likes and play more of that.

Posted by Wildfir3 on Apr-15-2004 16:07:

Yeah i know about reading the crowd and all, but still... i mean, you can 'read' what kind of music the crowd wants, but u cant see which track they want :P

I was just wondering since i hardly ever know what's coming up next, so i have to go through my records (luckily there aren't too much of them yet) but i lose quite some beatmatching time doing that

i'm teh noob

Posted by auujay on Apr-15-2004 16:31:

quote:
Originally posted by Wildfir3
Yeah i know about reading the crowd and all, but still... i mean, you can 'read' what kind of music the crowd wants, but u cant see which track they want :P

I was just wondering since i hardly ever know what's coming up next, so i have to go through my records (luckily there aren't too much of them yet) but i lose quite some beatmatching time doing that

i'm teh noob

Don't worry about losing beatmatching time. Once you get more records you will also have been spinning longer which means beatmatching gets much easier. Of course at some point you will want to sort your collection in some way. I group my records by style, but it can be tough especially if one side is one style and the flip is another you you like both mixes (if one mix sucks I will store it with the style of the mix I like).

Posted by DannyO on Apr-15-2004 19:18:

Well I'm sure it is different from DJ to DJ, but what I do is, you read the crowd, and see how there liking it, do they seem to want it harder, softer, chilled, maybe some vocals, when you figure that out, you think of all the records you got in that catagory, and kinda play them in your head, do they flow, are the keys similar, is the BPM close enought that it ain't gonna need +8% pitch, it takes practice and you need to know your vinyl, but you will get it, or make your own way of deciding.

Good luck.

Posted by DJ Kibon on Apr-15-2004 19:57:

quote:
Originally posted by auujay
Don't worry about losing beatmatching time. Once you get more records you will also have been spinning longer which means beatmatching gets much easier. Of course at some point you will want to sort your collection in some way. I group my records by style, but it can be tough especially if one side is one style and the flip is another you you like both mixes (if one mix sucks I will store it with the style of the mix I like).

Yup, I group my records as well, basically into clumps of tracks that I know mix pretty well together. The tracks in my crate also generally get faster/more energetic as you move from front to back.