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Posted by skm on Aug-04-2004 04:02:

playlists

i was wondering how playlists are put together
obviously u order it from genres ie trance > hardtrance > hardstyle
but what if its all trance or all hardtrance or something
how would you put a playlist together ing one genre?
match the hardness of the beat/bass? go from soft to hard?
match the overall feeling of the song? like if its got some uplifting feeling start with that then lead in to the hard type bass songs without realli any uplifting elements?

and when people play live and dont put a playlist together and they talk about crowd reactions.. how would you keep that reaction? are they often talking about moving from trance to ahrd trance, getting a good reaction and sticking to hard trance? what do people mean when they say this.. read the crowd etc.. ?

Posted by skm on Aug-05-2004 05:50:

o cmon someone answer me

Posted by Audigy7 on Aug-05-2004 06:46:

I ussually just play whatever sounds good at the moment. Rarely ever do I have a playlist set up in advance that I stick to.

Posted by FirstBorn on Aug-05-2004 07:28:

OK � I�ll try and answer as best I can. What you�re talking about is, IMHO, the most important skill a DJ can learn: programming, or putting the right record on at the right time. So many people places huge emphasis on technical skills (ie. beatmatching), which is important, and you can be the most technically-skilled DJ in the world, but if you can�t choose the right record for a particular moment, you�ve still got a way to go as as DJ.

(Incidentally much of this reply is cribbed from Frank Broughton & Bill Brewster�s excellent book �How To DJ [Properly]�, which I thoroughly recommend to anyone thinking of DJ�ing. Really helped me when I starting and it even has a chapter of suggestions about �how to choose the next record� which may be of interest to you.)

The whole art of programming is a difficult skill to pin down because it�s essentially intuitive rather than technical. Anyone can learn to beatmatch with enough practice and application but, as opposed to beatmatching, which generally can be picked up over a period of weeks/months etc, programming can only really be picked up by playing music in front of other people, watching what they like and dislike, and then responding accordingly by playing appropriate tracks. This is what�s referred to as �reading the crowd� and you can see DJ�s do it all the time. The best DJ�s are constantly watching the dancefloor, gauging reactions to their tunes and picking up how the crowd is responding to the music. (Other DJ�s might either simply play a pre-programmed set or concentrate so much on what they�ve practised in their bedroom that they keep their head down, not watching the crowd and then realise they�ve lost half the dancefloor.)

To answer your questions and examples above, the best way to think about programming is to listen to your records at home and get an idea of the mood or energy level each generates. This isn�t necessarily the mood or energy each record inspires in you, but rather how you think it�ll affect the dancefloor. This is what programming is all about : choosing the records with the right mood. As you become more experienced in playing out, you�ll find it easier to identify energy levels of tracks as you learn what people respond to. �Soft� and �hard� are two ways in which you could classify energy levels but there are numerous distinctions in between.

There�s also the crowd to consider. Every dancefloor is different at every gig (even if you�re a resident at a weekly club which plays the same genre each night). A dancefloor is made up of dozens/hundreds/thousands of individuals, all of whom respond to music in different ways, both individually and collectively. It all depends who�s on the dancefloor at any given time and how they respond to music. This is why you should always be watching the dancefloor � as people come and go, the crowd�s reaction to music changes. The dancefloor�s own energy can change from moment to moment, depending on the time of the night, the music that�s been playing before and is playing now, what they people are like, what they�ve been drinking, what they�ve been taking and so on and so on.

Interpreting crowd reactions is absolutely key. The extremes are easy to spot: they obviously love the music if they�re all jumping up and down with their hands in the air, singing along to lyrics or bouncing to the drums. Likewise, it�s fairly safe to say they�re not enjoying the music if the dancefloor is empty and you�ve got half a dozen angry-looking people banging on the DJ booth with their glowsticks. It�s the in-between stuff that you have to look harder to spot: are people looking vacant or bored, are they glancing expectantly up at the DJ, are people slowly leaving the dancefloor or dashing on to it? You should programme your music depending on what's happening to the crowd at the time: if they're leaving the dancefloor looking exhausted, you should probably slow things down, or if they're looking bored or glazed, it might be an idea to play something with a bit more variety.

Because of all this, the answer to most of your questions is �whatever feels right at the time�. With enough practice of playing out, you�ll learn to spot and respond to your dancefloor�s reactions and then programme your records appropriately. There�s a correct time and place to play pretty much all your records: you just need to learn when and why. As I said at the top, this is the most difficult skill to learn, largely because it�s intuitive and not technical.

Hope this helps � and good luck!

Posted by skm on Aug-06-2004 07:32:

so to progress in a set the energy of it has to go in a direction.. either up or down etc. (planned set i mean, like one you wanna make into a cd or something)

and when playing out it just depends on the crowd..

what u have explained is maily playing out, what about playing a recorded set?