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-- How do you know when you are ready?

How do you know when you are ready?

Ive been spinnin at home for over a year, not everyday but i mean i have my urges where i go on sprints and then my times wen i dont touch my setup, but i am fairly decent. The thing is as most of you probably experience yourself is that you notice all the mistakes, and you are not sure how noticeable it is. Sometimes people dont notice things, sometimes they stand out by in my eyes everything is a mistake which really frustrates and discourages me. Im still 15 so i have a lot of time before i hit legal age clubs but even to spin like hip hop at an all ages type thing, how do you know when you are good enough. One problem i noticed now is that with my cdjs its very rare that i get the beats matched close enough. 2.1 is too slow and 2.2 is too fast on the pitch slider and that also frustrates me because than i waste time trying to fix it and than usually fuck up the beats cuz i get confused and loose focus. I think i need to sell my cdj 100s and upgrade. Anyhow, any words of advice or flaming or of whatever are welcome.

Well, in regards to when you are ready...no clue, i wouldnt worry though, i dont think youll be under too much criticism at an all ages event.

In regards upgrading. Im not sure how much you could get for used cdj100's but if youre looking for more accuracy sadly all of the lower priced decks are still 0.1 (like the cdj100) As far as i know the dns3000 is the cheapest deck with 0.02 (thats the most accurate youll find on the market)

anth_on_e, i am in the same position as you exactly. I played a house party the other week and was suprised how the type of error that in my bedroom sounded awlful, people quite simply will not notice. SO i wouldn't worry, the standard you'd judge yourself is sooo far above what a general crowd will.

but more importantly i understand completly about the cd deck. mine too only has 0.1 increments and i find it a real chore mixing between vinyl and cd, so i try my hardest to avoid it. The other thing is that my tables (Gemini PT-2100) dont hold their pitch absolutly perfectly like a digital medium such as a cd does, so I find my mixes drifting so much faster. The result is that i spend so much time pitch bending its just plain annoying.

Just run it up the flag pole and see who salutes it...

In terms of knowning when you are ready, well for an all ages event you are never not ready. They are not expecting smooth transitions so there is no real ready.

In terms of playing a club it gets a little trickier. In my opinion there are tons of DJs playing clubs who are not ready and probably never will be.

In my opinion you are ready when you can consistantly make mix CDs without having to start over again due to a bad mix.
The thing you have to realise is that you become ready through playing in clubs more than at home. The bedroom will just teach you the basics but the club will teach you how to DJ and perform as a DJ.

Cheers
Nem

first of all, if you want to be ready for the clubs i think you will have to upgrade your kit. as good as cdj100's are for beginners, they are not proffesional equipment. however, if you can put together a good set on these, you won't have any problems, and being used to pioneer cdj's is a good thing, as most clubs have these. its also advisable to get used to using turntables if possible, not all clubs have 2 cd decks, the standard is 2 turntables and a mixer

as far as being ready is concerned, i think nem put it very well, in that if you can consistantly put together cd's without having to start again, then you are good to go. you have to remember, what you may regard as a minor fuck-up, anyone who is not a dj will not generally notice as their brains arn't calibrated in the same manner as ours, and arn't trained to pick up on things like a track starting to go out. this is what sets dj's apart from the crowd, in that we can tell the thing is going out before the crowd can

play as many house partys, all age partys and private partys as possible to get used to playing in front of people. the more you don't know the people, the better.. people you don't know will give a more honest opinion of what they think. you are young and have a long time to go before you will be allowed to play in clubs (unless you can lie about your age ) so make the most of the time, and practice like hell! you can never practice enough

quote:

Originally posted by tu_face first of all, if you want to be ready for the clubs i think you will have to upgrade your kit. as good as cdj100's are for beginners, they are not proffesional equipment. however, if you can put together a good set on these, you won't have any problems, and being used to pioneer cdj's is a good thing, as most clubs have these. its also advisable to get used to using turntables if possible, not all clubs have 2 cd decks, the standard is 2 turntables and a mixer as far as being ready is concerned, i think nem put it very well, in that if you can consistantly put together cd's without having to start again, then you are good to go. you have to remember, what you may regard as a minor fuck-up, anyone who is not a dj will not generally notice as their brains arn't calibrated in the same manner as ours, and arn't trained to pick up on things like a track starting to go out. this is what sets dj's apart from the crowd, in that we can tell the thing is going out before the crowd can play as many house partys, all age partys and private partys as possible to get used to playing in front of people. the more you don't know the people, the better.. people you don't know will give a more honest opinion of what they think. you are young and have a long time to go before you will be allowed to play in clubs (unless you can lie about your age ) so make the most of the time, and practice like hell! you can never practice enough

My setup consists of 2 cdj 100s and a vestax pmc 05 pro II (my original setup) and couple months ago i picked up a ttx turntable and am borrowing my friends equalizers that he dusnt use. The problem is i just got a car (Acura RSX) and want to put money into that so its a debate on whether or not to spend money on my car or spend it on an MKII. Another thing is i want to sell my cdjs and i could use a better mixer (esp since the faders are starting to bleed) but i think i would be lucky to get 1000 cdn for the set and than i would have to upgrade all 3, but at the same time i want a technic turntable to get used to the technic and at the same time get used to the ttx. i dont know which to upgrade.

as for playing out i think my main problem is putting songs together. I cannot play live sorta deal. Like i was making a hip hop mix and it was like impossible to put a selection together and it wusnt even live. In the end i just scrapped it because of the major bpm differences and stuff, it was just too confusing. But for house which is what i spin i dont think its that much of a problem which isnt good for all ages events lol.

Your like 15 right? Well I wouldn't worry about it, cos your not even allowed into clubs yet....lol Shit man, take it easy. Do it because you love it and not because your just waiting till you can wow people with your mixing skills. So many DJs are all about just getting out there and performing infront of people and in the end I guess thats what its all about, but for god sakes I wish some of them would get a bit more practice in before they do.

Just start off slow... invite some friends over and spin some tunes for them. Just see how it goes and then get feedback from them. If you just drop yourself at an underages gig without knowing if your 'ready' or not is bound to lead to disaster, mainly because you'll be doubting your skills. You need to build up the confidence in your mixing so that you know without a doubt that your ready.

Like Nemesis says, your ready when you can mix together whichever tunes you choose for however long you want with very few (if any) fuck ups.

No go forth and practice =)

quote:

Originally posted by ionized Your like 15 right? Well I wouldn't worry about it, cos your not even allowed into clubs yet....lol Shit man, take it easy. Do it because you love it and not because your just waiting till you can wow people with your mixing skills. So many DJs are all about just getting out there and performing infront of people and in the end I guess thats what its all about, but for god sakes I wish some of them would get a bit more practice in before they do. Just start off slow... invite some friends over and spin some tunes for them. Just see how it goes and then get feedback from them. If you just drop yourself at an underages gig without knowing if your 'ready' or not is bound to lead to disaster, mainly because you'll be doubting your skills. You need to build up the confidence in your mixing so that you know without a doubt that your ready. Like Nemesis says, your ready when you can mix together whichever tunes you choose for however long you want with very few (if any) fuck ups. No go forth and practice =)

Thanx for the advice.Im 16 and love to spin and ive been spinning for a while, over a year now. Even though ive been spinning for a year, i still feel incapable and unconfident which is what drives me nuts.

Looks like we're right around the same age man... I'm 15, and am looking to buy some turntables real soon. I know exactly what you mean, sometimes I wanna mix and mix nonstop but other times I don't wanna go near it! I think as I get better though, I've been wanting to mix more lately. I say go for it. Not that I would know, but I think it'd be a good idea to get used to some turntables, since that is the standard anyway. It's good to have a knowledge of both digital and analog

IMO one can never be 100% ready for all those little messups that can happen in the club. You only get better from experience. I have organized many small events in the past and from there I learnt to deal with problems on the fly - monitor dying, power problems, and so on and on and on. I have been spinning vinyl only for a year and have already played at some bigger events among many smaller. I always travel with 2 pairs of headphones, backup needles, plus some know how information what to do before, during and after the gig but I still can't be 100% ready when I leave home - you never know what can go down. Basically what I'm trying to say is that even if you have a weekly residency at a club even then you can't be 100% ready because there are about zillion tiny things that can f00k up the night.

its less to do with how you fuck up, more to do with how you deal with it.. everybody makes mistakes (sometimes noticable, sometimes not to the majority of people), even the best, but if you let that knock you back, you won't make it past the first mix

quote:

Originally posted by Nemesis44 In my opinion you are ready when you can consistantly make mix CDs without having to start over again due to a bad mix.

I'm not ready then

Seriously, I can usually mix good in the bedroom to my walls and even on radio shows, but as soon as I hit record I just lose the ability

quote:

Originally posted by DjSimonB I'm not ready then Seriously, I can usually mix good in the bedroom to my walls and even on radio shows, but as soon as I hit record I just lose the ability

i used to get that. the remedy is to record all the time, even if you are only mixing for 20 mins.. i can't do this anymore now as my comp is at the other end of the house, but i got over my recording fear in time!

quote:

Originally posted by tu_face i used to get that. the remedy is to record all the time, even if you are only mixing for 20 mins.. i can't do this anymore now as my comp is at the other end of the house, but i got over my recording fear in time!

I'll often record to my minidisc when I'm mixing (although I admit it's probably not enough)... but when I make a mix CD or set I want to do it on the laptop (my dad's laptop, I use it if I need a computer in my room) for optimum quality, so I think it's just the whole issue of getting the computer ready and so on that makes me a bit nervous. I might just try recording to my minidisc for this set I'm trying to make, the quality won't be as high but if I mix more confidently it should be worth it I hope...

yeah, it doesn't really matter what you record on to, so long as it will play back. quality doesn't matter so much if its just for you to listen to & get used to playing whilst being recorded, just remember to press record every time you switch on your decks

obviously if its a set you want to dish out to people, get the quality as high as possible by using the laptop/whatever...

I always used to find that when i was doing a cd I'd fcuk up the last mix, this used to happen everytime I recorded. So alot of the time when I record I just mix until I get bored and don't worry about the time I'm going for, I think that when you keep checking time and things it puts pressure on the mind hence the fcuk ups.

As for being ready, I think you are ready when you are comfortable on yr own decks and then can also transfer this onto another setup for example a friends or a club system, lots of people can mix perfectly on their own setup but when it comes to using another things feel and are totally different.

I think that getting familar with your records is also a big factor when it comes to mixing, if you know a tune you know when to mix it, cut it etc this gives you extra confidence as it allows you to flow naturally and not worry about things.

I agree with everything tu_face has said in this thread.

Quality advice !

One word of advice. If you do end up going into some kind of event and your mixin' away and you do make a mistake don't throw your hands up and drop your head. I saw that about 3 weeks ago. The clip clop started, I looked up and this guy looked like he'd been punched in the gut.

If you screw up (and you will, we all do - I even saw a big time DJ screw up about 6 weeks ago) just keep going. At least they'll know you're there.

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