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-- What do you want from the tracks you play?
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What do you want from the tracks you play?
As a producer, I've been giving some recent thought to what impact tracks have on a dance-floor, recently. What I mean to say by that is that, for maybe six-minutes at the longest, the average track makes its appearance, has some form of affect, and then it's on to the next track in the list.
Leaving aside the patently obvious, which is that a track really ought to be danceable, what should a track be doing within your set. For instance, some of my favorite DJ's at clubs have played peaks and valleys within their sets. They start off slowly, and then steadily increase the energy until it's a frenetic pace, and then play back down to another valley, and then back up.
Other DJ's I've heard, have songs which build a bit of a nervous tension, in the crowd. Everyone sort of has a "should I really be here, right now?" sort of feeling and then slowly converts that energy into a more euphoric atmosphere - seeming to capitalize off of the erstwhile nervous energy with relief.
Still others tell stories. They relate to the crowd in a way which tells the DJ's real or even fictional story by playing songs which are suggestive of common themes. Somehow, even though there's no context available, psychologically I can relate to it. I often hear these from sets in the DJ Promotion Forum, here at TA.
That said, things are different when you're playing to a crowd. You have to be able to read and relate to them. I remember another thread, here, where a one or two DJ's spoke to that and one post, in particular, where the poster referred to certain people who helped motivate the rest of the crowd as "motors".
I'm not limited to the theoretical/emotional aspects of music, either. Psycho-acoustics also pertains to my question. One example I can think of is of the nerve-wracking effect of a 19 Hz hum. While most music is engineered completely cutting anything below 30 Hz, are there times when certain effects are used that bend the rules and if so, how?
I'm also definitely interested to read anything existing along these lines not related to the possible scenarios I've listed. Talk about how crowds love Super-Saws because of their psycho-acoustic interaction with MDMA, or whatever. My goal with this thread is to get some insight from the people whose boots are on the ground (and even those who'd like to have their boots on the ground), what songs have those desired effects, and how each song fits into a mix to create a contiguous result.
The most important aspect for me is that it has 'soul' or 'funk' to it. Since I'm not a producer or have any knowledge about producing I wouldn't really know how to tell you how it is achieved or the technicalities of it, though.
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| Originally posted by woscar The most important aspect for me is that it has 'soul' or 'funk' to it. Since I'm not a producer or have any knowledge about producing I wouldn't really know how to tell you how it is achieved or the technicalities of it, though. |
havent had much live experience, but im trying to change that this year.
most important to me is Drive, and tempo. Which is why i wouldnt almost never play 140bpm trance, with dead breaks. ive started producing more techno, tech house because of this. this is personal to me, but its the way i do things.
Re: What do you want from the tracks you play?
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| Originally posted by EddieZilker some form of affect |
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| Originally posted by woscar The most important aspect for me is that it has 'soul' or 'funk' to it. Since I'm not a producer or have any knowledge about producing I wouldn't really know how to tell you how it is achieved or the technicalities of it, though. |
That they speak to me in some way.
/cliche
I'm a big fan of all the styles. On my mix demos I try to tell a story. I like to start things off with a big intro. Something that starts small than wham. Big as life. Then break into almost the same. Eventually bringing it down, then build it back up. But then on a few demos, I'll start mild, build up big, hit the climax, then bring it back down.
Of course, I'm still looking for that perfect style. Maybe combined all the elements. Producer is an avenue I'm looking at getting into. Unfortunately, I'm still pretty new to the edm world. But learning new things everyday.
Here' my demos.
http://www.letsmix.com/djkatmaus
Re: Re: What do you want from the tracks you play?
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| Originally posted by terrytutone You said it right there. Affect. Always looking for songs that have true affect. |
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| Originally posted by EddieZilker Alrightythen... The mix, your most recent as near as I can tell, I'm listening to right now makes use of a lot of space - reminds me, and hopefully I'm not offending, of Deep Spaces Groove set and some of Adam Vana's stuff, too. It's different enough that you're clearly not imitating, though. A lot of the elements are organic/non-synthesis related. When you said "soul", the first things that came to mind were Mr. Rhodes, Mr. Wurlitzer, and Mr. Hammond. Sure enough, the set isn't disappointing my sense of intuition. While there are plenty of synthetic sounds, the Rhodes and Wurlitzer electric pianos are staples of House music in general and I've even made use of them as a producer. Hammond is an organ currently playing happily in a song punctuated by a whistle. Gotta tell you, I'm diggin' this, man. The set takes a sublime turn into Mark Farina acid jazz motifs. Brilliant - definitely have a better since of who you are, according to this. Jazz and its Middle Eastern influences have a place with that flute. You create groovy spaces and also seem to have a gift for letting mysterious things occur. Very temporal. Very psychological. Trippy? No - but enough psycho-acoustically weird phenomena and echos in there to put an atmosphere to the vibe. AvB, it ain't, but that's totally okay. You're wont to avoid the clinical delivery of synthetic MDMA teeth-grinders and get intimate with the audience. Surround them, let the music, not just permeate the atmosphere, but be the atmosphere. |
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| Originally posted by woscar WOW, thanks a lot for taking the time to listen and to write that detailed review. It's always very interesting and educational to read other people's opinions and insights on my sets. If it's not too much trouble, would you please elaborate on what do you mean by "letting mysterious things occur"? And that "Groove" mix you mentioned was done by me too. "Deep Spaces" was a stupid alias I had come up with and ditched it like 3 days later when I realized how lame it was. Been using my real name from then on. |
I want one that's also a Pontiac Trans Am.
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| Originally posted by Ted Promo I want one that's also a Pontiac Trans Am. |
The two things I tend to look for in a track are either a good groove or hypnotic elements that suck the listener in.
To expand on that a bit more I find most of the tracks that I would classify as having a good groove will have deep warm bass sounds and often wont have a steady 4x4 kick. I usually avoid tracks that use too much of the upper frequency range of the bass, that harsh grinding "electro" sound as it tends to detract from the grooveyness (is that a word?) of the track althoguh obviously this isnt a hard rule!
Tracks that fit into the hypnotic category tend to have less focus on the groove (although a good underlying bassline is still a nessecity) and more on the mid to high end of the frequency range. Arpeggiated melodies, looped vocals and pad sounds seem to fit with my idea of hypnotic.
I hope that makes some sort of sense, typing whilst working. Check the basement seessions mix in my sig for examples of what I mean! (/plug)
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| Originally posted by Clovis I drive one of those. Worst car ever made. |
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| Originally posted by david.michael gto! |
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| Originally posted by EddieZilker Well, sir. I have to thank you because that inspired this track. The song with the flute is the biggest example I can think of, but it's also the way in which the tracks were blended so that train-spotting was almost impossible. "Groove" did that, too, and really well - it was almost seamless. The other aspect is that you choose songs with a lot of white space - space in the music which is being used to really let individual elements come into existence and then fade out again, before something new happens. I tend to be a bit busy, in that regard, and I like having a lot of elements, but the sparseness of the songs you use lends to that mysteriousness occurring. |
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| Originally posted by enydo That they speak to me in some way. /cliche |
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| Originally posted by Clovis I drive one of those. Worst car ever made. |
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| Originally posted by Ted Promo I read "worst car" as "woscar" lololol And I really can't imagine you driving one of those. At all. |
We should have a clunker-off. My 1987 Toyota Corolla is quite the clunker.
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| Originally posted by Clovis Dude I drove that thing all the way to Mexico (4hrs) 3 times in February to go DJ. Actually not a bad car for a roadtrip. But yeah its a clunker. And theres a short in the turn signal clicker so it just clicks randomly all the time. lol /hijack cumplete |
I look for tracks that have good low end and great percussion. They need to be produced flawlessly (or able to be edited to be); have good atmosphere and spacing and have something that carries you throughout the track. I am even more tedious and picky about tracks that are played frequently because I like to have new and fresh music. It's all about knowing what you like and continuing to narrow down to the artists and labels you appreciate the sound of. People put out great music very consistently these days; it's just about knowing who they are and staying current on aliases; etc. Beatport is awesome for the ability to save all of your favorite labels and artists; it makes it very very simple searching for new tracks every month.
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| Originally posted by djdk The two things I tend to look for in a track are either a good groove or hypnotic elements that suck the listener in. To expand on that a bit more I find most of the tracks that I would classify as having a good groove will have deep warm bass sounds and often wont have a steady 4x4 kick. I usually avoid tracks that use too much of the upper frequency range of the bass, that harsh grinding "electro" sound as it tends to detract from the grooveyness (is that a word?) of the track althoguh obviously this isnt a hard rule! Tracks that fit into the hypnotic category tend to have less focus on the groove (although a good underlying bassline is still a nessecity) and more on the mid to high end of the frequency range. Arpeggiated melodies, looped vocals and pad sounds seem to fit with my idea of hypnotic. I hope that makes some sort of sense, typing whilst working. Check the basement seessions mix in my sig for examples of what I mean! (/plug) |
A fucking big bassline please
Of course it's fairly pointless if it hasn't got a groove.
I look for original textures - which normally means non-standard sounds, particularly in the percussion. Unusual rhythms can really help.
I like to think (although I may be kidding myself) that the stuff I play has got some kind of common quality to it, across all of the genres I play (house/prog/breaks/techno/trance/whatever) - which I think of as sort of a solid darkness. So I guess really I look for stuff which has that quality. I still play lighter stuff, particularly if it's got a really good groove (party music really!) but even then hopefully that same quality is still there, albeit more subdued.
I'm very rarely impressed by just a 'good trance lead' anymore - it needs more. That said, occasionally I find myself loving things which don't seem to be that special on the surface but for some reason click with me. Tiddey - "Taylla" is a good example of that... not something I'd play these days, nothing particularly special but for some reason I loved the lead when I first heard it. Might remix it
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