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-- Do you enjoy livesets just as much now as before you started djing ?

Do you enjoy livesets just as much now as before you started djing ?

After I got decks and started fooling around and learning how to beatmatch (still got a long way to go tho)
with my ears I have grown this allergia against bad beatmatched transitions.
So when I hear a DJ (van Dyk, Oakenfold, Tiesto, no matter who) fucking
up a transition I almost go into shock and I really just wanna take
the next plane to help them get out of the mess because If I can hear
whats wrong im sure they can also.

Have your interest in DJing/fooling around with equipment made you
more aware of the fact that most DJs make mistakes ?

Nobody is perfect, every dj has to trainwreck somehow.

yea, i still love live sets.

but, I notice I dont enjoy live sets of my genres as much....

i actually like it more becuase i have a better ear for whats going on now that im actually doing it...as for imperfection... i like that becuase it gives me a sense of reality... unless you never mess up [i know i do] it makes everyting feel more real and "live" i guess rather than over produced and not as outward

the imperfection thing kicks arse, being able to see that professionals are shit but also pisses you off at every transition ever made from then on

Yea, I always perk up when a tranisition comes up, its just natural now, i used to not even know that livesets were mixed, I thought they were just one big song!!!!

yah it helps put things in perspective.. if anything u should listen to how they get out of the trainwreck.. some dj's prefer the 'i can save it' method and try to get the mix back together.. but most use the 'get the fuck out of the mix' method which is wat i do, mainly cuz when i started out, a dj gave me some advice in that at the club, jjust get out of the mix and the crowd will forget about it if they even noticed, but the longer u sit there trying to save it allows people to notice your trainwreck.. i think Tiesto has somewhat of a fuckup in the most recent set posted on this site (live @ space), i can't remember if its that set but im thinking it is, well it basically sounded like he didn't know the cue channel was live and dropped a needle down in the middle of the other song.. it was kinda funny but as soon as he noticed he picked that shit up and prolly said "oh fuck!"

I like livesets to hear technique. Aside from that, invariably when I listen to a live set I think "oh, I could mix that", and it's more fun to spin than just sit there listening. But as MERiDiAN5i2 intimated, I enjoy livesets of other genres (such as jungle, breakbeat, etc) more than what I mix (goa/hard/prog/uplift).

when a big dj misses a mix, it just means they're human
it's hard playing in a loud environment and hit every single mix dead on
the funny thing is, is that those little slips are not heard on a big system
if the beats are a little off, it sounds alright on a big system that's used for raves and such
it's kinda like cheating when playing on a big system cause you can get away with a lot that the general public can't hear

there's many livesets that i've heard live and sounded great
but then when i listen to the recordings after, they sound like ass

quote:

Originally posted by DJ_Shockwav the funny thing is, is that those little slips are not heard on a big system if the beats are a little off, it sounds alright on a big system that's used for raves and such it's kinda like cheating when playing on a big system cause you can get away with a lot that the general public can't hear

and i love how that works! hehehe if it sounds halfway decent in the headphones, it probably sounds just about right on the big system

i reckon its much better knowing whats really going on the transition is the best part always

quote:

Originally posted by DjJade i actually like it more becuase i have a better ear for whats going on now that im actually doing it...as for imperfection... i like that becuase it gives me a sense of reality... unless you never mess up [i know i do] it makes everyting feel more real and "live" i guess rather than over produced and not as outward

agreed

it doesnt have to be perfect. just dont loose the beat

ive only seen 2 djs that have not trainwrecked while ive been there

Steve Smooth
and
Bad Boy Bill

even with some nutz tricks that they pulled off

i know they have messed up though...just not in my presence

quote:

Originally posted by DJ_Shockwav the funny thing is, is that those little slips are not heard on a big system if the beats are a little off, it sounds alright on a big system that's used for raves and such it's kinda like cheating when playing on a big system cause you can get away with a lot that the general public can't hear

i have to disagree w/ you here.. as hard as it is for the crowd to notice a fuckup, theres a reason, its because the dj did as best he/she could to keep the mix flowing.. people can't have the mindset that its going to be easier for them to go into a club because they can hide behind a giant sound system, if anything, you are more exposed than ever because the crowd can hear what you're doing a shitload better than you can in the dj booth! the only thing is that when ur mixing at really quite levels (like when u got that urge to mix 2 songs just to hear the transition at 3am and u can't wake up the neighbors) of course youre gonna hear bettter cuz ur listening so well and concentrated. i've mixed one of my cleanest recordings ever purely thru headphones (i didn't have small speakers, so i took this old set of headphones, set them on the ground w/ the cans facing me; and just turned the volume up really loud.. i could barely tell the difference between the noise coming from the headphones and the noise coming from the needle on vinyl.

well then it just depends on the system at the club...if your monitors are good enough i think the dj at the dj booth should hear better than the people dancing becuase the monitors should be tuned for clarity and balance, and the club system is gonna be tuned for the dancers... when you have that much bass and treble, its gonna be hard to distinguish between two beats that are slightly off unless the club speakers are rediculously good.... plus the djs monitors are properly aimed for direct sound whereas on the floor, you get all the reverb peices of stray sound thats not direct.

as for mixing clean recordings using headphones on the ground as monitors... well thats very impressive. you are either quite good or quite lucky... probably on the quite good side... probably alot better than i : ) but still i dont see how you can really monitor anything using headphones on the ground. i use klipsh reference speakers in my room that are quite good and my mixes sound totally different...say at home on my dads tannoy speakers. sometimes alot better and sometimes alot worse. to me its all relative. it makes a difference in high end systems but when im sure its all good in a normal system or soemthing.

hahah.. i wish i could take the credit.. but no, i don't have some great power of acute hearing, the whole headphone as monitors issue came about a while back.. and basically, it was at around 3 in the morning and dead quite, otherwise i woulda just plugged into at least my computer speakers or something, but i had people sleeping at my apt and i didn't want to bother anyone w/ my mixing so i tried the quietest setup as possible. and to tell u the truth, it probably would have made no difference if i was just putting my ear close to the record and listening to the stylus run along the grooves of the record..

for clubs, i think monitors tend to be more of a problem issue than not because they're just not set up correctly in most cases.. well at least thats wat it seems like to me, maybe you've had better experiences at clubs but i guess im hard to satisfy when it comes to me hearing what i want (and i want as close to my home setup as possible, which would be feasible if i took into consideration that there isn't 20,000w of power rattling the room around you. right now at home im running 300w to each speaker and thats fine, i don't even need that much, and actually i regret buying big speakers when i could have gotten studio monitors.

..as far as the quality of your mixes is concerned, sometimes your headphones will be your best friend when your practicing because they probably produce the truest sound. for example, i have some oldschool numark pre-amped shelftop speakers that came w/ my 1st set of TT's, those things are convenient, but the sound output is really crappy, as in, practically a different pitch than what im hearing in the headphone. when i say pitch, im actually referring to the pitch of the tone, not speed, speakers should not affect tempo (the speed of your sound) but they can reproduce an off pitch (bad frequency filtration??) i dunno, so i don't like to listen to them and thats why i was using the headphones as monitors. but if it was even a tad bit windy outside, i probably wouldn't have been able to hear them.

yeah my klipsch speakers are really sensitive so i only need 10 watts each... tube amps the i built. dont be mistaken, though, becuase those 10 watts are sufficient to drive the speakers at a level that satisfies anyone. one thing i hate is the common misconception about wattage becuase decibels and watts work on a logarithmic scale.

i agree about the headphones normally becuase my headphones sound really accurate but i dont think they are as accurate and clear as my monitors. i guess it depends on what you have, i was a big audiophile [still am] before i got into mixing.

whoever mentioned monitors rarely being set up properly is dead on

ive only probably heard clear monitors a couple of times...
every other time they spend so much attention on the stacks facing the crowd that they completely overlook a clear, good sounding monitor

from my experience, a lot of clubs/promoters chince out on the monitors and they end up just being shit speakers cranked up really loud...which as anyone whose spun on something of this nature, is hard as folk to mix on
hearing a constant rumble and an odd cymbol here and there is a bitch to mix with

quote:

Originally posted by hapamoto i have to disagree w/ you here.. as hard as it is for the crowd to notice a fuckup, theres a reason, its because the dj did as best he/she could to keep the mix flowing.. people can't have the mindset that its going to be easier for them to go into a club because they can hide behind a giant sound system, if anything, you are more exposed than ever because the crowd can hear what you're doing a shitload better than you can in the dj booth! the only thing is that when ur mixing at really quite levels (like when u got that urge to mix 2 songs just to hear the transition at 3am and u can't wake up the neighbors) of course youre gonna hear bettter cuz ur listening so well and concentrated. i've mixed one of my cleanest recordings ever purely thru headphones (i didn't have small speakers, so i took this old set of headphones, set them on the ground w/ the cans facing me; and just turned the volume up really loud.. i could barely tell the difference between the noise coming from the headphones and the noise coming from the needle on vinyl.

i should probably clarify what i was talking about

at the raves and stuff here, the promoters like to use mountains of bass bins and a few mid/highs
with that much bass it's just an onslaught of noise that resembles a 4/4 beat with a little bit of high end

a friend of mine just played a rave and after his set i was talking to him and he was like "that was the worst set ever, i was off on almost every mix"
it sounded fine on the dancefloor, at that volume the basslines being off a little isn't noticable on the dancefloor

which goes to show you, bigger isn't always better
use enough bass bins to do the job, not overkill

I djing before I found out about trance so I've always liked livesets...I like to hear when the big names like tiesto and paul van dyke mess up, because when I hear these cds mastered by protools it make them sound so perfect...and thats not really how they are...

I've never heard PvD trainwreck before...thought he wasn't capable of messing up.

quote:

Originally posted by dj_inferno I djing before I found out about trance so I've always liked livesets...I like to hear when the big names like tiesto and paul van dyke mess up, because when I hear these cds mastered by protools it make them sound so perfect...and thats not really how they are...

actually i hear tiestos screwups on his cds... he actually sounded alot better live...maybe i wasnt paying as much attention but i think i was trying to

i use to listen to live sets, and everyhting seems ok
even fade properly ok too.

but now after dj'ing
i notice everything.....the top djs also make mistakes
i get angry caue they mess up hehe
well especially if i mess up i get really angry
but ey everyone makes mistakes noone is prefect

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