Anybody get a chance to download my live set yet?

Really interested to hear any comments about the mix...

Cheers,

John
a.k.a. DJ Kibon

___________________
DJ Kibon



Click below to download my most recent trance set:
DJ Kibon - August 2004

Hey DJ Kibon,
Im downloading your set now, and I'll review it a bit later, tell you what I think.
You spin at afterhourdjs eh? I happen to know someone who spins on that station frequently.. do you know DJ R Man?

quote:

Originally posted by bachatu Hey DJ Kibon, Im downloading your set now, and I'll review it a bit later, tell you what I think. You spin at afterhourdjs eh? I happen to know someone who spins on that station frequently.. do you know DJ R Man?

I haven't heard a set from him on afterhoursdjs in about a month or more, but if I remember correctly, he's doing a set with Cosmic Gate rather soon (this weekend?).

___________________
DJ Kibon



Click below to download my most recent trance set:
DJ Kibon - August 2004

DJ Kibon,
Some of the tracks on the mix i liked, some werent my style... However, something you had in the mix was variation styles and genres. But I think the hard trance/hard house melodic stuff took over a bit too much towards the end.
I was into the beginning progressive start, but I think you changed too drastically into a different genre. Your beatmathing can get some improvement, though I know you know that, so i wont really mention it, because you will get better over time.
Main thing you should worry about that sticks out in the mix, of what i noticed was volumes. Try to judge and keep volumes regulated throughout the mix and eq your tracks throughout the mixing if you can. This can help give the mix a overall even sound, instead of having one song over power with bass and the next song lacking bass. Get me?
I wouldnt worry too much about the beatmatching, cause like i said, you will get better as you keep playing. Overall, there were some good songs and some songs that just werent my style but some ppl could have dug them. THere arent no real rules to what you should play during a mix, but usually someone that prefers true progressive music, is usuall not into hard house or uplifting trance. So you may want to do a more gradual change of styles throughout a more extended time. Some thing that I do think is important is storytelling in your set. In other words, you want there to be like a beginning, middle and end. But i feel that it can tire out the listener by hitting bangin tracks after another.... know when to change direction in a mix, and avoid redundancy. Its not easy and sometimes I even catch myself overduing the bangin tracks... trust me, it tires out the listener. Ill give you an example of someone that chances pace and direction very well, its tiesto. He may not be the most creative or best beatmatcher or harmonically inclined, or whatever. But he sometimes just makes his sets flow in a nice way to where he writes a story and chances direction and plays the right tracks at the right time. Hes really good at it.
But think of it this way.. the tracklisting is about 90 percent of what ppl notice when someone djs (common listener). But those 90 precent of ppl also can get tired of listening to anthem after anthem. So just keep that in mind.
I only mentioned key things that you may want to think about.
Keep working on your stuff, you can only improve.
Another thing too, keep doing live sets on the web station. Believe it or not, that helps a lot. THat creates a pressure to mix and to be quick, not to stop and restart, etc. Also, gets you knowing exactly what ppl dig and dont dig. Keep doing your sets, will want to hear your next set.

Peace,
Ricky

quote:

Originally posted by bachatu DJ Kibon, Some of the tracks on the mix i liked, some werent my style... However, something you had in the mix was variation styles and genres. But I think the hard trance/hard house melodic stuff took over a bit too much towards the end. I was into the beginning progressive start, but I think you changed too drastically into a different genre. Your beatmathing can get some improvement, though I know you know that, so i wont really mention it, because you will get better over time. Main thing you should worry about that sticks out in the mix, of what i noticed was volumes. Try to judge and keep volumes regulated throughout the mix and eq your tracks throughout the mixing if you can. This can help give the mix a overall even sound, instead of having one song over power with bass and the next song lacking bass. Get me? I wouldnt worry too much about the beatmatching, cause like i said, you will get better as you keep playing. Overall, there were some good songs and some songs that just werent my style but some ppl could have dug them. THere arent no real rules to what you should play during a mix, but usually someone that prefers true progressive music, is usuall not into hard house or uplifting trance. So you may want to do a more gradual change of styles throughout a more extended time. Some thing that I do think is important is storytelling in your set. In other words, you want there to be like a beginning, middle and end. But i feel that it can tire out the listener by hitting bangin tracks after another.... know when to change direction in a mix, and avoid redundancy. Its not easy and sometimes I even catch myself overduing the bangin tracks... trust me, it tires out the listener. Ill give you an example of someone that chances pace and direction very well, its tiesto. He may not be the most creative or best beatmatcher or harmonically inclined, or whatever. But he sometimes just makes his sets flow in a nice way to where he writes a story and chances direction and plays the right tracks at the right time. Hes really good at it. But think of it this way.. the tracklisting is about 90 percent of what ppl notice when someone djs (common listener). But those 90 precent of ppl also can get tired of listening to anthem after anthem. So just keep that in mind. I only mentioned key things that you may want to think about. Keep working on your stuff, you can only improve. Another thing too, keep doing live sets on the web station. Believe it or not, that helps a lot. THat creates a pressure to mix and to be quick, not to stop and restart, etc. Also, gets you knowing exactly what ppl dig and dont dig. Keep doing your sets, will want to hear your next set. Peace, Ricky

First of all, I'm going to say that I really appreciate your honest opinion. There are many out there that either don't say anything, or perhaps don't know enough to really comment on technical aspects of mixing.

One of my biggest weaknesses is my lack of vinyl, I really need a ton more slow stuff, as well as a bunch more hard stuff. I hadn't really thought much about genre crossovers potentially being bad. I'm trying to start out slow, build things up to a peak, then slow things down, but I hadn't considered the perhaps that some of the stuff was too hard (or that the person enjoying the slow stuff may hate the hard stuff)...

And yes, beatmatching will come in time. Interestingly, this set blows the last one that was recorded out of the water. The amount of improvement in a two month time period is fairly amazing (and no, I'm not trying to be cocky...).

I really enjoy doing the live sets at www.afterhoursdjs.org, and I agree that it's good to become used to performing live. I get distracted by IRC chat while doing the sets, but I suppose that women, beer and people around the booth would do the same...

Thanks for the suggestions! I will post the next live set here in a month or two (once there is significant improvement).

P.S. How did you find the phrase matching? I've been making a really big effort to make sure I'm matching up the 32 beat loops when doing transitions. Also making an effort to do smoother transitions which overlap for longer periods of time.

___________________
DJ Kibon



Click below to download my most recent trance set:
DJ Kibon - August 2004

Last edited by DJ Kibon on Jun-27-2003 at 05:45

^^that’s why i said that I would only kinda mention some things you should work on or keep in mind... in other words your phrase matching was overall good. I wasn’t too attentive to the phrase matching.
I’m sorry if it wrote my review like I didn’t think the genre changing was incorrect (I wrote it kinda quick since my girl was bitching at me to hit the sack). Actually, there aren’t no rules written in stone on how to dj, its all about preference. However, I would suggest that when you do the genre changes, to do it gradually. Like if a song is really progressive, keep going progressive for a few tracks, but if your a going to a more uplifting song, try to hit a couple of more melodic type progressive tracks, then blend off to a trancy track, and go from there.
You are absolutely correct about being limited by vinyls is very limiting, because really if it would be up to you or me, or any other dj, we would have rooms full of vinyl. However, we would also be storing them along next to our dumpster outside, cause we wouldn’t have any money left over.

How long have you been spinning??? Sometimes if you just started, you may not want to concentrate on so many things, because you usually have enough things to worry about. Over time, things become very habitual and you no longer worry about beats getting off or phrase, etc. Then, you can worry more on sequencing of tracks and harmonics on the mixes, etc. You can get more detailed.

quote:

Originally posted by bachatu ^^that’s why i said that I would only kinda mention some things you should work on or keep in mind... in other words your phrase matching was overall good. I wasn’t too attentive to the phrase matching. I’m sorry if it wrote my review like I didn’t think the genre changing was incorrect (I wrote it kinda quick since my girl was bitching at me to hit the sack). Actually, there aren’t no rules written in stone on how to dj, its all about preference. However, I would suggest that when you do the genre changes, to do it gradually. Like if a song is really progressive, keep going progressive for a few tracks, but if your a going to a more uplifting song, try to hit a couple of more melodic type progressive tracks, then blend off to a trancy track, and go from there. You are absolutely correct about being limited by vinyls is very limiting, because really if it would be up to you or me, or any other dj, we would have rooms full of vinyl. However, we would also be storing them along next to our dumpster outside, cause we wouldn’t have any money left over. How long have you been spinning??? Sometimes if you just started, you may not want to concentrate on so many things, because you usually have enough things to worry about. Over time, things become very habitual and you no longer worry about beats getting off or phrase, etc. Then, you can worry more on sequencing of tracks and harmonics on the mixes, etc. You can get more detailed.

I bought my turntables in January of this year, and due to work and College/University, I haven't spent nearly enough time practicing.

I'm a total perfectionist, so I'm driving myself to continue improving. Every time I listen to an old set, I always try to think of ways to improve.

___________________
DJ Kibon



Click below to download my most recent trance set:
DJ Kibon - August 2004

cool man, i'm downloading now. will check it out tomorrow and let you know what i think about it.

-larson

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Podcast @ http://www.djlrcn.com

"The Bidness" Hosted by LRCN
2 PM EST every 2nd Tuesday of the month on DI's Progressive channel.

Thanks, enjoying yours so far.

___________________
DJ Kibon



Click below to download my most recent trance set:
DJ Kibon - August 2004