Well, first of all mp3's sound shitty in the club sound, if you play them, be sure to keep a heavy finger on the bass.

If you know how to beatmatch by ear, go for the cd players! Or if the mixer has a mp3 counter. If none applies, then forget it.

Good luck with your gig!

I don't think you know how to beat match so it will still be hard to use cd decks. although you can cheat with some mixes and just kinda fade in and out at the same time....especially during a breakdown with no beats going.


a week is a short short time, but I would get cracking at beatmatching as soon as you can. I think that if I started going to a bar that was spinning trance and the dj sucked, I might not come back. i mean, not to add any pressure :P.


and why do you have to start so soon. can you wait a month to get everything set correctly and get some practice djin. It takes a while to plan out a great night of music. Plus you can work on geting the word out.

a week is not alot of time, and i would say that you probably wont be able to learn how to beatmatch on those cd decks, or any decks really, in a week but you can figure out how to operate them and get comfortable with the buttons and functions.

how big is this club or bar that your gonna be playing at? mp3s dont sound all that good played over a really big system but if its a smaller place, i would say go for it.

as far as the mixing goes, dont bite off more than you can chew. there are ways to transition from one song to another somewhat smoothly without alot of skill. you can mix when one of the songs doesnt have alot going on, you can get the songs close and do a quick blend or cut.... etc. your not armin or tiesto and i dont think the people coming there really expect you to be. just concentrate on playing good music with some kind of flow.

it doesnt sound like your area has much of an EDM scene. you're bringing trance to these people. you're a hero. do us all proud.

quote:

Originally posted by Texaggie79 Feb 11 on a Wed. I guess I have to work with what I'm given. So far, I have found no local DJ's that play Trance, so it's just going to be me and my Traktor Studio. Good news, owner offered me every Wed night if I keep the people coming. So, I am totally nervous about this first night. First off, I still can't get a monitor signal comming out a separate port on my sound card. I might have to buy a new one. I sure as hell am not going to mix blind. Another option. He has CD turntables and a mixer, I could burn the MP3s to CD and mix with that. Is that hard to pick up in less than a week?

Ummmm, if you are one of those PC DJs that uses the "hit button to auto-beatmatch" feature, I highly doubt that you will be able to pick-up mixing on CDJs in one week.

That's not to say that you don't potentially have talent, but it takes a lot longer than 1 week to start doing mixing that approches decent.

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quote:

Originally posted by Texaggie79 Is that hard to pick up in less than a week?

It is very much possible to learn beatmatching in one week, but you should also have a idea of how trance works, the 4/4 and so on.

But yeh you will need practise, to choose which songs go with which the best and so on, one week is hardly enough tbh.

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OK...

Let's sort something out.
First up DJing is not just about beatmatching (not saying that any of the above posters said it was).
Tex, from your position you are better off dropping tracks than trying to mix them as you will well and truly fuck it up (and I don't mean this as a reflection on your potential). One week is no way shape or form even close to the time you need to get it so good that people wont find it offensive. At this point you are better off trying to figure out what tracks will work with the crowd than how you should put them together in terms of mixing them.

Don't mix in the middle of breakdowns, that's something that will really piss people off especialy if you either get the key wrong or people know the tracks and want to hear all of it.

I would also be tempted to use the CD Decks anyways as the technology is a little more reliable than the laptop is. It will also get you into the swing of handling DJ gear.

I really admire you determination to get out there and do it. So please don't take it as if I'm trying to put you off. On the contrary, I'm all for it. But just take things one step at a time.
In the mean time I would consider doing something about your DJing skills and then when you feel you are ready, hit us here on the forum with a mix or two. While you don't need our approval as such it could be a good way of learning things as there are some real good DJs around here.

Cheers
Nem

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hey if you dont want to beatmatch live at the club.. pick out tons of songs that you think you will probably play, and then set them all to the same bpm rate. that way, you can drop tracks in without worrying about beatmatching, and you can focus on trakc selection etcetc. once you beatmatch a bunch of songs on your computer, save them to new mp3 (i recommend wav though) files and burn them to cds.

yeah i normally wouldnt recommend this, but given your circumstance, it may be helpful. (and i would recommend that you use the cdjs, and try to go to the club early and practice a bit beforehand)

hahah sounds like alot of work in a week.


it is.



hahah good luck, i really hope it goes well, i love seeing new trance scenes form.

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quote:

Originally posted by Nemesis44 First up DJing is not just about beatmatching (not saying that any of the above posters said it was).

WHAT????// I just beatmatch then I switch records....?




joking. We are just emphasizing the importance of well matched beats.

i guess I am not used to hearing tracks not mixed, just played so I automatically think it sux...but it is possible to do and sound cool.

What should I use to change the BPM? Acid Pro?

quote:

Originally posted by Texaggie79 What should I use to change the BPM? Acid Pro?

yeah that works pretty well. you calculate the bpm for the track when you load it into the progam, and then just adjust the bpm and then export as a new file.

just an idea, i think it will help alot on your first few times.

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Kewl, then i can adjust pitch with mixer live...