look at it this way. if mixing a set perfectly is less common to you than trainwrecking, well, you're not ready. in my opinion, you're ready when you can mix a bunch of tunes without any trouble, and it's not a big deal to you. instead, trainwrecking should be the big deal. not to mention, if you can't mix good in your bedroom, be prepared to be 10x worse infront of a crowd, due to nerves, and things not being the way you planned.

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check out my guest mix for OndaSonora Podcast (aug.2009)

you have to learn with the stabilizers on before you can ride solo.

Patience. + practice.

I would suggest that you stick to playing in private until you feel really comfortable with your mixing, and the overall quality is good, for a few reasons.

The most important thing being - you wouldn't want to play your first gig or two in front of a big crowd of people and suck. Inertia also has a good point, in that you won't be as good as you are in your bedroom until you've gained some experience playing out on big systems. If things are already shakey when you are at home, things are probably going to be much worse in public.

Not to mention that it's pretty common to encounter equipment problems of one sort or another when you're playing out, so sometimes you have to do things by your gut instinct/experience alone. For example, maybe you show up to play, and they don't have a monitor set-up in the DJ booth that night. Providing that you still play, you might have to do a bunch things such as your EQ work based on what you know *should* sound good, instead of actually being able to hear it.

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DJ Kibon



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

Last edited by DJ Kibon on Jun-24-2004 at 00:31

On the technial side of things...

You may have different models of turntables at home from what they have i nthe nightclubs (USUALLY the Technics 1200s or 1210s). SO your habitual pitch adjustments may be radically different elsewhere.
I combat this by visiting some of my DJ-friends and using their decks, which are often different from my 1210M5Gs. They got stantons, cd decks, vestax decks, numarks, etc.

CLub almost never consistently have the same mixers. Their mixers may not have the cueing headphone feeds that your mixer does. Combat this by learning to cue and beatmatch in ANY way you can think of, thru your mixer. Again you can also visit DJ-friends of yours to try their mixers.


On a safety point...
Niteclub sound systems are INSANELY LOUD!!.. if you can, try to wear earplugs (custom made earplugs are a worthwhile investment to protect your precious and delicate hearing). You may have to play louder at home if you can, but it's good practice.


I've not yet done any live niteclub gigs, but loud house parties and school-sized events are enough to get me in the swing of things for when I decide to play out at niteclubs. Think about what smoke, alcohol, bystanders, distractions (like naked go-go dancers or really hot crowd girls ), poor equipment, empty niteclub, and how all that stuff could affect your performance.

In the meantime.... happy practicing!!

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'-.SgtFoo.-'
My SoundCloud

It will not be an enjoyable expearience if you trainwreck infront of a crowd. You have to e able to mix 20 records (not flawlesly, but no huge errors) anytime before you are ready for the club. How can you do this? Just spin spin spin. Practice as much as you can and in 3 months you'll be ready to take on the club scene and it will be a lot more fun that way!

I waited quite a while to have my first club gig and once I had it everyone was very impressed and they asked me back because I was confident and had solid skills and a good attitude.

Best of luck.

~Sean

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Trance music all night long baby!!!

You can get up and DJ from day one if you want.. You dont need to be a perfect mixer to win a crowd, knowing what to play and when to play it is the hard part..


My only advice to anyone is only do it when you gain the confidence in your own ability..


If your not confident you can do it, then when you get up there you wont be able to put a needle on the record for your hands shaking..

End of story..

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DJ GIOVANNI FERRI

COLOURS EVENTS!

LATEST TRACK COMING ON IN MOTION RECORDS

Don't be too eager to play out quite yet. I would highly recommend posting one or more of your sets and getting critiqued first. How do you know if you are ready or not for the first time? You cannot know yourself, you must let others help determine that. If I have time I will personally critique your set (I'm very detailed). If you do determine if you are ready to spin out, then here are some helpful hints from an old post of mine:

Okay, here comes another one of my long-ass posts. I think that most people benefit from them, so here it goes. I'll try to step you through the process and highlight all of the points along the way. So you are spinning at a party. What do you bring? Well, of course you bring your music, but you also SHOULD bring headphones, slipmats, cartriges, and a flashlight--and any other equipment that you want to use, unless you know for a fact that they will provide equipment that is to your taste. Duct tape is also recommended and if you bring electronics, then make sure you bring RCA cables, and extension cord etc. EVERYTHING that you would need to hook it up to the mixer short of electricity! Also, bring earplugs because if you are at the club for a while, you don't want your ears to start ringing before you even have a chance to start mixing! First off, I would definetly get there about an hour or so ahead of time. This will serve a several purposes. First you can look at the equipment, and set any of your own up if you need to. Second you can listen to the music that the dj before you is playing and can better judge what tracks to lay down at the begining of your set. Also you can start to read the crowd--this way you'll know how fast you can bring it up with your set, or if you have to take it slower for a while etc. Third, you can trainspot. This is the term given to a person who observes the dj to learn his/her technique. You can also try to calm your nerves by being up on stage for a while first too.

So now you are at the party. If you have to plug in some of your own equipment, there is a very specific way in which you have to do it so that you don't send pops and cracks through the system! First off, you'll want to make sure that the channel that you are plugging the RCA cable into is turned all the way down (volume-wise). Then plug it in to your table/deck while the table/deck is off! Then you can turn your deck on. It doesn't matter if it is plugged in or not when you attach it to the mixer, solong as it is off and the channel volume is zero. If you are spinning in a club or at a rave, it is always a good idea to let people know ahead of time that you will be bringing your own equipment too.

So you are minutes away from spinning, what now? First off, you should have your first tune picked out and how you are going to mix out of the previous dj's track. There are many things to consider in this. First, what style is he playing? Does it match yours? If it does, then what BPM is he spinning at, and is this suitable to you? If his style is totally different, then chances are you won't have that 4/4 beat that you are so used to. Spin it down (by turning the power off on the table--or if it's a cd, know how to do this ahead of time!). If you can't spin it down, then kill the bass (in phrase of course!) then lead your track in while you fade the other one out quickly. Two styles that are really different usually don't sound very good when mixed together. Also be aware of the BPM difference during this whole thing too. You can't throw down your 140BPM track when he is spinning 120. You may want to speed his track up to 130-135, or within 5-10BPM of your target range. Then use your first track or two to bring it up to where you want. Don't ever do this quickly, otherwise the crowd will freak. It is good to have a track that has a long breakdown so that you can speed it up to where you want during one of your own tracks at your own pace.

If the style and BPM are suitable, then mix your track it. I'd have several safety tracks that you know very well with which to start off your set. Then you are home free right? Wrong. There are still a bunch of things that you need to know and do. If it isn't a mixer that you are familar with (one that YOU have PERSONALLY USED), then ask the previous DJ to explain the mixer to you. This is common practice and curtousey for djs, so don't be shy or embarassed about asking--the dj should offer it up by himself anyway. If nothing else, ask or watch which channels are hooked up to which decks etc--but you should have already picked this up from watching him in the first place.

So the last few things that you need to do before you start mixing is take your earplugs out and get your headphones ready. Make sure you have a spare 1/8" to 1/4" jack somewhere just incase! If you are using your own carts, then as soon as the dj makes his last transition, he should be taking his carts off and you should put yours on. If he doesn't start taking them off, then ask him if they are his or the clubs so that you can put yours on quicker. Now remember, your going to have to wait till his track is completely over before you can put your second cart on, so don't forget to do that right after your first transition.

So now you are spinning and all is going good. The bass will be slightly hard to hear in the headphones if you have HUGE monitors, but you should be able to work well enough with it. You'll use the monitors a lot more in a club than you would in your bedroom--you actually won't have a choice Your headphones will most likely be cranked up with your cue track, but the most important thing to remember is that you should set your desired volume level at the begining and KEEP IT THERE! If you keep turning it up due to your ears getting "used to" the loudness, then you will go deaf quite quickly and your djing career will be very short. So make sure that it's not much more than you would use at home, or more than you need to hear the bassline.

Next, you'll want to read the crowd a bit. Whenever you are spinning, it is vital that you remember what timeslot you are playing. If you are the first dj in a club and you are on at 9pm till 10:30, then you should not start playing banging tunes hopeing to attract the three people in the club onto the dancefloor. You need to play a warmup set so that when people do start arriving they aren't spanked by floor-killers! You need to gently coerce people onto the floor. Play at a slower BPM 130-135 or so...then speed it up to 140 by the end of your set. This way you can play better tracks while still maintaining a "warmup set" sound. If you are on later, 140-145 is good for most trance.

The key to picking which tracks will sound good for a warmup set is the amount of "stuff" going on in the track. The less the better for warmups. This doesn't mean that you can't play good tracks, it just means that you should respect the timeslot, the club owner and the dancers, and most importantly, the other djs, by doing your job as a Dj. This is a great time to go through those remixes that aren't the best on the record, but are still good. You may find that you are playing tracks that are great for warmups--and the perk is that the crowd probably hasn't heard that mix!

Anway, I know your topic was about the sound system, not track selection, so I will finish up with this: For everything I just stated, remember that the dj after you may be in your same position, so have the same curtousies for the next dj as the previous dj had/should have had for you. Make sure you notify him when you have one more transition to go so that he can prepare too. Take your carts off promptly and offer to give him a rundown of the mixer just as you needed at the begining of your set.

Lastly, don't forget to thank the club owner etc and ask him what he thought of you. The most important thing you can do for your career at this point is if he says that he enjoyed your performance, then push on him to set up another potential date to spin. Don't end the conversation with him saying, "I'll call you". End it with you saying, "I'll call YOU!" Remember that the manager is going to be very busy--he is at work after all Don't monopolize his time, but don't be too brief either! Don't forget to enjoy yourself throughout this whole process too! That is the most important part of this experience! In regards to the previous post, that is correct that the louder the sound system, the less noticable fuckups are, so this should give you reason to relax. Also, it is more important for you to trim the bass more than you need to when recording in your bedroom.

You'll hear the bass volume increase considerable when the sound is amplified that loudly! This is another reason that your monitors will be more important. Another important thing to remember is that you shouldn't play with the master volume at all. The sound technitians set it at a certain level so as to not overload the system. Play with the headspace (the red region of your channel VU meters) if you want more volume!

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When you dance, the DJ takes you on a journey, but he or she is usually not the focus of your experience at a club or festival or wherever you hear the music. Dancing is. Music is.

the main thing is confidence. when you have confidence the world is your oyster. you need to show that you know exactly what you're doing, and don't be afraid to look at the crowd, and interact with them if you can.. people like chatty dj's, people like chatty dj's who are good even more, so obviously the technique needs to be there. in my opinion you need to be nailing pretty much every mix (the odd little tiny fuck-up is ok, its only dj's that notice them usually ).. if you are going to be putting in trainwreck after trainwreck, don't do it. regardless of how amazing the tune is, if you fuck up the mix royally, regularly, then you will be told to go home and learn to mix, and you won't have made a good first impression.

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MUGGETS

Quoting this from another forum, here's what DJ Squawks said about knowing when you're ready to go on stage:

quote:

Do you really have what it takes? DJ in near pitch black. So dark that you can't even read the record labels out of your crate. DJ with your speakeres put to full blast. Double the amount of speakers, put them right next to your head, and pump up the volume all the way. Don't mess up in any beatmatching...don't trainwreck...and keep this up for 3 hours straight. Grab records to autograph from the crowd while you're DJ'ing. Take pictures with some of the crowd. Don't hit the turntables. Don't take a piss or #2 for 3 hours. Try to eat a sandwich and drink some alcohol at the same time. Light beer doesn't count. Repeat all of the above using a mixer that you have never seen in your life, and make sure that you have no prior knowledge of how to use such a mixer beforehand. Try to learn how to use this mixer on your own, since it would be too loud to even chat with the sound engineer next to you. If you can do all of the above, welcome to the life of the club DJ, buddy. Word.

hey you just desribed my nights at work pretty much every night- (minus the autograph bit but substitute that for girls phone numbers and you are spot on)

quote:

Originally posted by SgtFoo distractions (like naked go-go dancers or really hot crowd girls

haha yea... females are a horrible distraction when your trying to throw down.. lol