Good on you mate, well-fucking done.

Just remember the foll. (even if it's been repeated before)

- Due to the fact that you'll be playing 3-4 times/week, repetitions will definitely occur. However, don't let this become the norm.
The best way to avoid this I've found is to prepare your set a little bit before a night. Chalk out a sample playlist. Do your homework, study the tracks, which track will blend with which track. Mix-n-match, identify the crucial points where you'll be cutting the eq. This will help you a LOT. Your tracks will be in rotation so, repetitions in subsequent playlists will be minimized.


- Broaden your music collection as much as possible. This cannot be stressed enough. Just about anything you can get your hands on.
Pay special attention to prog/electro and tech-house.
Also invest a little in prog-breaks.
Dark tribal house works fabulously on Fridays-Saturdays.
Make sure you have a plentiful supply.
Don't forget,always keep emergency supply of shitty chart-topping hip-hop/trip-hop. This should of course be last resort.


- Remember the universal golden rule : Women coming into the club largely contribute towards a successful party, stags don't.
If you can get them dancing, the rest will follow, people will be happy, your boss will be happy and all will be well. Take this into consideration when playing your set.
As your preferred genre is tech-trance,leave that for the last 1 - 1.5 hrs.


- If you haven't played in a big club before (2000+ capacity), remember one of the most crucial aspects : Sound control.
The larger a venue gets, the more important this becomes.
This cannot be learned and just comes with experience.
Keep checking the channel meters on your mixer between your mixes.
During your mixing, avoid excess peaking/clipping.
Try and keep your mixes as clean as possible.
Also try and keep the master volume/ channel gains at a consistent level throughout the night.


- If the club sounds loud enough to your ears :

- NEVER listen to anyone who complains it isn't loud enough. (they're getting deaf.Mutter 'piss off' under your breath.
They won't hear you anyways. )

- ALWAYS listen to anyone complains it's too loud. (you're losing your hearing, get earplugs)


- Consistently check the club amps for clipping.
Although compressors/limiters should be installed, it's always a good idea to keep an eye on the amps.
This depends on where the equipment rack will be placed. Usually it's in the DJ booth but, it depends on club design.
Also DON'T let guest DJ's fiddle with equalizer/compressor/DSP/ limiter settings.
In fact, avoid letting them touch any A/V equipment at all! (besides the mixer / decks).

- It wouldn't be a bad idea to get a basic idea of commonly used cables / connectors in a club environment. (RCA / XLR / Phono / Speakon / Neutrik). Study the club's A/V equipment.
Get acquainted with it's power-up / power-down procedure. If necessary, ask the sound technician /installer/ system integrator to explain you the signal flow. In case of a problem during a peak night, atleast you know what immediate measures to take.

Well that about sums it up.
Good luck and enjoy your residency!

___________________

Spacy dreamer

Last edited by varun on Nov-01-2006 at 11:38

...and whatever you do, never power the mixer off while the speakers are still on!!!!

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

wow thanks for all the advice . one thing im freaking out about is i was talking to the promoter last night at a party i was spinning at and i thought the big opening night for the club was in mid-november but apparently its THIS FRIDAY. so im really nervous...my first big club gig (and the beginning of my residency) is in like 2 days!!!!!!!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by varun Good on you mate, well-fucking done. Just remember the foll. (even if it's been repeated before) - Due to the fact that you'll be playing 3-4 times/week, repetitions will definitely occur. However, don't let this become the norm. The best way to avoid this I've found is to prepare your set a little bit before a night. Chalk out a sample playlist. Do your homework, study the tracks, which track will blend with which track. Mix-n-match, identify the crucial points where you'll be cutting the eq. This will help you a LOT. Your tracks will be in rotation so, repetitions in subsequent playlists will be minimized. - Broaden your music collection as much as possible. This cannot be stressed enough. Just about anything you can get your hands on. Pay special attention to prog/electro and tech-house. Also invest a little in prog-breaks. Dark tribal house works fabulously on Fridays-Saturdays. Make sure you have a plentiful supply. Don't forget,always keep emergency supply of shitty chart-topping hip-hop/trip-hop. This should of course be last resort. - Remember the universal golden rule : Women coming into the club largely contribute towards a successful party, stags don't. If you can get them dancing, the rest will follow, people will be happy, your boss will be happy and all will be well. Take this into consideration when playing your set. As your preferred genre is tech-trance,leave that for the last 1 - 1.5 hrs. - If you haven't played in a big club before (2000+ capacity), remember one of the most crucial aspects : Sound control. The larger a venue gets, the more important this becomes. This cannot be learned and just comes with experience. Keep checking the channel meters on your mixer between your mixes. During your mixing, avoid excess peaking/clipping. Try and keep your mixes as clean as possible. Also try and keep the master volume/ channel gains at a consistent level throughout the night. - If the club sounds loud enough to your ears : - NEVER listen to anyone who complains it isn't loud enough. (they're getting deaf.Mutter 'piss off' under your breath. They won't hear you anyways. ) - ALWAYS listen to anyone complains it's too loud. (you're losing your hearing, get earplugs) - Consistently check the club amps for clipping. Although compressors/limiters should be installed, it's always a good idea to keep an eye on the amps. This depends on where the equipment rack will be placed. Usually it's in the DJ booth but, it depends on club design. Also DON'T let guest DJ's fiddle with equalizer/compressor/DSP/ limiter settings. In fact, avoid letting them touch any A/V equipment at all! (besides the mixer / decks). - It wouldn't be a bad idea to get a basic idea of commonly used cables / connectors in a club environment. (RCA / XLR / Phono / Speakon / Neutrik). Study the club's A/V equipment. Get acquainted with it's power-up / power-down procedure. If necessary, ask the sound technician /installer/ system integrator to explain you the signal flow. In case of a problem during a peak night, atleast you know what immediate measures to take. Well that about sums it up. Good luck and enjoy your residency!

Good luck and have fun!

quote:

Originally posted by SPAWNmaster i thought the big opening night for the club was in mid-november but apparently its THIS FRIDAY. so im really nervous...my first big club gig (and the beginning of my residency) is in like 2 days!!!!!!!!!!

Could be a good thing, less time for nerves Good luck to you man, get that first transition under your belt & I'm sure you'll be sweet after that Keep us posted on how it goes.

Congratulations... That is awesome.

I don't accept very many weekly residencies (there are exceptions) because I get bored of seeing the same crowd and playing the same music every week. Trust me, that has happened. I have a Friday night residency, which I only accepted because it's my ex girl’s dad's club, and I get bored quickly.

Either way, that’s just me and I’m sure you’re really excited about your residency. Good luck!

Here's my advice and if you have any questions just ask.

HAVE FUN
That's my main advice. If you're having fun, it will show.

TAKE SOMEONE WITH YOU
If you're the only DJ, try to take someone with you to keep you company so you won’t get bored.

DON'T GET DRUNK WHILE DJing
Many owners don't like that, and it can ruin your music judgment. Yes, you can drink just don't get trashed.

DON'T TRY TO "EDUCATE" THE CROWD.
I've seen many DJ's who try to “educate” a certain sound to the people, but they end up with empty dance floors. After all, like someone said, this is a business and they need to make money.

MAKE THE BAR MONEY
Oh this one is a biggie. A lot of venues will tell you to play mellow stuff at the beginning of the night. They will tell you to that because people will be drinking. I usually kick things up a notch around 11:00pm-11:30pm. There are exceptions off course. Last Friday at a different club, the owner came up to me at 10:30 pm and told me to bang out the club and get everyone on the dance floor. I asked why? And he said the venue was almost sold out and needed to clear the bar so he can let more people in.

GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT
You will quickly learn that if you're playing at a mainstream club you'll need to play Top 40 remixes. On other words, go find your self some Gwen, Pink and Black Eyed Peas dance remixes. There are some very good ones out there. Off course, if you're club is like another Avalon or Spundae type of megaclub, you won't need them. Rarely a club survives on EDM 7 days a week. Perfect example is here in LA. There is NOT a single venue that is EDM 7 Days a week.

BE READY FOR THE UNEXPECTED
In all honesty, I doubt the club will be EDM all the time. If it is GREAT! But if not, be ready to play something else like hip-hop. I played at a venue where it was supposed to be EDM All night. But the promoters brought in a hip-hop crowd. Very few people were dancing. As I'm playing the owner comes up to me and asks if I can you play some hip-hop. I said sure. Sure enough, everyone began dancing.

KEEP YOUR MIXES INTERESTING AND DON'T BE AFRAID TO TRY THINGS OFF
Remember, there are no rules to DJing. Well, except for beat matching. Anything is fair game. Hahaha I love it how certain people make up rules like DONT PLAY TWO VOCAL TRANCE SONGS IN A ROW.

DON'T BURN YOUR SELF BY HOOKING UP WITH EVERYONE
Don't do it! This includes hooking up with bartenders, waitresses, and customers. THAT IS REALLY BAD BUSINESS and can lead into trouble. Trust me on this one. I've seen it many times, and even more times I've been tempted to do it.

KEEP YOUR MUSIC ORGANIZED
There is nothing worse than looking for song and not finding it. Oh man. That sucks. If you can afford it, get Serato. It will be a lifesaver. I know it saved my ass several times.

DON’T PREPLAN YOUR SETS
Yap! You read right. DON’T DO IT. Why? Simple. You don’t know if the crowd is going to like it or not. What you should do instead is to get a general idea what you want to play and take it from there. That way you can be more flexible and you can switch things up if the crowd don’t like it.

READ THE CROWD
This is by far one of the most important things of the night. Pay attention to people’s reactions. If you notice that the crowd likes a certain song, try to play more songs that way. If you notice that the crowd went nuts early on the night with a certain song, don’t be afraid to play it again. We just had a discussion on playing the same song twice on a DJ board and 90% of the DJ’s agreed that sometimes you have to do it. Why? We are pleasing the crowd, not us.

Or you can just play and do whatever the fuck you want... if people dont like it, change it up a bit.. its not like your running for the president.

Edit: Congrats

Last edited by Allayla on Nov-01-2006 at 20:36

quote:

Originally posted by DjWoody If you notice that the crowd went nuts early on the night with a certain song, don’t be afraid to play it again. We just had a discussion on playing the same song twice on a DJ board and 90% of the DJ’s agreed that sometimes you have to do it. Why? We are pleasing the crowd, not us.

i hate call on me because of this

it was almost like the unofficial anthem of my night for a while

i never want to play it again

but i'll more than likely have to at some point

i'll do it because it's about the crowd, not you

and i'm all for dropping a hot tune twice, i've done it on more than one occasion

___________________
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Great advice here guys! I'm going to be recording a demo set in the next few days for this party promoting group in the University of Miami If all goes well, hopefully I'll be needing to review this thread again soon to refresh myself on the advice!

All they said was make it "housey", and being in Miami and going to some of their parties, I think I'll actually be able to stick to soley EDM. I'll keep you guys updated. (Sorry for the thread hijack).

___________________
Click the link below to stream all of my mixes past and present. New mixes go up about once a month. Enjoy!

www.mixcloud.com/jluger

wow this is a great thread full of advice and well wishes...thanks much to everyone. well i got a call from the promoter this morning saying they pushed back the big openining night to the 17th which is great since thanksgiving break starts the following day and ill be able to get so many people out there to support me that night. ill definately take this opportunity to load up on new tracks, "top 40"-esque remixes. i dont know about hip hop though...we'll see how things turn out but i really dont know anything about mixing hip-hop and realy have no interest in it. this is america though...its funny last night at the gig i was playing a woman came up to me and asked if i had anything else other than "techno" and i politely told her to fuck off, and 5 minutes later a group of 8 people came up and thanked me for the great music. i think its times like that the make it worth some of the assholes or edm-haters ive come across while playing out.

thanks guys! ill keep everyone posted about the event as it gets closer...i know ill be going to check out his sound system and maybe talk to the sound engineer a bit in the next few days.

i wouldnt play hip hop or anything i didnt like. the guy that booked you obviously knows your style and wants that in the club. the club will also get a reputation for playing a certain sound within a week and people who like it will be the ones going.

stay true to yourself.

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Great stuff.

All said and done, use this advice as a guideline and don't take it TOO seriously. It's an experience and having a good time is just as important. Relax,let yourself go and play the best you can.

But definitely remember what I told you about sound control.
This is THE MOST important aspect in a big club.
Keep checking the master volume level/channel level meters /amps for clipping.
If the booth has monitors, periodically switch them off for a few seconds, and just listen to the main speakers to check if it sounds ok. Do this as regularly as you can. I've seen so many nights when the guest DJ has been top-notch but his sound control has been terrible to the point, that the people have walked straight off the danceflor and hidden in the corners.

Also, if you're used to mixing in with both your headphone cups on, use just one side leaving the other ear open WHILE you're mixing in.
If the hihats/ mid sound too sharp or are too muted, adjust accordingly.

Lastly, be prepared to encounter some delay in the booth.
Make full use of the booth monitors. Adjust the booth monitors as necessary.

Hope you rock the dancefloor.

___________________

Spacy dreamer

Last edited by varun on Nov-02-2006 at 07:33