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enjoying what you do...
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| Inertia |
hmm. one of my main objectives, or factors really that have pushed me to want to learn the art of mixing is the love for the music. with this, comes the enjoyment of said music. but i happen to see myself not really enjoying myself at times when i'm mixing.
in the beginning, i couldn't mix to save my life. obviously, i can't enjoy that. when i started to get my mixes down, it progressively became a lot more fun. i'm still no Sasha behind the decks, but lately i've found myself being somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to mixing. it is fun, but after about a couple of hours, i'm quite knocked out by it. also, i feel i don't get the chance to enjoy the music i'm playing because im always worrying about what i'm going to do with the next track, whether it's beatmatched properly, and all that good stuff.
i am certainly not planning on giving up, but my inquiry is that of whether it will ever be as fun as being the guy in the crowd going nuts. i definitely want to find out, and as i'm still struggling with my skills and haven't really faced a proper audience, i don't know the joys of crowd reaction and atmosphere. i'm pretty sure once i have my skills down properly, i'll have to worry less about beatmatching and have more time to be creative and spontaneous, hence enjoying the situation a lot more. not to mention i'm sure a club will be a lot more fun than my bedroom...
what about you guys? the ones that are already out there, how did it go for you, and how does it feel where you are now? would you rather spin the best set of your life and have the crowd go wild, or be one in the crowd going wild while your favorite DJ is laying down a storm of a mix?
and for those of us that are still learning and have yet to break out of the bedroom, what is your view on the situation? |
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| dinoXpress |
you just have to go out and do it, ive never had a fear for performing and all my freind supposted me so i had been spinnin ghouse parties as soon as i had enough records to spin. Performing was one of the reasons i got into DJing
just go do it! make it happen! |
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| DJ Kibon |
Yup, you just have to get out and do it.
I need more experience playing on big, loud club systems, but I've usually been pretty confident whenever I'm performing live, whether it's for an online radio show, or in a club environment.
Also, for what it's worth, I am completely the same way in the sense of loving the music. I bought turntables mostly because I wanted to take the next step with my mixing, and because I wanted to be able to share my specific taste in trance with others. There are tons of people that get into DJing for the wrong reasons... |
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| Prodigy Child |
Man trust me, the fun and thrill will come flying at you and smack you right in the face when you play out to a crowd, I mean, I get bored after awhile DJin in my room, but doin it out and about is totally different, but you really should chill more when mixing, try and have spare time during mixing, so you can soak in the atmosphere and mess with the EQs, and believe me, when you drop a killer track and the crowd wasn't expecting it, its insane the rush you get (well the one I get anyway), its one that really does grab you and makes you go nuts, I love being the crazy happy guy in the crowd, but compared to DJin, I might aswell be the guy playing chess by myself, just get out there, you will know what I mean then, you don't have to play in a club, house parties are fun aswell, or just getting drunk with friends and mixing it up.
I got lucky with my first "kinda club gig", I was just at a local club and the DJ let me drop a set for awhile (cos I knew him), after that, I did loads of Uni partys and , and then just went from there. |
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| Boomer187 |
keep practicing and track selection and beat matching get quicker. Every week I get a long period of time to enjoy each track, and now I love mixing even more.
I still dance around and get excited in my own room when I am playing some good songs. So I just love it no matter what, if I am playing in my room, if I am broadcasting online, if I am playing a club, or at a club with no one in it. I love the songs I have :).
so there will be time to enjoy, just wait...
and how long have you been spinning for> |
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| Inertia |
well, i cant really give an exact figure as to how much time ive been spinning, as id' have to take count of many things, like for example most of my experience hasnt been on my own setup.
i once did buy myself a setup, but the guy who sold me it went backwards on me, i had only paid him about 10% of what i was going to, because we had an agreement, and he decided he wanted his decks back, and returned my money. this had to do with the economical situation, as 2 weeks later, our national coin had dropped so low his decks had become about 3x more expensive. i couldn't really blame him, as i wouldve done the same, why would i sell my decks if i can get 3x the money in 2 weeks?
after this movement, ive not had enough money for my own setup. so i've fed my need with my best friend's, who lives near me. i spin on his decks at least 8 hours a week, and whenever he goes out of town (which is often) he lets me have the decks. all in all, i have about 3 months worth of experience.
we do a sort of gathering we call muzik wednesdays, where a little group (theres about 5 of us) get together to spin. one brings his decks, the other his CD players, the other his mixer, and so on. but i don't really get any crowd feedback as they're all either waiting for their turn to spin or high/drunk out their ass. either that, or it's not normal feedback, as i can't compare how a normal crowd would react to a proggy breaks track, opposed to my friend who spins and practically listens exclusively to minimal techno.
whenever i can raise some money and get my own setup, i'm sure my skill will grow exponentially, and so will the fun. also, since i had little time with a setup, i had little time to actually buy vinyls, so im limited to my friends' vinyl collections. blah, i seriously need a job. |
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| Jozef |
| quote: | Originally posted by Inertia
we do a sort of gathering we call muzik wednesdays, where a little group (theres about 5 of us) get together to spin. one brings his decks, the other his CD players, the other his mixer, and so on. but i don't really get any crowd feedback as they're all either waiting for their turn to spin or high/drunk out their ass. either that, or it's not normal feedback, as i can't compare how a normal crowd would react to a proggy breaks track, opposed to my friend who spins and practically listens exclusively to minimal techno.
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We do the same thing here, and it happens to be on Wednesday nights too. We all get together and jam but we also try to promote ourselves as a group and have done a couple smaller bar partys and a couple nites in a coffee shop here in town. Plus it's just fun to have something to do in the middle of the week! :gsmile: |
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| dinoXpress |
| We do it here on thursdays, promote ourselve and practice |
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| Zombie0729 |
| try this... try only starting to beatmatch after the big break... pretend like there's a crowd in front of you and get into it. You know when the big synths die or the big sound dies... try waiting 64 bars later and then getting the next track ready. the quicker u can beatmatch the more you can enjoy the record :) |
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| Dj Flesch |
| quote: | Originally posted by Inertia
hmm. one of my main objectives, or factors really that have pushed me to want to learn the art of mixing is the love for the music. with this, comes the enjoyment of said music. but i happen to see myself not really enjoying myself at times when i'm mixing.
in the beginning, i couldn't mix to save my life. obviously, i can't enjoy that. when i started to get my mixes down, it progressively became a lot more fun. i'm still no Sasha behind the decks, but lately i've found myself being somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to mixing. it is fun, but after about a couple of hours, i'm quite knocked out by it. also, i feel i don't get the chance to enjoy the music i'm playing because im always worrying about what i'm going to do with the next track, whether it's beatmatched properly, and all that good stuff.
i am certainly not planning on giving up, but my inquiry is that of whether it will ever be as fun as being the guy in the crowd going nuts. i definitely want to find out, and as i'm still struggling with my skills and haven't really faced a proper audience, i don't know the joys of crowd reaction and atmosphere. i'm pretty sure once i have my skills down properly, i'll have to worry less about beatmatching and have more time to be creative and spontaneous, hence enjoying the situation a lot more. not to mention i'm sure a club will be a lot more fun than my bedroom...
what about you guys? the ones that are already out there, how did it go for you, and how does it feel where you are now? would you rather spin the best set of your life and have the crowd go wild, or be one in the crowd going wild while your favorite DJ is laying down a storm of a mix?
and for those of us that are still learning and have yet to break out of the bedroom, what is your view on the situation? |
Before, I begin, I'll give you a mini-bio on myself. I'm 26, been spinning for about 6 years, I have a DJM-600, CDJ-100s and TTX1s. I own about 250 vinyl and probably around 100 cds that I can use to spin. I've spun an assortment of house parties and raves over the last 3 years.
I, much the same as you, got into spinning because I was a party kid who loved the music so very much. But I was getting older and older and one party during my college scene about 7 years ago, my best friend Luke and I were leaning against the stage and looking out over the crowd. Just as we had made the transition from newbie to raver to seasoned party kid, Luke leaned over to me and said, "It's about time we make the transition to Dj." That we did, though now I'm the only one who still keeps it up.
There have been plenty of times that I spin and start getting sick of spinning in my bedroom. But there are a few things that always help me learn and enjoy it more. First off, I record everything that I mix, even if I'm just ing around. This way I can listen to all of my transitions and try to figure out exactly where I'm going wrong and how I can improve. The good recordings I make into sets and the bad ones never leave my hard drive.
The second thing that I'll do is stop listening to trance for a couple of days. If you love trance the way that I do, I can't stand more than a couple of days without listening to it! You'll find that you will appreciate it so much more when you are forced to miss it.
Now, to get down to why you are getting frustrated: You say that you are always focusing on which track comes next and then once it comes, you spend all of the time beatmatching. Here is what I would do: Prearrange your tracklist so that you don't have to spend any time figuring out what track is coming next. This way you can focus your efforts on beatmatching. Once you have the two tracks close to being beatmatched, give yourself a minute or two of the track to play around with effects.
Even if you don't have an effects processor, you can still create effects with the eq knobs. Try taking hold of the mid and high eq knobs and twisting them in opposite directions over the course of 4 beats till you can't turn your wrists anymore. Then over 4 more beats, bring them back, then repeat but in the opposite direction. (ie, if you turn the hi clockwise and the mid counter, then after you return them to the 12 O'clock position, turn the hi counter and the mid clockwise). Again, max them out over 4 beats, then bring them back over 4 beats. Do this during a break, so that after your 16 beats are up, the break-down will slam it home. You don't want to do this during a break-down because it will take away from the music greatly!
Another thing that you can do is play at lower BPMs. I'd be willing to bet that you're probably mixing between 140 and 145 BPM. Try mixing at 130. It will stretch out the awesome parts of the track, will allow dancers to dance to their fullest extent, but not get so damn tired so quickly. By slowing down to 130 BPM, you will find that it's easier to beatmatch for two reasons. First, you give yourself quite a bit more time because the song will be playing slower and hence longer. Second, since there are less beats per minute, once you have the beats matched, it will take them longer to pull apart. You will have a longer period of time to hear the beats pulling apart as well as a longer time to correct it. The movements you'll make on the deck will be less because the correction will only have to be minor.
What you are defintely correct about is that when you get your beatmatchin' skillz all in order, you will have a lot more fun. If you are spinning infront of other people who know how to Dj, then that is actually better than a crowd because they can give you highly technical feedback about your technical skills. When you pull off a tranisition that is better than you ever have before, then they will all know it and praise you. Even though they are awaiting their turn, I'm sure they are listening to your transition and watching what you're doing just the same as you are them. It's part of the learning process and if they don't do that, then it's their loss. But you for certain, must trainspot them (trainspotting is standing next to another dj and watching them mix in hopes of learning something new). That is what it will take for you to get to the next level. Try recording your mixes like I said and also listen to other pro Djs mix and try to figure out what makes their transition good or bad and how you can incorporate what they know into what you have to learn.
The last piece of advice that I can give you is never to sell youself short just to mix. There are a lot of people on this board that will complain that they had to spin at this crappy high school dance and people only wanted to listen to rap etc and they tried dropping a trance track and the crowd booed them. They had such a bad time spinning and it's totally their fault for accepting such a job. My question to them is this: If you hate rap/RnB etc SO MUCH, then why in God's name do you even own any to spin with in the first place? My whole point is that you should only spin music that YOU YOURSELF PERSONALLY LOVE. If you don't like it, how are you supposed to make the crowd like it? How are you ever supposed to be exicted like the people in the crowd? Don't take gigs playing stuff you don't like and don't buy stuff you wouldn't spin. If you only advertise yourself as a trance Dj, then that is the only type of job you will get.
Also, to address your point of how you can love the music like a person in the crowd? Well, it's quite hard to do, but you have to again, only buy music you love. Remember that the person in the crowd has no clue what you are going to play next and might not have ever heard the track before. He is also listening to it on a killer sound system and has full lighting effects too. You, on the other hand, have probably mixed with that track a dozen times and are getting sick of it unless it is truly a killer track. Buying GOOD music is probably almost as hard as mixing. |
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| [UK]Trancedewdİ |
^^^^^^^^ some good pointers in there which i hadnt really thought about :)
| quote: | Originally posted by Zombie0729
try this... try only starting to beatmatch after the big break... pretend like there's a crowd in front of you and get into it. You know when the big synths die or the big sound dies... try waiting 64 bars later and then getting the next track ready. the quicker u can beatmatch the more you can enjoy the record :) |
i try to do this quite a lot so i can enjoy the music, but sometimes i end up not haveing enough time to beatmatch (but then i just put the needle back to the middle of the record again so i get more time :o :toothless ) |
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| borron |
| quote: | Originally posted by Inertia
whenever i can raise some money and get my own setup, i'm sure my skill will grow exponentially, and so will the fun. also, since i had little time with a setup, i had little time to actually buy vinyls, so im limited to my friends' vinyl collections. blah, i seriously need a job. |
I think your problem is right here. You don't own a dj setup, so i guess it's normal to begin to question if it's worth it. But if you had one, especially a vinyl one, with your own vinyls, you would feel the music much more, hence enjoying it much more.
But... if that doesn't work, let me tell you my story. I started spinning psytrance (with cd's). I spun psytrance for about 9 months. After that, i started to get tired. Instead of mixing everyday, i only mixed every 3 or 4 days. Then i realized i was listening much more to house and progressive than psytrance. So i sold my CDJ setup and bought myself a couple of turntables and started my house/progressive vinyl collection.
So a change of music style might be the answer. I'm now starting to like more and more of techno, and it is my belief that in a year, maybe 2, maybe less, i will start to spin techno. Variety is the key for me.
I'm also a bedroom dj like you, so i guess that when i start playing to a crowd, i will like it even more. I made a mix for my close friends last month and was highly acclaimed for that. It incredibly boosted my love for the music and my confidence in my dj skills. |
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