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How do you know when you are ready?
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| anth_on_e |
| Ive been spinnin at home for over a year, not everyday but i mean i have my urges where i go on sprints and then my times wen i dont touch my setup, but i am fairly decent. The thing is as most of you probably experience yourself is that you notice all the mistakes, and you are not sure how noticeable it is. Sometimes people dont notice things, sometimes they stand out by in my eyes everything is a mistake which really frustrates and discourages me. Im still 15 so i have a lot of time before i hit legal age clubs but even to spin like hip hop at an all ages type thing, how do you know when you are good enough. One problem i noticed now is that with my cdjs its very rare that i get the beats matched close enough. 2.1 is too slow and 2.2 is too fast on the pitch slider and that also frustrates me because than i waste time trying to fix it and than usually up the beats cuz i get confused and loose focus. I think i need to sell my cdj 100s and upgrade. Anyhow, any words of advice or flaming or of whatever are welcome. |
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| beats and beeps |
Well, in regards to when you are ready...no clue, i wouldnt worry though, i dont think youll be under too much criticism at an all ages event.
In regards upgrading. Im not sure how much you could get for used cdj100's but if youre looking for more accuracy sadly all of the lower priced decks are still 0.1 (like the cdj100) As far as i know the dns3000 is the cheapest deck with 0.02 (thats the most accurate youll find on the market) |
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| CraSHer[UK] |
anth_on_e, i am in the same position as you exactly. I played a house party the other week and was suprised how the type of error that in my bedroom sounded awlful, people quite simply will not notice. SO i wouldn't worry, the standard you'd judge yourself is sooo far above what a general crowd will.
but more importantly i understand completly about the cd deck. mine too only has 0.1 increments and i find it a real chore mixing between vinyl and cd, so i try my hardest to avoid it. The other thing is that my tables (Gemini PT-2100) dont hold their pitch absolutly perfectly like a digital medium such as a cd does, so I find my mixes drifting so much faster. The result is that i spend so much time pitch bending its just plain annoying. |
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| Nemesis44 |
Just run it up the flag pole and see who salutes it...
In terms of knowning when you are ready, well for an all ages event you are never not ready. They are not expecting smooth transitions so there is no real ready.
In terms of playing a club it gets a little trickier. In my opinion there are tons of DJs playing clubs who are not ready and probably never will be.
In my opinion you are ready when you can consistantly make mix CDs without having to start over again due to a bad mix.
The thing you have to realise is that you become ready through playing in clubs more than at home. The bedroom will just teach you the basics but the club will teach you how to DJ and perform as a DJ.
Cheers
Nem |
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| tu_face |
first of all, if you want to be ready for the clubs i think you will have to upgrade your kit. as good as cdj100's are for beginners, they are not proffesional equipment. however, if you can put together a good set on these, you won't have any problems, and being used to pioneer cdj's is a good thing, as most clubs have these. its also advisable to get used to using turntables if possible, not all clubs have 2 cd decks, the standard is 2 turntables and a mixer :)
as far as being ready is concerned, i think nem put it very well, in that if you can consistantly put together cd's without having to start again, then you are good to go. you have to remember, what you may regard as a minor -up, anyone who is not a dj will not generally notice as their brains arn't calibrated in the same manner as ours, and arn't trained to pick up on things like a track starting to go out. this is what sets dj's apart from the crowd, in that we can tell the thing is going out before the crowd can ;)
play as many house partys, all age partys and private partys as possible to get used to playing in front of people. the more you don't know the people, the better.. people you don't know will give a more honest opinion of what they think. you are young and have a long time to go before you will be allowed to play in clubs (unless you can lie about your age ;)) so make the most of the time, and practice like hell! you can never practice enough :) |
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| anth_on_e |
| quote: | Originally posted by tu_face
first of all, if you want to be ready for the clubs i think you will have to upgrade your kit. as good as cdj100's are for beginners, they are not proffesional equipment. however, if you can put together a good set on these, you won't have any problems, and being used to pioneer cdj's is a good thing, as most clubs have these. its also advisable to get used to using turntables if possible, not all clubs have 2 cd decks, the standard is 2 turntables and a mixer :)
as far as being ready is concerned, i think nem put it very well, in that if you can consistantly put together cd's without having to start again, then you are good to go. you have to remember, what you may regard as a minor -up, anyone who is not a dj will not generally notice as their brains arn't calibrated in the same manner as ours, and arn't trained to pick up on things like a track starting to go out. this is what sets dj's apart from the crowd, in that we can tell the thing is going out before the crowd can ;)
play as many house partys, all age partys and private partys as possible to get used to playing in front of people. the more you don't know the people, the better.. people you don't know will give a more honest opinion of what they think. you are young and have a long time to go before you will be allowed to play in clubs (unless you can lie about your age ;)) so make the most of the time, and practice like hell! you can never practice enough :) |
My setup consists of 2 cdj 100s and a vestax pmc 05 pro II (my original setup) and couple months ago i picked up a ttx turntable and am borrowing my friends equalizers that he dusnt use. The problem is i just got a car (Acura RSX) and want to put money into that so its a debate on whether or not to spend money on my car or spend it on an MKII. Another thing is i want to sell my cdjs and i could use a better mixer (esp since the faders are starting to bleed) but i think i would be lucky to get 1000 cdn for the set and than i would have to upgrade all 3, but at the same time i want a technic turntable to get used to the technic and at the same time get used to the ttx. i dont know which to upgrade.
as for playing out i think my main problem is putting songs together. I cannot play live sorta deal. Like i was making a hip hop mix and it was like impossible to put a selection together and it wusnt even live. In the end i just scrapped it because of the major bpm differences and stuff, it was just too confusing. But for house which is what i spin i dont think its that much of a problem which isnt good for all ages events lol. |
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| ionized |
Your like 15 right? Well I wouldn't worry about it, cos your not even allowed into clubs yet....lol ;) man, take it easy. Do it because you love it and not because your just waiting till you can wow people with your mixing skills. So many DJs are all about just getting out there and performing infront of people and in the end I guess thats what its all about, but for god sakes I wish some of them would get a bit more practice in before they do.
Just start off slow... invite some friends over and spin some tunes for them. Just see how it goes and then get feedback from them. If you just drop yourself at an underages gig without knowing if your 'ready' or not is bound to lead to disaster, mainly because you'll be doubting your skills. You need to build up the confidence in your mixing so that you know without a doubt that your ready.
Like Nemesis says, your ready when you can mix together whichever tunes you choose for however long you want with very few (if any) ups.
No go forth and practice =) |
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| anth_on_e |
| quote: | Originally posted by ionized
Your like 15 right? Well I wouldn't worry about it, cos your not even allowed into clubs yet....lol ;) man, take it easy. Do it because you love it and not because your just waiting till you can wow people with your mixing skills. So many DJs are all about just getting out there and performing infront of people and in the end I guess thats what its all about, but for god sakes I wish some of them would get a bit more practice in before they do.
Just start off slow... invite some friends over and spin some tunes for them. Just see how it goes and then get feedback from them. If you just drop yourself at an underages gig without knowing if your 'ready' or not is bound to lead to disaster, mainly because you'll be doubting your skills. You need to build up the confidence in your mixing so that you know without a doubt that your ready.
Like Nemesis says, your ready when you can mix together whichever tunes you choose for however long you want with very few (if any) ups.
No go forth and practice =) |
Thanx for the advice.Im 16 and love to spin and ive been spinning for a while, over a year now. Even though ive been spinning for a year, i still feel incapable and unconfident which is what drives me nuts. |
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| djkoolaide |
| Looks like we're right around the same age man... I'm 15, and am looking to buy some turntables real soon. I know exactly what you mean, sometimes I wanna mix and mix nonstop but other times I don't wanna go near it! I think as I get better though, I've been wanting to mix more lately. I say go for it. Not that I would know, but I think it'd be a good idea to get used to some turntables, since that is the standard anyway. It's good to have a knowledge of both digital and analog ;) |
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| Dhagor |
| IMO one can never be 100% ready for all those little messups that can happen in the club. You only get better from experience. I have organized many small events in the past and from there I learnt to deal with problems on the fly - monitor dying, power problems, and so on and on and on. I have been spinning vinyl only for a year and have already played at some bigger events among many smaller. I always travel with 2 pairs of headphones, backup needles, plus some know how information what to do before, during and after the gig but I still can't be 100% ready when I leave home - you never know what can go down. Basically what I'm trying to say is that even if you have a weekly residency at a club even then you can't be 100% ready because there are about zillion tiny things that can f00k up the night. |
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| tu_face |
| its less to do with how you up, more to do with how you deal with it.. everybody makes mistakes (sometimes noticable, sometimes not to the majority of people), even the best, but if you let that knock you back, you won't make it past the first mix ;) |
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| DjSimonB |
| quote: | Originally posted by Nemesis44
In my opinion you are ready when you can consistantly make mix CDs without having to start over again due to a bad mix.
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I'm not ready then :(
Seriously, I can usually mix good in the bedroom to my walls and even on radio shows, but as soon as I hit record I just lose the ability :p |
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