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Preparing For a Live Set
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| mylespower |
This to me, is one of the more intimidating things that I am sure many of you djs out there may find to be quite overwhelming.
As any reader of this board knows, it is about reading the crowd, it also depends on if it is a radio live show, a 1 hr set or a 10 hour set.
How do YOU personally prepare for a live set? |
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| aleksd |
| Never played a live set before, but I assume it's just emphasizing the obvious basics; make sure you're mentally and physically alert, meaning you had some rest the night before and you're not piss drunk during the set ;) |
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| dinoXpress |
| about 4 or 5 beers... :) |
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| Zild |
| I just listen to the tracks I am brining with me and try to work out a way to get through them in my head. But nothing hard and fast. Oh yea I always need a few drinks before I play a live set. |
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| mylespower |
haha... so you guys are pretty much just freestyling it, which is what i do when i play at home. i have yet to play a live show but in the near future i will probably be playing a live set at a local radio station here, i was very kindly invited to do so by the guy running the show
obviously there is a difference between preparing for a set in front of people as opposed to the more indirect radio medium
i can recall armin saying that when he plays those 10 hr live sets for various festivals it takes ALOT of preparation
that is kind of what i am getting at here
preparation of track selection and kind of mapping out a general idea of how you, the dj, will guide the night (or day) |
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| Inertia |
my first 2 big sets, both were like an hour long, and in both cases, tracklisting was a good idea. let me expand:
my bday party. i was spinning with 4 friends of mine, all with somewhat similar style to me, so i made a TL of tracks i love, work great together, would fit the slot i was playing, and i was almost certain none of my other friends would drop.
worked great, cuz the set owned, only one of the tracks i played was one a friend wanted to play (DK7 - Slipstream, too bad for him, cuz i blew up with that one :p) and i only had to slightly variate from the set, whilst spinning it.
the other was when i played a school fashion party. best idea was to TL as to make sure i didnt go crazy and spin music that i normally would. kept it funky, dancey, and not too hard. worked well too.
but most of the time, i always get motivated before a set and get some new tracks. my advice is, LISTEN TO THE TRACKS before you go spin. spin them in a little practice session if possible, just to feel them out. then place them somewhere in your mind that tells you where they'll fit in a set. i don't recommend going to battle with brand new weapons, unless you know them well enough. |
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| Inertia |
| oh, and some vodka... |
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| St. Michael |
I prepare for a set by constantly surrounding myself with music. Listen to your music as much as possible: i.e. in the shower, in the car, at the gym, etc. The more you listen to your tracks, the more natural the selection becomes when you are djing, whether it be for an hour or 10 hours, or for a radio show, or a crowd of 10,000 people. While you are in the mix, you'll notice that you will easily create a flow depending on the scenario and your memory of the tracks. It will feel less like you are "shooting from the hip" and more like you are listening to divine intervention when you are in the booth.
When selecting music for purchase or from your pool delivery: A) Don't under budget and limit your potential (DJing is an expensive hobby or career to invest in) Try using digital and less expensive media formats to combat the overhead. Surprisingly, I have purchased tracks that I was on the fence about which became some of my top favorites (I've bought more than a fair share of duds too) B) Listen as if the track was being played in different sized rooms (you must develop this "forsight" - it is a developed skill shared by all top-DJs). C) Imagine scenarios with crowds and live audiences hearing (experiencing) the track live with your flare added to them (anticipate the response). Visualization is one of the best tools for selecting tracks. When I hear a new track, I always "see" its potential long before I put it to the test.
Experiment and be daring when you are practicing. The time to get uncanny with your style, filtering, eq'ing, sweeping and oscillating, and effecting is while you are at the home studio or bedroom (whatever). Go crazy. The best discoveries are made by accident. I've had made a few -ups whilst practicing and have discovered some great effects for live play. One time I was playing a song called Malone by Magik Johson with the low pass filter disarmed and the LFO sweeping on the off-beat. I accidentally hit the filter to arm and when the sweep oscillated it sounded really sick! I now use this effect for live and recording (under control) for songs that have a very repetative arrangement. It is one of the favorite effect gems in my bag of accidentally discovered tricks.
Another that it's imperitive to know your tracks well is so that you can use the mixer and effects units to your advantage. The better you know your tracks, the more youi can focus on delivering the goods with all of the DJ tools and technology that you have at your fingertips.
A final piece of advice: Don't feel pressured to play all of your latest finds so that you appear to be on the cutting edge. You track selection should include your favorites that span over the course of at least several months and not just several weeks. Work with tracks that you thought were slamming but didn't get much play, tried and true floorfillers, classics (although sparingly), remix or reedit classics in the studio for live play (create the element of surprise), throw in hot new releases, prepare samples and loops from movies and music(hook-up the audio on your DVD player to your sampler or any recording source and edit in an editor, apply effects, etc.)-here's a good place to spend time rather than preselecting tracks for live performance. Mix it up and have fun! When you are having fun, so will your fans. Solid preparation shines through in the enthusiasm of your performance and is infectious to the audience.
If you use vinyl, rip it onto CD so that you can listen to your tracks often on your CD player, iPod, computer, etc. Repetition is the key! |
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| Clovis86 |
| Some really good advice there Scotty! |
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| St. Michael |
| quote: | Originally posted by Clovis86
Some really good advice there Scotty! |
Thanks Clovis ;) |
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| mylespower |
yeah that was great advice...thanks for that
internalizing my tracks is one of the things that i have been 'working on' ever since i started djing
i make sure every track i have is digital, i either purchase it digitally or rip my vinyls to wavs
i then compress to mp3s to be put on my ipod and i make mp3 cds to play in my car... its nice to have the name of the track on the display. I have so many tracks i can forget the names and the name of the remixer etc
i can see how handy knowing your tracks can be and i have high hopes that it will pay off in the future....besides all that, i love listening to music anyway, so its not like im forcing myself to listen just for the sake of internalizing the music
as far as crowd reading is concerned, well... i will just have to try and figure that one out when the time comes |
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| richg101 |
i wouldnt drink a drop of alcohol on your first set. i blew a great opportunity on a dj comp a few years back cos being a little tipsy meant my mixing wasnt up to scratch on unfamiliar equipment. also id wear some good earplugs and get into the habit of wearing them..:)
just take your faveourite tunes and build around them to suit the crowd. if the crowd dont like them then you re djing in the wrong place... |
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