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Importance in DJ'ing (pg. 5)
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| Invasionmix |
| quote: | Originally posted by richg101
a good edm dj plays what he wants to play. and waits for the crowds to follow. if they dont follow then play for your own enjoyment at hiome. never change your style/play tracks you wouldnt normally play for the crowd. thats what dj's in pop/chart/cheese clubs are paid to do. |
Well a DJ's job is to entertain and play for the people, if the crowd is not feeling it than he's not doing his job. Club owners wants DJs that can make the crowd pumped and come back to the venue. |
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| wotyzoid |
| quote: | Originally posted by richg101
a good edm dj plays what he wants to play. and waits for the crowds to follow. if they dont follow then play for your own enjoyment at hiome. never change your style/play tracks you wouldnt normally play for the crowd. thats what dj's in pop/chart/cheese clubs are paid to do. |
deffinately NOT. Its all about an interaction with the crowd, a dj gets paid to please. |
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| richg101 |
| i know what you are saying. a dj's job is to please his/her crowd. but i think i would rather be an unbooked dj who plays what he wants, than a bloke who gets paid to play the tracks that whoever is on the dancefloor likes. |
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| Nemesis44 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Tangil
Definitely, once this happens track selection happens.
Also Nem, was that the gig where you were warming up for pvd and got to have a good look at his set up? Care to elaborate on it all?
Thanks |
Yeah that was the night I was supposed to be, but got a call saying that he was bringing Col Hamilton with him (Nice bloke by the way) so didn't get to spin for the man. I have time for both PvD and his warm up guy no doubt.
PvD was doing a lot of cool tricks and stuff but nothing so out of it that I don't feel that I could have done something similar with decks although perhaps less things on the go.
What makes this interesting is that PvD might actually have been the wrong DJ for the club in my opinion. Playing there I have learnt that the crowd like it quite chunky. PvD did play some tracks like that and the crowd did start to go off on it, but he didn't up the stakes by following that and just slipped back into his zone.
His set up was laptop, midi keyboard but as stated before he didn't really use it too much but notably did use it on For An Angel when applying a filter effect.
One of the major problems was that his laptop was set up a little too far away from the decks, (I have photo of this on my phone, will try to post it) so he kept on disapearing from the decks and the main focal point of the night kept for a lot of the night was staring at a set of empty decks. Not the best move perhaps, but you work with what you get in this business and not his fault.
I can't fault the man for his mixing in terms of matching and he was using the CDJs with this time coded stuff. (Or at least that's what I thought he was doing).
You could definately tell that he was going back to stuff that he has prepared and worked out before hand, but then techno DJs will also have stuff they have worked out prior but will intermix these segments with random selections based on crowd response etc.
Without trying to hijack the thread with another Digital vs turntable/cdj. It is completely obvious to me at least, that the very essence of digital becomes more of a performace. The problem is that this works against the one thing that the DJ had in his/her favour, which was the ability to read the crowd.
It is my belief that both Armin and Ferry are more deserving of the #1 spot than PvD, as the latter are actually still doing what DJs do. Especially Ferry in my book.
It was actually a weird night and the crowd didn't actually kick off until the final DJ came on, was almost like PvD was the warm up. Sad, but I don't think he will be re-booked for this. Didn't fill the club to capacity either but that might just be a reflection of the state of trance at the moment (No pun intended). But I do see lesser names sell out and perform better than the really big guns on a constant. Perhaps it's a question of how much they want it.
Don't get me wrong, there are I'm sure people out ther who are going to understand and push the boundaries with laptop performance and will definately work the crowd reading aspect into it. Or I hope it will otherwise we will have a generation of clueless, self endulgant digital geeks as DJs and that will never help dance music.
Mind you probably the majority of the people in the club didn't know he was using a laptop or even give a about it. They probably just thought he was alright, nothing special.
Bit of a dispointment for me, but I had a feeling that would happen. I was also completely sober which may have played a large part in it, but was no different for Oakenfold, whom I really enjoyed.
Cheers
Nem |
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| Nemesis44 |
| quote: | Originally posted by richg101
i know what you are saying. a dj's job is to please his/her crowd. but i think i would rather be an unbooked dj who plays what he wants, than a bloke who gets paid to play the tracks that whoever is on the dancefloor likes. |
I think it's important to see the difference though between becoming a slave to it and giving the people what they want but your way. There will always be tracks that you like, that will fit a certain vibe that people are demanding (not vocally but with body language etc.) i.e. you can have your cake and eat it if you do it well.
Cheers
Nem |
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| Tangil |
Yep I agree, reading the crowd doesn't mean chucking in anthem after anthem to please the masses.
And thanks Nem for the insight into the pvd party. Do you think that digital is taking an aspect of spontaneity away from the night because there is a lot more preparation involved? Sasha has said a few times that ableton has meant he spends a far greater amount of pre-preparing before gigs. I wonder if this entails that they have more of a 'routine set' and are unlikely to throw in a random song here and there to play a more tailored set to a certain crowd. |
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| Zild |
| quote: | Originally posted by richg101
i know what you are saying. a dj's job is to please his/her crowd. but i think i would rather be an unbooked dj who plays what he wants, than a bloke who gets paid to play the tracks that whoever is on the dancefloor likes. |
I completely agree. Give me a crowd that is open to EDM and I will give them a good time, but so many places the managers want you to play an hour of hip-hop, ect...
I tell them off because I already have a good job and a good future outside of being a DJ. |
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| Allied Nations |
| I love that Montreal has such a kickass underground scene, because I have to be so ing sick and play such good underground music if I even want to think about getting booked in the real electronic music scene. |
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| Nemesis44 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Tangil
Yep I agree, reading the crowd doesn't mean chucking in anthem after anthem to please the masses.
And thanks Nem for the insight into the pvd party. Do you think that digital is taking an aspect of spontaneity away from the night because there is a lot more preparation involved? Sasha has said a few times that ableton has meant he spends a far greater amount of pre-preparing before gigs. I wonder if this entails that they have more of a 'routine set' and are unlikely to throw in a random song here and there to play a more tailored set to a certain crowd. |
I think the thing is to understand that these guys are in a different league and are lucky enough to get away with it. When I saw Armin play I actually heard someone outside, "I can't believe I shook his hand". I thought to myself, come on, it's not like it's the Dali Lama, who by the way I actually met in India and is a hell of a lot more down to earth than a lot of DJs I could mention...
Back to the point though, people go to see the big names with completely expectations and are probably more geared up for a concert like performance and not to see a DJ work for example. And may not be disapointed as I was because I was hoping to see a DJ work.
I don't for example see Tiesto as a DJ in the same way anymore because he chose another route away from the clubs and focuses more on the arenas.
Whilst all the above will have their time in the sun, I think the long term survivor is the DJ and not the performer. A bit like a snake sheds it's skin, the more commercial and performance orientated DJs will fade in popularity and the core of what it's all about will still survive.
Keeping the budhist theme, I think you will find that the wheel will turn full circle. Patience grasshoppers... ;)
Cheers
Nem |
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| Stu Cox |
| quote: | Originally posted by richg101
a good edm dj plays what he wants to play. and waits for the crowds to follow. if they dont follow then play for your own enjoyment at hiome. never change your style/play tracks you wouldnt normally play for the crowd. thats what dj's in pop/chart/cheese clubs are paid to do. |
But there's a fair amount of flexibility within that - you can quite easily stick to the genres you love, but then direct the set you play at the crowd, using the music you like as your arsenal. And that doesn't mean selling out by just playing all of your records you know will get a good reaction.
And for the people saying track selection is the most important thing - it totally isn't a black and white situation of a tune either being good or bad... the effect a track has depends on a) the people in the crowd b) the time of night/mood of the crowd etc and c) how its played... the first 2 come from reading the crowd, the 3rd comes from technical ability.
Although earlier in this thread people have said it isn't the case, you CAN make a crap track work in a set by being a bit creative. If a tune's got a wicked breakdown but the rest is e, just use the breakdown in your set. If its been played to death and even the people who aren't really into the music are sick of it, just drop a little section in for a few seconds or generally try and do something different with it. If it's got a vocal, cut it out. If it's just a bit boring and goes on a bit, add something else over the top. If it's just complete e through and through and turns out to be hilarious as a result, play it on that merit (if that's the kinda thing you go for). Obviously there are limits...
I'm not trying to say you should all go and play really crap records or anything lol, just that if you think about it very few records are actually e through and through, so don't rest everything on "I must only play the best records in the world and I'll be an amazing DJ" -I'm also of course very much backing up Nem's statement of reading the crowd being oh-so-very important. |
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| David Jeffreys |
- pleasing the crowd?
- smooth mixing?
- track selection?
- advanced dj'ing
pleasing the crowd is always the goal but its how you do it thow.
anybody can transform one great song to another.its easy learn to beatmatch buy all the top tracks of the week and bam(oh that dj last night was so good)
to me the most important aspect of djing is pleasing a crowd but being a real artist.
its not smooth mixing its proper mixing and there is a difference.
taking songs and making them something more than they are.
i dont go to clubs anymore to dance i go there to watch the crowds!
and one thing i have learned is that songs get people jumping and great mixing gets them rock'n. you have to do things differently. dont play the song, play with the song. this is where you advanced dj'ing comes in. all you tricks whatever it may be scratching,slaming cuting, sampling, mash-ups whatever. set yourself apart from everyone else and be creative when you are out there. but you will have to know how to progress you sets but that goes back to track selection. and always play with the people you are performing for. a dj that reacts gets more reaction. you are an entertainer so entertain! |
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| Dj_MadirozE |
| quote: | Originally posted by R.j.
So, as a DJ, what do you feel is the most important aspect of it all?
pleasing the crowd
smooth mixing
track selection
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