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How do I decide which tracks to pick for a set?
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| DJInfinity |
| I've finally decided to make a 3 hour trance mix; or that's my goal, at least. I know how to mix well, but my only problem is that I can't decide which songs to use in my mix. :nervous: With nearly 300 songs to pick from, how does one choose? |
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| Rodri Santos |
1st be purely objective which tracks are good or not, last years i found hard to pick 25 for a 2 hour mix because most weren't good enough for me to be on a best of the year mix, trance went so downhill...
2ndly when you have 50-60 tracks or so that you feel are the really best and that you can't exclude them analyze their bpm's and keys and build your set on paper seeing how you'll progress through bpms/keys and mainly the mood of the tracks, generally you can't go from an energetic feeling happy track to a slow sad one unless you want to have it as a "breakdown" in the middle of the set and start building again from it.
About how to build a 3 hour set properly we could write 15 pages and i don't consider myself an expert on this kind of sets so i am not going to give you advice on this.
So when you have 50-60 tracks and have decided the kind of set you want to build half of them will go to the bin because simply won't fit in the kind of set you want to build, at this stage is when you really know which tracks are worthy or not, some tracks won't hurt much if you quit them others would do so keep this ones on the mix and skip the rest.
And here you go, you have now 30-35 tracks ready to mix, decide if you go for quick energetic transitions, long blends or a mix of both that progresses (i usually start with energetic transitions and short tunes and then i get to more melodic tunes blended softly).
Altenatively if you can't discard that much (which as i said in my case is easy because i like very few tracks from each subgenre and they don't blend that well) you can try the ableton live megamix , you can easily play 100 tracks in 1 hour and i confess i love this kind of mixes that go straight to the point. |
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| Beatty |
| Is this your first mix? |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| If you really have to ask this question, why do you want to be a DJ? |
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| meriter |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
If you really have to ask this question, why do you want to be a DJ? |
the buffet |
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| DJInfinity |
| quote: | Originally posted by Beatty
Is this your first mix? |
3rd. The first 2 were decently mixed but my track selection was just awful. I had some hardtrance, some dream trance, some eurodance even...it was really just a rainbow of a mix.:nervous:
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
If you really have to ask this question, why do you want to be a DJ? |
I don't! :P I'm doing this mainly for fun & some promotion. I'm a producer mainly, but I think everyone should have a go at mixing at one point or another...afterall, it can't hurt.;) |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| Have you never made a mixtape, or a playlist? Have you never listened to mixes you like and thought about how the tracks made sense together? |
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| Looney4Clooney |
your question is like someone asking ok , i have a guitar, now where do i put my fingers.
learn to play guitar. It isn't something anyone can answer on a forum. Djing and the equipment used is arguably a form of musical instrument. Listen to mixes, experiment and read what others have posted. It really is a lazy question you are asking. |
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| zyklon-jay |
| I usually put a bunch of chicken bones into a bag, shake it up and throw the bones on a ceremonial table. I then use the placement of the bones to compare on a Mayan sundial and it pretty much picks the tracks for me. |
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| Rodri Santos |
| quote: | Originally posted by zyklon-jay
I usually put a bunch of chicken bones into a bag, shake it up and throw the bones on a ceremonial table. I then use the placement of the bones to compare on a Mayan sundial and it pretty much picks the tracks for me. |
interesting, i am going to try this. |
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| meriter |
| I remember that from Predator 2 (with danny glover) |
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| tortoise |
| know your music. feel your music. do a couple mixes w/ different TLs and pick the best one when its all done. |
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