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Your first DJ gig
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| Singularity55 |
| How was everyone's first DJ Gig? How did your first gig go? I'm playing my first gig next weekend and I'm wondering if anyone's got any tips? It's gonna be a full on psy set some time between 2 and 4am (due to when I'll actually get there) at a friend's birthday party. It sounds like it'll be pretty fun and a good learning experience. |
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| Trance-M |
That was like 20 years ago, I played at a club for a school party, a few hundred people, nobody gave a about mixing and I sucked at it (still do by the way).
You'll probably do a lot better then I did, although the crowd had fun. I had to play the entire evening and I got many requests for tracks as most knew me. Have a lot of fun and try to remember which tracks the crowd liked best.
Are you fully preparing your set?
Doing a spy set of course will be something totally different. |
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| Singularity55 |
Yeh I'm fully preparing it, it seems like 90%+ of the DJs I know do that, even the highest level and most experienced ones. I don't really know what styles people are playing before and after, so hopefully the guy before me doesn't play 190bpm terror high tech darkpsy. Music isn't really going to be the main focus but a few people will be listening, it seems fairly laid back, but there will be an audience at least, so it's experience.
For your first time, how difficult was it to choose the tracklist? Were there clear expectations of what people wanted or did you need to figure it out gradually?
I'll try to get in some espionage if that's what you'd recommend. |
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| SYSTEM-J |
First gig was playing all night in the chill-out room at John 00 Fleming's album launch party. The bass coming through the floor from the other room drowned out most of the ambient stuff I had brought with me and I had to play anything I had with me that had low end to make it audible. And the barman for the room kept coming over and telling me to play deep house. So yeah, it was a learning curve.
Generally, don't totally pre-plan your set. I always plan a set, in that I have a pool of tracks I want to play, and I will practise a few variations of a set with that pool of tracks the week before, so I'm familiar and comfortable with them. But in my (albeit limited) experience I have always altered the plan when I actually turn up. You might hear what the DJ before is playing and realise immediately that your perfectly planned opening isn't going to follow. Or in smaller rooms, the crowd might empty out or fill up halfway through, and you have to react to that. So take a lot more tracks that you actually plan to play, just in case.
In your case, at a house party to a psy crowd, nobody is really going to give a . In all my experiences of psy parties, I have never, ever seen a DJ lose the crowd even when their mixing was atrocious and the tunes terrible. Psy crowds don't give a . As long as you play the "full on bassline" those that want to dance will dance. Totally pre-planning your set in such a low-risk situation is a complete waste of time. You're not main stage at a festival. What are you afraid of? |
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| Mr Game+Watch |
| The only time I've actually played an event, it was a local retro gaming convention (a few hundred people) and I didn't play dance music... it was all classic game tunes and so I didn't actually beatmatch (though the crowd loved when I mixed the Kokiri Forest song from OOT into a mashup of it with Juicy J's "Bandz A Make Her Dance"). I've also played house parties from anywhere from 30 - 75 people, and these parties I played house, nu-disco, EDM, etc... even when I obviously up and beat myself over the head for it, nobody notices or cares. |
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| Sykonee |
| Most of my early 'gigs' were teen dances, weddings, and Xmas parties. Didn't enjoy it that much. I kept wanting to pump the 2 Unlimited or Dance 2 Trance, but everyone wanted AC/DC, Cranberries, or, at 'best', Ace Of Base. |
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| corjay9 |
My first gig was opening up for a friend at a pretty decent house music club here in Montreal, I've seen Levon Vincent and Steffi there for example.. but it was middle of February (Cold as outside / University Exam week) on a Thursday night, so unfortunately I had more friends there supporting me then actual patrons.
I actually played a very solid set, no train wrecks, the levels were pretty steady, and the promoter and my bud who I was opening for was diggin it. I got a kick out of hearing my tracks on a big club system. I did prepare, I knew what I wanted to play and had practiced how certain tracks sound with each other, etc.. but I didn't have a set list or anything. I started off at 116bpm and brought it up to 121.
I haven't really dedicated myself to DJing so I've only played out 3 times, and my first gig was my best. House parties 10-12 times or so, mostly for fun in my room though.
Tips: Know the crowd, who's opening / closing, etc.. and pick your tracks based on that. You don't have to play the same style, but at least make it compatible. Always bring more music then you'll need, bring some more bangin stuff and some more relaxed stuff
Definitely know your tracks inside out. Listen to them all week long, know when the breakdowns and vocals come in, know when the bassline falls out, etc...
Dont beat yourself up over a small hiccup, a lot of the times no one will notice. Its important to keep confidence up. Don't worry about reading the crowd too much, and tell around the decks to give you some room. I'm not good enough to party and DJ, I need to focus so I hate when theres people all around me in my way.
Good luck and have fun! |
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| Trance-M |
| quote: | Originally posted by Singularity55
Yeh I'm fully preparing it, it seems like 90%+ of the DJs I know do that, even the highest level and most experienced ones. I don't really know what styles people are playing before and after, so hopefully the guy before me doesn't play 190bpm terror high tech darkpsy. Music isn't really going to be the main focus but a few people will be listening, it seems fairly laid back, but there will be an audience at least, so it's experience.
For your first time, how difficult was it to choose the tracklist? Were there clear expectations of what people wanted or did you need to figure it out gradually?
I'll try to get in some espionage if that's what you'd recommend. |
I always made sure I had tracks with me I didn't like that much, but I knew the crowd liked. I never made a track list as it was the entire evening. I wrote down the numbers of the tracks on the cd cases I think were suitable to play. If the crowd wants to here spy there isn't much to worry about. I had to play for a crowd which were commercial minded, all the top40 stuff, but also rock minded, like Nirvana and stuff. So with playing some trance in between I took some risks :)
I don't know if it's wise or not to take something with you in case the crowd already had to hear hours of spy. I would try to get an idea what was played earlier though.
That's about all I can say, once again good luck and have lots of fun, don't forget to report back. |
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| Guest |
My first gig I ever played was a standard 1hour opener for a tech-house party. I'm not going to sugarcoat it - there was literally like only 15 people in attendance for my set, 10 of them my friends, the other 5 being the promoters/randoms. So, it was almost like playing at a house party with my closest friends, except on a bigger sound system and a much emptier room. Was still a blast though :)
It was smooth - the mixer the lounge had was the same one I had in my apartment, so it was pretty easy to start off with. It was a different experience though, playing the tracks on a bigger system. There were a couple tracks where I heard a few things I didn't even know existed in the track, as I usually only mix on my headphones at home. One of my closest friends got me a present though. She thought it was like a theatre production or something :haha: I thought that was pretty funny but also very thoughtful at the same time :p
My mix was 95% planned. I had 1-2 extra tracks just in case, but honestly, I was so god damn nervous that I just said it and played the tracks I mixed beforehand at home. I actually managed to find the tracklist, I'll paste it below haha. It was before I started digging for more deep house. I can't find the mix anymore though unfortunately. They had a computer in the DJ booth hooked up to the mixer so I was able to record it.
Stephen J. Kroos - Micrsh [Anjunadeep]
DCM (PL) - This Won't Be Titled Music (Krummstoff Remix) [Brown Eyed Boyz Records]
Dualton, Wollion - Foursquare [Four:Twenty Recordings]
Sezer Uysal - I Like Some Deep (Dub Mix) [Unreleased Digital]
Croatia Square - Marbella [Unreleased Digital]
Nora En Pure - Frutta Di Mare [Unreleased Digital]
Evren Ulusoy, Sezer Uysal - At Night [Loco Records]
Nora En Pure - You Boom My Mind [Tokenish]
Tigerskin - Carlos' Thoughts [Dessous Recordings]
D-Nox, Beckers - Jacaranda [Tronic]
Simon Garcia - Chordus [Quartz Rec]
Sharam - Texi [Yooshi Recordings] |
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| planetaryplayer |
| I've been meaning to get a gig for the past 2 summers but never put the effort into it. always during the cold months i don't practice and then by the summer i feel its too late LOL. i wouldn't want to warm up for a headliner on my first go but there isn't any body playing techno in toronto for locals. was also planning on making / uploading a mix for about 6 months but i only mix when i go out drinking. laziness is my weakness |
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| Singularity55 |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
Totally pre-planning your set in such a low-risk situation is a complete waste of time. |
I don't really think it's a waste of time in this instance. If anything it's the opposite, it'd take me longer to plan out several variations beforehand.
In terms of how it went, it went pretty well I think, before I showed up they were mostly playing some tracks (of a similar style and lesser quality) off their phones so that made the music I was going to play appropriate for the night. A fair few people got pretty into the music and in general there weren't too many technical issues, apart from that point in the night where one of the lights went out and I couldn't see what the I was doing, which was a bit hectic. I only made a couple of minor mistakes (like cutting the bass for 2 bars of a track when it wasn't meant to be cut) but it wasn't really noticeable. Overall I think it went pretty well and I also got told that I should play at small festivals cos I actually know what the hell I'm doing, contrary to a lot of DJs, so I guess that's good.
I've got a recording of the set but I think I might release it when I do a re recording of the set without any mistakes. There's not much difference, hearing the mistakes is probably a mostly academic exercise. Also, I've got some pictures. It was a house party so most people were off doing other stuff.
pics: https://imgur.com/a/hQ0bm |
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