How do you keep the energy high in between the 2 "drops" ?

[Morior]

Oh and the 'luddite' comment about using sync, I appreciate what you're saying but do you think it was not possible to create this elusive 'energy' everyone refers to pre digital DJing? As someone mentioned; Coxy is a case in point, a magician on 3x TT's. I guess the amazing nights in the 90's and early 00's just didn't happen like they do now(?)

Yeah I was probably being a bit strong here, but I hate how people using sync are sneered at by many people here. I do beleive though that pre-digital and the ability to seamlessley mash tracks together and cue juggle that the art of the DJ was more about track choice and building the set as an overall event, and you needed real skilll to make that all flow. With the available technology certain styles of DJ'ing have become a more visceral minute by minute, or even second by second artform, where you are remixing as you go, and if you do that, the last thing you want to be doing is beatmatching while trying to switch the eq's of one track while jumping to different cues on one two or even 3 different tracks. (and all that preceded by sticking in a beatmasher drum roll from one of the tracks before the drop, oh and a filter on another.)

Just different styles of DJ'ing with different skillsets and thought processing, but it all comes back to the music, if your crap your crap, no matter how your doing it

[djmetalgear]

Thanks God someone said this. Going to a club and hearing a DJ change tracks every 15-20 seconds makes me want to punch myself in the ears!! If your music is so boring you can only listen to 15 seconds of it go out and buy some better music!!

Being less generic when describing your genre of choice would help too! WTF is EDM?! I imagine the OP is referring to that God-Awful Electro-trashy-progressive -house that seems to be popular in the USA. In which case I would agree that 15 seconds is more than anyone can take!!

get off your stupid European high horse. no one said we are switching tracks every 15 seconds. get over yourself. I stand by what I said. There is a huge difference between rave clubs, and regular clubs in the city that listen to EDM. If I were to DJ a club such as Lit, Whisper, or Rumor down here in philly, my set list would be entirely different than if I were to DJ at a club that I can play EDM, but is not a huge EDM scenes. some clubs i can get away with daftpunk, deadmau5, zedd, and calvin harris, but I could not play all EDM that I normally would in a real rave club.

With that being said, you need to keep the energy up at some points and let it drop. and if you've ever even been out to DJ at an actual club with 300+ people, and you played a song such as "one more time" by daft punk, youd realize that the melodic 3-4 minutes in the middle could def be kind of awkward for people who are dancing... so you add a snare or bass to it from another track to keep them going.

Until then, keep mixing in your basement and leave your criticism there as well.

[iambiggles]

get off your stupid European high horse.......

Perth, Western Australia (definitely a clue there) - isn't in Europe

[kooper1980]

get off your stupid European high horse. no one said we are switching tracks every 15 seconds. get over yourself. I stand by what I said. There is a huge difference between rave clubs, and regular clubs in the city that listen to EDM. If I were to DJ a club such as Lit, Whisper, or Rumor down here in philly, my set list would be entirely different than if I were to DJ at a club that I can play EDM, but is not a huge EDM scenes. some clubs i can get away with daftpunk, deadmau5, zedd, and calvin harris, but I could not play all EDM that I normally would in a real rave club.

With that being said, you need to keep the energy up at some points and let it drop. and if you've ever even been out to DJ at an actual club with 300+ people, and you played a song such as "one more time" by daft punk, youd realize that the melodic 3-4 minutes in the middle could def be kind of awkward for people who are dancing... so you add a snare or bass to it from another track to keep them going.

Until then, keep mixing in your basement and leave your criticism there as well.

HAHA have I touched a nerve?!? I'm not gonna enter into a pissing contest. I've played clubs and BIG crowds. Still I'm not able to pass comment because the clubs I've played in and the crowd that enjoys my music don't have to worry about me dropping one more time by daft punk. We are happy to let the tunes take us where they were intended.

And I ask again.... WTF is EDM?!?! Isn't all music we dance to electronic dance music?

[backtothefront]

Without trying to move the discussion off topic, I think the term 'EDM' isn't helpful really outside of the US - I obviously can't speak for everyone but certainly within the scenes I'm involved in 'EDM' basically means commercial, Top40 dance music ala Guetta, Harris, SHM for the domestic US market - in other word; the explosion of pop dance music in the US which has gained mainstream acceptance in the last few years. Hence my query on on the differences between dance music played in clubs and festivals.

Here in the UK which simply have an eclectic mix of genres that can equally be played in clubs/bars/festivals, whichever. In my experience this tends to be the same in Europe and elsewhere in World where dance music has a mature, developed scene of many years. You do of course very much have the pop music, mainstream clubs, notwithstanding - I'm specifically talking about the general dance music scene.

[backtothefront]

And I ask again.... WTF is EDM?!?! Isn't all music we dance to electronic dance music?

I hear ya, I really don't care for the term EDM at all, it seems to be used as genre definition, which makes no sense as you rightly point out. I see it as more a term to describe the recent surge in popularity of pop dance music in the US domestic market.

[backtothefront]

Yeah I was probably being a bit strong here, but I hate how people using sync are sneered at by many people here. I do beleive though that pre-digital and the ability to seamlessley mash tracks together and cue juggle that the art of the DJ was more about track choice and building the set as an overall event, and you needed real skilll to make that all flow. With the available technology certain styles of DJ'ing have become a more visceral minute by minute, or even second by second artform, where you are remixing as you go, and if you do that, the last thing you want to be doing is beatmatching while trying to switch the eq's of one track while jumping to different cues on one two or even 3 different tracks. (and all that preceded by sticking in a beatmasher drum roll from one of the tracks before the drop, oh and a filter on another.)

Just different styles of DJ'ing with different skillsets and thought processing, but it all comes back to the music, if your crap your crap, no matter how your doing it

yep, agree with this, def! - blinding DJ techniques won't rescue bad tune selection

Although I must say I don't like DJ's who over do things, such as FX for the sake of it, disjointed juggles and 30 sec quick mixing, especially over a whole nights clubbing - it does my head in and ruins the set for me, I like to lose myself in the tunes over a longer time frame. I also believe producers spent hours/days creating the track/remix to sound the way it did for a reason and in general I think you should be adding not subtracting as a DJ - there is the skill

Good healthy debate this.

[haze324]

H Isn't all music we dance to electronic dance music?

I dance to Hip Hop, Salsa, Merengue, even some Jazz and R&B.....never tried Swing though.

[AlanS]

Song A has a 16 bar drop. Song B has a 16 bar break down and an 8 bar build up. Mix song B's 16 bar breakdown into song A's 16 bar drop. When song A's drop ends, song B's build up begins and goes right into another drop.

[Morior]

Although I must say I don't like DJ's who over do things, such as FX for the sake of it, disjointed juggles and 30 sec quick mixing, especially over a whole nights clubbing - it does my head in and ruins the set for me, I like to lose myself in the tunes over a longer time frame. I also believe producers spent hours/days creating the track/remix to sound the way it did for a reason and in general I think you should be adding not subtracting as a DJ - there is the skill

Good healthy debate this.

Absolutely. its all about knowing whats appropriate. 2 o clock in the morning in a busy city centre nightclub may not be the best time to be mashing 3 trance/techno/pop tracks together. Plus I believe this type of cue/effects laden DJ'ing is more of a musical performance and an expression of the DJ's own musical ideas. Like everything its all about taste, over do it and it becomes an auditory morass, plus its damned hard to keep that level of performance and concentration going much beyond an hour or two, so its also about balance and timing, for a long set, early in the night is probably the best place for the controller gymnastics, let the tracks play as it gets later. If your good keep some of the better mashups for later, but its not a time for experimentation. But again, its hard to generalise on all this.

I personally like to think of the mashup style as something you listen to, while keeping the more straightforward stuff for dancing to.

As for the producers etc who create the original music, my thoughts are a little different. I love sets where snippets of tracks are used, perhaps out of a 7 min track 2 loops of about 1 minute may be used, for me its great when you dont have a clue where the music is going. In discovering what modern DJ's can do its probably changed how I listen to music in that I now prefer to listen to tracks chopped up and mixed around rather than the originals, when its done well the level of energy can be fantastic (provided of course its done well )






But once again its all about taste, without that your lost, no matter how good you are.