How much prep goes into your sets?

[SlvrDragon50]

Just curious, how much prep do you guys put into your sets?

I watch some guys mix, and they don't have cue markers placed beforehand (or at least I don't see them on the CDJ screen), but their mixing is flawless. I've tried to do this, but I spend too much time finding the right cue point.

And are you guys just throwing together a giant list of songs and 'randomly' choosing what song to play next based on the crowd's response? Or do you have a preplanned set of songs to play with some wiggle room of course?

In my experience, I've found that my mixes sound way better when I organize my songs before the set, but then I feel like I'm in essence pre-recording the set.

[Schalenberg]

The only prepping I do is running tracks through Rekordbox. I find it easier to play a crowd than record a mix though. I tend to try and do too much in a pre-recorded mix, throwing in tracks from a range of genres. When I gig, I know the place and crowd, and just work off the energy I'm getting back. Overthinking can definitely hinder what you're trying to do. And maybe you're watching too many videos and mixing too little. I've been there - nitpicking transitions and whatnot, and all it did was discourage me. But hey, we're all different.

[b ill]

Club DJ here with a residency. No prep goes into my sets. Tons of prep goes into my tracks. They're all cued and most are edited down to 2 - 2 1/2 minutes.

Certain things are going into the night for sure (Don't Tell 'Em and Fancy at the top of the list at the present) but I never know the order or what I'm even going to start with until I look the room over.

[Schalenberg]

Club DJ here with a residency. No prep goes into my sets. Tons of prep goes into my tracks. They're all cued and most are edited down to 2 - 2 1/2 minutes.

What type of music are you playing?

[b ill]

Mostly current stuff but it could be anything. Depends on the night. Open format.

[Schalenberg]

Mostly current stuff but it could be anything. Depends on the night. Open format.

Ah ok. I was like, "2 mins?!" Sometimes I can let a track ride for 5-7 minutes just because people are vibing. But I play disco-y stuff.

[b ill]

The two tracks I mentioned I've actually extended. My first edits of them were only a couple of minutes but they became so popular that I re-did them to around 3 minutes. They pack the floor and gives me just enough time to go pee

[Kwal]

I have literally never prepped for a set. I download new tunes, make sure I transfer em over to whatever USB I use and that's really about it. I'll play with em a bit at home on the CDJs just so I can get to know the intros/outros and all that stuff. After that, it's just show up and play what I feel will work.

[Daniboy]

Club DJ here with a residency. No prep goes into my sets. Tons of prep goes into my tracks. They're all cued and most are edited down to 2 - 2 1/2 minutes.

Same here, no prep for sets, tons for the tracks. I would use more different markers if traktor had more.

[WestonParish]

Other than running the tracks through mixed in key and analyzing them initially in Traktor, not a lot of prep at all. I like to flow with whatever energies I am feeling at the moment. The only thing I may do is find a track to start off with, but after that it is up to my mood or what type of groove I want to get into. For cue points, I try to set these when I am practicing/mixing for fun, so that in the future I can call upon them. Or, since I have the DDJ SX, I utilize the needle search feature to make a few quick queue point saves in new tracks before I start mixing it in.

Looking in to Rekordbox..