The way I plan my podcasts. Come discuss yours!

For those of you who release mix tapes/CDs/sets/podcasts: I'd love to hear how you approach your sets!

I recently started bedroom DJ'ing again. I've been working on some highly-polished, highly-planned podcasts that take my listeners on a nice hour long journey. My process typically includes:

• Digging for new tracks which fit one of my three podcast genres (tech house, deep house, moody house)
  
  
• Once I've got a full BeatPort cart, I'll buy them, drop into Mixed in Key and bring into Rekordbox
  
  
• I'll choose which podcast I want to work on and then search for a nice "intro" track - one that sets the mood and is low energy
  
  
• I'll begin with this track and sometimes try to force a setlist, choosing records I want to showcase. If this just doesn't sound right, I'll refer to Mixed in Key to suggest some potential tracks that can be used as the next song. Part of me feels like this is cheating, but the other part knows that I hand-curated the pool of tracks for these podcasts. If anything it's just a time-saver and helps overcome some "writers blocks"
  
  
• I'll only move on when I find transition that excites me. I'll write down notes so I can reproduce the mix in a week or so when everything is in place
  
  
• I'll choose a series of low energy tracks (I call them "filler tracks") to stagger between those that are energetic
  
  
• When I near an hours-worth of music, I'll run through the entire mix using my notes. I time the exact drop and transition points, and sometimes even have specific notes on how to handle EQ'ing for finicky mixes
  
  
• Once I'm confident in the set, I'll press record and try to one-shot the mix live on my CDJ's. I've never played out, so this is about as exciting as things get in my bedroom (DJ WISE, FELLAS). It's an exciting, nail-biting hour of what need to be perfect transitions. But this is enjoyable for me because when things go well, it's fun mix of music that I like and of value-adding transitions

I'd enjoy hearing anyone else's way they approach "planned" podcasts and such. And for those interested, here's my two most recent sets:

https://soundcloud.com/ever/desert-sunrise-sessions-1
https://soundcloud.com/ever/future-h...tillery-hour-2

Dope thread.

When I get my gear, and get a skill that fits my standard.

- Find songs
- Key songs
- Mix songs

All open genre. I find that personally, when a DJ starts to delve into an open set, I just get so much more hyphy. Throw some Cpt. Murphy after a bit of Ummet Ozcan or something along those lines. After that I'll throw them on the usual sites, YouTube in particular with a setup that is reminisce of Hardwell's podcasts.

I have some other stuff up my sleeve, don't want to spread my ideas and all of a sudden every other podcast is doin' it.

My podcast is talk-radio style. Instead of a music set, it's informational... how to become a better DJ through passion and purpose.

Basically what I do is decide on a topic, write out an outline, and then any notes (talking points) underneath each outline heading. Then, if I'm doing an interview (just did my first one... the second half of which gets posted tomorrow), I provide a series of questions that I may ask and talking points that may get discussed. That way I don't catch them off guard. I also ask a few questions like, "How would you like me to refer to you in the podcast? i.e. "David", "Dave", etc."

Link to podcast thread is in my sig, if you're interested.

Landsnark I expect you to be the Elliot Hulse of mixing.

The planning for my mixes goes like this:

*Find new songs via Traxsource/Beatport/soundcloud/promos
*Run through mp3tag > mixed in key > rekordbox
*Pick my intro
*Workout my playlist from this point
*Pick out a few songs from my collection if they fit into the mix
*If I can be bothered, have a quick 'mini mix' to find how they actually fit together
*make adjustments if necessary
*record the final mix

mine was more like Eddie Trunks metal show.

1. Theme: what we're (my friend and I) discuss. Examples are "Debut Albums", "Before They Were Famous" (previous bands of guys that were in HUGE bands", Thrash Metal, Canadian Bands of the 90s etc.

2. Dig up some cool facts, trivia, history on the topics. Things people wouldn't know.

3. Play some music!!!! (most important)

4. New Jam of the week/month whatever new music we were listening to.

Main thing was to tie things together thematically by sound and discussion topic. Got super busy and only did like 4 episodes which are all now defunct

Upload live radio show.
Make coffee :)