I was curious what you all feel are acceptable mistakes and unacceptable mistakes ( completely avoidable ones) when djing live or on the fly trainwreck,misscue,phrase matching, no back ups etc.......Your opinion
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I was curious what you all feel are acceptable mistakes and unacceptable mistakes ( completely avoidable ones) when djing live or on the fly trainwreck,misscue,phrase matching, no back ups etc.......Your opinion
small drift, off beat is imo "acceptable". You'll hear it ALOT, other DJ will just hear it, and people probably won't notice, unless you screw up big time and it's Bagdad in da mix.
yeah i don't mind drifting here and there....
Once had to play entire song with a pressed hotkey button on an X1 because I wasn't sure if shifting back to the Play buttons would stop the track. Glad I did though it probably looked like I glued my hand to the table.
I have also stopped the wrong track. only once and it will NEVER happen again.
A few years ago punched in an echo freeze and forgot that BOTH decks had the FX turned on. I recovered by bringing the forward track back in with an LPF sweep up and all was good.
Those mistakes in my view are not acceptable. esp the second.
I'd say a slight drift is ok provided it is corrected.
The occasional mis time effect isn't the end of the world.
Things that are Def not ok:
Train wrecks, vocals over vocals (Unless done right ala word play), tracks that are completely out of key.
I'm sure others will ad.
Well here are some mistakes I have done and since, I've done them. I understand and will consider them acceptable: :p
1) Got busy talking to someone and grab the wrong CDJ to cue, I grab the one playing. I played it off like I was scratching and just threw the other song on. Ooooppss
2) Got caught up in the moment and just wanted to get the next song on without bothering to phrase it or wait for the drop. This also happens when I get pissed at folks that keep coming up for requesting the same song, like Sexy and I Know It.
3) Forgot to kill the lows and the beats sounded like a galloping horse. Yeah I was one drink away from being drunk. :)
4) Talking to a hot chick and forgot to throw in the next song so I had a split second of dead air. ooopppsss :o
I might add, if you are playing out every weekend, one get complacent at times and mistakes are inevitable. Especially if you are holding down the entire night doing 4-5hr sets, taking request in an open format club.
Mistakes like train wrecking are not acceptable, clearing a dance floor because you don't know your music and are just playing tunes some random chick you think is hot is not cool.
Other than that the small stuff is not noticable by non DJ's and its all how you handle the mistakes that makes a difference
Hasn't everyone stopped the wrong deck at least once in their career :P
hahaha yes! One of my first gigs in public was a DJ comp in a bar, 2 mixes in I ejected the track I just brought in. Safe to say I didn't win.Quote:
Originally Posted by deevey
yea learning how to play the stuff off is the key imo... tapping the jog wheel in vinyl mode on my cdj a few times why i was beat matching
no one is safe when it comes to mistakes. we are all humans.
i´d say that there is a big difference between making a mistake or being a bad "dj".
The first time I played live I slipped and hit a hotcue button starting the song over... Did a little cue juggling and smoothed that one out. I must admit I have learned a few tricks by making mistakes and rolling with them.
Mistakes will happen. That is part of the "art" of live DJing. Stopping the wrong deck. Playing the wrong song. Train wrecks. Open mic comments. I have seen (and heard....and done) all of the above.
If your set is "perfect" then I will "assume" that you just played a pre-recorded mix....even if you didn't....even if you really were that good. When there is "live" entertainment...I want to see the effort...I want to notice the person in the loop...I want to find the mistakes, so that I know it's really live.
One fine balance is to ensure that you can always achieve "good" while occasionally shooting at "great." This is not the same thing as "playing it safe." It is much more like this: beginners practice until they can get it right, experts practice until they can not get it wrong.
All that leads to this: The ONLY unforgivable mistake is to let your last mistake cause your next mistake. Or...NEVER allow one error to shake your concentration so that it causes another error.
I have seen a HORRID train wreck live...and the DJ cut the sound (e.g. dead air)....came out and took a giant bow....and then went back and nailed the next part of the set. THAT is one "right" way to handle a mistake. (I found out later that the turntable died...and needed to be replaced....the dead air and bow bought the sound guy about 90 seconds to swap it out...it's all about the performance.)
If I'm honest with you every one of those mistakes are unacceptable in my opinion. The last one even more so than the rest.Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ ATX
saying that i have lifted the needle off the wrong deck.... once.... and i made sure if NEVER happened again. Saying that though I've seen Paul Van Dyk and Sasha both do this!!
Once i aired the wrong track and then right after that i cued the correct one, so to recover i put up the volume on the last 8 bars of beats of the track that was playing all before and mixed the new one with that. Nevertheless, later in the night i was on a break discussing with the stuff and they told me they didn't even notice it. Another time i had an old cd playing on a cdj-100 and it started skipping... badly so i dropped the next ready track as soon as i realized it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ed Paris
So what makes a bad " dj " in you opinion?
dayum! i know someone would ask this question ;) well i guess this is really in the the eye of the beholder but i´d say a bad dj is a dj not being able to entertain his crowd.Quote:
Originally Posted by djemai
A bad Dj and there's a lot here where i live, is a Dj that can't beat match, if you can't beat match, don't use CDJ's stick to controllers. a bad Dj starts testing out a song, cueing it on the main speakers ( not headphones ) i've heard it before. A bad DJ says he is good, but in reality is total shit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ed Paris
Quote:
Originally Posted by deevey
Twice in one night :o
If you've never made a mistake or two, you haven't been playing out long enough.
last saturday i was playing and accidentaly pressed the cue point of the wrong track so it started all over again, luckily the song was in a similar place so it was pretty seamless. Afterwards the power blew out beacause the security guys at the party where cooking hamburgers in electric grills that we did not know that where connected to the sounds power source, so, dead air for about 5 minutes!
+1Quote:
Originally Posted by shr3dder
As long as it isn't a mood breaker I'm cool with most of them.
There are a few bar/club by me and the dj's aren't doing any beatmatching just fading and droping/cutting. Some people hate on them and say they aren't real djs but imho for the venues i would'nt expect much more so i don't call them bad djs it's just not my style
Even the Top DJ's make mistakes ..for example
I saw Armin a few years back in Manila and he Killed the master mid track by accident while (it looked like) he was cueing in his headphones...
Oblivious to his error for about what seemed like an age he was bopping around with his headphones on, when he took them off to see why everyone was making so much noise it was just like ... "oops" .. Laughed, Shrugged "oops'd" and "Boom" back into it.
Did anyone care? not one bit - if anything the atmosphere was even better after that little intermission, and everyone at least had something to talk about even the DJ's :)
Whatever you do, just play it cool.
I once miscued the second song of my set on what I believe was my second gig ever. Everyone turned and looked at me, several drunk guys yelled/booed. I Ignored everyone, kept a poker face and started the song from the beginning. At the end of the night I had a guy asking me to play another gig.
Everyone makes mistakes. If you've made a mistake before, you know the only person who's likely to remember it is you, especially if you ace the rest of the set.
I would say I make a few mistakes every time I play out. Granted, most of them aren't major or even really noticed by anyone but myself. If they are, it's usually one of these:
1) Forgot to reset EQ on an incoming track.
2) Delay/Echo freeze both tracks instead of one.
3) Trying to skip to the end of a song without predetermined cue points, but not hitting the downbeat in the waveform.
I made a couple mistakes this weekend at some gigs I did. But it's natural, you're going to make mistakes, it's how react that's more important. Like, my had bumped the cue button on the VCI400EGE, I had a loop going on the other deck, so instead of freaking out, I kept hitting the cue in beat as I slowly faded over as if I meant to do it.
Mistakes happen, you just gotta know what to do WHEN they happen.
at least you know hes still actually mixing! Unlike some bigger names djs out there!Quote:
Originally Posted by deevey
i totally disagree! i´m often going to parties in student clubs where there are dj´s playing rock and top40 and most of the time those clubs are fully packed and the party is wild. most of the don´t beat match but are more than able to please the crowd with a good song selection and some nice shout out. that´s it. imho beat matching isn´t a must to be a good dj...Quote:
Originally Posted by JulianVeloso
Definitely. Other favorites of mine: while mixing a new track in, pulling up the wrong channel fader (with no signal on it at all) - I noticed after like 16 of the 32 bars I often take to mix in. Or while cueing I usually jump through the cue-points on my X1 then back to the start - well managed to do that with the wrong deck :>Quote:
Originally Posted by deevey
But I'm all with the panda, mistakes are normal, everybody makes them. Not a problem (and I don't think there are "unacceptable" mistakes - well, except for playing shitty music)
I've seen Eric Morillo forget to turn the bass knob back up on the track he just mixed in and I've seen Max Vangeli (in Amnesia, Ibiza) mess up a mix with not beatmatching a track properly. I don't actually mind the odd mistake like this because it goes to show no matter how big you are as a DJ there will always be room for a little mistake.Quote:
Originally Posted by deevey
Haha, oh yes, forget about the "forgotten bass". Happened to me as well, took the bass out somewhen for a short break-down or whatever. Forgot to turn it back on for a minute :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Mike_08
One time I played a Mariah Carey Christmas song. Of course it was during a set at a Christmas party, and it was a remix, but still... definitely an unacceptable mistake. Shit still haunts me...
Not a mistake, but the fire alarm went off in the club I was playing in and that instantly kills the power to the amps, then when they come back on the bass amps take a full minute longer than everything else to come back up. Everyone was shouting for their bass back haha.
Best part about it was the face he pulled. Imagine Eric Morillo with an expression like a sex doll... Or what I'd imagine a sex doll to look like. *Shifty eyes*Quote:
Originally Posted by 3heads
Talk about building tension before the drop :pQuote:
Originally Posted by fullenglishpint
Like ya classic bass off mistake, I have left the filter knob slightly twisted on for a minute or two.
Lame... but super rushy when you notice it and fix it.... BOOOOM
Lol yeh, it can actually work in your favour if it's not too much of a cut, few people will consciously notice it and it makes for a nice BAM on the next drop.Quote:
Originally Posted by MaxOne
Forgot I was playing the VIP of a song (recently got released) and it dropped 16 bars too early messed up the double drop!
There's plenty of videos of big DJ's messing up because they're caught in the moment or enjoying themselves/their music too much. It's not a bad thing in my opinion.