DJing styles

Just wondering what style of DJing is used by people here?

Do you beatmatch live (no sync), do you use sync, do you do it on the fly, do you prep the minute details etc?

Only asking as I recently watched a Knife Party set. They DJ'd the entire set without using headphones once, but were using Pioneer CDJs. I'm assuming this was done by prepping even the littlest of details and having all their cue points etc set up and known off the top of their head, meaning they could drop cues and know exactly what went where. This appealed to me as the prep work ensures a good set and I suppose it would feel more like playing a real instrument in a way, knowing what sequence to play what cues etc and rehearsing it over and over.

However, just wondering how other approach it and whether this method is generally accepted when playing live.

I like to jam.
When i want to record a mix i have an idea which route i gonna take, but i nearly never say "okay lets start with this track and then that one, that one etc."

Its funny you bring that up about knife party. I saw Nit Grit live a few months ago and he didn't use headphones either. He uses Live and usually an akai controller. I have only been DJing for less then a year. I'm getting decent at mixing but one thing I noticed early was I never needed headphones for anything. Specificly with live, if you know your music, when would you need them? At first I was like "OMG I must be doing something wrong!?!?" Then after I saw Nit I realized if you don't need em, you don't need em...

Just thoughts that have went through my head which correlate to your KP experience...

Knife Party were probably miming to a pre-recorded mix, like many EDM "DJs" do these days. lol.

I don't use sync and while I do sometimes pre-plan things, I mix on the fly for the most part. Pre-planning is OK and is useful if you want to rehearse a more complex part of a set, but you have to be prepared to abandon any pre-planned stuff if people aren't feeling it and go back to mixing on the fly.

More like they had done the same set several times beforehand. It's not that hard to mix on 2000s without headphones as you have BPMs to 1 decimal place, as well as auto-cue and 10 cuepoints per track.

I use headphones to preview the tack coming up but I prep all of my songs beforehand, I tap sync, play, tap sync again to save me having to beatmatch but also turning off the grid sync, this way I can manually sync the beats with the jog wheel. I basically just use sync to save a few seconds moving the pitch fader up to match the numbers of the other side anyway.

You can map Sync(toggle) and Cue together to turn those 3 button presses into 1.

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Originally Posted by makar1

More like they had done the same set several times beforehand.

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Not really much different to miming then if it's all pre-planned, pre-cued, pre-this, pre-that, auto-synced, auto-levelled etc. They might as well just send in cardboard cut outs to stick behind the decks so they can stay at home. But yeah, I know, this technology is "progress". It's just a shame that this "progress" coincides with the average quality of DJ mixes taking a nosedive.

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Originally Posted by makar1

You can map Sync(toggle) and Cue together to turn those 3 button presses into 1.

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Now that's just lazy :P

for me it all depends on the equipment taken and the venue. if i'm playing a party i usually watch the crowd response and play on the fly. if i play a fashion show or something similar i will probably already have some sort of a set in mind that i tend to stick to.
Playing my own TTs or controller I tend to go out on a limb more often, when confronted with gear I try to stick to some sort of plan

that being said, i view using ableton live on stage not as actual deejaying. It is more like a live performance than actual deejaying to me, and i understand the need for headphones is a lot less with live. That doesn't mean i disaprove of it, i just think it is a different kind of artform

Agreed on Ableton.

However, the Knife Party set I referred to were on Pioneer CDJ 2000s and I use the S4 and Traktor Pro 2.6.

I saw I think David Morales on boilerroom and he rarely used his phones as well which made me wonder what the hell was happening with his mix and the CDJ's he was using.

I think when you're a bigger name, a headliner, a "superstar" DJ, you can go ahead and have a pre-determined set and not think twice about it. People are there to see you, and they're so amped they're going to dance to pretty much anything you throw out there as long as you stay in the expected genre(s).

I've done all the styles you mentioned, but I find I enjoy myself the most winging it. I only screw around at home, but that's more accurate to how I'd DJ an actual gig and how I DJ'd back in the day. You have to read the room and adjust accordingly in a gig setting. Big name DJ superstars don't have to worry about that as much. Anyway, I feel too constrained having a set playlist anymore. If anything, I'll throw 2 - 3 times the number of songs I might play into a playlist and wing it from there. I've also gone from cue pointing the hell out of my songs to just going off of where I see the drop and breaks of the incoming song. I may transition on one of those or 32/64 beats in from the start of the break. Just depends. So, you likely won't hear any set be the exact same from me, and I like it that way. It went from feeling too mechanical to very free adaptable. I get more into the music I'm playing more that way, but each person should do whatever feels best for them and whatever gets them jacked up for the music. Some big DJ once said if you're enjoying the hell out of your DJing, it will come across in the mix. And if you're not, that too will come across in the mix.

I plug in my iPod, get drunk, and the party goes off

No but seriously I play on CDJ's right now. I key my tracks in advance and have a general understanding of the vibe of my tracks (deep, loopy, emotional, raw as fuck, etc...).

I hope to someday incorporate Maschine & Ableton Live for performance... Someday...

A dj without headphones is like a sunset without the sun.

I dont play bog standard nights anymore, i play events where people know what music to expect , ive got a basic 'set' planned and ordered out, and pending on the crowd makes me vary away from it.


Never play the same set twice though.

At home, switch the decks and mixer on, play a record, select next one and repeat.

At the club, pack a bag of wax, wack ma headphones n needles in, dependant on time im playing will decide what kind of records i pack, from the deep stuff to the raw stuff, then play them.

The only things I really plan are podcasts, and even then I'll select a few more records than I need and go from there, so its never set in stone.

I think a lot of the ability to jam and improvise requires the right amount of preparation (without over preparing). Whenever I've just winged it with songs that I like, but haven't had cue points or know what key they're in, my mixes sound pretty bad, and I had to stick to the more basic techniques and there really hasn't been much flow to the sound. But when I've prepared by prehotcueing tracks, making playlists that group tracks by a certain vibe/energy level, grouped by key, I can follow the vibe of the crowd and I'm really forced to follow a preplanned sequence of songs or energy levels. It's also nice to have a couple of mix combos (fills, mashups etc) that can kind of be like checkpoints, in that you can meander on your way to and from.

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Originally Posted by ImNotDedYet

I saw I think David Morales on boilerroom and he rarely used his phones as well which made me wonder what the hell was happening with his mix and the CDJ's he was using.

I think when you're a bigger name, a headliner, a "superstar" DJ, you can go ahead and have a pre-determined set and not think twice about it. People are there to see you, and they're so amped they're going to dance to pretty much anything you throw out there as long as you stay in the expected genre(s).

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Yes, agree.

I remember hearing Morales at Ministry of Sound in the early 90's. Back then all the American garage guys were getting payed big money to come over and DJin the UK, and bigger money to do the remixes on UK artists. I found their sets boring. Played their remixes and didn't understand the vibe that was in the UK, IMO. They played some great garage, but just didn't build it enough. The English DJ's knew how to build it so that it was just kicking off for a good few hours in the peak sets. The Yanks just came along and played their thing, and people went 'wow' it's David Morales. We knew they were just coming over and creaming the money, and it came across in their sets. Yes, the likes of Morales did some great remixes, but give me a UK DJ any day (back then anyway).

If you know your tracks inside out and you're using sync then I guess no headphones works, but for me quickly going through the preview player on Traktor really shows me what is the right track to play next is whilst hearing it alongside what's already playing.