Starting to doubt my potential as a dj

**Era 7** · 12-09-2011, 03:47 AM

dude i've been in it for a year now and still for from being ace. practice more. eventually you break a barrier and everything just works.

**Jay Wilde** · 12-09-2011, 06:29 PM

*puts on old man hat*

in my day... we learned to spin on vinyl...there were no cdjs, dvs, none of that....

i probably took a solid 4 or 5 months before I could really beatmatch solid enough to even play in front of friends... and that was just the very basics of beatmatching.... learning mixing technique and style...that can take a long time to really get comfortable with.

if you are frustrated after a month, its understandable. but seriously you need a controller or decks or something. dj'ing is not point and click.

oh and +1 i think FX should be disabled on all hardware/software until youve owned it for a year. seriously. quit touching fx. it sounds shitty i promise you.

**pbcrazy9898** · 12-09-2011, 06:49 PM

I didn't take the time to read 5+ pages but my tip is. listen to other mixes and try to imitate there techniques. I usually get my "new" ideas trying to imitate others.

**mostapha** · 12-10-2011, 01:59 AM

Originally Posted by Jay Wilde

*puts on old man hat*

in my day... we learned to spin on vinyl...there were no cdjs, dvs, none of that....

i probably took a solid 4 or 5 months before I could really beatmatch solid enough to even play in front of friends... and that was just the very basics of beatmatching.... learning mixing technique and style...that can take a long time to really get comfortable with.

if you are frustrated after a month, its understandable. but seriously you need a controller or decks or something. dj'ing is not point and click.

oh and +1 i think FX should be disabled on all hardware/software until youve owned it for a year. seriously. quit touching fx. it sounds shitty i promise you.

*takes the old man hat*

Agreed.

I don't have Traktor's effects mapped at this point despite owning 2 X1s and other controllers. Part of it is that I think most of them sound like crap, but mostly it's because I don't feel they add much.

And, again, the all-computer guys can argue their side and the guy who runs digitaldjtips can tell his story all he wants…and if you can throw a set with a computer keyboard, do it. But it's just not the same experience unless you've got something to put your hands on. Maybe I could have learned on Traktor or some other software if I'd gotten a controller…if nothing else, it's a lot cheaper. But I doubt I'd feel anywhere near as confident about my DJing if I hadn't started on vinyl. And considering some of the discussions I've had with DJs who started on controllers about song structure, mix technique, and a lot of other things……I think my point is justified.

Don't take it as gospel, but do consider it.

If I were starting today, it'd be very hard not to go for something like an S2 or VCI-300 just because they're so cheap. But I'd hope that I'd have the balls to ignore the computer as much as possible and basically just pay attention to volume and pitch faders and the platters for a while.

side note: i hope i got all the errors in that…still kinda drunk.

**M3D!C** · 12-10-2011, 03:00 AM

broski ive been in exact same position in a year and im still not good. like that one dood said before turntables will help alot if not you can either
A: use an midi controller and beatmash
B; practice with a local dj ask them if theyll let you shadow them.
C; think really hard and imgine your dream as a dj.

**newg** · 12-10-2011, 07:22 AM

Originally Posted by rcs1113

Thanks guys, I and that's certainly true about hitting plateaus. I kinda of have a mixed lifestyle in that I really like sports but also music and photography and hitting plateaus in sports has happened to me many times but I just train through it.

This is an electro house mix I made and I had an amazing time making, literally so much fun. Again, just keyboard and mouse but would you guys care to give it a listen?

EDIT: yea i know the lil wayne in the intro is kinda weird but I wanted to practice a hip hop style transition and my goal for this mix was to get all kinds of music out there, rap, pop remixes, electro, etc.

I've listened to your mix, and while I'm by no means a master myself, I do have some constructive criticism.

1. Some of your tracks are being played at considerably faster tempo than intended. try thinking about other types of transition instead of beatmatching if you want to bring in a track with a vastly different tempo.

2. Consider beats, bars, and phrases of tracks.

4 beats to a bar, and 8 bars to a phrase more often than not. new elements to a track are usually brought in when transitioning to a new phrase, (a synth, drumbeat, piano, guitar riff, chorus, breakdown, whatever)

Listen to this random track i just lifted off soundcloud (by searching for 'phrases'

and note the phrases every 8 bars.

to begin with, try dropping the first beat of the phrase in your incoming track over the first beat in the phrase of your outgoing track, and try to be mixed entirely into the new track just as the next phrase hits.

Once you know your tracks particularly well, and gain more confidence, you'll start to do this naturally, our brains are programmed to 'expect' this style of phrasing and anything falling outside this tends to just not sound right.

hope this was helpful

EDIT: Oh, also, if your mix sounds good together, (more likely if the tracks are in the same or similar key) then by all means leave them running together for a while, no need to mix out so fast, maybe just adjust the EQ a bit so you get the hight/mid/low from the tracks sounding good together. If you do this, just keep an eye on the beatmatching though, as the tracks will drift over time, and may need a nudge to stay matched. (unless you're using software that will do this for you)

**Jay Wilde** · 12-10-2011, 12:31 PM

Originally Posted by mostapha

And considering some of the discussions I've had with DJs who started on controllers about song structure, mix technique, and a lot of other things……I think my point is justified.

This is exactly why I don't worry about the "omg theres soooo many djs now if you have a laptop you can be a dj" argument.

Just because some software can beatmatch for you, does NOT mean you can properly and pleasantly mix.

This is also why I'm happy to let the computer handle the beatmatching!

**mostapha** · 12-10-2011, 02:49 PM

I actually realized that I had a crap ton of extra controls and mapped tempo faders while I couldn't sleep at like 5 this morning for S&G. Yeah…that was fun. It's been a while. Also…damn. MIDI sucks for manual beat matching. I mean…I'm comparing some random fader on a controller to memories of an M5G, but still…