I've got my first gig coming up soon...

[Nicky H]

Hi,
The mix is going to be around 1 hour long and a 'showcase' of my abilities so I will include most genres including; trance, drum n bass, house, dance.
I don't know how I'm going to do it in terms of BPM, maybe just start at 70 and end at 190? I haven't experimented mixing songs with a difference of more than 10/20 bpm.

If I were you I would pick one genre and stick to it - find out what style of music they play at the event and concentrate on that.

[OhNoNolan]

DJ Nada has got it right. I've just entered the scene and you get the best response when you bust out something awesome on accident rather than something you thought was cool at home.

Just know your music and know your most recent/hottest tunes. Annnnnd as far as DJ names go, the name won't make you, you make your name. Many Djs have changed their names and their skill shows through, just gotta rock on AKA for a little bit.

Good luck though!!!

[Bkag]

As for speakers and amps I'd opt for a pair of Mackie Thump th15a speakers, they are active meaning you don't need an amp, it is built in, and the price is great on those, a pair would set you back around $600 or so.

[wrong chris]

not to be discouraging, but personally i think you're jumping the gun with the dj monikers, domain names and gigging if you only have 8 weeks of experience.

you're setting yourself up to be one of those guys who people don't take seriously.

[fellis]

hey mate, my advice would be to get a good mix up first, it's your primary marketing tool. Once that's done you can send it to managers etc and start getting gigs. As for learning how to use Trkator, this site (and youtube) is your friend! Theres plenty to be discovered on the net so just spend some time browsing and mucking around with Traktor and you should be able to work most stuff out

Without going too much into mixing technique, you usually don't want to mix straight from a low bpm song into a high bpm in one mix, slowly work your way up over the mix with each track being just a bit faster then the one before. Having said that, don't choose songs simply because they match the key/bpm for your mix. Get a good tracklist first and then think about how you'll arrange it.

And as for the speakers, you may want to be a bit careful before you blow a large amount of money on them. Maybe try hiring speakers a couple of times first (you can even charge the people having the party for this) and then once you've got some more experience and rep in the community and are getting more gigs you can grab your own. Having said that, it can be rank trying to dj on computer monitors. Maybe try and grab some second hand speakers cheapish speakers (like from those cd players speaker things) that will at least get you some louder clearer sound.

All the best mate!

[DJ Asand]

Promoters want to know if you're gonna bring people in, so start up a soundcloud if you don't already have one, post a mix here, and you'll end up getting page views. You wanna show you can create a following.

Secondly, just keep up the practice.

Lastly, dont try to play everything. Play what they mostly play anyway. Its pretty difficult to mix from 90bpm (dubstep) into 140bpm territory or above without some proper practice.

Speakers? I have Harbingers. Not "JBL" in terms of recognition, but i like them. Definitely check out Behringer Eurolive series (Powered) and get a sub later when you can spend money on a really good one.

[MaxOne]

I like it too, but it 'sounds' a bit stupid and it would be impossible to get a good domain

djwmusic.net is available and that's fine. DJW is a decent name...

Wack a mix up on sc and lets check it out.

[djhipnotikk]

it's fun to think about getting a nice site, gigging, etc. but you've really gotta earn it to make it worth anything.

before you step foot outside your bedroom you need to be able to mix with your eyes closed.

[DJWilliams]

I don't think the avalibility of a domain name should have anything to do with your DJ name. Can't host a facebook, myspace, or twitter page on your domain, you know? For a couple weeks I was DJ Percocet, can you guess where that came from?

As far as your mix, why don't you put something on soundcloud so we can give you better feedback? I'd just do a 30 min or two 15 min sets, don't let songs play very far, just mix songs back-to-back. The promoter or whoever doesn't have time to listen to an hour of music he may not even like. Also, practice but don't script your mix too much. You want it to sound like you would live, not some DMC routine you couldn't pull off twice.

I will post a mix up soon. Thanks

If I were you I would pick one genre and stick to it - find out what style of music they play at the event and concentrate on that.

The thing is, it's only been a band-only event so far, so (if they want me) I'll be one of the first DJs to play, he said as long as Im good, then variety is great.

DJ Nada has got it right. I've just entered the scene and you get the best response when you bust out something awesome on accident rather than something you thought was cool at home.

Just know your music and know your most recent/hottest tunes. Annnnnd as far as DJ names go, the name won't make you, you make your name. Many Djs have changed their names and their skill shows through, just gotta rock on AKA for a little bit.

Good luck though!!!

Thanks mate.

As for speakers and amps I'd opt for a pair of Mackie Thump th15a speakers, they are active meaning you don't need an amp, it is built in, and the price is great on those, a pair would set you back around $600 or so.

I was hoping to pay around £200, guess I'll just try to rent a PA system or something.

not to be discouraging, but personally i think you're jumping the gun with the dj monikers, domain names and gigging if you only have 8 weeks of experience.

you're setting yourself up to be one of those guys who people don't take seriously.

I didn't come here for my 'talent' to be disputed, I just asked some questions, thanks for the criticism.

hey mate, my advice would be to get a good mix up first, it's your primary marketing tool. Once that's done you can send it to managers etc and start getting gigs. As for learning how to use Trkator, this site (and youtube) is your friend! Theres plenty to be discovered on the net so just spend some time browsing and mucking around with Traktor and you should be able to work most stuff out

Without going too much into mixing technique, you usually don't want to mix straight from a low bpm song into a high bpm in one mix, slowly work your way up over the mix with each track being just a bit faster then the one before. Having said that, don't choose songs simply because they match the key/bpm for your mix. Get a good tracklist first and then think about how you'll arrange it.

And as for the speakers, you may want to be a bit careful before you blow a large amount of money on them. Maybe try hiring speakers a couple of times first (you can even charge the people having the party for this) and then once you've got some more experience and rep in the community and are getting more gigs you can grab your own. Having said that, it can be rank trying to dj on computer monitors. Maybe try and grab some second hand speakers cheapish speakers (like from those cd players speaker things) that will at least get you some louder clearer sound.

All the best mate!

That's great advice, thanks mate. What's the biggest bpm gap you'd mix with, 10bpm? e.g. 120 to 130?

Promoters want to know if you're gonna bring people in, so start up a soundcloud if you don't already have one, post a mix here, and you'll end up getting page views. You wanna show you can create a following.

Secondly, just keep up the practice.

Lastly, dont try to play everything. Play what they mostly play anyway. Its pretty difficult to mix from 90bpm (dubstep) into 140bpm territory or above without some proper practice.

Speakers? I have Harbingers. Not "JBL" in terms of recognition, but i like them. Definitely check out Behringer Eurolive series (Powered) and get a sub later when you can spend money on a really good one.

I'll keep that in mind, thanks.

djwmusic.net is available and that's fine. DJW is a decent name...

Wack a mix up on sc and lets check it out.

I think I'm going to stick with 'Vendetta'. I'll have a mix up soon, thanks.

it's fun to think about getting a nice site, gigging, etc. but you've really gotta earn it to make it worth anything.

before you step foot outside your bedroom you need to be able to mix with your eyes closed.

I have confidence in my ability, and I understand that I have to 'earn' it, but then again, I have to start somewhere.

Thanks for all the replies.

[completej]

Billy DJ Williams